WHS Newsletter | Issue 4.07 | 24 November | 2023

Principal's Message

Kia ora and welcome to the end of Week 7!

The week began with our Ākonga Passport award assembly for Year 10 students. The Ākonga Passport recognises and acknowledges students for their all-round effort and participation, including:

• living the school’s vision of a great all-round education; 
• fulfilling the school’s motto of reaching for their heights, and striving to be the best version of themselves;
• making an effort and engaging with classwork and extracurricular activities;
• and living the Wakatipu Way and displaying the values that contribute to a positive school culture. 

Congratulations to all the Ākonga Passport award recipients from Term 4 (see below) and to those who have achieved this significant award over the course of the year. 

Final preparations have been undertaken with the first camp beginning next Tuesday 28th November. Branches Workday was held last Friday and Pre-Branches Tramps were held on Wednesday, both of which went really well (see below for photos). With the 1st camp around the corner and lots of comms sent out regarding transport and gear, this weekend will be a good one for looking at gear lists and checking you have essential items. 

We know that Branches Camp is important to students and parents, and I do need to acknowledge those in the community who support it, including Branches Trust and Uncle Jack McPherson through the Foundation, as well as the many other businesses around town who support it in a range of ways large and small - thank you all so much!

Related, a reminder to Branches parents to please pay the Branches Camp donation. The camp is big and complex and very expensive to run safely and well - and $395 is just over half what it actually costs per student, so please do pay the camp donation if you can.

A reminder that school continues to run for all Year 10 students not on Branches Camp, including our revamped ‘in-school’ programme, and the expectation is that all students not on camp are in attendance throughout. 

Seniors have one more week of exams and many teachers have been busy supporting students with their exam preparations as well as doing some internal reassessments. Please encourage your student to continue working hard to the end. 

There are a lot of communications coming from different areas of the school over the next few days, including a letter to new entrant parents, Branches transport for Year 10 parents, feedback from junior parents regarding our weekly summary email, and feedback regarding our current cellphone policy, so please be sure to keep an eye out.

Some interesting content in the newsletter, including two students taking their sporting talents overseas. Be sure to have a read!

Ngā manaakitanga,

Oded Nathan
Principal

Key Dates - Term One 2024

Ākonga Passport Year 10 Assembly

On Monday this week, we celebrated the all-round effort and participation of our Year 10 students who had gained either bronze, silver or gold levels in their Ākonga Passport award in Term 3 and 4. Congratulations to all students who have received an Ākonga Passport award this year.

Our Year 9 students will receive theirs in an assembly on Monday the 4th. 

WHS Students USA Bound

Two talented students from WHS are set to embark on exciting journeys to pursue their studies and athletic dreams at Universities in the United States. Sumin Kang has earned a full scholarship to Northern Arizona University, a fantastic achievement that opens doors to top-tier education and competition in golf.

Marley King Smith has been awarded a full 4 year scholarship to the University of Washington in Seattle, known for its impressive record with Olympic level rowers. As they prepare for this incredible opportunity, we congratulate both Sumin and Marley, wishing them the very best in their sporting and academic endeavours ahead.

Branches Workday and Pre-Branches Tramps

Last week's Workday was a great success,  well done and thank you to all the year 10 students who participated this year. This week, our adventurous campers set off for Queenstown Hill for pre-Branches tramps, a challenging yet rewarding test of their determination. With the first group of campers set to embark on their Branches journey next week, we eagerly anticipate the incredible experiences that await. We hope everyone has a fantastic time and enjoys every moment of this enriching adventure!

For a glimpse of Branches, take a look at last year's highlights:

Exploring Local Ecology at Lake Hayes

For the last five years, the Lake Hayes Science trip has been one of the highlights of the science calendar. Each year, our second semester Year 9 science students head off, as intrepid explorers, to review the quality of the water in Lake Hayes and the surrounding feeder streams. The key focus of the trip is to take water samples and collect macroinvertebrates from the lake whilst enjoying the fantastic environment we live in.  We are really appreciative of the support of the ecologists from Mana Tāhuna who joined us and helped the students investigate this local habitat and give a truly authentic field investigation experience.

Call for Support for WHS 2024 Musical

WHS is excited to announce that the 2024 Musical is Hairspray! The Musical will run from Wednesday, 3 April - Saturday, 6 April in the Wakatipu High School Theatre. 

Our musicals are fantastic shows with wonderful opportunities for many of our students, and because of their popularity, they provide a great opportunity for the community to support our students. 

Check some highlights from our 2023 musical, Rock Apocalypse below!

Musicals are, however, a significant undertaking and we appreciate support from the wider community to ensure they happen at the level we aspire to. One way for this to occur is through sponsorship from businesses and/or families. 

Families or business sponsors can choose to be Platinum Sponsors, Gold Sponsors, Silver Sponsors, or Bronze Sponsors. 

Sponsorship opportunities:

• Platinum Sponsors - for donations of $3000+ will be given up to 10 complimentary tickets for the Thursday night show, have their name or logo in the Musical programme and Foyer screen.
• Gold Sponsors - for donations of $1000 will be given 6 complimentary tickets for the Thursday night show and have their name or logo in the Musical programme and Foyer screen.
• Silver Sponsors - for donations of $500 will be given 4 complimentary tickets for the Thursday night show and have their name or logo in the Musical programme and Foyer screen.
• Bronze Sponsors - for donations of $250 will be given 2 complimentary tickets for the Thursday night show and have their name or logo in the Musical programme and Foyer screen.

Businesses can also advertise in the Musical programme - a great way to support the musical and promote your business at the same time. Advertising includes full, half and quarter page options, each accompanied by complimentary Thursday night tickets.

Advertising Options:

• Full-page (A4 portrait) - $800+GST for a colour advertisement in the programme, with an advertisement on Wakatipu High School Foyer screen, and 4 complimentary (Thursday night only) tickets.
• Half-page (A5 landscape) - $400+GST for a colour advertisement in the programme, with an advertisement on Wakatipu High School Foyer screen, and 2 complimentary (Thursday night only) tickets.
• Quarter-page (A6 portrait) - $200+GST for a colour advertisement in the programme, with an advertisement on Wakatipu High School Foyer screen, and 1 complimentary (Thursday night only) ticket.

Advertising Specifications are: 

• Full page A4 - 297mm x 210mm (portrait)
• Half page A5- 148mm x 210mm (landscape)
• Quarter page A6 - 148mm x 105mm  (portrait)

Please note:

• We are unable to create advertisements so please email us a high-resolution (200 dpi) JPEG or PDF file with a 5mm border around it.
• Please also supply an email address for invoicing and complimentary tickets.

As always we are very appreciative of other support including supplies and paint, props, costumes, makeup, as well as adult support for the various production crews.

Please contact me if you wish to be a sponsor or advertiser or have any queries at mparker@wakatipu.school.nz - many thanks in anticipation!

Monica Parker
Arts Coordinator

Wakatipu High School Foundation Raffle

Āwhina Fundraising Raffle

The Āwhina Support Fund is designed to assist families financially with all aspects of school life, including uniform, fees, laptops, camps and all other school-based and extracurricular activities. This ensures no students are disadvantaged by financial hardship - making a very real difference to financially disadvantaged families. Currently, 1 in 10 students receive support from the Āwhina Fund and with the increase in the school roll and current economic climate the need is growing.

We'd be very grateful if you could purchase a ticket/s in our Āwhina Fundraising Raffle to help us support students at Wakatipu High School through the Āwhina Support Fund. Your ticket will also go into the draw to win one of two amazing prizes!

Summer Reading Challenge

Students make reading progress all through the school year. If they don’t maintain the reading habit during their school holidays, (especially the long summer holiday), however, they can lose ground. This reading loss, also known as the "summer slide",  has a huge impact, particularly on struggling readers who lose momentum, reading habits and confidence. The best thing that parents, caregivers and whanau can do to support students to maintain the gains they have made throughout their academic year is to provide opportunities to read while on holiday. With the changes to NCEA meaning that students will now need to sit and pass Reading and Writing Corequisite exams, avoiding the "summer slide" is more important than ever before. This is of particular relevance to current Year 8, 9 and 10 students.

For parents who want to know more, please see the link below for access to an extensive summary of research related to the "Summer Slide" and associated resources, available on the National Library website.

For practical suggestions of how to engage your child (especially if he / she is a reluctant reader):

• Connect with your local library. Queenstown Central, Frankton, Arrowtown, Kingston and Glenorchy all have branches, and membership is free.
• Engage with the "Bookopoly Summer Reading Challenge" - This is a competition available to students between the ages of 12 - 18 run by the Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes Libraries, and there are loads of prizes to be won! See the link to the Library website for more information.
• Match texts to your child's interests and ability. Graphic novels, comics, magazines, newspaper articles and even recipes or flat-pack assembly instructions are all legitimate opportunities to engage with reading. Above all else, reading should be FUN!
• Encourage your son / daughter to read along while listening to an audio book.
• Discuss what they are reading / have read. Can they identify the key themes / messages in the text? Can they articulate what the purpose of the text is (e.g: opinion piece, persuasive, informative, summary, instructional). Who is the likely target audience? How do they know?
  

For more advice on how to engage your child with reading, we strongly encourage you to make contact with your local friendly librarian: they are more than happy to help!

Justine Duncan
Deputy Principal

Sport and Active Recreation News

Netball NZ Development Camp Selection
A huge congratulations to Year 12 student Bridget O'Malley who is one of 90 netball players nationwide (30 players from the South Island) who were selected into the Netball NZ National Secondary School Development Camps that are taking place around the country in January. This is a fantastic recognition of Bridget's skills, hard work and talent and an incredible opportunity for her to gain some high level coaching and an understanding of netball performance at the top level. Well done Bridget! You can read the full article here.

Otago U19 Cricket Selections
Congratulations to Mason Clarke and Hugo Bogue for their selection into the Otago U19 Men's Cricket team to compete at the National age group tournament in Lincoln in early December. All the best boys!

Oceania Olympic Climbing Qualifiers
We wish Azaria Briscoe and Lucy Sinclair all of the very best as they compete for New Zealand over the coming days at the Oceania Olympic Qualifiers for Sport Climbing in Melbourne. What an incredible experience and opportunity. Go well girls! You can catch all of the Oceania Qualifier action live online on the SCA YouTube channel or view live results.

Queenstown Marathon
A massive congratulations to all of the students and staff that took part in events in the Queenstown Marathon last weekend. Shout out to Year 13 Ella McKinney who completed her first marathon! There were some awesome student results on Saturday. Congratulations to the place getters in their age groups:
Zara Mackley - 1st 16-19 years half marathon
James Weber - 1st 12-15 years 10km
Keira Redden - 3rd 12-15 years 10km

Weekly Softball Round Up
It was hot conditions in Alexandra this week for our softball game against the Dunstan Drillers. With a few players away this week we fortunately had two Dunstan players help us out; Tane pitching and Charlie catching. That left our team working hard in the field. There was a double play in the 4th innings, Jack Pick taking a catch on 3rd base then getting the runner returning to first base out with Tyler Hanrahan completing the double play. Harry Thompson filled in for us and took a great catch in the outfield and stopped players advancing with his strong throwing arm. The team batted well again but lost this week 12-8.  We are currently second in the 4 team grade going into finals next week. 

South Island Junior Volleyball Champs

Our junior volleyballers had an action-packed 3 days in Dunedin for the South Island Junior Volleyball Champs this week. This tournament is an amazing opportunity for our students to play against other schools in high-level volleyball matches. Our teams had a number of wins and some edge-of-your seat close losses. All of the players were incredible representatives of WHS, both on and off the court, and should be extremely proud of their efforts. A huge thank you to Steve Henderson, Ksena Proskur, Gemma Carter, Duane Te Paa, Tammy Beale and Sian Horn for all of their mahi and support of our teams. Final placings below.

Junior Girls Gold - 14th Division 2
Junior Girls Navy - 6th Division 3
Junior Boys - 10th Division 2

Mountain Biking
The Dirty Dunners Downhill MTB race happened last weekend and a big congratulations to riders Indy Deavoll and Malik Boatright who won the U17 girls and boys events respectively.

Opportunities to Get Involved!

Rainbow Run - Saturday 25th November
The Queenstown Rainbow Run is taking place on Saturday 25th November at 11:30am at the Frankton Reserve. Check out the poster in the Community Notices below.

Keep Us Informed
The sports department would love to hear from you if you know of any awesome achievements from our students so that we can celebrate these as a school. Please send through details and photos to lnathan@wakatipu.school.nz.

Support Sport at WHS
Jump on board and support the team by liking or following the Wakatipu High School Sports Facebook page. This is the best way to stay informed and up to date with the successes of our athletes and teams and help celebrate their great achievements. https://www.facebook.com/WakatipuHighSchoolSports/ 

Laura Nathan
Director of Sport

Arts Department News

WHS Musical 2024
Thank you to everyone who auditioned to be a part of the 2024 musical.  It is always a huge task to take on, and we appreciate everyone's interest. Students should have received their casting roles this week. 

Junior Visual Arts
The 5ART2 (Design) junior visual arts classes work on building communication skills visually through the use of layout, image and text. They learn to use basic Photoshop and are challenged to test their limits. 

Below are some of their completed work this semester. The students and teachers have done an amazing job!

Let Us Know
The Arts department would like to know about any artistic achievements that students have attained outside of school be it in Drama, Dance, Music or Visual Arts. Please send through details and photos to mparker@wakatipu.school.nz

Support the Arts
We are always looking for local professional performing and visual artists to visit our school and run workshops for our students. If you or someone you know is interested, please contact Monica Parker the Arts Coordinator at  mparker@wakatipu.school.nz 

Instagram Page
Follow our school’s Instagram page for recent successes or news within the school’s Arts Department at whsartdepartment.

WHS Vacancy - ORS Teacher Aide

We are seeking a specialist teacher aide for a permanent position starting in January 2024. The position is 0845 to 1530, Monday to Friday, term-time only and requires an outgoing and caring individual who is happy to work with students (in one-to-one situation or in small groups) within or alongside the mainstream class.

This role will specifically be working closely with students funded by the Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (ORS), which provides support for students with the highest ongoing levels of need to enable them to attend school, join in and learn alongside other students at school. 

Further further details and to submit your application please follow this link.
Applications close at midday on Tuesday 5 December 2023.

WHS Foundation

Community Notices

Do the kids fancy themselves as the next Tom Abercrombie? Take them along to a BNZ Breakers
game and show them the best of New Zealand basketball.
There are 8 home games remaining in Auckland this season and every game will have epic basketball and entertainment for the whole family. Mark your calendar and get behind the BNZ Breakers.
Tickets on sale now at www.ticketmaster.co.nz

Support our fundraising and enjoy 100s of everyday savings!
Entertainment is the easy-to-use App packed with incredible savings of up to 50% off and 2-for-1 offers, so you can save on takeaway, dining, shopping, groceries, gift cards, activities and more!

And what’s even better, 20% of every membership purchased goes to support Wakatipu High School!

https://subscribe.entertainmentnz.com/fundraiser/260506v

LEARNER & INTERMEDIATE DRIVING LESSONS

Dan Gerard Driving Instruction has professional male and female driving instructors, and members of the New Zealand Institute of Driver Educators. We offer high quality friendly driver training covering a range of driving lessons.

• Learner lessons for beginners
• Assessment for Learner drivers who have been taught by family and need their skills polished before sitting their Restricted Test
• Refresher lessons to brush up before sitting the Full Test
• Street Talk defensive driving courses

http://www.drivinginstruction.co.nz/ , E: info@drivinginstruction.co.nz

Rach Gerard: 027 273 9610,  Dan Gerard: 027 349 2447