WHS Newsletter | Issue 4.2 | 23 October 2020

Principal's Message

Kia ora and welcome to the Wakatipu High School newsletter at the end of a very busy week two. As per last week’s newsletter, the Formal was last Saturday night and it was a wonderful event. The students looked fantastic and were impeccably behaved - a great night; see below for a few photos.

The Waitangi trip also returned last weekend after a fantastic trip to the far north. Special thanks to Mrs Panapa for her commitment to making this trip happen in this difficult year, see below for a trip report.

This week we have had our five House Excellence, Ad Alta and Ākonga Passport assemblies. So many of our students are doing so well in terms of our all-round education, with nearly 500 students receiving awards! See below for House lists of recipients.

On Tuesday we had Dr Ceri Evans at school speaking to students, staff and parents about ‘performing under pressure’. It was a real privilege to have such a world-class expert on such an important topic. Thanks to those who came along on Tuesday evening for the parent session.

Thanks also to AJ Hackett Bungy who supported Ceri’s visit, as well as supporting Ākonga Passport prizes and the annual Year 13 ‘rite of passage’ bungy - we really appreciate your generous support of WHS!

On Wednesday evening we hosted the Chamber of Commerce’s ‘Business After 5’ event here with the WHS Foundation. We are so fortunate to have the support of the Foundation, especially in these difficult times. Speaking of which, Foundation Chairman, Wayne Foley, is running the upcoming New Zealand Sotheby's International Realty Queenstown Marathon to raise funds for the Foundation - please click here to support Wayne. Also, a reminder that the Foundation’s Golf day is coming up on Wednesday 4th November, there are only a couple of places left so see below for more on a great day for a great cause.

Last night we had our annual Sporting Blues Awards. It is always great to celebrate the sporting achievements of our students - which are local, national and even international, and last night we awarded four Outstanding Blues Awards for international sporting achievement! It was fantastic to hear from our guest speaker, Scott ‘Razor’ Robertson, who had some great words and advice for our students. Thanks so much to everyone who makes sport possible at WHS - from parents, to staff and community members, we really appreciate it! See below for more, including all recipients and award winners.

Last week I wrote about Greta Balfour and Ryan Connaghan receiving the prestigious Class Act awards, which had been cancelled due to Covid. Click here for a ‘video’ ceremony (including words from the Prime Minister at 4.00 and Greta and Ryan’s awards at 29.40) and here for Greta and Ryan’s bios, which show just what amazing all-round students these two are!

Again a reminder to download the new ‘SZapp’ as it is now our key communication channel. See below for more on how to download it and set it up.

If you have driven through or past the school recently you will have seen that work for our Phase 2 expansion is well and truly underway, including the first of the temporary classrooms for next year now in place.

Senior Prizegiving is now just two weeks away, on Friday 6th November. As per last year, school will finish for juniors and seniors not attending prizegiving at 1145am. More details next week, and prizewinners parents will also be notified next week.

A reminder that this is a long weekend, with Labour Day Monday a public holiday. Next week is another busy week at WHS, including on Wednesday we will gather as a whole school  for the announcement of the 2021 House Leaders and Lead Prefects, as well as the final results of the 2020 House Competition.

The long weekend weather starts well - with tomorrow a great day for outdoor activities and mowing the lawns, but unfortunately it's downhill from there. Make the most of it, and enjoy the long weekend :)

Steve Hall
Principal 

Excellence, Ad Alta & Ākonga Passport Awards

Sporting Blues Awards

Last night the annual Sporting Blues Awards were held which acknowledged and celebrated the last 12 months of success and achievement by WHS students in the sporting arena. This year 100 Achievement Blues, five Service Blues and four Outstanding Blues were awarded. The full list is below.  A huge congratulations to these athletes. A list of our major award winners are below. 

Outstanding Blues Awards
Ruby Andrews - Outstanding Blue for Free Skiing
Tallulah Bryant - Outstanding Blue for Ice Hockey
Max McDonald - Outstanding Blue for Free Skiing
Axel Ruski-Jones - Outstanding Blue for Ice Hockey

Annual Sports Awards
Team of the Year - U17 Boys Double Sculls - Oliver Bisley and Oliver Herron
Sporting Performance of the Year - Max McDonald - 4th Men’s Halfpipe Youth Winter Olympic Games
Junior Sportsman of the Year - Connor McIsaac
Junior Sportswoman of the Year - Sammy Fookes
Senior Sportsman of the Year - Toby Hart
Senior Sportswoman of the Year - McKenzie Galbraith

Laura Nathan
Director of Sport

WHS Formal

It was wonderful to have our Formal on Saturday evening at Skyline despite a few Covid postponements.

A huge thanks to the Formal Committee for making it a great event.

A massive thank you to Alasdair Gay at Queenstown Wedding Hire for donating an entrance arch and Heartland Design & Print for printing the tickets.

Thank you to our suppliers: Mike Brettell from Visual Events, Teaukura from Teaukura Moetaua Photography, Dan Childs from 222 Photographic Studios, DJ Sam from Rehab Ltd and Allyra from Skyline. 

Rosalind Box 
Formal Co-ordinator

Finalists in the School Shorts Screen Festival

*cue drumroll*
Media Studies students Finn Hyndman, Fineen Hingston and Elke Koehn have all had their films selected for the School Shorts Screen Festival, a national film-making competition run by Ara's New Zealand Broadcasting School.
The awards ceremony will take place in Christchurch on Sunday 1 November. We wish them all the best for their evening on the red carpet.

Jennifer Smart
Media Studies Teacher

Stills from the selected films

Songs of the Wakatipu

Last Friday night was the Songs of the Wakatipu event held in the WHS theatre and supported by the Turn Up the Music Trust and Rockformation. Eight songs created by students were performed and judged and we were very fortunate to have Barry Litten, Jacqui Bristow and Mike Chunn as our guest judges. The standard was exceptionally high and congratulations go to Greta Balfour and Billie Comer who were joint winners and have won recording time at Roundhead Studio in Auckland. Congratulations also to No Man's Land (Hannah White, Kira Almquist, Paige Loggenberg, Lucy Glover) who came third and have been granted time at a recording studio in Otago. We are extremely fortunate to have this level of support in the community for our students.

Alison Price
HoLA Arts

Branches Camp Update

With Ad Alta Excellence House Assemblies this week there was no student meeting. A reminder for parents/caregivers of all Year 10 students to please complete the Branches Student Medical, Health, Consent Form and the Branches Transport Form. These were emailed out to all Year 10 parents last week. If you have not received these email please contact me bjanse@wakatipu.school.nz

Branches Workday - Friday 13th November
Every year students going to Branches Camp have a ‘Branches Workday’ where they spend a day working to raise money for Branches Trust who support students going to Branches Camp. This year Branches Workday is Friday 13th November. 
With Covid this year however it will be a little different. While students are still required to complete a workday this year, they will work for a local company or community group who support the school and the Branches Camp and give back to the community. If some of these organisations are able to give a donation towards the cost of camp to help keep the costs down for students and their families that will be great, and if you are able to sponsor a student to work for a community group, eg. Happiness House, Reforestation Trust, that would be a ‘double good deed’ in that it supports a Branches student and a local community group. 
Of course if you can provide paid work for our students on workday, or if you know of any businesses or individuals who may be able to support us, we would also love to hear from you.

Please contact Bennie Neilson - Branches Trust Workday Coordinator
Phone 021 271 1182 or email bennieandphill@xtra.co.nz 

Important  Branches dates to note are:
Friday 23  Oct - Medical, Health, Consent Google Form due
Friday 30 Oct - Transport Google Form due
Friday 13 Nov - Branches Camp payment due; Student Community Workday
Friday 20 Nov - Pre-Branches tramps, including Activity Groups
Thursday 26 Nov - Camp Set up and early groups
Friday 27 Nov - Branches Camp goes in
Tuesday 8 Dec - Branches Camp comes out
Thursday 10 Dec - Year 10 Prizegiving

Bridget Janse
Branches Camp Coordinator

British High Commissioner Visit

Yesterday we had the pleasure and honour of meeting with Laura Clarke, the British High Commissioner, and Dr Victoria Hatton, the Climate Change Advisor to COP26 (Conference of Parties), and Sadie, the Communications Officer for the British High Commision. They came to speak to our class of Year 10 students about what they do and to talk to us about climate change. They discussed how our simple choices can lead to bigger consequences later in life and how we can identify the small things we do that we don’t need to do, and make changes to these to create a better environment. They gave us details about how the world’s health is in a dire situation. We are extremely vulnerable at the moment and there is an urgent necessity for everyone to work together to make things right.

We all need to be aware of our carbon footprint. What we choose to eat, where and how we travel and what we do from day to day. If we all make subtle changes the world will benefit. Everyone needs to think of the bigger picture and not just what's happening today.  Long term changes are what we all need to think about.

It was an incredible experience to meet three passionate people and learn from what they had to say. 

Lachy Boniface, Oliver Battrick and Sophie Wood

Head Student Address

Kia Ora Koutou,

Hope you’ve all had a good week! 

Last Friday was Pink Shirt Day and it was amazing to see so many students wear pink accessories to show their support with the movement. The aim of Pink Shirt Day is to create schools where everyone feels safe, valued and respected. The Whanaungatanga Council spent the day handing out Pinkies and Stickers to students wearing lots of pink and taking a stand against bullying. In NZ, 32% of students reported being bullied at least a few times a month, compared to 23% on average across OECD countries. Pink Shirt Day is a movement aimed to reduce the amount of bullying in schools across the country. It has been a pleasure to be a part of such an incredible event and I can’t wait to see how Wakatipu High School continues the Pink Shirt Day movement in years to come.

In other news, Wakatipu High School held the final house competition on Wednesday with Wakamaths. Fantastic to see so many students, senior and junior, taking on the challenge and competing! As the final house competition, the stakes were high and all houses were on their A-game. A huge thank you to all the students that took part in the competition or supported their houses in the stands. I highly recommend students get involved with Wakamaths if given the opportunity in the years to come.

Finally this week, the students were privileged enough to hear Dr Ceri Evans speak in assemblies and workshops on the topic of performing under pressure. His words hold a particular weight this time of year as we go into the end of year exams. This time of year can be quite stressful and overwhelming for students and Dr Ceri’s talk has certainly taught the students some new methods of dealing with the pressure. A huge thank you to AJ Hackett for supporting this initiative and to Dr Ceri for sharing his wisdom. 

Hope you had a good week Wakatipu High School.

Have a good Labour Weekend!

Diana Milne
Whanaungatanga Lead Prefect

Sports News and Results

New Zealand Short Course Swimming Champs
Three Wakatipu High School Students attended the New Zealand Short Course Championships in Hamilton in the holidays. It was an awesome five days of racing against open age competition and the swimmers performed exceptionally well and some more National Age Group qualification times were achieved.

Highlights were:
Isaak Frewen - two PB’s and one open final
Jacob Mariott - two PB’s
Sara Jamison - four PB’s and one open final

Top 10 Results:
Jacob - 7th 100 Back and 5th 200 back
Isaak - 9th 200 fly, 7th 50 Back, 50 back final and 7th 50 fly
Sara - 6th 100IM and 5th in the 100 IM final, 8th 50 fly and 10th 100 fly

Short Track Speed Skating Nationals
A number of WHS students competed in the National Short Track Ice Speed Skating Champs held in Christchurch. The following athletes performed well, congratulations!
Poppy Wearing - 2nd place Novice B grade
Lucas Hass de Silva - 3rd place Sub junior men
Georgia Chinn - 4th place Sub junior women 
Daphne Ricketts - 5th place Sub junior women.

Central Otago Girls T20 Cricket
A new competition is underway this term for beginning and junior girls cricketers with the aim of engaging more girls into the sport. There are five teams from across Central Otago playing in a modified form of T20 cricket and the competition got underway this week with a skills session and bbq in Cromwell followed by our team’s first match against Dunstan High School. The girls beat Dunstan in their opening match and take on MAC in Wanaka next Wednesday evening. 

Southland Climbing Champs
Southland Secondary Schools Climbing Championships were held on Saturday 17th October at the YMCA in Invercargill. Wakatipu High School was represented in the Junior Girls category. Team members were Lucy Sinclair, Evie Barlow, Ella McKinney and Azaria Briscoe (all Year 10). Climbing was on eight ropes, each with a hard route and an easier route. Points were awarded according to zones reached on the wall. Easy climbs were given 5, 6 or 7 points. Hard climbs were given 7, 8 or 9 points. The girls did well as individuals and also took out the win as best junior team. Congratulations!

Junior Girls Individual Results: 
Azaria Briscoe and Lucy Sinclair - 1st = (72/72 points)
Evie Barlow - 5th (61/72)
Ella McKinney - 6th = (56/72)
1st Team Junior Team (261/288 points)

Term 4 Music Events

Term 4 continues to keep the musicians busy and this weekend is no exception.

Friday 23rd Oct: Tonight WHS hosts a jazz event for schools around the region where bands at all levels have the opportunity to perform in front of their peers and parents. This starts at 6.30pm in the WHS theatre and everyone is very welcome to attend.

Saturday 24th Oct: Tomorrow the jazz bands are performing in Queenstown on the Village Green from 12.00pm - 1.00pm. This is always a great opportunity to perform for the community and demonstrate the high level of skills that these students have. Students are asked to be there at 11.30am.

Sunday 25th Oct: A repeat of Saturday this time in Arrowtown on the main street green. The times for this performance are 11.30am-12.30pm and students need to be there at 11.00am.

Please contact Alison Price if there are any questions around these events.

Alison Price
HoLA Arts

Careers Department - Job Vacancies

NZSKI have part time employment opportunities for students this summer at Coronet Peak. They are operating from December 17^th – March 13^th seven days a week until mid January then Thursday – Sunday after that. 10:30am – 6:30pm, 8:30pm on Friday nights. They are keen to offer the right people an opportunity to work, learn and ride with them this summer. This is a unique opportunity to learn some kitchen operations, barista and front of house service skills. 

Contact Dan Maroszek daniel.maroszek@nzski.com for more details. 

ARE YOU A LOCAL STUDENT ON THE LOOKOUT FOR A SUMMER JOB? GREAT NEWS….WE’RE HIRING!

A long term, part-time job while studying. The ideal candidate will be at least 17 years old. We will provide you with valuable skills, training and experience that you can either build on for a hospitality career once study has finished - or take with you when you head off overseas. We can offer flexible hours to suit your needs, such as part time work while at school and work during university holidays. Learn the skills of hospitality in one of Queenstown’s most popular restaurants.

You will be well presented and bring the right attitude along with a desire to learn.
If this sounds like you, then email lou@flamebargrill.co.nz

We now have a summer position available in our Queenstown based project - Recreation Ground Wastewater Conveyance Scheme - located on Memorial Street.

 If you are soon to be entering SIT or other civil engineering course and are keen to get some experience on site this would be a good opportunity for you to shadow / help our site engineer and get some experience on drainage, surveying, geotechnical testing, earthworks, pavement.

Please come to the careers hub for more details, or contact Anne Goddard,  Project Manager, HEB Construction Ltd +64 27 620 9586

The Ferg businesses are looking for highly motivated, reliable Year 12 and 13 students who want to learn and obtain practical experience in the hospitality industry. You will need to be primarily available for work throughout the holiday period.  Come to the careers space for all the details! 

SMASHIT ROOM and Odyssey Sensory Maze have offered students the chance to apply for a Customer Service Representative role.  Please contact the Careers Department for further information. 

WHS 2021 Vacancy - Barista/Cafe Assistant

We have a vacancy commencing mid Jan 2021 for a Barista/Cafe Assistant to join our phenomenal support staff team. If you are interested in a role where you get to work in a positive environment and get to engage with our wonderful staff and student community on a daily basis - this could be the job for you!

This is a permanent part-time, term time only role. The working hours are 8am - 3.30pm which is 35 hours per week.
Tasks include; barista duties, food service, assisting with food preparation, light cleaning and stock control.
For a full position description, or to apply for the role please email apply@wakatipu.school.nz. Applications close midday Thursday 5 November. All applicants must have NZ work rights.

WHS Schoolzine App

We have updated our communications system and have a brand new app. Please ensure you (all parents, caregivers and students) have download it to your device as this is how we will communicate school alerts, student notices and our weekly newsletter.  The app also features a new absence form, the online school cafe shop, a calendar and some handy links! 

A reminder for students to also check the Student Noticeboard regularly.

Key Dates

Community Notices

Startup Queenstown Lakes 27 Nov

Startup Weekend is a high-energy, 54-hour event for established entrepreneurs and budding founders, for designers, developers, business-focused, and non-technical people alike. It's like outward bound for entrepreneurs!

You can expect to: 

• Meet potential new co-founders and make some great friends.
• Have a FUN time - make some great memories with passionate, energetic people.
• Learn from the best - engage with mentors who will keep you going and foster your entrepreneurial spirit.

Just 50 tickets available + selling fast - don't miss out.

https://startupqueenstownlakes.lpages.co/startup-weekend-2020/