WHS Newsletter | Issue 4.3 | 30 October 2020

Principal's Message

Kia ora, welcome to the Wakatipu High School newsletter at the end of a short week 3, with a relatively short piece from me. It is the time of year for important ceremonies, awards and announcements and we had several this week.

The first was the announcement of the 2021 Lead Prefects and House Leaders at a full school assembly in Te Kirikiri on Wednesday morning. As I have said previously, these are important leadership roles at WHS that are hard to get, and the selection process is rigorous and public so we acknowledged those who put themselves forward. Below are the lists of the Lead Prefects and their respective councils as well as the Leaders and Deputies for each of the Houses. Our congratulations go to all of them. 

At the same assembly, the winners of the House Competition for 2021 were also announced - big congratulations to Duncan House for a convincing win this year, see below for more.

The week began with the presentation of the Central Lakes Trust Scholarships at their annual ceremony in Cromwell, which included Nigel Latta as guest speaker. Sixteen of our Year 13 students received Scholarships of $2,500 each for general and academic, vocational and technology. These are fantastic local awards, and our congratulations go to all of the recipients (see below) and our thanks to CLT for their ongoing support of local youth.

LE Report number 10 for junior students will be up on the Portal later today. It is actually four school weeks since the last LE reports, so these are important indicators of how well your student is engaging with their learning. Please do take the time to go through them together and acknowledge the positives and have discussions about any not so. 

Senior Prizegiving is next Friday 6th November, and prizewinners parents have been notified. 

As per last year, late morning we will gather as a school for the announcement of our most prestigious awards and the Proxime and Dux, as well as the Dux’s speech to students. School will then finish and buses run for juniors and seniors not attending prizegiving at 11.45am. 

Cultural Blues Awards are next Tuesday evening, and before them from 5.30pm is our annual exhibition of students art. Even if you are not attending Blues this is a rare opportunity to see the amazing work that our talented students produce, see below for details.

‘Accord (Teacher Only) Day’ is on Tuesday 17th November (Covid postponed from August). This is the first in a series of nationwide days over the next few years for teachers to work on the upcoming NCEA changes. Exams continue for seniors but there will be no school for juniors that day.

If you have been through school this week you will have seen that the Phase 2 work is continuing to progress with another of the temporary classroom modules having arrived. Please see below for an overview of Phase 2 from our Executive Officer, Mrs Andrea Wilton-Connell, who is our Project Manager for this important project.

The weekend weather is a game of two halves with rain and showers tomorrow but Sunday looking good for biking, walking and lawn-mowing. Go the All Blacks!

Steve Hall
Principal

Student Leadership 2021

This week we had the pleasure of announcing our House Leaders and Lead Prefects to a full school assembly in Te Kirikiri. A huge thanks to all students who put themselves forward for a leadership position for 2021. Congratulations to the following successful students.

Lead Prefects

Academic - Helena Hornbacher
Arts and Cultural - Kira Almquist 
Community and Service - Hannah Battrick
Environmental - Jasmine Crichton 
International - Kate Edmonds
Junior - Linus Ritchie
Maori - Ruby Kirk
Sport - Will Cooper 
STARS - Sophie Thompson
Whanaungatanga/Support - Grace Hall
Wellbeing - Johannes Mackay 
Student Rep - Board of Trustees - Sofia Taquet

House Leaders

Arthur House
Head of Arthur - Harry Reed
Head of Arthur - Annabelle Ferguson
Deputy Head of Arthur - Olivia Read
Deputy Head of Arthur - Ruby Kirk

Duncan House
Head of Duncan -  Izzy Cheifetz
Head of Duncan - Aimee Clarke
Deputy Head of Duncan - Alix Long
Deputy Head of Duncan - Linus Ritchie

Fox House
Head of Fox - Finley Young
Head of Fox - Michaela McLister
Deputy Head of Fox - Jonty Vaivars
Deputy Head of Fox - Amelia Grufferty

Hay House
Head of Hay - Allegra Boyd Slawson
Head of Hay - Finley Husheer 
Deputy Head of Hay - Liam Judkins
Deputy Head of Hay - Louisa Ellis 

Mackenzie House
Head of Mackenzie - Hanna Cerecke
Head of Mackenzie - Max Sinclair
Deputy Head of Mackenzie - James Scoles
Deputy Head of Mackenzie - Pyper Healey

Central Lakes Trust Scholarships

Congratulations to the following students who received scholarships from the Central Lakes Trust at a special ceremony on Monday. 

Om Alva
Zachary Barham
Aleks Cheifetz
Nieve Collin
Levi Collins
Ryan Connaghan
Campbell Crow
Lucas Erskine
Briar Greer
Indigo Little
Juliana Macaes
Erin McDonald
Alice Price
Emma Saxon
Alesana Tulafono
Lucy Tulloch

House Competition 2020

The 2020 House Competition concluded last week with Wakamaths and the final results were announced to the school at assembly on Wednesday morning. Thanks to Mr Nathan and the Academic Council for organising Wakamaths - always a high energy and successful event to wind up the house competition for the year. Wakamaths results are:
3rd Place - Hay 6 Points
2nd Place - Arthur 8 Points
1st Place - Duncan 10 Points

This brings us to the final results to the year. There was tight race for the minor placings between Hay (55 points) and Mackenzie (56 points ), but the the overall winner, by a subsantial margin was Duncan (73 points). Congratulations to all students who partcipated in house events this year and congratulations to Duncan for your landslide win. 

James Rasmussen
Deputy Principal

House Competition Chart

Branches Camp Update

This morning we had our second student meeting. The key things covered were: the permission/medical and consent form and the Transport Form - which should have been completed by all parents/caregivers.  Miss Sibtsen spoke about student tents at the Branches Base camp, with a reminder about the student Workday.  The next student meeting is on Monday 2nd November.

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. 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 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

Balfour Takes On The Globe

A huge congratulations to Greta Balfour who has been selected to represent the Wakatipu High School drama department in the SGCNZ 2021 YOUNG SHAKESPEARE COMPANY. Greta follows the footsteps of Izzy Jack and Victoria Boult who both represented the school in this prestigious company. She will have the opportunity to tour the Shakespeares Globe theatre in London and perform on stage with other students selected around New Zealand. Congratulations Greta!

Jake Hansen
Drama Teacher

World Vision Senior Scholarship Winner

Congratulations to Jasmine Chrichton who has been selected as a World Vision Senior Scholarship Winner for her outstanding leadership and contribution to the 40 Hour Famine this year! Next year, Jasmine will be travelling to Auckland with several other World Vision representatives from across New Zealand. There they will embark on a 3-day leadership course that focuses on equipping young people with knowledge around social injustices and how to take action as community leaders. It is a wonderful opportunity and we are very proud of Jasmine for her efforts.

Ruby Mills
TIC 40 Hour Famine

End of Year Senior Folio Art Exhibition

Come join us for the rare opportunity to view senior artwork from Wakatipu High School students. Folios will be on display in the WHS foyer and up in the Performing Arts area from 5.30pm to 7.00pm on Tuesday 3 November. 

Monica Parker
Arts Coordinator

Te iti o Tāhuna

The school's kapa haka group, Te iti o Tāhuna, have been busy over Term 4 with various performances around the basin. 

Firstly, they were invited to perform at the opening ceremony of the Remarkable Markets, helping to celebrate the unvieling of the newly carved wahoroa (enterance way) carved by Steve Solomon. 

Secondly, they perfomed for a private function up at Skyline, which was recieved with great aclaim and fantastic views. 

Then lastly, they helped open this year's Sporting Blues award ceremony with the National Anthem as well as their title piece - Te iti o Tāhuna. 

Their last performance will be to help celebrate the award winners in the Cultural Blues awards night next Tuesday.

Please see the gallery of photos from these various events as well as tuning into their Polyfest performance which will be steamed on the Mīharo Murihiku Facebook page, Tuesday 3rd of November at 12.30pm.  

Ngā mihi nui,
Kyle Jackson
TIC Kapa haka

Phase 2 Update

The master plan for our school always included the build happening in two phases. Phase 1 gave us capacity for 1200 students and Phase 2 adds capacity for an additional 600 students taking the total capacity to 1800. “Phase 2” is the name of the project to build our extension and new gym. 

Temporary Buildings
It was exciting to see the first of the temporary buildings installed on site. These are brand new classrooms that have been built in sections in Christchurch and are being assembled onsite. Below is a map of what our new temporary buildings will look like. We are getting four x “doubles” and two x “quads” - buildings that will accommodate two classes and four classes at the same time. There are also four x single buildings and toilet blocks (R7 & R8). All the buildings will have decks and verandas which you can see in the grey colour in the map.

The Maths and Languages Learning Areas will be moving to the temporary buildings, and all the Duncan Ako groups will be located in the temporary buildings. We will start using these buildings at the start of the 2021 school year.

Changes to our current building
Because the new extension has to join onto the current building it means that the builders have to open up the ends of our existing building and peel the roof back in order to join up the new wings. At the end of November this work will start and we need to vacate the four adjacent learning commons for the remainder of the year and all of 2021. These areas will all be blocked off with temporary walls. This is why we need the temporary buildings.

In addition to the new wings, we are getting some changes made to our existing building too. The internal changes will happen from November 2021 – April 2022 and include:

• More music practice rooms
• Another hard tech classroom
• Moving the Visual Arts area to give them more room
• Increasing the size of the large breakouts in the south wing 
  

The extension
We’re very excited about the new extension. There are some really great spaces designed in the new wings including;

• A lecture theatre
• Dedicated media area(s)
• New improved ORS area
• Additional science labs
• Additional open learning commons
• New social spaces for Duncan and Hay (that will be the same as Arthur, McKenzie and Fox)

The new wings will be completed in different time frames. We expect to be able to start using the new north wing at the start of 2022 and the new south wing extension from semester two 2022. We are still waiting on timing for when the new gym will be available.

Andrea Wilton-Connell
Executive Officer

Outdoor Education Gear Amnesty

This is a call for any WHS Outdoor Education gear that may be in the garage or cupbard from any school trips.  First aid kits, yellow rain jackets, thermal long sleeved tops, thermal longjohns, fleece tops, tramping backpacks, pack liners, foam sleeping mats (bedrolls), broad-brimmed sunhats, camping stoves etc. If you find any of the above, please hand it in at the main reception during school hours as soon as possible.

Bridget Janse
Outdoor Education Teacher

Lost Property

All lost property will be out in Te Kirikiri next week, make sure you go and have a look if you have any lost items. A reminder to please ensure all your belongings are named.

Meaz Nathan
Student Services

Final Extra-Curricular Badge Order

Monday 2 November is our cut off date for all extra-curricular badges - please come to Student Services by the end of Break 2 to place your order and pay.  We also have a number of badges that are yet to be collected. 

Meaz Nathan
Student Services

Head Student Address

Happy Friday everyone!

On Tuesday the Central Lakes Trust held a ceremony for those who earned a Central Lakes Trust scholarship. A huge congratulations to those who received this scholarship! Also, I would like to acknowledge those who applied to try to gain this scholarship. It's a hard process and it never hurts to try. 

On Wednesday we had a full school assembly which is always good to get the whole school together. These full school assemblies are always important. We gathered to announce the 2021 Lead Prefects and House Leaders. I would like to applaud all of you that applied for a position, as that just shows that you are willing to put yourself out there and help make a change. A huge congratulations to the 2021 Hay, Duncan, Mackenzie, Fox and Arthur House Leaders as this is a huge but very fun role to take on. I would also like to congratulate the 2021 Lead Prefects, I know personally having this role takes some work but it is also super fun to be part of the student leadership team! 

We also found out in this assembly the winners of the house competition. The competition started at the start of the year and we have had many events throughout the year for the houses to earn points and climb to victory. This year the winner of the house competition was, drum roll please … DUNCAN! Duncan won the competition by a landslide beating the house in second place, Mackenzie by quite a bit. And the third-place house was Hay who just slipped behind Mackenzie by one point. Good job to all those who participated in the events throughout the year as it shows that if you put in the effort you will win! Huge applause for the House Leaders this year as they have done such a great job of running their houses and bringing up the school's house spirit. 

Next week is going to be a busy one. Next week is the senior students final official week at school before they head out on exam leave. Good luck to all the seniors in preparing and sitting their exams. Lip Sync is happening next week so be sure to participate in this event as it is super fun and there are some cool prizes to be won! It is also quite a big week for the Year 13s as it is our last official week of high school before we sit our exams and head off to our colleges or apprenticeships next year. 

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Ruby Noton
Environmental Lead Prefect

Music Events

Labour Weekend Jazz Festival
It continued to be a busy time for the jazz musicians last weekend as they had two gigs as part of the Labour weekend music-making. On Saturday they performed on the Village Green in Queenstown and on Sunday they were on Buckingham Green in Arrowtown. Great performances from both bands as they entertained supportive audiences and showcased their considerable skills. Thanks to the Luke Baldock from the Queenstown Jazz Trust, the Turn Up the Music Trust and Rockformation for once again supporting our musicians. 

Southern Jam  Online Jazz Competition 
Congratulations to Greta Balfour who won an Outstanding Performers Award at this year's 2020 Southern Jam  Online Jazz festival. Greta was the vocalist in our Combo band and was one of three recipients of this award from across all the schools who were competing. Well done!

WHS Schools Jazz Event
Last Friday night WHS hosted jazz bands from around the region as a replacement for the annual Invercargill Jazz fest. The emphasis was a little different this year as we featured bands at all stages of development from junior to senior and gave everyone an opportunity to share and engage with their music-making. It was a great evening with bands from WHS, Mt Aspiring, Dunstan, Cromwell and James Hargest taking part.

Huge thanks to Rockformation for supplying gear and Turn Up the Music for their support. Thanks also to Alistair Monteath, Emma Wison and ex-student Sam Healey who were our "judges" for the evening and provided some great feedback for the students.

Click here to view a video of some performances.

Central Soundwaves
The Central Soundwaves kicks off at Yonder this Sunday at 6.00pm. This is a great opportunity for musicians at all stages of their performance experience. Huge thanks to Rockformation and the Wakatipu Youth Trust for making this happen.

Alison Price
TIC Music and HoLA Arts

Snowsports Academy 2020

With the snow leaving the hills and the warmer weather around the corner, our winter athletes are coming to the end of an unpredictable and challenging training season. They have grafted hard; training during the day and attending after-school catch-up sessions to balance their sporting and academic commitments. Their dedication to both has been fantastic, with some outstanding results coming from their hard work and long hours.

Sports News and Results

Snowsports New Zealand Selections
A huge congratulations to snowboarder Cool Wakushima who has been named as one of nine Snowsport NZ carded athletes, this is a massive achievement! Freeskier Harper Souness was named in the National Development Squad and Max McDonald has been selected into the SSNZ wider training group. These three join alpine ski racers Olivia Key and Bayley McDonald who have also been selected into New Zealand youth teams. Well done to you all!

Girls Cricket
Four Wakatipu High School players represented the Otago Country U19 Women’s team in Oamaru this past weekend. Abby Fookes, Paige Loggenberg, Kloe Vemeir and Lucy Viggers all performed well with bat and ball. Abby had the highest run score on the day for the team while Kloe took two wickets and Paige and Lucy one piece. Unfortunately the team lost to Southland and North Otago and their game against Dunedin was cancelled due to rain.

Congratulations to Paige Loggenberg, Kloe Vemeir and Lucy Viggers who have all just been named in the Otago U19 Women’s squad for the 2020/21 season. Well done girls!

The WHS girls cricket team made it two from two this week beating Mt Aspiring College by 10 runs in the modified form of T20 that is running in Central Otago schools this term. Well done team! The team play Cromwell College at WHS next Wednesday at 5pm. 

1st XI Cricket - McCullum Cup
The WHS 1st XI team had two great wins in the annual T20 McCullum Cup tournament in Dunedin last weekend. Playing in division one the team beat Otago Boys High School for the first time, a significant milestone for Wakatipu High School cricket! The team went on to beat John McGlashan as well before the second day of games against Kings HS and the final was rained out. Jordan Gibbons achieved the second highest total with the bat for the tournament with a 72 off 43 balls while Ben McDonald took 3 for 20 as the best of the bowlers. A big thank you to coaches Daniel Gibbons and Damien O’Connell. Well done team, we look forward to the rematch against Otago Boys High at the semi-finals of the Gillette Cup.

Careers Department - Job Vacancies

We are a New Zealand owned food delivery company operating in 15 cities across the country. You can find more about us here: www.delivereasy.co.nz

We're currently looking for a lot more drivers in Queenstown. Drivers are brought on as self employed independent contractors and get to choose when they would like to work. Drivers would need their own vehicle and would be paid per delivery, so street smarts and efficiency = great pay! 

Click here for the link to the TradeMe advertisement where drivers can take a better look at what the job involves.  We'd love to hear from any drivers keen to jump on board as soon as possible! We're getting busier by the day so there is a lot of work available.

Contact Brett Johnston for more details -  brett@deliveryeasy.co.nz 

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! 

WHS 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.

Key Dates

Community Notices

Wakatipu Mental Health Forum

Thursday 5th November, 18:30-20:30 at Queenstown Events Centre  

The community needs your voice!  

With guest speakers and visual installations, come along to hear from others in the Wakatipu and share ideas about what we can do as a community to provide support and hope to those who need it most.  Together we can and will create positive change!  

REGISTER FOR FREE: wakatipumentalhealth.eventbrite.co.nz 

Note: This event deals with topics of a sensitive nature, including mental health and suicide.

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/