WHS Newsletter | Issue 2.0 | 24 April 2025
Principal's Message
Kia ora and welcome to a short pre-Term 2 newsletter to ensure everyone is all sorted for what is always a dynamic and jam-packed term, and in 2025 is only 9 weeks long.
We will begin the Term with year level assemblies to ensure all students are prepared and supported to make Term 2 successful both in the classroom and with the range of extra and co-curricular activities on offer. Key documents that will be shared with students will be the school calendar and internal assessment calendars, both of which you can see below. Students will also have an organisational chart, a year level Ako Curriculum calendar and other key dates shared with them, and we strongly encourage parents to discuss these key documents with their student.
Year level assemblies in Term 2 are as follows:
- Monday 28 April - Year 9, Year 12, Year 13
- Wednesday 30 April - Year 11
- Monday 5 May - Year 10
A reminder that all students and parents/caregivers had an end of term Progress and Achievement Summary (PAS) report sent to them on Sunday, 12 April. These reports collate students' academic progress for Term 1 into a single document and provide not only an indication of academic achievement, but also provide information on what a student knows and their next steps for learning. As our reporting system is live on the Portal, these grades and next steps for learning are best viewed in real-time, when they are published, but we provide an end of term summary to ensure they are read. Please take the time to sit down with your student to read these reports, in conjunction with the Learning Engagement reports, and discuss any changes that may need to be made for Term 2.
For senior students, we are holding our senior next steps (parent/student/teacher meetings) with subject teachers and it is really important for parents and students to attend these, especially if students are not achieving the grades they are striving for and/or Learning Engagement reports are anything less than a 3. Senior Next Steps are being held on Tuesday 6 May and details on how to make an appointment are noted below.
Other Key Dates are as follows:
- April 29 and April 30 - Literacy and Numeracy corequisite information evenings
- Tuesday 6 May - Senior Next Steps
- 09 – 14 May - Excellence/Ad Alta/Ākonga Assemblies
- Friday 23 May - Writing Corequisite
- Monday 25 May - Numeracy Corequisite
- Wednesday 28 May - Reading Corequisite
- 09 – 13 June - Junior Exams
As the winter months quickly approach, a reminder to be sure you have downloaded the SZApp so that you are getting the most up-to-date information from WHS. Full details on how to download the SZApp are below.
Lastly, our school uniform is an important part of who we are at WHS, and it is really important that students are wearing their school uniform correctly and with pride. A reminder that students must wear their Blazer to, from and at school and that hoodies should never be worn, and will be confiscated if seen.
Hope everyone is enjoying the autumnal weather and we might see you at the ANZAC Day commemorations tomorrow or the Arrowtown Autumn Festival on the weekend.
Ngā mihi nui,
Oded Nathan
Principal/Tumuaki
Senior Next Steps Tuesday, May 6 - Bookings Now Open
Our Senior Next Steps conferencing (teacher/parent/student) are on Tuesday 6 May from 2:15pm - 7:30pm at school.
Next Steps bookings are now open - please click on the link below. Please note that we will be closing bookings at 3pm on Monday 5 May.
These parent-student-subject teacher meetings are very important for discussing students’ learning, progress and achievement and we strongly encourage all senior students and their parents to attend.
When making your bookings, you’ll need to know your students' subjects and teacher and you can check the Portal for these details. Please try to leave five minutes between each of your interviews (eg. 3:40, 3:50), as this will give you time to move to the next teacher and will help prevent people running behind schedule.
If you find that a teacher that you would like to see has no more interview times available, please contact them directly via email to arrange an alternative time to discuss your students learning progress and achievement.
School will finish at 1:50 pm for all students on Tuesday 6 May, with buses running from this time.
Please click on the link below to book your interviews. If a code is requested use crnth.
NCEA Level 1,2, and 3 Internal Assessment Calendars and WHS Term Calendar
Internal Assessment Calendar
The internal assessment calendar provides the due dates for all internal assessments being sat by students throughout the year for each course in Years 11-13. We highly recommend that students note the dates of their internal assessments on their calendars and plan their term and year accordingly to ensure their academic goals are achieved. Kaiārahi and parents are encouraged to support this.
Students should use the assessment and school calendar to identify all their assessments - particularly noting pinch points when several fall due at the same time, and then put this beside their other commitments eg sport, work, family and plan accordingly.
These calendars are live and will be updated regularly.
Level 1 NCEA Assessment Calendar
Level 2 NCEA Assessment Calendar
Level 3 NCEA Assessment Calendar
WHS School Calendar
The WHS School calendar is always jam-packed and is a feature of WHS' great all-round education. As such, we want students to be looking at the calendar and understanding when they are going to be away for any school related activity. The calendar linked below can be used with the NCEA Internal Assessment Calendar (above) to assist with planning for the term.
WHS SZ App
All parents, caregivers, and students should download the SZapp to receive timely urgent and important alerts. SZapp also provides convenient access to our absence form, the weekly newsletter, school calendar, and a collection of handy links. Find download instructions for the WHS SZapp below.
Apple Devices
- On your device, open the App Store.
- Search the App Store for SZapp.
- Download and install SZapp.
Android Devices
- On your device, open the Play Store.
- Search the Play Store for SZapp.
- Download and install SZapp.