WHS Newsletter | Issue 1.8 | 26 March 2021

Principal's Message

Kia ora and welcome to the newsletter at the end of a massive Wakatipu High School week!

The past week has been sports tournament week with pinnacle events for many summer sports. We have had nearly 100 students competing at regional, South Island and national events from rowing to climbing, golf to athletics, mountain biking and many other sports - where simply to make it to the event, such as Maadi Cup and our girls volleyball team going to nationals for the first time, has been a huge achievement for many. Our students have performed incredibly well with wins, podiums and placings and records and we salute their efforts and achievements. Our Sports section below is awesome with all the info and updates and makes for fantastic reading about our students and their efforts and achievements. A huge thanks to all of our coaches, managers and supporters for their commitment to providing these opportunities for our students. PS as I write this we have just watched the boy’s under 15 octuple get a bronze at Maadi - awesome effort!!

The other big event this week has been our musical, Grease. Once again, an incredibly entertaining show and an outstanding production in every sense. I was a very proud principal after the opening night on Wednesday. The talent of our students never ceases to amaze me - both those on the stage as well as the amazing band and those in the tech crews and backstage. My congratulations to everyone involved, and my very special thanks to Mrs Price and Mr Hansen for their efforts again this year. See below for more including photos. PS unfortunately if you don't now have a ticket you have missed out as the final two shows are sold out :(.

Given our 2020 results and how highly so many of our students are achieving academically, the above serves to highlight the awesome opportunities and great all-round education on offer here at WHS.

AJ Hackett Bungy - are fantastic supporters of WHS, and this morning we had the pleasure of receiving a great gift from them - a 2001 Landcruiser Trooper, complete with flash paint job (see below). This is actually a vehicle that Bungy have lent us in the past for Branches Camp, and that will continue to be a key use for it. Bungy are already very generous supporters of WHS in a number of ways and we are incredibly thankful to them for this significant gift.

Phase 2 - is progressing well, as many of you will have seen with the framing for the NE and SE extensions moving quickly. The other development this week has been the start of the fencing and hoarding which will close off the NW corner of our grounds for construction of the new gym. While this will cause disruption until it is completed at the end of next year it is going to be a great facility when it is done.

Boys - with no newsletter last Friday (TOD), I wanted to catch up on an area of focus for us this year - boy’s achievement. This has been an area that we have been monitoring for some time and it is an interesting one for us, as while our boy’s achievement is below our girls it is actually pretty good nationally (eg a big piece of research we did a few years ago showed that in terms of boy’s achievement we were actually in the top 10 co-educational schools nationally, and last year 74% of our boys got UE - compared with 45% nationally and under 60% for decile 8-10 schools, our Dux has been a boy for three of the last four years) however it is an area we want to work on.

Our latest research has led us to a programme called the Rite Journey - which we did a Facebook post for on Tuesday 16th March. This programme primarily focuses on the journey from childhood to young adulthood and we are trialing it with a Year 10 boys PE class this year. We hope that this will help with our boys in a number of areas including engagement, behaviour and culture as well as achievement. We will keep you posted.

Parking - one of the issues that we are having to deal with as we continue to grow is car parking. For those who wonder why we don't have more parking, the MoE had the school built to 5-star Green Star specification which consciously did not have unlimited parking in an effort to encourage people to use alternative transport. However with the current parking allocations our growth means that we now have staff who, including due to constraints such as childcare arrangements, can not get a park in the morning when they come to work. This means that from the start of next term we are going to extend the staff parking to include the parks on the south side of the third/staff-student carpark. We know that some students will not be delighted about this, but many schools do not have any parking at all for students - and that will be our situation in a couple of years as we continue to grow (and NB there are only a small number of additional car parks in Phase 2). Students do have access to the $2-a-day deal that we have negotiated with Remarkables Park.

ERO - visited us last week, but not in the traditional way. ERO have changed their operating model and rather than a one-off visit their new model is about developing a relationship of several years with schools, with a focus more on the future than the past and particularly including our ability to evaluate ourselves. I will keep you posted as this progresses.

Junior Next Steps (Parent-Teacher) - meetings are next Tuesday 30th March. Hopefully junior parents have made a booking with their student’s Kaiārahi (Ako teacher). These meetings are very important and we do expect all parents to attend please (go to www.schoolinterviews.co.nz and enter the event code 5efsp to book).

Please note that for all students school will finish at 1:50pm next Tuesday, with buses running from that time.  

A big piece from me this week shows just how much is going on at WHS. After the wonderful weather we’ve been having the weekend isn't quite so stellar but will still be pretty warm and provide plenty of opportunities to get out and about - enjoy it, and the evenings before daylight saving finishes next weekend. All the best to our athletes still competing and to everyone in the musical!

Steve Hall
Principal

Grease the Musical!

It has been a huge week for Grease the Musical, with the final days of rehearsing, the dress rehearsal and opening night on Wednesday.

The dress rehaearsal on Tuesday was a blast with over 200 people in the audience - including Year 7 and 8 students from Remarkables Primary School and the Remarkable Minds (local Alzheimer's Society) group, making it feel real for our students.

Opening night was very well supported by the community and sold out! The cast were buzzing from the support of a full house and the cheering of the audience. What a show! 

Thank you to everyone who has attended the show already or has tickets to the final two shows, and to all of our sponsors and supporters. 

Sports

It has been a massive two weeks of sport as the culmination of the summer sports season takes place across the country, known as summer tournament week. WHS had a large contingent of nearly 100 athletes competing in regional, South Island and national events. A huge congratulations to all who represented WHS from the rowers to the lawn bowlers and in between, great stuff! Our athletes and teams have been outstanding in doing the business; winning silverware and competing in finals and in high level tournament for the first time. We are super proud of these achievements! A massive thank you to our amazing and dedicated coaches, managers, teachers and parents who make these opportunities happen. Ka Mauka Whakatipu!

NZSS Volleyball Champs
The WHS Senior Girls A Volleyball team is making history this week competing at the NZSS Volleyball Champs for the first time in Palmerston North. We are so proud of them for committing and playing at nationals, what an experience! The team started in the combined division 5&6 and qualified through to the top 16 of Division 5, finishing 14th after a number of games. This means that the team finished 78th overall in the girls grade. A full report on this tournament and the satellite South Island tournament the Senior Girls B team competed in is to come next week. Great stuff girls and a huge thank you and acknowledgement to our legendary Mrs Panapa for driving Volleyball at WHS!

Maadi Cup 
28 rowers are representing WHS at Lake Karapiro this week competing at the New Zealand Secondary School Rowing Champs, AKA the Maadi Cup. This is the biggest secondary school sports event in the Southern Hemisphere with over 2,200 athletes competing. A number of WHS crews had very successful heats and semi-finals to make it through to A and B finals. Finals are raced across Friday and Saturday and can be watched here: https://livestream.com/i-filmsport/aonmaadicup2021friday All the very best to the crews for made it through to A finals!
Friday:
U15 Boys Double Sculls
U16 Boys Coxed Quad Sculls
U15 Boys Coxed Octuple Sculls
U16 Girls Coxed Eight
U18 Girls Novice Double Sculls
Saturday:
8:10am - U16 Girls Coxed Quad Sculls
8:30am - U16 Boys Double Sculls
9:50am - U15 Boys Coxed Quad Sculls
3:30pm - U16 Girls Double Sculls
To stay up to date with all of the latest developments please click the rowit website:
http://rowit.nz/mads2021/results and follow the Wakatipu Rowing Club Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/wakatipurowing. 

NZ Climbing Lead Champs
The NZ National Lead Climbing Championships were held last weekend in Rotorua where Azaria and Cybella Briscoe competed. Azaria finished third in her event earning a spot on the podium and a bronze medal in the female Youth B grade. Congratulations to both Azaria and Lucy Sinclair who have been named in the Youth B Female New Zealand Climbing Development squad. An awesome achievement!

South Island MTB Champs
Ten WHS riders competed at the South Island Schools MTB Champs in Methven from Friday 12th to Sunday 14th March. Three of our riders ended up on the podium and there were seven top ten finishes in some very large and competitive fields. Wakatipu High School ended up 11th school overall. Congratulations to the following athletes:
Reon Fernandez - 2nd U15 Boys Downhill
Josh Bonnar - 2nd U17 Boys Downhill, 9th Enduro
Ben Blewitt - 3rd U20 Boys Enduro, 4th Downhill
Taaroa Malmezac - 8th U15 Boys Downhill
Ruby Dawson - 8th U17 Girls Enduro

South Island Touch Champs
The Senior A Mixed Touch team competed at the South Island Champs in Christchurch last weekend as part of summer tournament week. This mostly inexperienced team did incredibly well developing their skills, knowledge and confidence across the course of the weekend. Three one point losses to Taieri College, Motueka High School and St Andrews College was a tough way to start the tournament but the team bounced back with a solid second day to beat Tokomiriro High School 8-4 and Waimati High School 13-1 to finish 9th out of 11 teams. George Reedy held the team together well creating multiple scoring opportunities. A massive thank you to our awesome coach, Jerram Hill and manager, Steve McIsaac for all of their dedication and effort. Bring on the nationals in December!

Southland Athletics Champs
It was an epic day at the Southland Secondary School Athletic Champs on Saturday 13th March in Invercargill for the 24 competitors who represented WHS. We won the top school award; the Konica Minolta Cup, broke four records, won 16 events, got 34 podium finishes and 17 athletes qualified through to the South Island Secondary School Athletic Champs. A very, very successful day!

Congratulations to all who competed and represented the school.  A huge thank you to Ms Scott, Neville Britton and the parents for taking the team down. All the best to the 10 athletes competing at the South Island Secondary School Champs in Christchurch on the 9th and 10th April. 
New Southland Secondary School records:
Eliana Collins - U15 Girls High Jump 1.60m
Jude Deaker - U14 Boys 1500m 4:28.76
Jude Deaker - U14 Boys 800m 2:09.13
Sammy Fookes - U16 Girls 800m 2:17.85

Placings:
Hannah Battrick - 1st Senior Girls 1500m, 2000m Steeplechase, 2nd 3000m
Paulo Bjorck - 3rd Senior Boys 800m
Logan Campbell - 1st U16 Boys 3000m
Eliana Collins - 1st U15 Girls Triple Jump, Long Jump, High Jump, 80m Hurdles
Jude Deaker - 1st U14 Boys 1500m, 800m
Abby Fookes - 2nd U15 Girls 1500m, 2nd 3000m
Sammy Fookes - 1st U16 Girls 800m, 2nd 1500m
Joao Goncalves - 3rd U16 Boys Long Jump
Maisie Grufferty - 1st U16 Girls 200m, 3rd 100m dash, 3rd High Jump
Caitlin Hollyer - 1st U16 Girls 100m dash, 2nd 800m
Siena Mackley - 1st U14 Girls 1500m, 3000m
Sienna McIlroy - 2nd U14 Girls High Jump, 2nd 80m Hurdles
Bridget O’Malley - 3rd U15 Girls Shotput
Harrison Rogers - 3rd U16 Boys 400m
Lucy Viggers - 2nd Senior Girls Long Jump, 3rd High Jump
Neve Wallis - 3rd U14 Girls 80m Hurdles
Milly Wikstrom - 1st U16 Girls 400m, 3rd 1500m
WHS Senior Girls Relay Team - 1st 4x100m
WHS U14 Girls Relay Team - 3rd 4x100m

Southland Golf Champs
It was a glorious day on the Winton golf course on Monday for the Southland Secondary School Golf Champs. WHS had 11 representatives in the competition, with Mace Korani, Jack Gallie, Oscar Stanley, Cameron Marshall, Henry Wikstrom and Ethan Blakely all making their school debut. WHS finished first and second, with Jan Ebbinge and Nico Cheifetz taking out the silverware and Liam Judkins, Noah Novacek and Jack Harman finishing runners up. Liam finished second overall and Nico third. Well done to everyone involved! A huge thanks to Mr Harding and Simon Boland for all of their great work. WHS are now both the Otago and Southland Golf Champs!

Gillette Venus Final
Friday 19th March was a historic day for Wakatipu High School sport with the Girls 1st XI cricket team playing for the first time in the Otago final of the Venus Gillette Cup. Whilst the team were unable to win the trophy they proudly collected silver medals after a fine team effort across the competition. The team's performance against St Hildas started very well with three early wickets secured cheaply - Paige Loggenberg involved in all of them - until a large partnership challenged our bowlers before the team put together a strong finish with four run-outs to show their commitment and determination throughout the game. Eva Hemingway, Abby Fookes and Paige led the batting in our run chase and whilst the target was beyond us the rest of the players ensured we batted out the 20 overs. All in all, the final was a vast improvement on the performance we put together last year in the semi-final vs St Hildas which is a great sign for the future of girls cricket. Before the game Paige and Lucy Viggers were awarded their 1st XI caps to mark their contribution to cricket. Congratulations girls and thanks for your efforts over the years. A huge thank you to coaches Matt Hollyer and Mr McNamara who their time and efforts this season, great stuff!

Southland Yachting Champs
In mid March the annual Southland Yachting Champs were held on Lake Wakatipu. Congratulations to the following WHS students who gained placings in their various races. 
Open Skiff:
Henry Brown - 2nd 
Blake Jackson - 3rd

Green Fleet - Skiff:
Lucy Boniface - 1st
Brodie Banks -3rd

Green Fleet - Optimist:
Ewan Lamberchts - 1st

WHS Junior Boys Cricket Tour 2022 Team Announced
Congratulations to the following players who have been selected into the Junior Boys Cricket Team to tour Australia in January 2022. It was a tough and comprehensive process with a number of players putting their hand up for selection. Well done and best of luck for fundraising and preparations for this awesome experience!
Angus O’Neill
Anthony Hollyer
Binath Wijerathna
Finn Cole-Bailey
Harry Walker-Leach
Hugo Bogue
Jack Gallie
Jack Trounce
Joel Winter
Mason Clarke
Matt Langford
Oscar Pullar
Xavier Small

Junior Boys Cricket Tour Fundraiser
UPDATE………… Musical Bingo now included!
Tickets selling fast, book your table, get your friends together and make sure to shout JINGO to win. Use the below link to secure your tickets, all proceeds go to sending WHS Junior XI to Australia in 2022.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScfX17qosSzFUqxyWzYKwnTDiyj6WGYwCf4purMioHmx58pgw/viewform?usp=sf_link

Queenstown Junior Basketball Referees Courses
QJBC are on the hunt for volunteer referees and are holding two referee courses 26th March and 9th April 6-7:30pm. Details here: https://qjbc.wordpress.com/2021/03/06/referee-course-qjbc/

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

Rotary Speech Competition

Congratulations to James Scoles for winning the Regional Rotary Speech Competition in Wanaka and then going on to place 2nd in the District Competition in Waimate on the 21st March. His speech was titled, 'My Daring Adventures into Extremist Internet Politics' and he was commended on his unique application of the Rotary's Four-Way Test:

• Is it the TRUTH?
• Is it FAIR to all concerned?
• Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
• Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

A huge thank you to our local Rotary Club for their ongoing support of Wakatipu High School students. 

Lucy Ford

Head Student Message

Kia ora everyone,

I hope everyone made the most of the long weekend. A lot has happened over the last two weeks, with many students making us proud in a wide range of activities. 

I would first like to say a massive congratulations to everyone involved in this year's musical Grease. A lot of hard work and effort has gone into this, and it's looking fantastic. So far, the reviews have been incredible, and I'm looking forward to seeing it myself. 

The school was looking empty this week with many students out and about representing our school - the big and exciting Maadi Cup, Summer Sports tournaments and the Portobello field trip. To all the athletes that represented Wakatipu, I'm 100% certain that you would have made all of us proud and have had all of that training really paid off. Talking about sporting successes, you can't forget about Team New Zealand winning the America's Cup again in a very exciting series of races. 

24 students spent the majority of their week studying the native New Zealand half-crab at Dunedin's Portobello Marine Laboratories. The team of Year 13 students studied the behavioural response of these crabs in different conditions you would find within the Dunedin harbour. 

Along with all the amazing things happening outside of school right now, the Community and Service Council, alongside the Whanaungatanga Council, are running Breakfast Club before school. This is a brilliant opportunity to get to know more people around the school while enjoying warm milo and some breakfast. You are more than welcome to come see us in Duncan every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8:15am - 9:00am each week.

Coming up next Thursday 1st April is Bandanna Day - a mufti day fundraising for Canteen, a charity that supports youth affected by cancer. So bring along a gold coin donation to support this initiative. Alongside this the Community and Service Council will be selling bandannas for $5 next week for anyone who wants to support this cause. I hope to see you all sporting your bandannas with pride next Thursday. 

Finally, to help encourage all the students to stay engaged within the school, the student leadership team has an Instagram page (@wakatipustudents). I encourage all students to follow the page to keep up to date with what's happening around the school - we share information regarding events and house competitions here weekly. 

Have an amazing weekend, and ensure to take time off to relax and prepare for another busy couple of weeks ahead of us. 

Hannah Battrick
Community And Service Lead Prefect

Bandana Day

For more than 30 years Canteen NZ has helped around 4,200 young people across the country who are impacted by cancer each year. An annual initiative by Canteen NZ has approached us yet again, and we couldn’t pass up the opportunity. As a school, we wanted to raise awareness and support for those dealing with this at such a young age, spreading the word of Canteen’s mission, that no-one faces cancer alone. From the 29th of March until the 1st of April, you will see Community and Service Council members supporting this cause by selling bandanas at school. This is all in the lead up to a mufti day where we hope to see the whole school getting involved by wearing these bandannas. You also can share your bandana pics using #BandanaDay and spread your support on social media platforms! We look forward to seeing you all purchasing bandanas throughout the week!

Rachel Scobie
Community & Service Council

Environmental Council - Deforestation

Hi guys and welcome to the 2021 Environmental Council’s environmental topic of the week!

This week's topic is... deforestation.

Deforestation results in loss of habitats, extinction of wildlife and loss of biodiversity. Prior to human settlers in New Zealand, most of the land was covered in native flora and fauna including forests. Due to deforestation, our forests now only cover 30% of the total land area in New Zealand. The loss of trees leads to an increase of greenhouse gases in the air, loss of biodiversity/habitat for animals and is a key contributor to climate change. This issue is seen worldwide, and is a huge problem for global warming. Forest trees take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen. When these trees are cut down and burned or allowed to rot, their stored carbon is released into the air as carbon dioxide (a common greenhouse gas). 

Here are some ways you can help reduce deforestation:

1. Plant a tree! 
2. Use less paper; we live in the digital age, be more conscious of what you're printing to reduce your paper consumption. 
3. Recycle paper and cardboard; each tonne of recycled paper saves 17 trees, this saved tree produces oxygen for three people. 
4. Buy only sustainable wood products.
5. Don’t buy products containing palm oil; palm oil is in high demand therefore more plantations are needed. This causes many forests to be felled, so it’s not only a major cause of climate change but the leading cause of orangutan extinction. 
6. Reduce meat consumption; one of the biggest contributors to deforestation is beef production as huge sections of native forests are felled to make room for cattle ranches. 
7. Do not burn firewood excessively; when you want to make a fire in your fireplace, make sure you burn wood from sustainably managed forests that have enough time to naturally regenerate and simultaneously release more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. 

The Environmental Council

Languages - Karawhiua!

Student's dedication in Languages Championships
Karawhiua! means in Te Reo Māori: 'give it everything! go for it! give it heaps!', and this is what our akonga did during the mighty Education Perfect Languages Championships that lasted for a week and just ended last Tuesday. 

Out of 61 New Zealand schools in our category, Wakatipu High School placed 7th in this event. Students who competed this year should be given full credit for placing WHS so well on the national score board.  Just over 200 students competed in this year's competition and 33 gained a certificate or a medal (see below).
The Languages Learning Area would like to especially congratulate Mikaela Patterson for her commendable performance and gaining an Emerald award (5,000 points), needless to say that this is pure dedication from Mikaela!
Congratulations to Alisha Messingham for reaching Gold (3,003 points) and 'bravo' to Naomi Mitchell (2,612 points) and Caitlin Bowman (2,446 points) for reaching Silver. 
Our praises also go to those students reaching the Bronze level:  Chihaya Shimizu (1,711), Tom Schenk (1,619), Ricky Webster (1,563), Peter Davis (1,365), Abby Fookes (1,347), Paige Jones (1,290), Nissa Vile (1,075), Sara Warmington (1,021), Maddi Hutton (1,003) and Louis Denney (1,000).

Guillaume Charton
Head of Languages Learning Area

Arts

Snowflakes for LUMA
Students were busy designing and creating ceramic snowflakes that will be displayed at the LUMA festival this year. Thank you to Debbie Townsend and Vicki who have been running workshops with the local schools. One of our junior art classes had the pleasure of being a part of this fun experience.

Top Art
The annual Top Art exhibition will arrive next week and be at the school for four days. This exhibition is a collection of Artwork featuring a selection of the NCEA Level 3 portfolios that achieved Excellence in Visual Art in the previous year. Five streams are covered: design, painting, photography, printmaking and sculpture.

Top Art provides an opportunity for secondary students and teachers to gain an understanding of what is required to achieve Excellence at Level 3. It also allows members of the public to see the high quality art being created in schools.

Running Group - Thursday before school

A running group will start next week, all levels welcome. The aim is to enjoy and build fitness over time, you do not have to be "fast".  You could even use this as a chance to get fit for winter sports.  Meet in the Foyer at 7:45am, we will run for about 30mins  and allow time to get changed before class.  Any questions see Miss Scott - rscott@wakatipu.school.nz.

Rosa Scott

Outdoor Experience Youth Leadership Course

Expressions of interst for this course are due by 31 March. 

www.adventuresouthland.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Lions-Youth-Leadership_Expressions-of-Interest.pdf 

Lost Property

Key Dates

Community Notices