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Weekly Wrap Up

The Wrap Up (Term 4, Week 1 2024)

Step onto the red carpet at the Shonas to celebrate the best of Moving Image Culture and Journalism. Get your engineering and problem solving hat on for EPro8 and challenge yourself at the NZ Maths Olympiad and World Scholars Cup. Bid farewell to our Japanese exchange students and welcome the next generation careers planning resource. All this and much more in this week’s Wrap Up.

Important Dates

Term 4

  • Monday 21 October: Board meeting 6.00pm
  • Monday 28 October: Labour Day – school closed
  • Thursday 7 November: NCEA Teacher Only Day – school closed
  • Monday 11 November:  Board meeting 6.00pm
  • Monday 9 December:  Board meeting 6.00pm
  • Friday 13 December: Term 4 ends

Important Information

Keep in touch on the go:School Apps NZ

School Apps NZ is available for Apple / Android devices. Through this you can post absence notifications to the school, contact key staff and view the weekly Sports Draw. In the event of an emergency, we are also able to push notifications to all devices registered through the app.

To download, go to the App store and search for School Apps NZ. Once you have downloaded the app, search for Wellington High School.

Yearbook 2024

The 2024 magazine/yearbook is under production at the moment. If you have not already paid for your copy ($20) and would like a copy, please pay at Student Services or make an online payment via the Parent Portal before 11 November 2024.

If you are unsure whether you have already paid, please contact Student Services (ss@whs.school.nz) prior to submitting a payment.

This year, the yearbook will be finalised in December following the Senior celebration evening and Junior celebrations. It will be distributed by mail in late January. If you are ordering a yearbook and your address changes after 11 November, please email Student Services so we can update your school records, and can make sure you receive your copy.

What’s Happening?

Senior Art Exhibition

The annual WHS Senior Art Exhibition is on Tuesday 22 October (Week 2) in the Riley Centre from 4-6pm. This exhibition will celebrate the work of Year 12 and 13 Design, Photography, Printmaking, Painting, Toi Māori and Sculpture as well as selected work from our new Year 11 Art programme. The People’s Choice Award forms will be available at the exhibition (one vote per visitor please). 

The Shonas

Maddie Nash – winner of year 13 Feature article

On Monday night, the foyer was transformed with glitz, glamour and a red carpet, for the second annual Shonas celebrating our Media Studies students from across Moving Image Culture and Journalism. 

The night featured awards and a film festival showcasing the best films from year 11, year 12 and year 13.

Judging and presenting awards were external judges including Radio NZ’s head political reporter, Jo Moir, and Massey University’s Head of Journalism, James Hollings and SPADA CEO Sandy Gildea. Remote judges included former students Bella Das, Holly Bowman and Nikau Edmond-Smaill who recorded their award from Dunedin where they are studying, and former student Dina Mitchell who recorded her award from her dorm room in New York. 

The awards categories included: Best Films (years 11-13),  Best Opinion Pieces (years 11-13), Best Magazine Design and Best Feature Article (years 12 and 13). This year we also featured a people’s choice award where the audience chose their favourite film of the night. 

The following students won awards:

Year 13 doco – Freaked out – Otis Smith and Bruno Nicholas
Year 12 horror – Dessert – Ruby Kwok, Greta Smith
Year 11 film – Saudade – Alex Brook Conway, Jake Henry, Aiden Cain

Year 13 opinion piece – Kade Leogreen
Year 12 opinion piece – Aidan Gillespie
Year 11 opinion piece – Ella Purchas

Year 13 design – Mollie Richardson
Year 12 design – Aidan Gillespie

Year 13 feature article – Maddie Nash
Year 12 feature article – Caspar Levack

People’s choice award for best film – Janne Wiertsema and Maaike Day

Congratulations to all our winners and everyone who was nominated or had their film shown. The standard of work was exceptional! 

Winner of best year 13 documentary – Otis Smith and Bruno Nicolas
Winner of best year 13 opinion piece – Kade Leogreen

 

Japan Exchange

In Week 9 and 10 last term we had nine students visiting from Hokkai Gakuen, our sister school in Sapporo.  They homestayed with students who are studying Japanese and went to some of their classes with them. They also enjoyed a range of activities including going to the zoo with the Year 11 Japanese class, making their own block of chocolate at the Wellington Chocolate Factory, and playing Wellington themed mini-golf. It was a great opportunity for our students to practice their Japanese and learn more about Japan. We are looking forward to visiting them in Japan in April next year.

Canteen and Food Tech Collaboration

Two of our Senior Food Technology students, Molly Price and Sam Burgess have been working with the canteen to develop new products to sell. On Thursday they provided dumplings and soup for the students to taste. They were swamped! Thank you Tulavati from the canteen and to the students who tested the food and gave valuable feedback.

 

Achievements

Maths Olympiad 

Several senior students achieved outstanding results in the 2024 New Zealand Mathematical Olympiad (NZMO) competition. This competition comprises of two rounds: the first round is a take-home exam where students solve a series of eight problems. Well done to Valentina Cherkovskaya who participated in this. The second round is invitation-only, contingent upon performance in the first round, and consists of a three-hour examination and huge congratulations to Marissa Burnette who was invited to participate in round 2.  Theo Keith was also invited to participate in round 2 and did brilliantly well, gaining a silver award. This means he was in the top 15 of Year 12’s nationwide who participated!

EPro8

This year four teams participated in the EPro8 challenge on 18 September. Two of our teams qualified for the grand finals which were held on 19 September. The aptly named “WHS” team lived up to their name by coming first in the qualifying round and team “JMCK”  came fourth and were the other team to qualify for the grand final. At the finals both teams did well with WHS placing 4th.

Well done to all our teams!

World Scholars Cup 

Neve Phillip-McLean recently attended the World Scholars Global event. She participated in a team with her brother and a student from America. This event was held in Auckland from 20 – 25 September. Their team did very well, receiving a medal each. Neve received an extra medal for her debating skills.

Careers

As the end of the school year draws near it’s a busy time in the careers department.  Some students will be contemplating further study options for next year. Click here to view the Tertiary/Polytech Training Opportunities Guide for 2025.  This guide lists many providers including links to course related information. For further guidance or help with course selection please see Chuni Bhikha, Careers Advisor or email bac@whs.school.nz

Tahatū Career Navigator 

Wellington High School has been chosen to be a pilot school for the introduction of Tahatū Career Navigator the next generation of the current careers.govt.nz. It will deliver complex careers information in a useful and interactive way to help all New Zealanders make informed career decisions at any stage in their lives.

Tahatū Career Navigator connects NCEA school subjects, qualifications and careers and shows the most common ways others have taken to get to that career or job. It brings this information together for the first time in one place, profiling nearly 100 school subjects, 4,000 qualifications and 800 career ideas.

This will become a trusted source of careers information across Aotearoa and a key resource for those providing careers support and advice. It is an important initiative under the National Careers System Strategy and a key objective in the Tertiary Education Strategy for the future of learning and work.