Important Dates

Friday 11 April – End of Term 1

Important Information

Principal’s Message

Dominic’s Principal’s message for the end of term 2 is now online.

Attendance summary – Term 1

Attendance summaries for Term 1 have been sent to all students and their whānau. The summaries show the number of half days absent and the current attendance rate as a percentage.

Both justified (e.g. medical absences, bereavement) and unjustified absences (e.g. holidays in term time) are included in the half days absent and current attendance rate calculations.

If you would like to check your student’s attendance, you can do so by logging on to the portal and clicking on the attendance button. The default is to show the current week but you can navigate between weeks to look back at their attendance pattern across the term.

P – student present in class; U – an unjustified absence, J – a justified absence and L – late to class. You can see these codes in the example below.

If you have any questions related to your students’ attendance, please contact their rōpū teacher at the start of Term 2. If you have any questions related to your access to the parent portal, please email admin@whs.school.nz.

What’s Happening?

Relay for Life – Te Ara Toiora

Relay For Life – Te Ara Toiora is an inspiring community event that brings people together to celebrate those who have or have had cancer, acknowledge the caregivers who support them, remember loved ones lost, and take action by raising awareness and funds for the Cancer Society.

Last weekend, 73 of our students took part in the overnight event at Sky Stadium, where teams took turns walking or running around the circuit. Together, they raised an incredible $13,239 – an outstanding effort!

A huge thank you to everyone who supported the event. It was a great experience and a fantastic show of community spirit. (More photos can be viewed at www.chrismckeown.photography)

Japan Trip

Currently nineteen Year 12 and 13 students who study Japanese are in Japan for the first trip since 2019. From Tokyo we went north to the top of the main island where students were surprised to see snow still on the ground. This week we are at a rural language school where students are doing language classes in the morning and activities in the afternoon. These include making the traditional Akitan dish kiritanpo, a katana (sword) workshop, visiting the oldest running kabuki theatre in the country and playing dress up and make a cedar bento box.

On Saturday we head off to homestays for a week and then back to Tokyo for the final week of the trip.

Music Matters

It has been a busy end of term for music events.

At the end of March we had a great music camp at Castlepoint. We took all our large ensembles, ran rehearsals, watched the sunrise, performed a concert and open mic at the local church and had a lot of fun.

Hot on those heels we put on an evening of short concerts featuring all the work we had done at camp. An absolute highlight was hearing our fledgling orchestra play Jupiter from Holsts planets. This was also especially timely for the Big Band and Jazz combos who were heading to the Tauranga Jazz Festival at start of week 11. The band and 3 combos had a great experience in Tauranga, the Big Band (prepared and conducted by the incredible John Rae) came away with a silver award and won best arrangement of the test piece! One of our 3 combos “Warehouse Stationery” gained a gold award.

‘Evie and Warehouse Stationery combo’ – 47th National Youth Jazz Competition

To top it all off, Evie Patterson won the trophies for both best combo musician and best big band musician! These are hugely prestigious awards that recognize her hard work, dedication to her ensembles and fostering young players and creativity (including original compositions and arrangements for both big band and combos).

An amazing end to a crazy but awesome term 1!

WHS Alumna – Cadence Chung

Read about Cadence’s latest achievement here, with her first full-length collection of poetry, Mad Diva, which was released on April 8.

Cadence Chung, poet, writer, classical vocalist and musician, has published her first collection of poetry. MONIQUE FORD / The Post

Achievements

Academic Awards Evening

Congratulations to Maria Klevtsova who attended the Academic Awards evening in Upper Hutt on Friday the 4th of May. It was an evening In partnership with Voice of Aroha, the Ministry of Education’s Community Partnerships Team. The Academic Awards Night recognised students from diverse ethnic backgrounds who performed highly in their NCEA Level 2 (or higher).

Sports

DSP Tee Ball Tournament

Eight senior students attended the DSP Tee Ball tournament. Although it was canceled due to weather conditions, the sun came out and a few schools turned up to compete socially.

This is the first time they attended the event but it definitely won’t be the last! Logan Phillips was the team captain and it was great to see everyone participate wholeheartedly.

Careers

Pathways Newsletter

Please read this week’s Pathways Newsletter!

Contact Chuni Bhikha bac@whs.school.nz or drop into S502 if you require further information on the above events.

Pathways – Update of the week

A Day in the Life of an Electrical Engineer – Wednesday 30th of April 5:30pm (Wellington High School Invitation)

Are you an electrical engineering student who wants to know more about potential career opportunities within the electrical engineering industry? Maybe you’re in the final year of school and considering a career in electrical engineering? If so… this is the event for you!

We’re lucky enough to have a number of recently graduated electrical engineers who are happy to share what a typical day in their current role consists of.

Each presenter will provide a 10-to-15-minute presentation of their role, and upon completion of all presentations will be available to answer your questions.

This year we’re delighted have the following presenters:

Andre Webber, Electrical Building Services Engineer for Beca and a graduate of Victoria University of Wellington.
Corban Van Manen, Product Development Engineer for Pertronic Industries, and a graduate of the Victoria University of Wellington.
Griffin Almand, Electrical Asset Engineer for Wellington Electricity, and a graduate of the Victoria University of Wellington.
Nathan Miller, Electrical Power Systems Engineer for Ergo Consulting, and a graduate of Auckland University.

If you’re in Wellington, feel free to join us in person from 5pm for drinks and nibbles with the presentations starting at 5:30pm sharp.

For those not based in Wellington, or can’t attend in person, this event will also be available online.

More information can be found here:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7302244543133884419

Registration & Further Details: https://www.engineeringnz.org/courses-events/event-template/?eventtemplate=4219-a-day-in-the-life-of-an-electrical-engineer&region=IPENZT

If any students, parents, or staff wish to join the event, please contact Chuni Bhikha, Pathways Advisor, at bac@whs.school.nz, and he will be happy to register you.