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Weekly Wrap Up

The Wrap Up (Term 2, Week 8)

It has been a busy week here at WHS! A group of our students were invited to the Peter Cullen breakfast to share their ideas on strengthening democracy in New Zealand. In music news, not only do we have Rockquest finals this weekend, but we also celebrate several other achievements from our talented students. All that and more in this week’s Wrap Up!

Important Dates

  • Monday 19 June – Board meeting 6pm
  • Friday 30 June – End of Term 2 – school closes at 3.20pm (school buses run at normal time)

PPTA rolling strikes

Week Dates Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday
9 19-23 June Year 9 & 10 Year 11 & 12 Year 9 & 13 Year 10 & 11
10 26-30 June Year 12 & 13 Year 9 & 10 Year 11 & 12 Year 9 & 13

What’s happening? 

Strengthening Democracy project

Frances Till, Nīkau Edmond-Smaill, Vidthia Beaglehole, Joshua Toumu’a, Scarlett Connolly, and Lily Coltart attended the Cullen Breakfast on 15 June where they were recognised for their 3rd place achievement in Peter Cullen’s Strengthening Democracy project.

Frances writes, “A short while ago, a group of students were invited to a breakfast, which was organised by Peter Cullen, and had some really substantial people in attendance. Peter Cullen had been thinking about different ways to strengthen democracy and created a project for Wellington schools to work on, around current threats to democracy. From this, we were tasked with writing up a short report and making a video around one identified threat and a solution.

We identified the lack of youth involvement in select committees as one of the main threats. We then worked together to think of practical solutions. Our final idea was government-supported in-person workshops and online resources catered specifically to young people. This past Thursday, we attended a follow-up breakfast, in which Nicola Willis spoke, to present our projects. In an awesome turn of events, out of 14 participating schools, we came 3rd!”

Rockquest 

The Rockquest regional finals are happening this Saturday 17 June. The top 12 bands from the Wellington region will each be playing a 7 minute set and competing to get through to the national level of the competition. Wellington High has students playing in five bands, so come along and support Bleeding Star, Riversnake, Noise Destroys, The Local Misfits, and The Side Characters!

Achievements 

CROW Event

Theo Keith (Year 11, HGM ropu) achieved the top high school student in the CROW (Cybersecurity Research Of Waikato) event. He was placed 21st overall, only tertiary and industry competitors placed higher than he did. 

This amazing achievement was followed by Maxwell Robati, Elliot Bell, Toby Connor-Kebbell, Alex Berry and Thomas Jackson placing 22nd-26th respectively! Piper Inns Hall, Dylan Taylor (132) and Elijah Michel (101) also qualified in the top 150 (out of 500 people) and have been invited to participate in the next level event at Waikato University.

New Zealand Young Physicists’ Tournament 2023

Wellington High School’s team of Charlie Chen, Connor Dunlop and Brendan Shaw competed on Saturday 10 June against teams from around the country. They placed 7th and learned a lot. Charlie and Connor are in year 12 so they are eligible to compete again next year. The team presented their solutions to problems “Siren”, “Oscillating Screw” and “Euler’s Pendulum” from the 2023 problem set, which they had been investigating over the past several months. Physics teachers Murray Chisholm and Kage Nesbit were among the jurors.

NZCT Chamber Music Contest

The Wellington district round of the NZCT Chamber Music Contest was held at the Adam Concert room over the past weekend. The level of musicianship was high and it was such a pleasure to listen to a range of performances from young musicians around the region. Evie Patterson (saxophone), Miro Holland (trumpet), Nico Buhne (piano), plus Theo Thomposon (guitar) performed an original composition ‘Direction and Magnitude’. Francesca Rotolo (piano) performed with her group Czerny’s Attorney’s, receiving a Highly Commended award from the judges. Fran’s group will now be considered for selection for the regional final round of the competition – we have our fingers crossed for you!

National Secondary Schools’ Brass Band

Hamish Williams (Year 13) has been accepted into the National Secondary Schools’ Brass Band. Students will meet in early October 2023 and stay at St Peter’s School, Cambridge for the duration of the NSSBB band camp.

All 74 students auditioned for their seat playing brass or percussion instruments. They were chosen for their sound quality, technical skills, dynamic control etc. Musical Directors Vickie van Uden and Reuben Brown had a very difficult job to sort so many students into the two bands. These two bands are of very high quality and to be selected for these national representative bands is a great achievement. Well done Hamish!

Community

Then Let’s Talk Climate is for you. It’s about ditching the lectures, learning new tools to sit down for a good old kōrero with friends and whānau about what climate change means for us and what we can do about it.