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Weekly Wrap Up

The Wrap Up (Term 3, Week 5 2024)

As we embark on our long weekend, climb aboard a waka with our Year 10 Wāhine Waihanga Challenge. Admire the pā harakeke recently planted outside the fashion and textile rooms, problem solve at the annual Mathswell competition and appreciate poetic and artistic talents on the Avocado Press. This and more in this week’s Wrap Up.

Important Dates

  • Friday 23 August: Mid-term break – school closed. Massey/VUW Open Days and a variety of other private tertiary providers.
  • Wednesday 28 August: Learning Conversations for students in years 12 and 13; modified timetable for students in Years 9-11 (see Important Information for details).
  • Monday 9 – Friday 13 September: Derived grade exam week. Corequisite and DCAT exams.
  • Monday 16 September: Board meeting 6pm.
  • Friday 27 September: Term 3 ends.

Important Information

Principal’s Message

Dominic’s Principal’s message for mid term 3 is now online.

Dominic’s message focuses on Olympic athletes and the life lessons that can be garnered from their stories of perseverance and determination which have tremendous potential to inspire our students to attain their own personal best in whatever they choose to do in life.  

Metlink – Roadworks on Taranaki Street

From Monday 26 August traffic on Taranaki St will be disrupted due to work being carried out by Wellington Water. This will affect Taranaki Street and the intersections with SH1 and Webb Street between 7am-6pm Monday-Friday. Please allow extra time for your journey to and from WHS.
We are currently awaiting an update from Metlink regarding the relocation of Bus stop 6913.  Please feel free to check in directly with Metlink if you have any questions or need further clarification on disruptions.
The work is anticipated to take 4 weeks.
The plan below details the area that will be affected.

Wednesday 28 August – Community hui – WHS NBS seismic ratings

Following recent events at Wellington Girls’ College, we want to provide an opportunity for our community to understand the New Building Standard (NBS) rating of the buildings on our school site.

The Ministry of Education, and Dave Brunsdon, the Ministry’s independently employed structural engineer, will be holding a WHS community hui on Wednesday 28 August at 6pm to answer any questions that you may have.

Some of our community may have attended a similar meeting in July 2022. This meeting will include the information shared in July 2022 plus updates as a result of work undertaken on site since then.

The hui will take place in the Riley Centre and will also be available online. To attend in person please book at https://www.trybooking.com/nz/TQO. To attend online please book at https://www.trybooking.com/nz/TRG. The meeting link will be sent to you early next week.

Please note that this event is taking place on an evening when the Community Education Centre is in session so parking will be limited although spaces may be available at Massey.

Learning Conversations

Wednesday 28 August – Year 12 and 13 Learning Conversations, modified timetable for Years 9-11.  On Wednesday 28 August we are running Learning Conversations for students in Years 12 and 13. So that rōpū teachers for students in Years 12 and 13 are able to dedicate the day to Learning Conversations, we need to modify the timetable for the rest of the school. 

Years 9 and 10 – students will be in school but on a different timetable to their usual Wednesday timetable. This timetable will be sent home before the mid-term break.

Year 11 – students will work from home. Teachers will ensure that students have work to complete and students’ attendance will be marked F. 

Year 12 and 13 – Learning Conversations will take place in person with meetings running from 8.30am-4.10pm. Bookings can be made by visiting: https://www.schoolinterviews.co.nz/code/vwdem

Other than attending their Learning Conversation, students in years 12 and 13 will not be at school on 28 August. 

He Kākano – Senior students in He Kākano can opt in to join the programme being run by the He Kākano team. Please email Liz McKay if your student will attend. The SESTA taxi service will run as normal.

Sport and Cultural photos

These are now available to download here. Enter your email address and PIN 5056 to download.

What’s Happening?

On Friday 18 August, Pā Harakeke Y11 Horticulture planted a pā harakeke outside the fashion and textiles rooms. These plants are specifically bred for their ability to make muka, a strong fibre used to make piupiu (cloaks) as well as ropes for pakeha ships and many other uses. 

Thanks to Anna Macrae’s L2 te reo Māori class for coming down to give mihi and karakia before the planting, and to L3 Hort for digging out a skip-bin’s full of agapanthus (the hardest part of the process!).

Special thanks to Jaye Barclay and Rāta marae of Ngati Hauiti for donating the harakeke plants.

Wāhine Waihanga Challenge – 10WAH Waka Trip

On Wednesday 21 August, the wāhine in the new Year 10 options Wāhine Waihanga Challenge (10WAH) went down to Te Wharewaka o te Pōneke to participate in their waka tour.  As a new option, the focus is on developing their STEM knowledge through the creation of their own scale waka (in groups) that could survive the Pacific Ocean voyage that our Māori ancestors took. Students have been learning about the stories and histories alongside building their maths and science skills in scale distances, measuring, and conducting wind and buoyancy tests in class. This trip was to put the ideas that we had learned so far into practice.

Three weeks earlier we were lucky enough to visit Te Wharewaka o Pōneke and Tai and Manaaki shared their knowledge about the waka. This time the weather was beautiful so we were able to go out on the water in one of the waka, photos are below. This was an enlightening experience and students will use this experience to help shape what they decide to create for their waka. 

Avocado Press – New edition

Avocado Press is WHS’s student-run online home for poetry and art: https://avocadopress.whs.school.nz/

This year the editors are Millie Crowe, Vita Lawson, Mika Coe and Iris Guilleminot. This edition features some great artwork, poetry, and prose-poetry. Congratulations to all of the students involved! 

Achievements

Mathswell

On Tuesday 20 August we took seven teams up to Victoria University to compete in the annual Mathswell competition. It was awesome to see so many students enthusiastic and keen to participate. This is the most teams we have ever taken to a competition and four more than any other year.  Students participated in several rounds, completing problem-solving and multi choice questions within a very short time frame. All junior teams and both Year 12/13 teams made it through to the cup finals, but unfortunately, none placed in the top 3. Final placings are still to be sent out. 

Ka rawe to all teams who participated!!!

Careers

Careers Newsletter

Here is the Week 5 careers newsletter.

Please note the schedule for upcoming university visits for term 3 in this week’s newsletter. This is a great opportunity for students to research, ask questions, and start planning for their next step into tertiary education.

Community Events

Free tennis coaching, fun tennis games, giveaways and more at Kilbirnie Tennis Club’s upcoming ‘Love Tennis’ open day on 8 September.  Whether you are thinking about taking up tennis,  introducing your children to the sport, or returning to the game yourself, this is a perfect opportunity for any age group and ability to embrace the love of tennis and its Free! For  more information, contact kilbirnietennis.net.nz