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NOVEMBER 2014
Whangarei Girls’ High School Dux– Kelsey
Ferris and Proxime Accessit– Anna Miller
at the recent Senior Prizegiving
www.wghs.school.nz
year, the Year 10 Drama Shows and the junior speech competition.
Dear Parents / Caregivers
Tena koutou katoa
This is the last newsletter for 2014 and time to reflect on
another busy and highly successful year. The Senior Academic Prizegiving is always a wonderful occasion when
we can sit back and celebrate the outstanding efforts
and achievements of so many of our students. It does
take a team to achieve this level of success and I would
like to thank the students, teaching and support staff,
parents and whanau and the wider community for their
much appreciated support throughout the year.
Congratulations too, to the students in the Services Industries Academy who were presented with their graduation certificates at an awards ceremony recently. It is
to their credit that they have all achieved Level Two
NCEA and have exciting plans for their future careers.
We wish them all the very best.
It is also at this time of year that we bid farewell to
some staff members. This year we will be saying goodbye to:
Nicola Barnett - Science and Biology. Nicola is getting
married and moving to Kerikeri.
Louise McDonald – Food and Textiles and Early Childhood Studies. Louise’s plans include a future move to
Christchurch.
Malaika Davies – Outdoor Education. Malaika is moving
to her dream job at Wakatipu High School.
Pat Connolly – Reprographics – Pat is retiring to enjoy
life at the beach.
I would like to thank these staff very much for all that
they have contributed to the school during their time
here and for being so committed. They will all be missed
very much.
We also have staff taking maternity leave next year and
we wish them all them all the very best with the new
additions to their families: Lysa Stewart, Annaliese
McGoverne and Kate Simeonides.
Since the last newsletter, so much has taken place that
it is exhausting thinking about it all.
Kanewa Harrison was outstanding in the finals of the
national Nga Manu Korero Competition, with an overall
4th placing and top female speaker. We have been treated to a feast of cultural talent with the talent quest at
the end of last term, the final Music Concert for the
Rama Davis is to be congratulated on being selected as the
student representative on the Board of Trustees and the interviews for Head and Deputy Head Girls will be taking place
shortly.
Likewise, on the sports front our students excelled at the ASB
Awards, with a large number of finalists and winners. We wish
our junior volleyball teams all the best as they prepare for the
North Island Championships to be held in Wellington next
week and also our Get2Go team as they head to Great Barrier
Island after school breaks up, to defend their national title. This
is a most gruelling event and I have the utmost admiration for
the team members and their coach Olivia McLeod. It is always
a shame that they compete when the school year is over and
so have to wait until the beginning of next year to be celebrated for their achievements.
We started the term with a whole school assembly where
again a number of colours were given out, including an impressive number of Elite Colours:
Genie Blasingame—Gymsports. Gold, silver and bronze at the
NZ Secondary School Gymsports Championships
Maia Prochzka—Gymsports. Three golds at the NZ Secondary
School Gymsports Championships and gold at the NZ National
Gymsport Open Championship, being the first Northland representative at this event.
Olivia Crum- Karate. 3rd placing in NZ secondary Schools Karate
Championships and 3rd in NZ Karate Nationals.
Samantha Skovlund—Shooting. Broke national junior women’s
air pistol record held by former WGHS student since 2011.
Olivia Brookland, Hayley Green, Mackenzie Johnson, Bridget
Johnson, Iyra Stewart, Gemma Turketo—Squash. WGHS team
which gained 3rd place at NZ Secondary Schools Teams Squash
Championships. Mackenzie was also named as non-travelling
reserve for NZ secondary Schools’ Senior Girls’ Squash team.
Ellie Eastwood and Hayley McIntosh- swimming. Both gained
bronze in NZ Short Course Swimming Championships and have
been selected into the NZ Age Group Development Squad.
Paige Lawgun -weightlifting. Gold and four NZ Youth and four
NZ junior records at the National Secondary Schools’ Weightlifting Championships. She also won the “Best Female Secondary School Lifter in NZ” .
Jesse Parr, Seterah Brown, Teegan Cooper—AFL. Selected into
the NZ High Performance Programme for talented, promising
athletes of NZ and were selected into the NZ U18 Kahus team
which played against Australian Breeze Team at AFL International Youth Girls’ Cup.
Cont..
Talisha Buckingham- Performing Arts. Two silver and
one bronze at World Championships of Performing Arts
in Hollywood.
With Graduation Dinner and Junior Prizegiving still to go, the end of year is looming
quickly. We thank you all for your ongoing
support throughout the year and wish you
The Regional YES Awards were held in Waitangi at
the start of this term and our students represented all the very best for a great Christmas, a safe
us well with some great innovative products. It was and relaxing holiday and a fantastic 2015.
especially gratifying to see their dedicated teacher,
Janet Lang, HOD Commerce, receiving acknowledgement for years of commitment and hard
work, as it was announced that she is the national
winner of the Sir James Fletcher Award for OutAnne Cooper
Principal
standing Contribution to Enterprise. She will be
presented with this prestigious award in Wellington next month.
Photos from our recent Senior Prizegiving
One of the latest exciting new additions to our
school is the radio station which is broadcast every
Friday on 87.8FM. It is the brainchild of HOD Music, Nick Grew, who is working in conjunction with
the Media Studies classes and our amazing AV
Technician, Renfred Mees, to make it a phenomenal success with huge potential. Thanks too to the
committed group of students who are a big part of
this initial success. We are looking forward to
watching it grow and flourish next year.
The junior Student Council members have enjoyed
a high profile with their projects since the seniors
left. They represented the school in the float parade to celebrate 50 years of being a city and last
week, their “dress up day” to raise funds for Malala was a huge success. It bodes well for future student leadership to see them being so proactive and
keen to take up opportunities.
Please take note of the start dates for 2015 at the
back of this newsletter as Year 13 students start
back on 23rd January. Contrary to popular belief,
this is not for camp – it covers important preparation for Year 13 and a final camp meeting is the
very last thing at the end of that afternoon.
Early next year, we will be reviewing our whole
start of the year to see whether Year 13 camp and
the induction days we currently run are the best
way for us to achieve our goals in preparing our
students for the year ahead or whether there are
better ways of doing this. Any feedback from you
on this would be most welcomed.
Science Corner
As we say farewell to our Year 13 students, we want to give you
a snapshot as to where some of our Science students are heading. We wish them all the best and will follow their future careers with interest .
My name is Rilee Thomas, and I am
going on to study a Bachelor of Science at Otago University. I will be majoring in Geology and Oceanography.
Though I have no specific, set out
pathway for my career (as these sciences can break into many disciplines
from Aquaculture to Volcanology), I have one main
goal in my life – To undertake research in Antarctica
in the future. I am passionate about earth and ocean
sciences, and the many discoveries waiting to be
made, and this is thanks to my experience in science
throughout my years here. Taking all three sciences
throughout NCEA has allowed me to find what type
of scientist I aspire to be, how I cope with situations
and problems arising (especially in more practical
subjects like Chemistry) and what specific subject I
enjoy most. Sciences at the school have helped me to
see what I can accomplish and what I want to do
with my future career, and to help me set my goal.
Anna Miller
I am going to the University of Canterbury to study
geology and biology. Then I am going
exploring.
Watch this space. Will Anna become
the next David Attenborough???
Kelsey Ferris
Next year I am furthering my
studies at the University of Waikato, where I hope to complete
a Bachelor of Science
(Technology) majoring in either
Biochemistry or Biotechnology.
I can't wait to be surrounded by a never ending new understanding of the world that surrounds me!
Kayla Boswell
After finishing Year 13 at
Whangarei Girls’ High School, I
have decided that I will further
my education in Science.
Unlike many of my peers I am not
going off to University and have instead applied for a trainee position to become a Pharmacy Technician. If I get this opportunity it
means I have a secure job while studying for a
National Certificate in Pharmacy (technician).
This course is through open polytechnic allowing me to stay in Whangarei and study at
home.
Kanewa Harrison:
I chose to continue science and take Level Two and Three Chemistry here at Whangarei Girls' as it is
a beneficial subject which will supplement my further studies next year at The University of Auckland. Chemistry has given me a strong understanding of the many aspects within the "world of
chem". It has also created an even stronger foundation which I can build on in the coming years at
Uni. My career goal is to work in the health sector, however, not as your "typical" GP, I will be studying a Bachelor of Health Science (maybe branch off to psychology) and then, as a long term goal,
study towards a Masters degree in Indigenous Studies. Weird combo you say? With this knowledge,
I want to hopefully create health consultancy models similar to that of Te Whare Tapa Whā. I have
learnt, and sometimes the hard way that Chemistry is 1) Not for the faint hearted 2) it requires a lot of hard work
and 3) provides many options when deciding on a career. In the wise words of Mrs Nielsen's "Chem is do-able!!"
WGHS Year 10 class wins national competition to help curb New Zealand child
poverty
Students of the Whangarei Girls’ High School Year
10 Extension English class won the Secondary
School section of the 2014 nation-wide Big Picture
Competition with a mural depiction of what they
believe is needed to end poverty both in Whangarei and in New Zealand as a whole.
The students began researching the effects and
range of poverty in the Whangarei area during
Term 2 as part of their English unit on inequality.
For three weeks the students compiled information surrounding lack of nutritious food and inability to access affordable health care in Whangarei, a high suicide and mental illness rate in Northland and the problem of domestic violence.
‘Before we started this project, I think we all
thought poverty was just about food,’ said student
Danielle Blud. ‘But when you really start to look
into it, you can see so many other reasons that
people can be what we think of as poor. It’s about
a lot more than food.’
Following their research, the students developed a
concept for a visual representation – the Big Picture – of what they believe needs to happen for
every child in Whangarei to be healthy and free
from poverty.
‘We wanted to show somehow that poverty is really such a big issue in our community,’ said student
Hiromi Beran. ‘But we also wanted to show that, if
we work together and actually pay attention to the
people who suffer from poverty, we can make a big
difference in Whangarei and in our nation.’
The picture depicts a range of people – representative of the diversity in Whangarei – letting down
ladders representing education, love, nutrition,
health, support, shelter and safety to the people
drowning in poverty down below. The representation of the canopy bridge shows that the students
believe that this is a Whangarei issue, and so we
must take action.
14-year-old Hiromi Beran dreamed up the concept
for the mural and also represented the class in
Wellington for the Big Picture Launch Event
held at Bowen House in Wellington on 5
November. The event was well attended by
MPs from various parties and electorates,
including Shane Reti, National MP for
Whangarei, and Kelvin Davis, Labour MP for
Te Tai Tokerau. The Deputy Children’s Commissioner, Dr Justine Cornwall, also attended and spoke at the event.
‘It was such a proud moment, seeing Hiromi
represent the class in Wellington,’ said Mrs
Wood, English teacher at Whangarei Girls’
High School. ‘She was courteous and humble but also challenged the big voices in our
nation to really consider what needs to happen to curb child poverty.’
As part of her call to action, Hiromi was invited to give a speech to those gathered at
the event. In it she spoke about how foreign
the concept of poverty had been until the
research encouraged her and others in the
class to think more deeply about issues
affecting her peers. She finished with a
powerful call to action. Below is a transcript
of her speech.
Hi. I’m Hiromi Beran from Whangarei Girls’
High School. My class started researching
for the Big Picture in Term 2, and back then
our idea of poverty was made up of vague,
blurry images of kids with no money – a
completely alien world with alien inhabitants. But as the research progressed, we
discovered the scope and size of the real
issue was far bigger than we thought. Depression, domestic violence, suicide – topics
most people avoid – are a huge part of it. As
are lack of shelter, lack of nutrition, no
money for medical treatment and limited or
no chances for education. So we put together this mural, which shows what kids
need to break free from poverty: education,
love, health, support, shelter, nutrition and
safety. I’d like to say thank you to the organisers of this competition – it created lots
of opportunities: it helped us to come together as a class to create an image of povCont..
erty – and now we must unite as a nation to do
something about poverty. Thank you.
Another Textiles and Fashion Technology
success story…
The mural will be on display at Bowen House in
Wellington until Friday, 12 December, after which
time it will be returned to the school.
Every year around the country schools select
their top garments and supporting folios to
send off to the HETTANZ fashion awards, this
year, we are proud to announce we had two
winners.
Megan King was awarded 3rd place in the
‘Emerging Technical’ section, open to all students Years 9 and 10.
Katisha Topp was awarded 3rd place in the
‘Senior Technical’ section, open to all students Years 11 to 13.
Both girls had followed the full technological
process during the design and development
of their garments. This ranges from justifying
the colour of their fabric in relation to their
PTA
skin tone, to discussing the environmental
Second Hand Uniform Sale– Wednesday January impact of their selected fabric and the poten21st 2015, 4.30pm-6pm. Sellers welcome to attend. tial life cycle of the final garment. Both students have spent hours researching and deCost—donation to PTA. See facebook event—
veloping their designs and then hours more
WGHS PTA Uniform Sale.
constructing their garments to a commercialSecond Hand Uniforms
The PTA urgently needs donated uniforms to help ly viable standard.
our school community.
Brand new sandals, ex-Lastrite shoes, sizes 4-6 and Kevin Smith, Managing Director of NZ Fashion
Tech was one of the judges. “The quality of
10-12 available. $30 per pair.
construction was very high” he said “I marked
Contact Toni Daniels Ph 437 7475 or 021 0822
all the designs to strict industry standards
5587.
and many entries received top marks here.
PTA meeting—Thurs. 20 Nov. Final meeting for
2014. Drinks & nibbles at Red Pizzeria, Kensington But the creative design process was where
the excitement was generated. NZ fashion
designers are known worldwide for their
unique and innovative designs and this year’s
Students from Whangarei Girls’ High School who
have volunteered at Kiwi North during the school 2014 HETTANZ Fashion Awards clearly
demonstrates that our industry will continue
holidays, enjoying a celebratory chocolate
to maintain that reputation with many of
milkshake as a thank you for all their hard work.
these young designers moving into fashion
careers after they leave school”
10XEN students with Big Picture mural
School Calendar
Nov
20
Dec
1
WE ARE AIMING FOR SPAIN
IN 2016
SO PLEASE SUPPORT OUR
RAFFLE
CHRISTMAS GROCERY
RAFFLE
Tickets $2 each or 3 for $5
Available from Year 10
Spanish Students or Mrs P.
Henderson
NCEA Exams
PTA Meeting
21
NCEA Exams
24
NCEA Exams
25
NCEA Exams
Yr13 camp training
25-28 NISS Jnr Volleyball
26
NCEA Exams
27
NCEA Exams
Yr 9 Orientation Dat
Supporters Function
28
NCEA Exams
School Art Exhibition
2
3
NCEA Exams
Graduation Dinner
Document Day
Junior Prizegiving
Last day for juniors
START DATES FOR 2015
LOCKERS
Be in quick – limited lockers available
If you wish to reserve a locker for 2015 or
keep your current locker, you will need to
fill in an online order form at
www.stowawaylockers.co.nz or call or text
Robyn on 4375818 or 0274 221 783 as soon
as possible.
If you no longer require your locker for
2015, please let us know by email [email protected] You will need to
return your key at the end of the term, sellotaped to a piece of paper with your details
on for your bond refund. Ensure the locker
is left empty, as any remaining items will be
disposed of at the end of the year. Keys will
need to be received within one week of
term 4 ending and can be posted to: Stowaway Lockers, 220 Ngunguru Road, RD3,
Whangarei 0173. Please advise your bank
account details to direct credit your bond in
January 2015.
Friday 23 Jan - Yr 13 Students 12pm
Wednesday 28 Jan – Yr 12 students only
Thursday 29 Jan —Yr 11 students only
Friday 30 Jan —Yr 10 students only
Monday 2 Feb – Yr 9 students, all new students to WGHS and Yr 13 students only
Tuesday 3 Feb —ALL students to attend
Attendance Line – Direct Dial 430 4405
or email [email protected]
INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
Hi
I’m Jasmin Schriewer from Germany. I stayed in
New Zealand for three months. Maybe to many
of you it sounds like a long time like it did to me,
but it has gone so quickly that I will soon be sitting
in a plane going home to Germany.
I am so glad that I had the courage to go on an
adventure to a foreign country at the other end of
the world. I have enjoyed my stay here so much
and I regret having to go home. I have found
many friends with whom I will hopefully keep in
contact with.
My fear was unfounded because everyone is helpful, spontaneous and interested in you.
The school is quite different to the one I am used to and I have enjoyed the diversity of creative
subjects. I was offered many activities outside of school and have collected many memories, for
example, Hotwater beach where in spite of the fact that it was winter, many people laid in the
hot water and you could forget the cold temperature as it seemed like summer. I visited many
other beaches – each one beautiful. I also experienced seeing dolphins and kayaking to the waterfalls in Paihia and visited Rotorua. The landscape here is adorable.
I am feeling upset about leaving and I look forward to coming back again for a vacation. There is
still so much more to see. It has been an unforgettable time and all the people I met will stay in
my heart. I had so many amazing moments and I now call New Zealand my second home. My
host family will visit me in Germany and I hope I can give a little bit of the hospitality back and
show them the best side of Germany.
If I get the opportunity to discover a country in an exchange again I will answer without hesitation
“Yes!”.
Letter from Sina Chlod
My first impression of New Zealand was a very windy, rainy and green
rainforest from the window view of the aeroplane. But this impression
has changed a lot since. New Zealand has became my second home
and the most wonderful place on earth for me. I went on some
awesome trips to Rotorua, Paihia, Piha and Auckland. We went
parasailing, coasteering, sailing, on a two day hike with camping
through the bush and of course I went to rugby games. Not really
because I was interested in the game more the players . These are
things I would never do in Germany.
School here is very different for me, like wearing a school uniform,
going to a single sex school and taking all those cool and interesting
subjects like DVC, TFT, OED. We don’t have these subjects in schools in Germany.
It was an awesome experience to learn more about the Maori culture and kiwi lifestyle.
The other side of the world is an amazing place to live and I wish I could stay here forever. But
my family and friends want me to come back home so I will go back to Germany.
My time here has gone too fast and one term is way too short to be here.
I hope I can come back and see all my friends and my awesome host family again.
So, well, haere ra, and I’m so sad to be leaving.....