Parent/Teacher Evening

Our one and only Parent/Teacher Evening for 2020 will be held on Wednesday 5 August. You will be able to book to meet your daughter’s teachers through the Parent Portal once you have received her school report. For Seniors this will be Friday 3 July, and for Juniors Friday 31 July.

Uniform Shop Hours

• Wednesday 15 July: 10am – 2pm
• Thursday 16 July: 10am – 2pm
• Saturday 18 July: 10am – 2pm

• Mondays: 2.30pm – 5.30pm
• Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays: 2.30pm – 5.00pm
• Friday and Saturday CLOSED

Samantha-Mae Torres was the recipient of a Language Perfect Bronze Award due to her recent success in the global vocabulary learning competition. Samantha came in the top 10% of the competitors – what an achievement!

Samantha is currently studying Year 12 French and is proving to be a very able student!

Westlake’s International students held their first assembly for 2020 and it was a great time of reconnecting after lockdown. Our International Prefects (pictured above) introduced themselves and also introduced Lauranne Croot – our new International Director. She then spoke on the importance of friendships and being kind to each other. Upcoming school holiday trips and other activities were shared, including a visit to Hobbiton, a pizza night on 26 June and our after-school Stay and Cook classes.

The assembly also covered off academic information such as the NCEA credit changes for 2020, and planned wellbeing interviews to ensure students are on track with their studies after lockdown. Our principal, Jane Stanley, addressed the students, acknowledging the difficult past few months with Covid-19. A run down on winter uniform requirements, Homework Club and a fun quiz rounded out the assembly.

The next International assembly is planned for Wednesday 1 July.

Pictured above are our 2020 International Prefects from left: Skila Huang (Pupuke), Jasmine Gong (Akoranga), Angelina Zhu (Wairau), Xuan Rita Lian (Hauraki), Adele Gao (Onewa).

Our Year 12 cohort learnt some top tips for dealing with mental and emotional pain, when Attitude presenter Jannah Hibberd visited our school on Wednesday 17 June.

Jannah’s talk “The Pits” focused on mental health issues including phobias and being “bullied by our thoughts”. With humour and care, Jannah talked through mental health issues spanning from a bad mood (“we all have these”) and mild depression (shouldn’t last more than two weeks) through to situational depression (grief) and major depression. “Life is hard, but it’s never going to be too hard,” she told the students. “It’s normal to struggle, but there is always hope – and help helps.”

Jannah said 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys will go through depression at high school, and outlined some of the symptoms to watch for at each stage on the depression spectrum. She told the students they are more resilient than they realise, and that it’s absolutely okay to ask for help. To wrap up the hour-long session, she ran through some practical things students could do to keep themseleves well physically, spiritually, socially and mentally.

As of this week, the Golden Swan Café is officially open for business! On Tuesday and Thursday mornings until the beginning of Term 4, our Food Technology/Hospitality students become baristas-in-training in our very own student-run café.

Each year, 15-24 students are offered the chance to complete a barista training course, run over two days in the school holidays. The next course is being held in the upcoming July holidays. On the course, students learn about the origins of coffee and how to make all the different types of brews. The students must  complete the practical and theory assessments. Once they are successfully trained, they have the opportunity to run the Golden Swan Café.

“This is where they practise what they have learnt during the course and gain experience in running a small business by providing customer service and making hot beverages,” says TIC Hospitality, Louise Clouston. Students arrive at 7.30am to prepare, then run the cafe, and oversee the money. “It is a fantastic opportunity for our students who are interested in gaining a part-time job within the hospitality industry, specifically a café,” says Louise.

Staff and Year 13 students can purchase a range of coffees (with specialty milks) and our Year 9-12 students can purchase delicious hot chocolate. The café is open from 7.50am and prices are just $3.50 per beverage, or $3 if you bring your own cup (50c extra for speciality milk).

Pictured above are Year 13 students Emma Schulte (making coffee) and Anneliese Sinclair during the Café’s first morning this week. Emma was making a soy flat white and it was genuinely delicious!

By Lauren Harding
Year 13

Last week Pat Buckley, a man who has flatlined three times at the hands of drugs, and has now turned his life around having been clean for 25 years, came to speak to the Year 13 Health cohort.

At the age of 12, Pat was introduced to marijuana, and at 14 heroin. He was then catapulted into a world of addiction. Now clean, Pat founded the Amped 4Life trust in 2002, and goes around speaking to school and workplaces about the dangers and consequences of drugs.

For our 3.1 Health internal this year we are investigating the New Zealand issue of Methamphetamine. He educated us on the origins of methamphetamine, the impacts it has on the brain, the user, friends and family, and the wider community as well as society. Pat shared his personal experiences surrounding his drug abuse of heroin, working as a volunteer for St Johns, and what he’s observed with his friends and family. Over his lifetime he has buried over 60 of his friends due to drugs, alcohol, murder, and other causes. Both his best friend and girlfriend died on the same day after getting on the back of a motorcycle.

He told us frightening and eye-opening stories about what those on methamphetamine have done and the consequences those actions not only have on themselves but also those around them. An example of one of his stories is of a man that was on methamphetamine and he poured gasoline all over himself and lit himself alight, which unfortunately ended fatally. It was an awakening for all of us and we will take away his powerful message to not follow in his footsteps or there will be dire consequences. We all took away such important and valuable information that will not only help us with our internal but will help us in our own lives and futures.

If you love helping students with their learning, we would love to hear from you!

Westlake Girls High School is looking for reader/writers to assist our Learning Enhancement Team. You will be fully trained and you can name the days and times you would like to come in. It simply involves reading questions and/or writing answers as the student dictates to you.

This is a wonderful way to meet some amazing young women, and help them on their way to academic success. If you would like to find out more, please email Julie Mulchay on [email protected]