Welcome to 2021! We hope your daughter has a fun-filled and rewarding year at Westlake Girls High School. Here are a few things that might be useful to know.

Contacting us:

Please email [email protected] for general enquiries. Please do not email [email protected] as this is for outgoing mail and is not regularly monitored.

Absences:

Parents or caregivers should contact the school in the morning by emailing [email protected] AND your daughter’s Form Teacher, remembering to give the reason for the absence. You can find a list of staff contacts on our website.

Lateness:

Students must bring an explanatory note and give it to the Attendance Officer upon arrival in the main reception at the Gernhoefer Admin Centre. Alternatively email the Attendance Officer and your daughter’s Form Teacher.

Sickness:

If your daughter becomes sick at school, it’s important she doesn’t just call you for collection, but follows school procedure. First, she needs to go to the School Health Centre and then you will be notified if she needs to be sent home. It’s important your daughter sees a Nurse at the Health Centre before she calls you for collection.

Exiting during the day:

Parents should email [email protected] with details of why the student needs to leave school. The student must collect a form from the Attendance Officer at reception before signing out.

Daily Notices:

A great way to know what’s going on at the school is through our Daily Notices which are read out in classrooms every morning. You’ll find them on the App, and also on our website at the bottom of the homepage under Quick Links.

Bus news:

Secondary school students, aged 16 to 19, can now jump online and activate their student discount using their National Student Number (NSN). And with their student discount, they’ll be able to travel and get 40% or more off full price bus, ferry and train fares.

Here is the link to find out more and update your concession: Click for more information

And also just a reminder please that if your daughter takes a public bus to school, it is mandatory for everyone aged over 12 years to wear a face mask.

Blazers for photo day next week:

Blazers are compulsory for assemblies, school trips, ID photos and formal occasions. They should be worn as the first choice for an extra layer. Jerseys may be worn under the blazer. Your daughter will need her blazer for her Photo ID and class picture next week (either Tue 16 or Wed 17 Feb). Her Form Teacher will let her know which day she is scheduled for.

House assembly days are:
Monday – Pupuke
Tuesday – Wairau
Wednesday – Akoranga
Thursday – Hauraki
Friday – Onewa

Swimming Sports:

Swimming Sports is on Friday 19 February, at the National Aquatic Centre in Albany. It is only for those that are keen to participate, and is not a whole-school event. All other students will come to school as per normal (Day 5 on their timetable). Registration for this event is now closed.

Athletics Day:

Athletics Day is on Friday 26 February, at Onewa Domain. This is a traditional full-school event, and all students are expected to attend and participate. Students wear their House colours and compete to win House events. There are Championship and House Events. Students must register for Championship Events before Monday 22 February. For House Events, they just need to come along on the day. More details, along with the registration form, are on our website HERE.

Uniform Shop Hours:

The Uniform Shop will be open on the following days and times during Term 1 (2 Feb – 16 April).

Monday: 2.30 – 5.30pm
Tuesday: 2.30pm – 5pm
Wednesday: 2.30pm – 5pm
Thursday: 2.30 – 5pm
Friday: Closed
Saturday: Closed
Sunday: Closed

The shop will also be closed on Monday 5 April (Easter). For more information visit www.wghs.uniformgroup.co.nz.

We held our yearly full-school Academic Assembly on Thursday 11 February  to present our 2021 Prefects and Tuakana with their badges, our 2020 Level 1 and 2 NCEA Excellence endorsement achievers with their badges, and our 2020 Scholarship winners with flowers.

94.4% of our students gained Level 1, 96.1 gained Level 2, 96.1% gained Level 3, and 88.90% gained University Entrance. We also had 73 scholarships awarded to 54 students. Many of our 2020 Year 13 students returned to school to be acknowledged at our assembly.

We also awarded cups to our NCEA Level 1 and Level 2 top scholars – the Anna Buchly Cup for Academic Excellence in Level 1 (Y11 2020) went to Moe Tun. The Cup for Academic Excellence in Level 2 (Y12 2020) went to Zoe Wu.

Zoe Wu is pictured above left with Principal Jane Stanley, and  Moe Tun is pictured above right.

A tiny swan has proven a massive winner thanks to the incredibly creative talent of Year 12 student Damla Temizsoy.

Damla was the national winner of the Make Your Marque competition, where students designed and 3D printed a mascot or emblem for their school’s EVolocity electric kart. For her efforts, she won her very own 3D printer!

Last year Damla was part of Westlake’s Motorsport Club, which designed, built and raced “Woody” – a wooden kart – in the EVolocity schools competition held in November.

“When the Make Your Marque competition was introduced last year, I was so excited to hear the prize was a 3D printer and decided to enter it and give it a shot,” says Damla.

Her intricate and clever design won the vote of the judges, taking out the competition from around New Zealand to win the prized 3D printer.

“I made a swan with pilot’s glasses,” she says. “I used a swan because it is our school mascot and a big part of the Westlake Community. The pilot’s glasses come from our Evolocity project because we based our kart on WWI planes (wooden chassis, with fabric covering). This project took roughly 2-3 hours to design, about 1 – 11/2 hours to 3D print due to the small details such as glasses. Then I painted it in our school colours of green and red.”

Judge, Dr Stephen Kavermann from The University of Auckland, said of Damla’s entry: “An excellent design and print, with a good explanation of the link to the team and the school. It was nicely presented and looked good mounted on the vehicle. Good quality and very ambitious printing.”

Damla was ecstatic to win, saying the project challenged her – in a good way! “I used TinkerCad, which is quite a restricting program, so it was hard to get some details. For example, doing the neck and glasses were quite challenging because those shapes don’t exist on TinkerCad. It was a bit of piecing together different shapes to get the look I wanted. I also wanted to include a scarf to complete the whole WWI pilot look, no matter how much I tried I couldn’t get it to look the way I wanted it to, so I decided to not go with a scarf.

Announced as winner during the National Awards Ceremony streamed through Facebook Live late last year, Damla won a Creality Ender 3D printer. “I am so happy and excited to have won such an amazing prize. I can’t wait to get started and make many weekend projects, I already have a list of projects I want to do,” she says.

It’s no surprise that this clever student is keen on a career in the science/technology/engineering fields. “I already knew I wanted to go into one of those areas, but winning a 3D printer out of all the students competing in New Zealand gave me a lot more confidence and confirmed that I am going in the right direction.”

The right direction indeed! Well done Damla from Mr Scull and everyone here at Westlake.

Damla is pictured top with her design and award, and below with her 2020 Motorsport team mates.

Tuesday 16 February

This is an evening for Level 1 NCEA students and parents/caregivers to provide you with the knowledge really early in the year of how NCEA works and how to get the best possible Certificate from the year. It will be held at 6.30pm in Gym 3.

There is parking available in the two staff carparks. We will be starting promptly so please be in and seated by that time. It takes about 45 minutes to go through all the key material. One of our Careers staff will speaks for about 5 minutes at the end of the presentation. You will get two very useful handouts to take away that summarise the key information. There will be a number of other senior staff with great NCEA knowledge that can answer individual questions at the end of the presentation.  Please bring a pen in case you want to add any extra notes to the handout.

The Government has proposed changes to Level 1 NCEA likely to take effect from 2021 so this could be the last year students follow the current Level 1 NCEA structure. It is therefore really important that students ensure they get their Level 1 NCEA Certificate this year under the current structure. Your knowledge and support in assisting them in this is essential and this evening will help you in this process.

Wednesday 17 February

WGHS is holding an Information Evening for Parents and Caregivers of our Year 9 students. It’s a chance to find out a bit more about how Westlake Girls High School operates, and to meet your daughter’s Form Teacher. It will be held at 6.3pm in Gym 3.

You will hear from a variety of speakers, including our Principal, Sports Director and Music Director. From 7pm you will have the opportunity to meet with your daughter’s Form Teacher regarding homework, time management, absentee procedures, accessing the parent portal, and upcoming events. You’ll also meet the Year 13 Tuakana students assigned to her class.

There will be parking onsite, and no RSVP is required. This night is for parents, however your daughter is also welcome to attend. Please ensure you know the name of your daughter’s Form Class (eg, 9AED) so you’ll be able to identify the right location to meet her Form Teacher. Your daughter will have this information on her timetable.

Wednesday 24 February

Our first Pasifika Fono for the year will be held at 6.30pm on Wednesday 24 February in the school’s staffroom, Gernhoefer Admin Centre. This is a chance for our Pasifika families to meet each other, along with our Westlake Pasifika mentors. If you are part of our Pasifika family, you will receive an email shortly about this event. Please keep it free – we would love to see you.

By Susana Tomaz
TIC STEAM

The future of work is becoming increasingly more difficult to accurately predict or even imagine. The speed of change also calls for an updated skillset, calling for workers to quickly adapt, to learn new approaches to challenges, to think more critically, and to collaborate. 

The report, Preparing tomorrow’s workforce for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. For business: A framework for action calls on the business community to take a more proactive role in preparing today’s youth to ensure they are ready to become the workforce of tomorrow.

Enterprise STEAM (ESTEAM) provides students with the opportunity to adopt an innovative mindset, develop 21st century skills, including financial capabilities, business and entrepreneurship skills while continuing exploring the integration of STEAM applications. To support your growth and development in the ESTEAM field students benefit from the support of members of our business community to provide authentic, relevant and interactive experiences for students to learn about the workforce and raise awareness of emerging careers pathways.

On Friday 11 December we took our ESTEAM students to Genesis Energy New Zealand’s largest energy retailer and Deloitte for an internship with a strong focus on sustainability, cybersecurity and career pathways. We would like to say a big thank you to the amazing team of professionals at both Genesis Energy and Deloitte New Zealand for their time and commitment to address the youth skills gap, and develop the workforce of the future.

We welcome the support of our business/parent community, check out of STEAM Power-ED Flyer for ideas on how you can support our students, please email me, let’s connect: [email protected]

Here is some feedback from our students:

The opportunity to take part in an internship run by Deloitte was one of the best parts about ESTEAM last year! I didn’t feel out of place as they treated us like capable students and I was thoroughly engaged in their interactive activities. I gained more knowledge about cybersecurity, softwares like ‘Wireshark’, and systems like ‘Linux’. Additionally, I learnt how to keep my data protected from malicious attacks and about the types of hackers there are – ethical hackers and government hackers being a couple of them. It was all very exciting to be a part of! The team were really interested and excited to hear about our input – encouraging us and making the whole experience even more amazing than it already was – can’t forget the delightful food they served us. Wouldn’t have been possible without the lovely Ms Tomaz and the wonderful team at Deloitte, so a huge thank you for this experience!
Peeta Khan

Renewable energy, engineering, and inspiring females in STEAM! That is what Genesis is all about! I was truly inspired and engaged by the wonderful speakers and the tour of the sustainable building Genesis is located in. In times like this, it is powerful that we all stay open-minded to new ideas and ways of living such as moving towards solar, hydro, and wind energy sources and encouraging more females to partake in STEAM. Genesis showed us Westlake girls how diversity influences a workplace to become stronger, resilient, and profoundly new. I am super passionate about sciences and the environment so Genesis is definitely the type of company I would work for in the future.
Shella Dabbach

“The internship at Genesis was such a fun day! I really loved learning about the diverse roles, being a female in those areas and getting a behind the scenes look into the company. Such a neat opportunity that I am so thankful for as we begin looking for future potential careers.”
Charis Allison

Westlake International student Jacqueline Ramos spent part of her summer holidays experiencing life at university! The Year 13 student, who has been at WGHS since 2019, was part of the “Hands-on at Otago” programme, where students choose a department and participate in a research project, experience a small taste of a variety of other research activities, and join in social events, all while staying in student accommodation. Here’s an account of her experience:

During the summer break, I was given the opportunity to experience life on campus at Otago University for a week in January. I flew down to Dunedin without knowing anyone and anything about that place. I stayed there for five days in one of the student residences and I never imagined myself enjoying the idea of living in student accommodation.

The food was amazing, the rooms were cozy, and the common room was a lot of fun. I also got the chance to feel what it’s like to be studying Economics in university, as I participated in an Economics research programme during my stay there. Needless to say, it was a really interesting course and it showed me how there’s so much more to Economics than what we learn in high school.

During our spare time, I got to go around town with some of the friends that I have made. That five-day stay was one of the best experiences I’ve had ever since coming to New Zealand. I met a lot of amazing people and that week really gave me a  great glimpse of what university life has to offer.

Tuesday 2 February was a big day for our new Year 10-13 students as they joined us for the first time at Westlake Girls. They were welcomed into school by our Year 13 Prefect and Tuakana students, led by Matua Eddie Hudson. Principal Jane Stanley addressed the group of more than 40 students, and introduced them to our Senior Leadership Team.

Then 2021 Head Prefect Grace Chen gave a brilliant first official speech of the year. The group was divided into Houses and escorted over to their rooms to join their new Form Classes.

The following day, Wednesday 3 February, our new Year 9 students were welcomed into the whānau. After being led into the gym, introductory speeches were made, and then the students were called into their various Form Classes to begin their Westlake journey.