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Te Reo O Te Roto
The Language of the Lake
Issue 25 | 9 April 2021
Sports

Plate Division win for waterpolo players

Over four days in Wellington, our Waterpolo Premier Girls competed at the highest level to win the plate division of the North Island Secondary School Champs.

Having to face tough pool rounds, only 1 point separated these fiercely competitive girls from teams that went on to place in second and fourth in the championship rounds. With 4 wins, one draw and one loss, highlights included our first quarter strong lead against eventual silver medallists Rangitoto, triple goal scoring from individual players (in more than one game) and the 3 in-a-row save in a single play from our ever dominant goalie.


The girls should be hugely proud of how they represented the school and are now preparing for the national championships in Auckland in April. We look forward to seeing them battle it out again, swimming fast, scoring goals and winning games.


Not only was it a great competition, the girls also had fun out of the pool with Mexican and Italian themed dinners to keep them fuelled, yoga classes for stretching and ice cream for energy! A great bunch to travel away with.


A big thanks to our Teacher in Charge, Coach and Manager.

Academic

Media personality inspires budding journalists

By Caitlin McConchie
News Hound (pictured back row, third from left)

On Wednesday 31 March, a group of eager media-loving students crammed into M1 to hear Breakfast newsreader, and well-known journalist Indira Stewart talk about her career.

Many, like myself, were curious to hear about what goes on behind the scenes in the media world. As it is often so fast-paced with stories and interviews and news outbreaks. Often it can be easy to imagine it as a career entirely onscreen, conducting interviews, speaking into microphones, and dressing up nicely for the camera. However, Indira told us of the reality of the job. It was long hours, early wake-ups, a lot of writing for stories, and being able to wing it as news arrives on the go. Definitely not as glamourous as I had first thought. But this was not meant to be discouraging to us students, because there are certainly perks to the job. These include meeting amazing individuals, curating news articles and sources, researching things you are passionate about, and getting to be a friendly face in thousands of homes every morning.

Indira’s journey to where she is now showed us how passionate she was about telling the stories of those who don’t have the platform she does and seeing everybody represented in the newsroom and on screen. And inspiring me, if not many others, that going into journalism and media may seem hard and unlikely, but if we have the passion for the job and work hard – we can achieve it. Even small steps like using our social media platforms and writing for blogs can be a good foot in the door for the field.

Editor’s Note: Indira visited our school as part of our Careers Bites initiative, where people from industry come in on a Wednesday lunchtime to speak to students about their particular career. We’ve also had a personal trainer, nutritionist, podiatrist, nurse, occupational therapist, two doctors, and staff from the South Seas Film School. Each month we will focus on a different industry.

Academic

New skills gained through exciting challenges

By Isabella Mitchell
Year 11 Adventurer

Year 11 PE camp was a lot of fun and a huge personal challenge. We took part in a lot of new activities like tree climbing, caving and tyrolean that pushed a lot of us out of our comfort zone.

Year 11 PE camp down in Whatipu was a success in helping me gain confidence in things I wasn’t so confident in before, and helped me gain so many new skills that I will need in the future. In the few days down there I really put a lot of effort in to be open minded and enjoy all the fun adventurous activities we were doing and I came away from the camp feeling proud of the things I had accomplished.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arts & Culture

Polyfest Dress-Rehearsal open to friends and whānau

Monday 12 April 2021
6pm – 7.15pm
Westlake Boys High School Auditorium, Westlake Boys High School
Doors will open at 5.30pm
Gold coin entry

Nau mai! Haere mai!
Westlake Girls and Westlake Boys will be presenting their Polyfest items to friends and whānau. The students have been working hard for this event, which is a lead up to our main kaupapa, Te Ahurea Tino Rangatiratanga 2021 which will be held on the North Shore, Te Rakipaewhenua for the first time this year in October.

No reira, join us on this night as we celebrate Māori Performing Arts and the wonderful skills of our young men and women.

NAU MAI HAERE MAI!
Nā Westlake Girls me Westlake Boys

Academic

ESTEAM students explore emerging careers and the future ahead 

By Susana Tomaz
TIC of (E)STEAM

Recently myself and some of my students worked with a team of CX Collective community members to unpack and reimagine student career pathways. The Collective is a global community of customer advocates working towards shifting organisatinal focus from profit to people.

The session was particularly valuable, as the career opportunities available for our students continues to widen with the introduction of new technologies.

During the session the students got to hear first hand about what success across entrepreneurship and STEAM careers can look like from a panel of inspiring speakers. Some of those speakers were Manawa Udy from Ngahere Communities, Perrin Rowland from Westpac and Audrey Cheng from SnapComms.

Students were inspired by their stories, and acme away with reimagined ideas of what their own future career path could be.

Here is a short video summary of the workshop. The full recording of the day will be turned into a training video for teachers so they can replicate this workshop in their own classrooms and extend the impact to many more students.

I am so humbled by the commitment and heart that the whole team put into supporting our young women. This unique workshop was so well thought and planned, it really helped our young women reflect on their values and realise their strengths. Thank you to the whole team and a special thank you to Sarah Clearwater for designing it and making it all happen with the help of the CX Collective. This workshop really touched our hearts.

Feedback from students

  • My next step in my career journey is to research and dig deeper into the different career options I have. Now I know that thinking can change really easily, so I will look for careers that I am interested in now, knowing that this could change and not be something I do for the rest of my life.
  • The next step from here is to learn about myself and challenge myself to find out what I really want to do, and face my fears.
  • Highlight of the workshop … Getting to vision myself in the future and hearing the panelists ensure us that there is more than one path to reach a destination.
  • Making the magazine cover and the letter to my 16 yr old self really stood out to me because it helped me deeply discover more about myself.
  • The one thing that motivated me the most was that after listing to the panelists, it showed me how I can also achieve what I want to.
  • I want to try new things I’ve never done before and overcome many fears so I can be more confident. I’ll try setting up goals I can achieve to keep myself productive and motivated.

Pictured above from left are Sarah Clearwater, Manawa Udy, Hiria Lynne Cameron, Andy Crowe, Susana Tomaz and Jodi Meadows.

Academic

Language Enthusiasts Hunt for Eggs

Once again students have taken part in the Easter Egg Hunt, or “Búsqueda de Huevos”, in Week 8. This event was organised by the Spanish Club.

While the weather was not in our favour on the day, the teams of students did their best to follow the clues around the school grounds.

The winning students of this anual competition were Alice Hirst and Talei Boonen of Year 12 Spanish, and their friend, Tallulah Salmon (all pictured above).  ¡Excelente esfuerzo!

Community

Charity was the winner on the day

Our Houses have been busy over the past few weeks, holding fundraisers for their nominated charities. There’s been an abundance of cookies, ice-cream, cakes and loaded fries on offer – purchased for very worthy causes! Well done to the Service Prefects and their teams for outstanding efforts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Academic

Learning about each other and growing as leaders

By Evie Guthrie
Onewa House Tuakana

In late March/early April, WGHS held Leadership Training with our 96 House Prefects and Tuakana. Here Tuakana Evie Guthrie (pictured below left) shares her experience.

“I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the Prefect training – considering all of us are involved in so many different areas of school life – and so training may be different for all of us. However, it was a nice surprise when the activities we did were focused on sharing our own experiences and connecting with each other. Although I’ve been to school for five years with my fellow Prefects, there was still so much I learned about all of them, such as their passions, embarrassing stories and their family backgrounds.

One activity we were asked to do was to pick a picture that we resonated with, from the many images placed on the ground in front of us. These included animals, food, landscapes etc. It was exciting to see what image each other had picked, as there were many funny stories to go with their reason for choosing it.

Knowing more about each other allows us to support each other as Prefects better and also helps us as individuals to really reflect on who we are.

Another activity we did was to pick what we thought were our top three strengths. It was quite crazy when we realised no two people in the room had the same top three strengths! It showed us that there aren’t set strengths a ‘leader’ must have. The strengths I picked for myself from the list of possible ones were humour, spirituality and appreciation of beauty. We were then asked to comment on each other’s strengths, which revealed the attributes we saw in each other which we may have not personally thought about.

Spending this time together not only strengthened us as a team, but was a valuable reminder that we have each other to rely on and be open with.”

Community

Westlake students 'seas the day' at Milford Beach

By Shella Dabbach
Onewa Enviromental Prefect and Pun-weaver Extraordinaire 

Ngā mihi nui to our two extraordinary environment groups at WBHS and WGHS who got together on Wednesday afternoon to do their part for papatuanuku.

The weather was super nice as we shuffled across Milford Beach scavenging for any leftover plastic bits and bottle caps. We filled up our paper bags reasonably but not to the brim because the beaches were already fairly clean. We are very proud of our community for taking care of the beaches. However, we are also very proud of the students and teachers who carved out some time in their day to give back to the Earth.

When picking up rubbish, we made sure to stay eco-conscious by seperating recyclable bits to non-recyclable bits. All the plastic gloves used were recycled in soft-plastic too!

It was very special and we loved doing our part for papatuanuku.

If you’re interested in these environmental events, make sure to look out for future gatherings us friendly Enviro Prefects have planned. These include beach clean-ups, tree planting, and a summer clothes swap next term!

“If not us, then who!”

 

 

Sports

Medals and Trials awarded to outstanding U17 rowers

A big congratulations to our rowers who competed in the Maadi Cup held at Lake Karapiro, Cambridge from 22-27 March, along with 2432 competitors from 123 different schools.
Our squad of 47 achieved five A finals (Top 8 finishes) and eight B finals (top 20 finishes), recording eight top 10 national finishes. This included fourth in the U18 4+ (Dawn Cup), the premier girls four on the program and 9th in the premier girls eight on the program (the GU18 8), winning the B final in a time of 7.03.0 – more than 10 seconds ahead of second placed Rangi Ruru Girls School 2 who recorded a time of 7.14.03.
We won silver against Rangi Ruru in the Girls U17 4+ made up of Charlotte Ram (coxswain), Sofia Greenhalgh, Scarlett Kerse, Sophie Dykgraaf and Eva Dykgraaf.
Due to the last Covid-19 lockdown, the North Island Secondary School Champsionship was cancelled, but medals were awarded at Maadi for North Island placing. Westlake Girls achieved North Island Secondary Schools Gold in the girls U17 4+, along with Silver in the 178+ , 184+ and 154+.
As a result of their individual performances Olivia Anderson (Year 13) has been awarded a New Zealand U19 trial and Sofia Greenhalgh (Year 12) has been awarded a North Island trial.
Pictured with their medals above are from left: Ella Campbell (coach) Eva Dykgraaf, Sophie Dykgraaf, Sofia Geeenhalgh, Scarlett Kerse and Charlotte Ram (coxswain).
Photos: Conrad Blind / Picture Show Ltd
Sports

First time in nationals for Futsal team

By Alessia Martin

Subject: “New Zealand Junior Futsal Nationals in Wellington.”

Dear student, You have been chosen to represent Westlake Girls in the Junior Nationals…… 

Nine girls were lucky enough to receive this email from coach Stuart.  Westlake Girls had never entered a team in the Junior Futsal Nationals so everything was to play for and learn.

Some of you may not have even heard of Futsal!  Think football but inside on a basketball court, with a small heavy ball and 5 players on each team, making for fast paced, fluid and fun play.

Wearing new Westlake sport uniforms, we all dodged the early morning Auckland traffic to arrive at the airport to start our adventure. Coach Stuart and Sports Director, Liz, had a fun vibe going as we flew into the Wellington cold.

Arriving at the stadium was really cool.  It was professionally set up with teams from as far away as Dunedin.

Day 1 saw us on a steep learning curve against fierce competition from Wellington East College, Wellington Girls and Mt Albert Grammar.  With a win and two close losses we put 16 goals into the back of the net and had heaps of fun doing it.  After a full on day, Liz took us all out for dinner after a swim at the hotel.

After a great “recovery night” we geared up for the second day which saw us play against Bayfield College (twice) and New Plymouth Highschool.  The highlight was a close fought 2-1 loss to Bayfield.

Although the results didn’t all go our way (we came 8th in the end) we learnt a huge amount about the game and had an absolute blast bonding with our team mates and representing Westlake on the National stage.

Can’t wait to take on Nationals next year with hopefully a Junior and Senior team from Westlake Girls.

Alessia is pictured on the right, back row.

 

 

Arts & Culture

Students on the right note for great year ahead

Our premier Symphony Orchestra held its annual camp at Bucklands Beach from Friday 26 to  Sunday 28 March. The orchestra is mixed with the top players from Westlake Girls and Boys High Schools, and is directed by David Squire.

Camps are useful for musicians for concentrated time to learn new repertoire and improve skills and techniques but just as important, is getting to know others better and making new friends.

The orchestra was joined by four professional players from the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, who spent Saturday afternoon tutoring our students in their Strings, Woodwind, Brass and Percussion sections. On Sunday, the Year 13 students had a try at conducting themselves with a lesson from Mr Squire – even our Head Prefect Grace Chen had a go!

The Westlake Symphony Orchestra is performing some wonderful repertoire this year by Stravinsky, Wagner and Humperdink, as well as New Zealand works. Keep an eye out for a performance coming up soon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Academic

Important Things to Note - 9 April 2021

School Office shut over holidays

Our school office will be shut from during the school holidays, from Monday 19 April to Friday 30 April inclusive. If you need to get in touch with the school, the best way is to email [email protected] but please expect a delay in response.

When school returns on Monday 3 May, it will be a Day 6 on your daughter’s timetable.

Polyfest 2021

Here’s your chance to see our Kapa Haka group perform during a full dress-rehearsal for Polyfest this coming Monday, 12 April. It begins at 6pm at the Westlake Boys audtiorium (entry by gold coin donation). Doors open at 5.30pm. The group will then perform at Polyfest on Thursday 15 April at 11.45am.

Cantare performing at ANZAC Day Services

Cantare Choir will be performing at two reflective concerts held in the Hall of Rememberance at the Auckland War Memorial Museum on Sunday 25 April. The first concer is at 6.40am and the second is at 12pm (midday). Entry is free to the public.

Tickets available for ShowQuest

Our students have begun preparing  for the ShowQuest Performing Arts Competition (pictured left at their first rehearsal) being held in Auckland on Thursday 1 July. Tickets to the show are now on sale – the event begins at 7pm at the ASB (Aotea) Theatre. Door sales may be available on the night, but only if not sold prior – so it would be wise to get yours quickly! Students will present original 10-minute performances combining art, music, culture, dance, drama and technology.

You can purchase tickets HERE and keep up to date by liking the ShowQuest Facebook Page HERE.

Not all classes finish for the school holidays …

Here’s some brilliant news – our community Fitness classes will continue during the school holidays!

Current timetable:

Mondays 7pm CardioFit
Tuesdays 7pm Circuit/Tabata
Wednesday 7pm Abs, Glutes, Thighs
Thursdays 7pm Circuit
Saturdays 8.30am Circuit
Saturdays 9.15am Zumba Dance Fitness

ALL welcome. Different levels of fitness, strength and flexibility catered for. Classes held in Gym 2: Dance studio. First class is FREE and other classes are $7 each. For more information check out our group on Facebook: Fitness@Westlake or email [email protected]

Bus mask and etiquette reminder

Our school has fielded a number of complaints recently from members of the public who have expeinced inappropriate behaviour by our students on public buses. Please remember all students need to wear a mask if travelling on a public bus and behaviour should be respectful of other passengers. We appreciate your support in this.

Term 2 Key Dates

Monday 3 May: Term begins for all students
Thursday 13 May: Teacher-only Day
Friday 4 June: Teacher-only Day
Monday 7 June: Queen’s Birthday Public Holiday (school closed)
Friday 9 July: End of Term 2

Community

Westlake Wellness - Managing a healthy weight

Globally we are increasing in weight – this can have long term implications on health. Maintaining a healthy weight throughout the lifespan is the best defense against the associated nutrition related diseases and their consequences.

The three most important factors in maintaining a healthy weight are:

Sleep
Research shows getting enough sleep is important for weight management, many adolescents and adults struggle to get enough sleep. Try going to bed getting 7-8 hours sleep consistently for a week (you will never go back)

Be more active
Children and adolescents need approximately 60 mins of activity a day and adults 30 mins to keep muscles in good working order, allow blood the move around the body and exercise the heart and lungs – try to have an “active lunchtime” once a week

Eating
Consciously consume food by eating slowly, pause, chew and socialise. Stay hydrated, thirst is often mistaken as hunger, consuming water is the best option for your health as sugary drinks add “empty” calories (as they provide flavour and sweetness but no real nutritional benefit)

Eat more fruit and vegetables, lean protein and low fat dairy. Understand serving and portion size by measuring portions out, don’t eat from the packet where you may not be aware of how much you are eating in one sitting. 

You can support adolescents healthy eating by:

  • Knowing about food and discussing the positive and negative impacts food can have on health
  • Having skills to select and prepare food, use you-tube clips and instagram posts to be inspired
  • Feel confident about selecting food for good health
  • Have an supportive food system/environment which recognises culture and traditions around food

Below are some ideas for how to make popular snacks and meals more nutritious:

  1. Pizza – have a thin crust base (tortilla wrap), use lots of vegetables, reduce the cheese, have one slice with a salad.
  2. Chips and dip – replace the chips with cut up vegetables and use hummus to dip them.
  3. Ice cream – blend frozen berries with a frozen banana in a food processor (no added sugar).
  4. Nachos – mix meat and red kidney beans, use herbs and spices instead of pre-prepared sachets that are often high in salt, serve on rice with guacamole instead of cheese and sour cream.
Sports

NZSS Volleyball Championship Tournament

Ninety-six girls’ teams across New Zealand competed in the 2021 New Zealand Secondary Schools Volleyball Championship in Palmerston North during Summer Tournament week at the end of March. The popularity of volleyball has grown exponentially over the past year among secondary school students.   Volleyball is now the 4th most popular sport in the country, with the latest School Sport NZ Census data showing that more than 22,000 young people are playing at secondary school level.

At the NZSS Champs WGHS Premier A team (pictured left at a previous tournament) had a strong start to the tournament with wins against Havelock North and Bethlehem College to firm up a spot in the top 16.  The team then faced a very strong cross-over pool and suffered the disappointment of 5 narrow losses before finding their feet again and finishing with two strong wins against Tauranga Girls and Taupo-nui-a-Tea. This meant that they finished in a creditable 13th place and the players who are returning next year have gained very valuable experience.  Congratulations to Burnside High School from Christchurch, winners of the NZSS Championship.

In Division 3, (places 33-48) Westlake Girls Senior A (pictured above) won the Division 3 Bronze medal.  With consistent performances across the week, they lost to the eventual division winners in the semi-final.  In their playoff for a podium finish, the team started well but found themselves down 2 – 1 going into the 4th set.  Westlake went on to take an incredibly intense and exciting nail-biter 5-set against Hastings Girls High School.  Westlake Senior A was the highest performing ‘B’ team of all the schools at the tournament which stands us in great stead for next year.

Special thanks go to the coaches and managers of these teams – Katie Adamson (Premier team), Lucille Vukets (Premier Manager), George and Lyric Koria (Coaches of Senior A) and Tania Rameka for your expertise and nurturing.

Community

Future business leader chosen for role in prestigious event

In March, Year 13 student Brooke Batty was selected as a Young Enterprise Scheme (YES) Ambassador. Her role was to induct Sir Ken Stevens (Founder, Managing Director and Chair of Glidepath) into the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame. Brooke was nominated for the role by her Business Studies teacher, following her success in that subject, including being one of five students who established the successful YES business, LunchLab.

Here Brooke shares her experience of being selected for this significant role at this very prestigious event.

In terms of being chosen, each year the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame holds an induction evening (organised by Young Enterprise) and 9 students from across New Zealand are selected by their respective schools to be Ambassadors on the night. This year Westlake Girls was one of the schools chosen and Business Studies teachers Mr Cowley and Mrs Singh selected me to represent our school.  As soon as I was pulled out of class and explained that I had been chosen I took the opportunity straight away because it sounded awesome and being able to meet some of the most successful New Zealand business men and women wasn’t something I was ready to pass up.

When I arrived at the Cordis Hotel on Thursday 25 March, I met the other students who were in the same position as me – nervous but so excited! There were students from all over the country including Wellington and Nelson. We did a few run throughs and were told how to present the awards to the laureate whilst we were on stage and how the night would run. We finished off the run throughs with a pep talk from none other than news anchor Samantha Hayes – who I should add was so lovely to us all and gave us some really helpful tips. Right before we were sent up to our hotel rooms to get ready, we were given a quick lesson on how to use the correct cutlery and glasses for each course of the meal. That was all new to me as well as I’d never had 3 different sets of knives and forks at once before!

Me and a few of the girls who I made friends with, all went up to a hotel room together and had a quick nap before putting on some makeup and our cocktail dresses. We did a few more run-throughs of our speeches in an effort to calm our nerves before getting in the elevator and heading back down to the main hall for the event to start. All I can say is when the doors of the elevator opened and we saw how many people had filled up the once empty room, any efforts to calm our nerves were now pointless. Looking around there had to be about 150-200 people all wearing suits and beautiful dresses, and that’s only the people surrounding the bars, we hadn’t even seen it all yet.

As the event started, people began to filter into the main room where all the tables were set up with food and name cards. I found my table and it was there that I first met Sir Ken Stevens and his family members. I walked around the table and introduced myself to all of them and explained that I would be inducting Sir Ken and be on stage with him. As well as his family members, he also had some of his business partners sitting at the table with us who were all lovely , and one woman in particular I was talking to for the majority of the night!

After the main course there was a 30 min break which is when I got to personally meet the Governor General Dame Patsy Reddy. She was lovely and we had a good conversation in which she asked about my business and I explained that my group’s business ‘LunchLab’ is creating reusable lunch bags out of reused / repurposed fabrics. She was very impressed so if anyone is ever interested in buying our lunch bags, I can proudly (and legally) say they are ‘Governor General of NZ approved!’ .

After the break it was my turn to present and I was invited onto the stage by Samantha Hayes and during this time she was explaining to the audience what school I am from, the business I am a part of in school, and what we are creating. As nervous as I was to be standing on stage presenting in front of so many influential NZ figures, and just so many people in general , I knew that I was representing Sir Ken Stevens and his family and associates so that really pushed me to do as well as I possibly could . I’m pretty stoked with how I presented considering I had about 300+ pairs of eyes all looking at me and my face being projected onto the big screen behind me.

After my speech Sir Ken made his way onto the stage and was awarded his citation and badge from the Governor General and we took a photo, and then he had about a 10 minute interview with one of the hosts of the event.

At the end of the night, I had met many successful people, some including Peri Drysdale , Brendan Lindsay , and of course one of my personal favourites, family members of James Henry Whittaker, the founder of Whittakers chocolate. As me and a few of the girls were leaving to go get our stuff from the hotel room, we were stopped about 6 times just leaving the room to be congratulated by people we hadn’t even met for how well our speeches went which was really cool.

You can see Brooke’s introduction of Sir Ken HERE.

Community

At a crossroad

Our Year 13 cohort found out recently that there are key three reasons young people have accidents while driving.

Attitude Presenter Robbie Baker spent an hour with the students talking about moving into adulthood, responsibility and most importantly, being safe while driving. His three key reasons were:

  • Peer Pressure: Being influenced by others into doing things you wouldn’t normally because you can’t say no – such as driving with passengers at night on a restricted licence.
  • Being too Confident: Driving isn’t one of those things where you’ll be alright if you wing it.
  • Distractions: Driving needs your full attention – be aware of what’s happening around you.

He summed up talking about the Risk Myth – it will never happen to me.

Sports

WGHS welcomes netballers from Christchurch

It was our please to host athletes from St Margaret’s College in Christchurch yesterday, for a friendly game of netball. WGHS was victorious, winning 29-23 – however the day (while competitive) was also about relationship building. WGHS’s April Ieremia and St Margaret’s netball coach Julie Seymour were able to reconnect and reminisce about their days as Silver Ferns together.
WGHS Premier Netball Coach is Liz Page, with Toa Tanimo as Assistant Coach and Louise Clouston as Manager.

Community

Ball gown and suit sale

Sports

Student makes high performance squad

Congratulations to Year 13 student Kate Rogers, who has been selected as a member of the 2021 Surf Lifesaving New Zealand High Performance Squad.

Sports

Outstanding performance leads to U19 NZ trial

As a result of her individual performance at the recent Maadi Cup, Olivia Anderson (Year 13) has been awarded a New Zealand U19 trial. Here’s how this prestigious achievement came about, in her own words.

Waking up after coming home from the New Zealand Secondary Schools Champs (Maadi Cup), after a night out celebrating the season and actually being able to complete a Maadi this year, there was a text on my phone from my coach, Kim Dowden, congratulating me on being selected to trial. I ran into my sister’s room and started screaming! After rowing for four years, battling through various lockdowns, and devoting a lot of time and commitment  to the sport – not to mention the commitment from my coaches, parents, friends and other family – I finally secured a trial for the U19 New Zealand rowing squad! This was something I never thought would ever happen as I’ve always been more of a quiet achiever and just put my head down to get the work done.

I was overjoyed when I got selected and am very excited to experience the trial at the end of April!

The trials will take place from Saturday 24 April to Friday 30 April, where I will undergo a 2k erg test on the first day, followed by multiple seat races throughout the duration of the week. An erg test is the primary tool coaches use to determine an athlete’s fitness and strength.

I started rowing as a novice U15 rower, and continued through as an U18 for the past four years at high school, representing both Westlake Girls High School and North Shore Rowing Club. In 2019, in the U17 Squad, I rowed up with 3 U18s (Sylvia Leadly, Devon Thorpe, and Nyla Bunya and coxed by Jamie Whittaker) and won at the North Island Championship and Maadi!

The following year we won silver at the North Island champs in the U18 quad, however Maadi was cancelled due to Level 4 Lockdown, so we didn’t get to produce a final result one last time together.

As those girls left I started to sweep more (one oar rowed with both hands) as I stroked (rowed) the U18 pair this season, as well as U18 four and U18 eight. This season at Maadi (North Islands cancelled due to Lockdown), we came 4th in the A final for the U18 four and medaled silver in the North Island placings. We placed 1st in the B final for our U18 eight, having devastatingly just missed getting a place in the A final.

 

Sports

Podium finishes for basketballers

Westlake Girls entered four teams in New Zealand Secondary Schools 3 x 3 Basketball Championship which started on 24 March 2021 at Bruce Pullman Arena, Takanini.  All the teams made it into the playoffs however just two sides were rewarded with podium finishes.

Junior A, captained by Amy Pateman, scraped into their Junior Elite semi-final after a mixed bag of results in the round robin pool play.  They faced the top placed favourites St Peters School in the playoff, a team they had suffered a big loss to earlier.  However, Westlake stunned their opposition with a united and commanding performance to win the semi-final 15-11.  In the final they met, Hamilton Girls but the Waikato team refused to relinquish their lead and collected the silverware after a 9-4 finish.

Congratulations to the Junior A silver medallists – Amy Pateman, Jaz Zanders, Xanthe Pinder, Lily Fotu and Emma-Kay Schroeder (pictured above).

Junior B, captained by Olivia Stevenson, was the next best finishing team for Westlake Girls, winning Bronze in the Junior Open grade.  Senior B finished in 4th place and the Senior A team came 8th.  Ironically, Queen Margaret College from Wellington which won the tournament, was a team that the Senior A team beat in pool play.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Junior B Bronze winners

 

 

 

 

 

Senior B (4th)

 

 

 

 

 

Senior A (8th)

Uncategorized

Softball team places third

Our Westlake Girls Senior Softball Team had a great tournament at the Senior NZSS Division 1 Softball Nationals at Price Edward Ball Park in Papakura. They came away with some great results, winning their  final game against MAGS 11-1  for 3rd overall position.

Kalani Mariner came up with top batter of the Tournament, they  also had four students who made the tournament team, these students are  Kalani Mariner, Jayah Lee, Charlotte Graham, Cheyleigh Natana-Wihongi.

Sports

Cricket team secure fourth spot

Our Cricket 1st XI played in the Auckland Secondary School girls competition from 22 to 25 March at Lloyd Elsmore Park in Howick, where a total of nine teams competed to represent Auckland in the national Gillette Venus Cup at the end of the year.

Although ranked 7th, Westlake Girls came top of their pool with convincing wins against St. Kentigern’s, Mt. Roskill Grammar and Takapuna Grammar, and a close defeat to Mt Albert Grammar. This gave Westlake a semi-final against Baradene, who comfortably won. Westlake once again met Mt Albert Grammar in the 3rd-4th play-off, losing a very tense and exciting match by four runs to place fourth overall.

Brooke James (12WBM) was leading batter and MVP for the tournament while Leah Watton (12OSN) was the leading bowler and Aaliyah Patel fifth ranked bowler.

The team consisted of Brooke James (captain), Alexa Bowker, Natasha Busch, Jaime Holdsworth, Samantha Holdsworth, Lily Johnson, Ella McPherson, Aaliyah Patel, Nelita Pistorius, Zahra Sajjad, Emily Watton, and Leah Watton.

Sports

It's all about giving it a go!

A range of students were able to experience Squash for the first time last week during their Physical Education lessons.

Auckland Squash coach Michael Blanchard and ex-students Danielle Duberly and Eva Gooch (who both left WGHS in 2019) took the players through demonstrations and the rules of the game, then it was all about giving it a go. Students worked their way around the gym in groups until they ended up on the mirco court where they could put their developing skills to the test. 

If students are keen to continue developing their Squash skills they can head down to North Shore Squash Club on a Wednesday afternoon or see the Sports Department for more information.

Sports

Successful day at Athletics Champs

Westlake Girls had a successful day at Mt Smart for the Auckland Athletics Championships recently. We had 13 students qualify with nine attending on the day. Highlights were:

Kate Borton
Intermediate 200m – Silver
Intermediate 400m – Bronze
Intermediate 800m – Silver

 

 

Karmen Maritz
Junior Javelin – Gold
Junior Shot – Silver
Junior Discus – Silver

 

 

Emma Schroeder
Junior High Jump – Bronze

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