Eight swimmers from Westlake Girls competed in the Intercollegiate Individual Swimming Championship at West Wave Acquatic Centre recently.
Isabella Halili (pictured above in the left photo, on the right) won:
Kaira Wohlfarth (pictured above in the right photo, on the left) won:
Following Westlake’s outstanding success at the Regional Big Sing recently, confirmation has come through that Cantare, Choralation and Voicemale have made it through to the finale to be held in Christchurch next month.
The choirs will perform alongside other school choirs from throughout New Zealand in the three-day event. At the 2019 finale (Big Sing was cancelled due to Covid last year), all three Westlake choirs won Gold.
After their trifecta of “Best Performance Festival Programme” at the Regionals, members of Cantare, Choralation and Voicemale are understandably excited about their chances at the Finale – hoping their hard work and dedication will be rewarded.
Congratulations to everyone involved in our Chinese Night extravaganza last Friday. It was a brilliant night of dance, music and celebration – played out amongst a full house of enthusiastic supporters!
By Devon Johnson
Year 9 Creative Genius
As part of my Design and Visual Communication (DVC) class, we had to plan and design a ‘blockbod’ based on the collectable blockheads that were in Z gas stations a little while ago. The design had to appeal to possible collectors of all ages and had to have some sort of fun element. It also had to be a recognisable New Zealand creature. We were given wooden cubes that we had to base the body of our design off.
I created a Ruru because as well as being a known New Zealand creature, I have always found them adorable, and knew I could make the wide eyes into an attention-grabbing feature.
I spent the most time in class working with clay to create the shape of the Ruru’s head, feet, and beak, taking them home to bake once they were complete. One thing I really wanted to incorporate into my design was the way a Ruru’s eyes almost seemed to glow if you saw one at night.
Whenever I do a school project, I always like to look through anything that I am throwing out. In this case, I found a nightlight with lots of spherical bulbs that stuck through the plastic. When I looked at them, they reminded me just of Ruru eyes, especially because they glowed yellow. With my mothers help, I removed the electronics from the plastic and cut off the extra bulbs, making it so there were only two attached. This was the most nerve-wracking and challenging part of my project. After we had done that, we hot glued the hardened clay onto the cube and threaded the electronics through holes I had left in the head and leg attachments. Finally, I glued on the feathers. This was definitely my favourite part of the creation process as I was able to see what my Ruru actually looked like for the first time (before the feathers it looked very, very creepy and skeletal).
I am very happy with my end result. It turned out better than I could have hoped, and the eyes actually glowed! I think I managed to create quite the character—with his glowing eyes and the addition of his superhero cape, Super Ruru was ready to save the world (or just bring a smile to my teacher’s face)!
NB: Devon’s creation will be on display in the Hard Materials Technology Room during our Open Night on 27 July.
Ticket sales are going well for our combined Westlake schools production of Socially Distanced Shakespeare. Due to the nature of this year’s performance, we are reducing the number of people attending each show, to provide a truly unique theatre-going experience.
Each scene is taken from Shakespeare and deals with either distance and friction, or reconciliation. The scenes vary from comedic to dramatic, and will tickle the funny bone as well as touch the heart. They will be performed in a variety of layouts – in the round, in traverse, and even in one scene, with the audience sitting amongst the action!
So, make sure you don’t miss out, by securing your tickets today.
What: Socially Distanced Shakespeare
When: Tuesday 27 July – Saturday 31 July @ 7.30pm
Where: Westlake Boys Auditorium
Tickets: bit.ly/wbhstickets
Ticket prices: Adult $20; Child $15; Family (of 4) $50
Contact: Nick Brown via [email protected]
Here’s a teaser – four photos from our Production Camp.
On Monday 9 August, WGHS is holding two Study Tips events for students – one during the day and one during the evening.
During the first event, an expert in effective teaching and learning, study skills, motivation and positive thinking will be coming to talk to our Year 9, 10 and 11 students during the school day.
Affectionately known as the ‘Study Queen’, Karen Tui Boyes is passionate about providing students practical ways to study. “Passing exams is supposed to get you ahead in life – not make you a nervous wreck” says Karen. Karen’s workshops and resources for students are fun and engaging and packed full of practical study tips that students can use in class, at home and during prep time.
In the evening, Karen will be presenting a talk aimed at senior students and their parents, although junior parents are also welcome to attend. It will be held from 7 – 8.30pm, in our new Event Centre. We encourage all our senior students and their parents to attend this excellent presentation.
The Halberg Trust is synonymous with New Zealand’s Supreme Sports Awards, the “Halbergs”, however, its purpose it to enrich the lives of the physically disabled.
Last month Young Māori students from North Shore Colleges were given the opportunity to develop leadership potential within themselves and the community and to learn about inclusion with the Halberg Manaakitanga Leadership Programme.
Year 12 Westlake Girls students Ava Jericevich, Tiana Rameka, Rose Farr, Holly Williams and Cheyleigh Natana-Wihongi, were invited to attend the three-week course at Shore Junction in Takapuna to learn skills that would culminate in co-facilitating an adapted sports day for young disabled tamariki from local primary schools.
Already frontrunners in their sports, each student was challenged to understand and modify games to suit student disabilities. The students embraced and embodied the spirit of manaakitanga and worked hard to make the Junior Sports Day which included wheelchair basketball, gymsports, cross-fit, throwing and archery, a memorable and joyful experience for their disabled tamariki.
The students are heartfelt advocates of inclusion.
Pictured above from left: Ava Jericevich, Tiana Rameka, Rose Farr, Holly Williams and Cheyleigh Natana-Wihongi
Three Westlake students have been named in the U-22 Auckland Women’s Squad to compete in the Cricket Nationals in Christchurch this month. Congratulations to Olivia Anderson (pictured left), Brooke James (above left) and Leah Watton (above right).
Leah played in the North Island Indoor Cricket champs in June, and her team, the Harbour U22 Women won the tournament. She was named MVP of the Harbour team and MVP of the U22 tournament.
Year 11 student and 2021 Tania Dalton Foundation Scholarship recipient, Zoe Crawford, has been chosen by Swimming NZ for its U18 ‘Tri Series’ Tour, to be run during the school holidays.
A total of 24 females and 24 males have been selected for the gruelling tour, based on their national performances. The purpose of the Tri Series Tour is to provide multiple opportunities for young athletes to grow and develop their skills and to help them prepare for international success. With Covid-19 preventing overseas travel, Swimming NZ created this opportunity as an intense camp and competition environment to help support the athletes on their swimming journey.
The basic format of the Tri Series Tour is three teams of 18 battling it out over six days. The winning team will be awarded the Ta Tama Trophy at the end of the Tour in Huntly.
The tour will include tough conditions with challenging training sets, travel and compromised racing conditions, to grow resilient and adaptable coaches and athletes.
Now, that’s one way to spend the first week of your school holidays! We know you’ll nail it Zoe.
By Shella Dabbach
Year 13
Connection before correction. For the Year 13 Physical Education internal on contemporary leadership principles, students travelled quickly up the road to Forrest Hill Primary School, leading sessions to train our students before their tournament session with us at the covered courts.
We connected with students first by bouncing around different groups – having them rotate between each activity. It was lovely to be within their youthful and energetic atmosphere, the students found joy in any game we played. We introduced ourselves then once they got to know us, we began playing and correcting their teamwork skills and throwing/catching skills.
From collaborative to transactional leadership styles, we found it really inspiring to learn from children that sports is all about improvement, playing fair, respect, and of course fun!
Congratulations to our Prefects, led by Deputy Head Prefect Charis Allison, who organised the amazing array of activities for Purple Power Week recently.
A gold coin donation was collected on the Friday, in return for wearing mufti, and from this almost $1,800 was raised for Youthline.
By Sarah Binnie
40-Hour Famine Committee Lead
The 40-Hour Famine 2021 at Westlake has been extremely successful. We held two really effective lunchtime events where we had a guest speaker and held an information event to inform the students about what is happening in Sub-Saharan Africa. Our other event was a lunchtime quiz and simulation event which also attracted a lot of students.
We had our 40-Hour Famine Committee (pictured left with World Vision Ambassador and former Westlaker Alyssa Wilson) going around classes to promote these events and to also encourage students to sign up for the famine. With all of the committee’s hard work in promotion, as a school we have raised $10,088.90 which exceeds our goal of $10,000 – which is a truly amazing effort.
Last year I attended a scholarship summit through the school and this meant that this year I got the opportunity to have an interview through LifeFM as they were running a 40-hour broadcast for the 40-Hour Famine (pictured top with LifeFM presenter Eloise in Percy the Caravan). It was an awesome opportunity to talk about what the 40-Hour Famine committee has done this year to inform the students at Westlake and also enabled me to encourage the listeners to participate in the famine.
Even though the 40-hour Famine weekend is over, the committee is still going around classes to encourage the students to continue fundraising and having such a strong impact on the lives of those in Sub-Saharan Africa.
During the International Languages week, 55 Year 9 Language students drew International Languages posters with the aim of being selected to have their poster submitted into the New Zealand Association of Language Teachers’ International Languages Week National Poster competition.
Amy Cho 9ACS, Lily Glasgow 9WHM and Afaaf Farrukh 9WHM were selected from WGHS to enter the competition. Best of all, Amy won first prize with her poster – pictured below!
“I speak both English and Korean at home,” says Amy. “I learnt French at intermediate school and also this semester. Learning French was fun, and I can speak some French now. Making the poster was fun too.”
Afaaf (poster pictured right) says, “I speak English at home but my family communicates with me in Urdu. I can also read Arabic and Korean. I learnt Spanish and French at Intermediate and I have learnt Japanese at Westlake Girls so far.
I really enjoy the culture and language. I like the Studio Ghibli movies that we get to watch in Japanese. I feel really privileged to learn the Japanese language.”
This from Lily (poster below): I learnt some Japanese at primary school and Intermediate school. I took Japanese first semester and it was fun. I am going to take French next term and I am very looking forward to it! My dad told me if I learnt Language properly, he could take me to that country!
Westlake students representing two Synchro Clubs recently competed in the 2021 North Island Artistic Swimming Championships, held in Tauranga from 3-4 July.
Amelie Caird and Sua Lee (both Year 10) represented the Nort Harbour Synchro Club, coming 2nd in the Aquanaut Team Combo.
Year 9 student Ashley Armstrong (pictured above right) also represented the North Harbour Synchro Club, and fellow Year 9 student, Siena Schiltknecht (pictured above left and in action), represented the Waitemata Synchro Club. Ashley came in 9th and Siena 15th in the 13-15-year-old solo event.
These are great accomplishments – only the best athletes from within a club are chosen for solos – and Siena was amongst the youngest of the competitors.
Congratulations to all students.
The holidays haven’t quite arrived yet for four of our amazing students, who are tonight competing in the Senior Division Finale of the National Secondary School’s Case Competition (NSCC).
Maggie Zhou, Isabelle Lee, Jacqueline Ramos and Jasmine Tsai (pictured above from left) were one of five teams to progress to the finals after competing in the national competition recently.
“NSCC is a premier schools business case competition in New Zealand,” says Jacqueline. “Teams compete in two rounds, each with a different business case to analyse. Those who make it through to the final present to a range of university and alumni judges. The competition gives students the chance to learn about business and gain practical skills relevant to their studies and future career pathways,” she says.
“For the first round, we were given a 20-page case study about an unfamiliar tourism company in which we had to identify issues and opportunities for the growth of the business. We were given two weeks to analyse the case and make a solution to increase their market share.”
Jacqueline says making the final was extra special this year, as a record number of teams from all over New Zealand had entered.
“We are thankful for this opportunity as it is enabling us to learn more about business and improving our practical knowledge in the business field. We are also very thankful to our teachers for their support.”
For tonight’s final, the team was given two days to analyse a new case study and prepare a presentation to a panel of judges followed by a Q&A.
All the best for tonight, team! We’ll let you know how they get on!
The Westlake Girls Ski Team proved that there is depth and talent in the pool of seasoned and upcoming skiers this year at the Auckland Secondary Schools Ski Champs at Snowplanet. The team competed strongly in an incredibly competitive event to finish 5th best ski school in Auckland.
Young Year 9 student, Lena Turnbull (pictured above), shone by winning the school’s only medal when she finished 3rd overall in Slopestyle. Fellow Year 9 student, Phoebe Dobson placed 8th and Harriet Gowing finished 13th.
A field of 97 racers competed in showcase Giant Slalom Race and Westlake performed well to have 3 racers finish in the top 20 overall. Phoebe Dodson and Lena Turnbull tied for 6th place in the junior girls and both came 18th place overall while Harriet Gowing was 20th overall, and 13th in senior girls. Claudia Pilkington, just 0.2 seconds behind Harriet, placed 24th overall with Tayla Coplestone 37th and Eva Todd 53rd overall. In their first ever ski race, Mackenzie South and Luka Kirk placed 65th and 68th respectively.
Each race added to the overall points for the team and it meant that as a school, Westlake Girls placed 5th overall, behind Kristin, St Cuthbert, and Diocesan and just one point behind St Mary’s College. Westlake Girls was the number one public school at the competition.
The Westlake Snowsports Team is now heading to Wanaka for the July holidays to train with Olympian Juliane Bray and Sam Lynch on Cardrona.
By Lina Anmer (Year 11) and Shivani Arivuchelvan (Year 10)
On Wednesday, 16 June, some of our fantastic wāhine had the utmost privilege to share their cultures, religions and their unique and spectacular heritage as a part of the teacher toolkit session.
This event fostered unity and cultural diversity in our school, as we share the beauty of many cultures across the globe. This opportunity was to allow the learner to share with the teachers about Westlake’s diverse cultural backgrounds. We believe that when people learn more about each other, they understand each other more and can connect better.
Our hardworking and inspiring wāhine prepared extraordinary exhibits that shared precious cultural objects, fun activities that sparked terrific conversations and varied food selection across the globe.
We had nine groups represented in this cultural meeting: Muslim Arabs, South Asia, Indonesia South East Asia, Korean, Oceania, Persia, Philippines, Eurasian/Chinese.
Well done and fantastic job to all who have participated in this incredible event. Everyone rocked their cultural outfits and shared their culture both creatively and very proudly. Most importantly, on behalf of the Get to Know Me Team, we would like to thank the fantastic teachers who came along to support us and Ms McRae and Mr Foster for supporting us in carrying out this incredible gathering. We are truly grateful.
Many photos were captured to cherish the colour and spirit of the event. We all can agree that the World is our town and everyone is our Family.
Our School Office will be shut over the holidays (12 – 23 July inclusive), however emails will be check periodically: [email protected]
During August, students are able to make their course selections for 2022. Courses will be visible to students in SchoolPoint from late July (more details to follow) and then Online Course Selection opens on Wednesday 11 August. On Thursday 12 August the school is holding a Subject Selection Evening for students and whānau to discuss courses and ask questions. We will be sending an email to parents nearer the time with more information.
The first Tuesday of Term 3 is Open night where the students and families of prospective Y9 2022 tour the school. To get the school ready for this event, there is a shortened day and bell time changes. The day will finish at 2.20pm for students. There will be no Form Time, each teaching period is about 5min shorter and lunchtime is 10min shorter. The bell times are listed below.
BELL TIMES: Tuesday 27 July (Timetable Day 7):
8.45am: Period 1 warning bell
8.50am: Start of Period 1
9.45am: End of Period 1, start of Period 2
10.40am: End of Period 2, start of interval
11.00am: End of interval warning bell
11.05am: Start of Period 3
11.55am: End of Period 3, start of lunchtime
12.30pm: End of lunchtime warning bell
12.35pm: Start of Period 4
1.25pm: End of Period 4, start of Period 5
2.20pm: End of Period 5
Senior Exams will run for two weeks beginning on Monday 13 September.
From the first day of Term 3 2021, the 046 from Orewa To Rosmini College and Westlake Boys will start running 3 minutes earlier than at present. The bus will depart bus stop number 4916 from 18 Puriri Ave at 7:17am . There will be no change to the route. This change will help to ensure students arrive at school on time.
From the first day of Term 3 2021, the 047 from Gulf Harbour To Westlake Girls And Carmel College will start running 5 minutes later than at present. The bus will depart bus stop number 4620 from Opp 1143 Whangaparaoa Rd at 7:00 am . There will be no change to the route. This change will help to ensure students arrive at school on time.
If you haven’t checked out TaxGift yet, please do! It’s such a simple way to donate to help us reach our goal of being debt-free on our new Event Centre. It might only be a few dollars for you, but it could make the world of difference for us. All the information you need is HERE and then it’s just a couple of clicks to sign up, and TaxGift will do the rest.
Our Second-hand Uniform Shop will no longer be open on Saturdays, but will now be open each Friday during Term Time from 12.25 to 1.15pm. Just come to the main reception.
Monday 26 July: Term starts (Day 6 on the timetable)
Tuesday 27 July: Open Night 4pm and 6pm
July 27 – 31: School production “Socially Distanced Shakespeare” (bit.ly/wbhstickets)
Friday 6 August: Gala Concert
Monday 9 August: Study Skills Day
Tuesday 10 August: Teacher-only Day
Wednesday 11 August: Online Subject Selection begins
Thursday 12 August: Subject Selection Evening for students/parents
Week of 23 August: Big Sing Finale
Monday 13 September (Week 8): Senior Exams begin
Friday 24 September (Week 9): Senior Exams end
Wednesday 29 September: Dance Showcase
Friday 1 October: End of Term 3
By Shella Dabbach
Enviroment Group and Onewa’s Enviroment Prefect
This week, Sam Tu’itahi – the Community Activator from Kaipātiki Project – came in to our Environmental Group with a beautiful story to explain the environmental values included in Tongan culture. Kaipātiki Project is a North Shore-based group leading native bush regeneration, growing native plants, and providing conservation volunteering opportunities.
He passed around string and we got to know our wonderful Enviro Group better, asking each other why we joined the group and what we care about.
Tongan and Māori culture both value the environment incredibly. Because it is a part of our home, we must cherish and protect it at all costs.
Kaipatiki Project was donated money from the Enviro Group’s successful clothes swap recently and you can find more about what they do via this link https://kaipatiki.org.nz/.
More than 100 musicians from both Westlake schools have been on a North Island tour this week.
Students from Westlake Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, Concert Band and Big Band visited Palmerston North, Napier and Taupō for a series of concerts and workshops. Wellington was also meant to be on the agenda, however plans changed after the recent Alert Level change.
After performing at Palmerston North Boys High School, groups spent the following day working with tutors from NZSO and NZSOM, fine tuning their repertoire. They then moved on to Napier, performing at Iona College’s new performance centre, finishing the tour in Taupō.
We’ll feature more later, but here are some photos from the tour.
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We all eat, for energy, for growth, for repair and replacement of body tissue and often for pleasure. However, there is evidence to show that skills in selecting and preparing food are declining, impacting the health of future adults. There are long term benefits to adolescents learning basic food selection, preparation and nutrition knowledge.
By being involved in the selection of food, adolescents are making decisions about what they eat, learning about seasonal foods, cost and what is involved to make a healthy meal. Using the New Zealand Nutrition and Activity guidelines can provide a framework for nutrition needed during this stage of development and help consolidate knowledge that is taught from parents and school.
Start small with simple family meals where the adolescent is involved in one component of the meal, then as confidence grows move on to greater independence in food selection and preparation for the family.
Put your adolescent in charge of their own breakfast and lunch, and give them responsibility to cook for others once a week – this will build feelings of self worth by contributing to the family chores.
Encourage them to do the full cleanup, storing leftovers correctly, washing dishes, putting things away and leaving the kitchen clean and tidy.
Simple meals to start with:
Chickpea curry on rice
Stir fry beef/chicken
Macaroni Cheese/pasta bake
Boil up
Roasted vegetables and falafel wraps
Baked potato
Laksa
Nachos on rice
Things that are great to make you look like a professional in the kitchen:
Basic bread dough – for pizza bases, bread rolls and focaccia bread
Scones – quick bread
Hummus
By Naomi Yacyshen
2021 Director
On Thursday 1 July, 62 Westlake dance students went to the Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre in Aotea Centre for the day to compete in a school competition called ShowQuest.
Our theme this year was Alice in Wonderland. We adapted the well-known story to incorporate ideas around mental health and overcoming negative thoughts.
The dancers performed outstandingly and it was definitely a show to watch, everyone did amazingly and it was a great experience. We came away with six awards that night! These included Best Costume and Enhancement, Best Lighting, Best Use of Props, Best Use of Wearable Arts. As well, as our Mad Hatter toi costume worn by Juliette La Ville received Best use of Recycled Fashion, and Best Stage Presence (pictured below left and right).
We also had three girls involved in the Toi category at Showquest. Breanna Herrera and Dawn Vilaga designed the garment Virago, which was modeled by Francine Rosales. They won the award for Outstanding Storytelling. Here is their garment description that helped them win this amazing award;
A virago is a young female warrior who demonstrates the epitome of courage and heroic qualities. We want our piece to be a symbol of power and strength for young women. As students of an all-girls school, women empowerment is something our community values and therefore plays a huge role in our growth as a person.
Through our piece, we want to depict the double standards women are expected to meet as females and leaders, and that these social constructs should no longer be ingrained in our society. To reinforce this message, the use of symbolism is evident throughout our garment.
From using the painting to convey the idea of beauty and leadership within females, to the various uses of silver accessories and embellishments to signify armour, representing the strength of a woman. As well as colour, with the equal uses of pink and blues, to portray the concepts of females being able to be masculine and feminine.
Pictured top are Ashley Turner (Deputy Director) and Naomi Yacyshen (Director) with Westlake’s awards.
Hey Sigmund is an Australian-based website boasting some very cool tips, advice and webinars on a range of parenting subjects, based around psychology.
In the latest newsletter, they focus on anxiety, and are offering an online coaching programme called From Anxious to Brave: Strengthening Children and Teens – which begins on 22 July.
You can find out more HERE or visit Hey Sigmund’s website for great content on the latest research and news in psychology.
Year 13 students from Westlake Girls have been awarded First, Third and two Highly Commended in the NZCF Federation Choral Composition competition.
Jonine Tiakia won with her composition piece Invictus. Lisa Qian came third equal with A Night Thought, while Hannah Jones and Melody Zhang both received a Highly Commended for Voices of the Air and Tree at my Window respectively.
The NZCF-SOUNZ Choral Composition Competition was introduced to mark the third millennium, with a trophy presented by NZCF Auckland Region. The competition is run in conjunction with SOUNZ Centre for New Zealand Music, and awards a prize for the best choral piece composed by a New Zealand secondary school student. There were 23 entries in this year’s competition.
Pictured with Jonine at the piano are from left: Hannah, Lisa and Melody.