Noelle Nayon is one of Westlake Girl’s talented Contemporary musicians currently in Year 13. Over the past few years, her song writing skills have developed and grown dramatically and she is now consistently producing high quality songs with intricate chord progressions and carefully crafted lyrics.
We were very excited to learn that Noelle’s hard work has paid off with her placing as the runner-up in the North Shore Sound Depot Song Writing Competition. This competition awards Noelle the opportunity to record and produce her original song in a recording studio with the help of professional sound engineers.
“It was a huge honour to be named the runner-up, as part of NZ Music Month 2022,” says Noelle. “I entered my song, Temptation, which I both wrote and composed as a part of my Year 13 Music Contemporary course (featuring Stella Ranginui). I’m so lucky to be able to record my song at Devonport Depot Sound in the Depot Artspace creative hub, with their professional engineers and equipment later this year as my prize. I’m very grateful for this opportunity and to have this experience!”
We can’t wait to hear the final result!
We were required to design a mixture of a mythological creature from our culture and a real animal. To assist us with our creations we all attended a trip to the Weta Workshop in Auckland city. 
Year 10 Visual Art classes visited the Weta Workshop in Auckland CBD two weeks ago. We were very privileged to have had this opportunity to see the exquisitely detailed sculptures created by the skilled artists.
Thanks go to Leisen Jobe, Liz O’Leary, Will Lacey and Renae Dodds for organising a brilliant day for the 60 students who participated.
Despite the torrential rain on Tuesday evening, our annual Open Night was a huge success, with more than 1,000 people dodging the rain to experience a little of WGHS.
In honour of the International Celebration of Language and Culture Week, seven of our students visited Takapuna Normal Intermediate School this past Wednesday. The students were:
From telling stories about how we can save our gorilla’s habitats by reducing the amount of palm oil we purchase, to making masks to show our support for the giraffes, it’s safe to say that the entire day was a huge success for the senior Social Studies students.
During the celebration of Matariki, the Year 12 PE cohort had the opportunity to gain credits by participating in a Ki o Rahi tournament. 
Our Pupuke Kahui Ako joined forces with our STEAM Student Leaders (Years 9 to 13) to celebrate Matariki and International Women in Engineering Day and tackle hands-on the under-representation of Māori, Pasifika and girls in STEAM. 
“The Mission to Mars workshop was an amazing experience for the primary and intermediate students to get a feel of the future ahead in STEAM roles. There were many hands-on technology and small projects the students got to experience and work on. I was leading the Virtual Reality workshop. The students viewed a short virtual reality experience of Life on 
“In the ‘Mission to Mars’ workshop, I led the activity ‘Driving a Martian Rover on the surface of Mars’. We simulated Mars’ uneven terrain and used Spheros robots as Martian rovers to train students to navigate the challenging martian terrain
It was through high-school (pictured left) that I experienced a deep passion for the environment after learning so much in school about our own carbon footprint and the easy simple changes every human-being can make to reduce this! My passion grew and manifested itself into every corner of my life, including adopting a plant-based diet to further support our environment. 
The Service Prefects – myself, Megan Meng, Raeanne Leow, Kayla Akkaya, and Imogen Burge, along with their committees, raised over $3,600 towards Westlake’s five House charities: Auckland City Mission, The Pet Refuge, Shine, Starship Hospital, and the Cancer Society.
We could not have raised this money for our charities without the support of all those who attended and our generous sponsors which included: Life Pharmacy, The Warehouse, Looksharp, Gerome Restaurant, Sal’s Pizza, Krispy Kreme, Countdown, Events Cinema, and Carlton Party Hire.
On Wednesday 29 June, the Music Department staff ran the first WGHS Soloist Competition in the Event Centre. 
Senior Division:
“This event celebrates the chance for young Māori orators to compete among the secondary schools in Tāmaki Makaurau. Speakers, from Years 9 to 13, can use their voices and share their opinion on a topic of their choice. The competition supports the use of Te Reo Māori or English as the medium of expression. This year, I competed in the ‘Korimako’ division for ‘Senior English’, which involved giving a 7-minute prepared speech, and a 3-minute impromptu speech.
“In previous years at Manu Kōrero, I have stayed at prize-giving by myself, as the others tend to go home in the afternoon, so it meant a lot having Maddi, Kaianne and Caitlin stay. Neither Maddi, or Matua Eddie coached me with my speech, but they both showed endless support. I have known Maddi for a few years now as we used to be in Kapa Haka together when she was a student at WGHS. She came up from Wellington to watch and support me at Manu Kōrero.
Originally scheduled for 20 August 2021, plans for the Centre’s Grand Opening were snaffled when New Zealand went into lockdown just two days prior. Thankfully we had held a special blessing the week before, and once lockdown ended, the Centre was used for a range of end-of-year activities.
The guest list included foundation pupils and other alumni, Board members, Ministry of Education representatives, key community leaders, donors to the school, staff, students and most importantly a myriad of people involved with the design and building of the Event Centre including reps from Teak, Athfield Architects, BQH, Octa, ecubed, and WSP.
Congratulations to Year 13 students Mackenzie Chatfield and Izzy Pugh. Mackenzie has been named in the U18 Women’s National Basketball Team competing in the FIBA U18 Women’s Asia Championship in India during September. You can read more about Mackenzie in this edition of Te Roto.
Zoe Crawford has been selected to represent New Zealand at both the Junior Pan Pacific Games (swimming) in Hawaii and Surf Lifesaving U19 World Champs in Italy. These are awesome opportunities and to help get her to these amazing events, her family is organising a fundraising event on Friday 19 August at Mairangi Bowling Club. 
Former student and 1st XI Hockey Captain, Paige Blake, has been named Hockey New Zealand’s Most Outstanding Young Person for 2021. This is what they Hockey NZ had to say:
Congratulations to Year 9 student Atlanta Hetariki who has been selected for the Māori U14 Girls Team, representing New Zealand Māori at the Pasifika Youth Cup in October.
