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Te Reo O Te Roto
The Language of the Lake
Issue 58 | 10 February 2023
From the Principal

From the Principal

Kia ora Parents and Caregivers,

Welcome to the start of a new school year and the first newsletter for 2023. It’s lovely to have our students back, full of energy and enthusiasm. I want to extend a special welcome to the new families who have joined the Westlake whānau this year. We hope your child has enjoyed the first couple of weeks with us and is starting to settle and make friends.

It was a slightly delayed start, and we acknowledge that it has been a difficult time for many people following the unprecedented rain and flooding in Auckland over the last few weeks. If you have been negatively impacted following the floods, please reach out to your child’s Form teacher or Dean so we can help support you in any way we can.

We were fortunate that the damage to the school was relatively minimal, and we were able to open for the start of Term 1 with everything operational and running smoothly.

I would like to congratulate all our senior students who have worked so hard to achieve their excellent NCEA and NZQA scholarship results and a huge thank you to our staff who helped make it all happen. Next week we have our first whole school Academic Assembly where we will celebrate our results and congratulate our students that achieved Scholarships and Excellence.

Next week we will be holding our first House assemblies and we are looking forward to hosting Parents and whānau at the Year 9 Parents evening and the NCEA evening later this month.

Below is a list of upcoming key events, and you will receive further communication about these.

With cyclone Gabrielle approaching please stay safe, follow the Government advice and prepare for potentially more heavy rain and strong winds. If the cyclone causes any interruptions we will put a notice on the website.

Have a lovely weekend.

Jane Stanley
Principal

Events in the coming weeks:

  • Thursday 16 February – Swimming Sports
  • Monday 20 February – Whole school Academic Assembly (new date)
  • Wednesday 22 February – Year 9 New Parents evening (new date)
  • Friday 24 February – Athletics Day
  • Wednesday 1 March – Year 9 Tabloid Sports Day
  • Wednesday 1 March – Whānau Hui
  • Tuesday 21 March – Tertiary Night
  • Thursday 30 March – Report Evening #1
  • Tuesday 4 April – Report Evening #2
  • Thursday 6 April – last day of Term 1
  • Friday 7 April – Good Friday
Arts & Culture

Sydney Brandolino's recent writing success

Congratulations to our Year 13 student Sydney Brandolino. Sydney entered the Mindfood short story competition and her story was selected to be published in the March 2023 issue (on sale now).

Called ‘Painting Corn Snakes’ Sydney says, “My inspiration was mostly 20th century short horror (mostly psychological) stories, in particular, Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery. Short stories are, to me, such an incredible medium, especially since they force everything to be very condensed whilst still providing the same impact as a novel. I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of unreliable narrators as well, and took some inspiration from films such as American Psycho, Fight Club, and Black Swan in order to portray a (spoilers!) disturbed narrator with a warped sense of reality. Although I adore writing horror stories, short or otherwise, I pinky-promise it’s all entirely fiction, and that I have no murder-y tendencies.”

You can find a copy of the magazine in the library if you would like to read Sydney’s story.

Sports

North Island Club Rowing Championships 28 - 30 January

We had a great weekend of racing at the North Island Club Championships held at Lake Karapiro at the end of January. Our squad of 47 achieved 2 D finals (top 32 finish), 6 B finals (top 16 finish) and 6 A finals (top 8 finishes). From our A finalists we came away with three medals -Bronze in the women’s Club eight,  Silver in the women’s novices four and a Gold and North Island title in the women’s club four.

The novice four crew is made up of Charlotte Mawston, Sacha Van der net, Annabel Savage, Annabel Drew Ross and coxswain Tayla Coplestone

The club eight was rowed by Taylor Penberthy, Steph Severin, Phoebe Dobson, Caitlin Naude, Maeve Lockett, Talia Chatfield, Anna Greenhalgh, Carla Pethers Boak and coxswain Tessa Guthrie

Our North Island Club champion crew in the women’s club four was made up of students Taylor Penberhy, Steph Severin, Phoebe Dobson, Caitlin Naude and coxswain Tayla Coplestone

Academic

Second-hand Uniform shop

The Second Hand Uniform Shop needs more stock! If you have uniform you would like us to sell on your behalf, please register it here

https://handmeround.azurewebsites.net/WGHS/SubmitRegistration

Or we gratefully accept donated items. All items whether registered to sell or being donated can be dropped off at the school office at any time.

A reminder that the shop is open every Friday lunchtime 12:25 – 1:15pm in B8, just behind the Golden Swan Cafe in B block.

We are also looking for more parent volunteers to help out at the shop. If you have a spare hour or a couple of Fridays per term, please get in touch with Tracey at [email protected]

More more information visit the website here:

Academic

Welcome to the Westlake whānau!

A big welcome to our new students and their whānau who have joined our community for the first time this year.

We hope you’ve enjoyed your first two weeks of school and are starting to feel settled and are finding your way around. Don’t be afraid to ask questions – we’re here to help you as you adjust to life as a Westlaker!

Image: The welcome for new students (Year 10-13) at the Events Centre on Thursday 2nd February.

You can watch the video on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CoIiesvgpRU/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

Stay connected us on Instagram and our new official FaceBook page.

https://www.facebook.com/westlakefacebook

Sports

Westlake Girls win Bronze at the NZSS Beach Volleyball Champs

Blessed with blue skies and a scorching sun at Mt Maunganui Beach over Waitangi weekend, 138 teams from 40 schools nationwide gladly competed in New Zealand Secondary Schools Beach Volleyball Championship after Covid-19 cancelled it last year. Westlake Girls’ top Year 11 beach volleyball team of Kaia Tuuta and Sasha Warren, performed impressively at the tournament to win their first national medal.  Tuuta and Warren’s stellar run through the preliminary and crossover rounds, saw them win 5 games from 5 without dropping a set before they met familiar foe Rangitoto in the semi-finals.  Going down in two sets to the North Shore neighbours, our pair dug deep to muster up enough strength to ward off a determined finish from Bethlehem College and win the bronze medal in two sets, 21- 12, 21-19. Rangitoto beat Cashmere High from Christchurch to win the Intermediate division.

Teams competed in two grades at the tournament, Year 11, and the Year 12-13 senior grade. Westlake’s top beach volleyball team of Mackenzie Melville and Danielle Pattimore also made a good start tournament, going through the first day unbeaten and finishing in the top eight.  They met Bethlehem College in the quarterfinals the next morning and after losing the first set, they fought back to level the game at 1-1.  However, the local team who were very well supported, went on to win and then eventually come third overall behind the winners, Rangitoto College.

Left: Mackenzie Melville and Danielle Pattimore

Right: Kaia Tuuta and Sasha Warren

Arts & Culture

Rosmini Academy of Performing Arts (RAPA)

Junior and Senior Rosmini Academy of Performing Arts (RAPA) programme for 2023:

Junior RAPA 

Open to: Year 7-10 Rosmini, Carmel, and Westlake Girl’s students

When: Every Tuesday, 3.40pm – 4.40pm, starting Week 3, 14th February for eight sessions

Where: The Drama room, Catcheside building, Rosmini College

Cost: $140 for the eight week programme

If you are keen to participate, please contact Ms Bellis, Head of Drama at [email protected]

Senior RAPA 

Open to: Year 10-13 Rosmini, Carmel, and Westlake Girl’s students

When: Every Thursday, 3.40pm – 5.40pm, starting Week 3, 16th February

Production: The sessions will work towards a production to be held at The Pumphouse, week beginning 29th May, Term Two.

Where: The Drama room, Catcheside building, Rosmini College

Cost: $360 for the two terms

If we have more students than parts we will audition.

If you are keen to participate in the Senior programme, please contact Ms Bellis, Head of Drama at [email protected]

 

Arts & Culture

Dance Club - all students welcome

All students are welcome to join us for Dance Club – every Thursday lunchtime at Gym 2.

Learn some dances from our amazing students. Each week a different student is teaching a different genre or style. This may be a movement phrase or even a fun TikTok dance. Come along and have some fun!

 

Notices

School Uniform Regulations

All students are expected to adhere to uniform regulations specified by the Board of Trustees.

You can find more information on our website here.

Community

Westlake Wellness - Hydration and school lunches

Starting back at school after a wonderful summer break can be draining on energy levels. It is really important over the next few weeks that your child is well hydrated throughout the day, so they remain alert, feel comfortable and get the most out of their time in the classroom.

We recommend your child brings a reusable water bottle to school and frequently refills it during the day. There are chilled water filters for the students located around the school, as well as water fountains and taps for refilling water bottles. Fruit and vegetables have a high water content, which contributes to daily liquid intake, as well as providing additional fibre and nutrients. This is an efficient way to increase fluid intake. Seasonal examples are watermelon, cucumber and tomatoes, all of which are readily available and reasonably priced at this time of year.

If your child struggles to eat breakfast before school, encourage them to include additional food when they make their lunch, that they could eat prior to school or at interval. Planning and preparing what they will eat during the day develops feelings of responsibility and independence in your child and can be an opportunity to learn more about food and its role in their body. However if your child purchases lunch at school, we have a wonderful new canteen provider who has an excellent range of healthy and affordable food options for sale.

Inspiration for school lunches can be challenging, however there are many websites you can encourage your child to access which provide ideas for healthy snacks and school lunches, I have listed a few below:

http://www.5aday.co.nz/

https://www.nutritionfoundation.org.nz/nutrition-facts/healthy-eating-for-all-ages/Teenagers-2

https://www.health.govt.nz/your-health/healthy-living/food-activity-and-sleep/healthy-weight/healthy-eating-teenagers

From Elizabeth Beaumont, TIC Food Technology

Community

Action for Happiness - Friendly February

With everyone meeting new classes and teachers for the first time this week we wanted to share some great resources.  Check out the Friendly February calendar by clicking the link below and try some out of the actions to help you give your relationships a boost. Please share it with your friends too!

Friendly February Calendar

 

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