By Ivy Mitchell
Year 11

While thousands of sports competitions across the country have been cancelled, there is still one ‘sport’  that has managed to continue through these challenging times. Unlike the sports that require large outdoor spaces and physical contact, debating is the perfect ‘sport’ during lockdown. There is no need for physical contact, it can be done from the safety of your bubble, or even in your pajamas if you wish!

Myself, other Westlake Girls debaters and hundreds of other high school students across the country, have signed up to New Zealand Schools’ Online Debating competition. This competition is running throughout lockdown, with weekly debates.  The debates are held through Zoom and teams get 30 minutes beforehand to prepare their debate in a Zoom ‘breakout’ room. Teams then get together on a group Zoom to debate against each other in the comfort of their bedrooms!

My school debating team (Westlake Girls’ High School Junior Premier 1) has signed up to the online debating competition to compete as the Advanced Westlake Girls High School Yellow.  So far we have debated thrice against Keri Keri High School, Tauranga Boys High School and Chilton Saint James School. We have won two debates and lost the other.

My team and I have really enjoyed the online debating and I am sure everyone involved has too! Especially during the lockdown, it is great to have something to look forward to each week! With all the other sports cancelled, perhaps debating is New Zealand’s ‘most played sport’ in the current situation!

Ivy is pictured with the debating website on her laptop.

Our Food Technology students have been sending in photos of their work, and we just couldn’t go past this incredible banana cake creation by Year 11 student Luci Hope. 

Luci (pictured left with her latest lockdown treats created yesterday) is an incredible baker and cake decorator. If you’d like to see more of her creations, check out her Instagram: bakedbyluci

Hungry yet? Well, here’s your chance to make Luci’s luscious banana cake. Thanks for sharing this Luci – you’ve got one of the luckiest families in lockdown!

CAKE TIN: 20cm OR 3x 12cm cake tins (which I used)

CAKE 

125g butter, softened

¾ cup White sugar

2 eggs

1 – 1 ½ cups or 3-4 mashed ripe bananas

1 tsp baking soda

2 Tbsp hot milk

2 cups standard flour

1 tsp baking powder

ICING

​2 cups icing sugar

115g butter, softened

½ tsp vanilla essence

1–2 Tbsp milk

CARAMEL SAUCE 

½ cup of sugar 

3 tbsp salted butter, cubed, room temperature 

¼ cup of whipped cream, room temperature 

DECORATION

1 sliced banana

¼ cup walnuts 

Chocolate 

Directions for the cake 

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Butter the inside of a 20cm deep round cake tin and line the base with baking paper.
2. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. Add the mashed banana and mix well.
4. Stir the baking soda into the hot milk and add to the creamed mixture, then sift together the dry ingredients together and fold through the creamed mixture.
5. Scoop the mixture into the prepared tin, level the top, and bake for about 50 minutes or until the cake springs back when lightly touched.
6. Leave in tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.

Directions for the icing 

1. Sift the icing sugar.
2. Cream the butter with half of the icing sugar, the vanilla and the milk. Beat until smooth and then gradually beat in the remaining icing sugar to give a good spreading consistency.

Directions for the caramel sauce 

1. Pour sugar into an even layer in a saucier pan.
2. Heat on medium-high heat, whisking the sugar until melted. The sugar will clump up first, but will eventually completely melt. This will take about 10 minutes.
3. Once the sugar has melted, stop whisking. Cook until the sugar has turned to a little darker amber color to get a deeper caramel flavor, if you like. The change in color will happen quickly, so don’t let it go too long or get too dark or it’ll burn. Remove caramel from the heat.
4. Add butter and whisk until combined. The mixture will bubble up, but keep whisking until all the butter has melted and combined.
5. Slowly pour the heavy cream into the caramel and whisk until incorporated. I find it can help to add just a bit at a time until the caramel starts to thin out, then you can add the rest.

Directions for decorating

1. Add walnuts, banana and chocolate  to the top of the iced cake.
2. Then drizzle caramel sauce over top of the cake.

Right now we are all learning to work in a new way and  we are all learners – your teachers , your whanau and YOU.

At WGHS we are working together to help each other learn at our own pace and in our own ways at home. Our Teacher Aides are enjoying working with many of you right now through emails, Zoom, Hangouts, texts and phone calls. Here they have shared some tips on what might help you become a happier more confident online learners.

Susan

• Display on a whiteboard (or something they design themselves) the weekly timetable with day 1, 2, etc. at top and times down side – write google meets on this.
• Write due dates for assessments on a monthly calendar (google search ‘calendars’ and print off).
• Display the whiteboard and monthly calendar on the wall so it is easy to see and less clutter.
• Set priorities – decide what subjects have work due in first and prioritise those each day.
• File important information from teachers when you first read the email, eg, move attachments to your google drive folder and put dates on your calendar.
• Have mental breaks – eat food, play with your pet, chat with family, sit outside, check your phone … and then return to work!
• Clear your head – go for a walk, listen to music, practice a musical instrument.

Helena

• If you are feeling overwhelmed by a subject or don’t understand what you’re supposed to do, be honest with your teacher, contact them and tell them. The work won’t go away and it will just keep adding to your worry.  By letting your teacher know what help you need, they can help you.  If you keep quiet, they can’t.

Reema

• Always be organized as much as you can. Plan your work with timetable or any visual form that works for you.
• Create a study schedule or routine that suits your family lifestyle.
• Do not do all your assigned work in one day and rush through it, you will end up being tired and not achieving the highest standard you can possibly do.

Cheralee

• My tip would be get schoolwork done during the day so you can be relaxed when you go to bed and get a restful, restorative sleep.

Duriena

• After prioritising your work for the day, do the hardest thing FIRST and do it EARLY in the day.
• Take note of your mind chatter or thoughts. What are you saying to yourself? Are these thoughts helpful? Set an INTENTION for yourself. It could be something like – “I can do difficult things”, “I easily ask for help if I need to”, “ I can do hard work and find joy in the process”, “I am supported in my learning”, “I easily focus on my task.”
• Write your intention down onto a sticky note or scrap paper and place it nearby so that you can see, read and say it often. Once you get your mind on board, you might be surprised to see fun creep in!
• At the end of the day, congratulate yourself on the things you DID achieve.

Justine

• Follow your daily subject timetable and work as if you are at school. If you manage to do your task in 20 min, you can either take a break until the next class or move onto the next class. This way you give yourself some structure for the day.
• Anything is better than nothing – do what you can and work your way through what you can for that day. Tomorrow might be more productive. Go easy on yourself and be happy with what you can achieve on the day.
• Know that all students are in similar positions as you. You are not more behind than everyone else. You are doing what you can.

Jess

• “Something is better than nothing.” If we look at the whole mountain of work, we freeze up and that keeps us from doing anything. But if we can do even just one small thing, that’s more than nothing, and it may help us feel capable of trying one more thing.

The Learning Enhancement Team is working behind the scenes with students and families to support where we can.

The details for all of our counsellors and our Learning Support Co-ordinator, Julie Mulcahy, can be found HERE

We want to firstly acknowledge that whilst we are all this together, not everybody will be coping in the same way and this is really important to remember for our students.

Secondly, one of the team found this poem that sums up a positive attitude really well – a different way of looking at things.

Love in Action

When you go out and see the empty streets, the empty stadiums, the empty train platforms, don’t say to yourself, “It looks like the end of the world.”
What you’re seeing is love in action.
What you’re seeing in that negative space, is how much we do care for each other, for our grandparents, our parents, our brothers and sisters, for people we will never meet.
People will lose jobs over this. Some will lose their businesses. And some will lose their lives.
All the more reason to take a moment,
when you’re out on your walk,
or on your way to the store, or just watching the news, to look into the emptiness and marvel at all of that love.
Let it fill you and sustain you.
It isn’t the end of the world.
It is the most remarkable act of global solidarity we may ever witness”.

– Belfast, Ireland COVID team

Thinking of you all.

The Learning Enhancement Team

There are lots of great resources to help us get through the Lockdown with our families and sanity intact. We’ve pulled together a few that we think are particularly good:

These real-time resilience tips are in English, Simplified English, Korean and Chinese.

English
Simplified English
Korean
Chinese

Help with home learning
In this Greater Good article, aschool psychologist offers advice to parents on how to support their child during school closures. READ IT HERE

Generation Nex – some great advice on making the most of online learning and how to prioritise, resources for anxiety and stress and helping Year 12 students stay on track. READ IT HERE

School Planner
This HANDY PLANNER is a fillable PDF that you can use to plan your days, making the most of the times you know you are most productive. You can type directly into the slots and tick them off once completed.

We know many of you will have other commitments and responsibilities as well, so include them in your planner and don’t forget to schedule in some breaks for food and exercise.  This way you can ensure you have allocated the time required to your studies and maintaining a schedule while you are distance learning. This is a great opportunity for you to take some control over your learning and demonstrate the key competency of managing self.

Having a routine is vital at a time like this, so use the planner either in a digital format or print it off and write on it. Make sure you keep it visible while you are doing your school work.

NZ Institute of Wellbeing and Resilience
You might like to check out the New Zealand Institute of Wellbeing and Resilience: https://nziwr.co.nz/category/covid-19/ They have pages dedicated to Covid-19.

Dealing with Disappointment
If you are looking for some ways to support your sporty daughter through the disappointment of organised sport being cancelled, there are some great tips in here written by a New Zealander: https://balanceisbetter.org.nz/parents-supporting-young-peoples-disappointment-at-postponement-and-cancellations/

Beat the Boredom
Teen Resilience Coach, Kate Fitzsimons, has created this podcast to help students beat the boredom during the school holidays: https://www.katefitzsimons.com/blog/beating-boredom It will help them get ‘‘unstuck” from boredom by showing them how to find way more fun, purpose and enjoyment in what’s currently our ”new norm”.

Tackle the lockdown with Attitude!
Attitude, the teen arm of The Parenting Place has put together this awesome 4-minute video to help teens “survive” their family during lockdown.

Free internet safety filter for parents

While children are learning from home, they are away from the online safety and security services provided by Network for Learning (N4L) at school. Together with N4L and Netsafe, the Ministry of Education has launched www.switchonsafety.co.nz – a free way to block the worst of the web for students and teachers.

Remember, no technical solution is a silver bullet, and you complement this with digital citizenship toolkits provided by Netsafe.

Students with part-time jobs

The start of Term 2 signals that students’ work hours must return to being outside of school hours only. If you are aware of any employer putting pressure on your students to work during school hours, you may wish to advise them that it is unlawful, as Section 30 of the Education Act does not allow this – even during the lockdown period.

By Tara Lemmon
Food and Fabric Technology Teacher

Our wonderful Year 9 Food Technology students have been whipping up a storm during lockdown!

Before we left school to live in our bubbles, the Year 9 Food Technology students had been designing a food product to reflect their new identity as “Westlake Girls”.  The challenge we set them during the first weeks of lockdown was to create these snack foods as best they could from the ingredients they had at home.

These are some of amazing creations they have shared with us, along with explanations of how the creation reflects their new identity!

Carrot loaf and raspberry cupcakes representing our garden-like environment:

Post-sports refuelling with high protein foods:

Colours and symbols of our school: