From the Principal

Kia ora, everyone,

The last fortnight has been hectic, even by our standards, with Winter Sports tournament, hosting the ‘Educating Girls’ Symposium and taking our Year 9 cohort to Camp for three days.

A heartfelt thank you to everyone involved for the phenomenal effort behind the scenes to ensure these significant school events ran seamlessly.

The ‘Educating Girls’ Symposium was a resounding success. It offered our staff an incredible opportunity to engage with trailblazing thinkers and leaders in girls’ education. The excitement was palpable as inspiring speakers captivated us, and the school buzzed with delegates from across New Zealand and overseas. I was so proud to hear how impressed attendees were with our school and how engaging, mature, and delightful they found the students who helped on the day.

It was an extraordinary event, highlighting our community’s strength and deep commitment to mana wāhine/female empowerment.

This newsletter is full of Westlake’s fabulous Winter Tournament news. Just thinking about the logistics is staggering. I take my hat off to our wonderful Sports Department staff, who put in countless hours to make this happen, train and inspire our students, and show up, rain or shine, to support them in competition. A huge thank you also to all our parent supporters, we could not do this without you. You are appreciated!

This is the final newsletter for the term.

Enjoy the holidays with your daughters, and I look forward to seeing them back for Term 4, refreshed and ready for another busy term at WGHS.

Ka kite,

Jane Stanley

PRINCIPAL

Sports

Mountain Bike Hat Trick

Westlake Girls High School Mountain bikers recently concluded the Auckland Schools Cross Country Mountain Bike series with great individual results and successfully defending their Auckland Girls School and Girls Cross Country Relay titles for the third year running at Riverhead Forest in challenging conditions. Astyn Nasmith (main image above) was the Under 14 Girls Auckland Champion with her sister Kaylan the runner up in a close contest, repeating the results they both achieved at the North Island championships earlier in the year. In the Under 17 Girls Talia Hosking placed 3rd and Stella Beale 4th.

Kaylyn Nasmith
Stella Beale
Talia Hosking

Three Westlake Girls High School riders are competing in the National Championships in Christchurch during the October school holidays. It will be the first time that Astyn Nasmith, Kaylan Nasmith and Stella Beale have competed at the nationals and the team wishes them all the best.

The team would like to see more riders join their ranks to share in the challenge benefits and enjoyment that comes from this growing sport. The future of female mountain biking in New Zealand is bright with Kiwi female (wāhine toa) recognised among the world’s best cross all mountain bike disciplines.

Any students interested in mountain biking should contact either Liz O’Leary or Caleb Ward in the Sports Department.

Community

GirlBoss Awards 2024

Huge congratulations to Kavin Vignesh (10OBR), who has received an ‘Outstanding Applicant’ award for the GirlBoss Awards 2024 and been described as ‘one to watch’ by  the CEO of GirlBoss NZ, Alexia Hilbertidou!

 

Community

Father-Daughter Breakfast

Kia ora, Parents and Caregivers – especially dads!

Join us for an unforgettable Father-Daughter Breakfast on 25 September with our inspiring guest speaker, Lynley Allison. A former pro-triathlete, Lynley lost a lower leg to a medical condition and now exemplifies resilience, teaching her community how to overcome adversity.

Whether you’re a proud dad, grandpa, uncle, or another special relative, don’t miss this heartwarming morning. Enjoy a delicious meal and create lasting memories.

At WGHS, we alternate years for our Mother-Daughter and Father-Daughter breakfasts. The image above is from our inaugural 2022 Dads’ one. It was a wonderful event, as was last year’s Mums’ one.

Be part of this very lovely tradition!

Get your tickets now!  https://westlakegirls.ibdn.nz/etickets/father-daughter-breakfast 

Arts & Culture

Big Sing Finale

Our Premier Westlake Choirs – Cantare, Choralation and Voicemale recently returned from NZCF’s The Big Sing Finale. Cantare and Choralation are directed by HOD Music, Fiona Wilson. The Festival was held in the Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington over three days, where our choirs participated with 21 other top-ranking choirs for Bronze, Silver, or Gold awards.  Each choir presented two recitals of choral music from various music styles, which were marked by three guest adjudicators, one of whom came from Australia. At the Saturday Gala evening, there were 7 Golds presented and each of our three choirs received one for their recitals. Cantare and Choralation have consistently been awarded Gold since 2017.

There are three additional trophies awarded for best performances of specific music styles. For the third year in a row, Cantare were awarded the Tour Time Trophy for ‘Best Performance of a Choral Art Work’ for their performance of ‘Kotoba Asobi Uta’ by Japanese composer Ko Matsushita. Choralation also won the Hutt City Trophy for ‘Best Performance of a New Zealand or Pasifika work’, for their performance of ‘O Magnum Mysterium’ by New Zealand composer Chris Artley.

It is both a challenge and a privilege to consistently achieve excellence and Cantare and Choralation have enjoyed an exceptional year of national and international competition success. Mrs Wilson would like to thank her choristers for their outstanding commitment and effort throughout the year and the staff team of James Harrison, Yun-Pai Shu, Rachel Carson, Gnesyer Gomez and Kasey Lui, for their expertise and support.

 

Academic

Student Business Start-Up Success!

We recently held an exciting business start-up challenge where students were each loaned $50 to kickstart their business ventures. The variety of businesses was impressive, from homemade cookies to custom pencil cases, keychains, and more. Mrs Singh, Mrs Grobler, and Mrs Shankar monitored the initiative and guided the students throughout the process.

We are incredibly proud of all the students who participated and the fantastic turnout we had.

A special congratulations goes to Crumb Together, our top-earning business, which made an outstanding profit of over $1,000! Here’s what the team had to say about their journey.

“This project has been both challenging and immensely fulfilling. A few months ago, we were selected to participate in a $50 business start-up challenge, where we were given $50 to kickstart a small business of our choice. Over the past few months, we launched a small homemade cookie-selling business focused on sustainability, which we named Crumb Together.

Every other Saturday, we dedicated 6 hours to baking cookies in a household oven. The next day, we would wake up between 5-6 am to secure a booth at Takapuna Sunday Market and set up shop. This experience taught us public speaking and customer service skills as we interacted with over ten customers an hour for up to six hours.

We also learned adaptability as we adjusted recipes, tailored flavours, and turned some mistakes into new menu items—like our whoopie pies, which started as a failed batch of brownie cookies but became a crowd favourite.

We managed our finances, prepared business reports, and maintained a social media presence on Facebook, which led to an invitation to sell at a luxury retirement home market day. After months of dedication, our total profit came to $1,107 after expenses, with 10% being donated to World Vision N.Z., a charity that inspired our business. We plan to continue ‘Crumb Together’ independently, with ongoing donations to World Vision N.Z.

We want to express our heartfelt thanks to our amazing teachers (Mrs Singh and Mrs Grobler), family, and friends for their support. We couldn’t have done it without you. This journey has given us valuable real-world skills, a supportive community, and a deep appreciation for the power of ‘crumbing’ together.”

P.S. Follow us for a cookie (yes, we will actually give you a cookie if you come to the market) @crumbtogether_wghs

 

Sports

Westlake Girls Basketball Unbeaten in the North

Main photo above: Zone 1 Premier Champions

The Basketball New Zealand Zone 1 Senior Qualifying Tournament saw the return of Westlake Girls dynamic guard Amy Pateman to the court.  Missing from their successful ISF World Schools Basketball Campaign earlier in the year, the 2025 University of San Francisco recruit spent most of this season on the sideline recovering from a gut-wrenching knee injury that she sustained at Nationals last year.

Bolstering an already strong line up, the defending National Champions began the BBNZ tournament in stunning fashion with a 121-29 win over One Tree Hill College before scoring another century over Carmel College, 112-22.  Their next game against St Kents was just as impressive, 104 – 44, before trouncing Northcote College,127 – 55.

Westlake’s first challenge though, came from Manurewa who slowed them to 72-47 and then the Takapuna Grammar semifinal saw the most points scored against them, 85-77.  The final was a dogged encounter against Manurewa which was littered with interesting umpiring calls and an overflow of emotion.

The lead changed frequently in the game with neither team able to extend its scoreline until the final 90 seconds when the Bronwen Davidson and Nela Fotu coached team, surged ahead to win 59 – 48 win and one again take the top qualifying spot for the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championship in October.

Premier Coaches – Bronwen Davidson & Nela Fotu
Four Premier Players

Junior School Zone 1 Girls Premierships:

Earlier in the week, a strong team of 11 students represented Westlake Girls at the BBNZ Zone 1 JUNIOR Premiership Tournament from 31st August – 3rd September at Bruce Pulman Arena. Under the guidance of Coaches, Chelsea Halling and Johnny Southey and Manager, Arielle Haythornthwaite the team also started impressively with a collection of convincing wins. They scored centuries against Baradene (138-10), One Tree Hill 110-12) and Pukekohe High School (111-22) and then in the semi-final they met Saint Kentigerns and won 92-34.  Facing Rangitoto in the final, a reverse of the Great Auckland Champs a week earlier, Rangitoto put up a strong fight, forcing Westlake to dig a little deeper and play a little tougher before winning 76-54. It was a superb performance by everyone involved and a special mention goes to the team’s other Coach, George Tapaatoutai who was overseas and unable to attend due to personal reasons.

Junior Premiership Champions

 

 

Sports

Westlake Qualifies for the National Netball Champs

As the largest secondary school’s sport, it’s not easy to qualify for the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championship.  For Westlake Girls, it’s been four years since we qualified for the Netball Nationals but after a committed and heartfelt UNISS tournament last week, the team is heading to Christchurch for it with the best schools in the country. One hundred and 26 teams participated at the Upper North Island Netball Champs over Winter Tournament Week with 32 schools north of Taupo competing to be one of the top six schools to represent the Upper North at the NZSS event from 7 – 11 October.

Westlake Girls tough draw resulted in a well-earned 5th place at UNISS after facing the New Zealand Champions, Avondale College, in pool play, Howick College, the Auckland Champions, in the top 16 and then Mt Albert Grammar in a do-or-die top 8 clash to make the semifinals.  Losing three out of their 10 matches, the top North Shore team showed resilience and persistence to prevail over Trident College, 29-27, Kristin 32-30 and then Hamilton Girls 35-22 in their final attempt to qualify for Nationals.

Impressive and intense defense work from Year 11 student, Aaliyah Sina’au inspired her team and she was rewarded with selection into the UNISS Tournament Team which is reserved for the top 20 players at the event.

Aaliyah Sina’au in action.

Westlake Girls has qualified for NZSS several times in the past with their best finish in 2018 when they finished runners up and then bronze medalists in 2019.  They are now one of 6 Auckland teams, Howick, Avondale, St Kents, MAGS and Epsom Girls to contest top honours in Christchurch next month.

 

Sports

Billie wins Bronze at the NZSS Skateboarding Champs

Year 13 student Billie Morrison has been skateboarding for years and this year she was ecstatic to have made it onto the podium with friends and skaters, Jessica Ready and Millie Dunn.

Winning the bronze medal at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Skateboarding Championship was a big achievement for Billie as she was competing against the top national over 15 secondary school street skaters in the country.  Billie’s strength is park style skating, and with only two runs permitted, she had to plan and perfect her tricks instantaneously.

She credits the familiar venue for giving her an an advantage as Birkenhead Skatepark is her local where she skates every night. In the “best trick” attempts, she had to land something tougher than what she had performed in her earlier runs – which she did. Her highlight was landing the trick because she hadn’t landed in a year.  It was clearly the turning point that helped Billie to secure third place at the National Champs.

Community

Foodstuffs Regional Checker of the Year winner

Last night at the Foodstuffs Regional Checker of the Year competition, Year 11 WGHS student Amelia Birzin won the title. Congratulations, Amelia!

Sports

Equestrians jump to success 

The Westlake Girls Equestrian Team had a successful week at the North Island Secondary Schools Championships. The team of five – Samantha Syme, Rhea Bourhill, Kaleisha Iremonger, Mikayla Gow and Neve Anderson competed against 89 other High School Teams in Taupo where the team competed in a variety of Equestrian Disciplines – CTR (10km trail ride), Dressage, Arena Eventing, Show Jumping and Show Hunter.

All the team members placed individually in the top ten in a variety of classes, resulting in 3rd Overall at the North Island Secondary Schools Team Champs.  Along with several special awards received by individual riders, the team won 3rd Overall Dressage Team and 2nd Overall Jumping Team.

Individual Achievements:

  • Dressage – Level Two – Kaleisha Iremonger placed 3rd Overall on Fevola.
  • Show Jumping – 80-90 cm – Samantha Syme Placed 1st Overall on Ngahiwi One Eye Surprise.
  • Show Jumping – 70-80 cm – Kaleisha Iremonger placed 4th Overall on Fevola
  • Year 11-13 Rider – Samantha Syme placed 4th Overall on Ngahiwi One Eye Surprise.

The students were excellent role models for Westlake Girls and a credit to the school. 

Westlake Girls Equestrian Team:

Neve Anderson – Our Silver Lining

Rhea Bourhill – The Little Prince

Mikayla Gow – Douglas Park Dexter

Kaleisha Iremonger – Fevola

Samantha Syme – Ngahiwi One Eye Surprise and Rednalhgih Galaxy Fleur Dior’.

 

Sports

NZSS Lacrosse

With the loss of six players and a team that ranged from Year 9 right to year 13, the premier Lacrosse team enjoyed a great 2024 season. The leadership and support provided by the older girls to the younger players who are still learning the game and developing their skill sets is heartwarming.

This year the team worked hard to cement their place in Division 1 in the College Sport Auckland Schools’ competition, playing some fantastic lacrosse to secure some resounding wins throughout the competition, narrowly missing out on the playoffs for the top position, to finish 3rd overall at the end of the season.

The team came back to set the record straight at the Auckland Secondary Schools’ Championships held on August 22nd at Avondale Racecourse, where they won silver in Division 1.

The team then travelled to Te Awamutu for the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championship from 5-8 September, where, as expected, there were some extremely strong teams contesting the top spot. The Waikato schools are notoriously strong, and after 3 wonderful days which included some nail-biting games, the team finished in 8th place but second out of all the Auckland -based teams that attended the tournament.

A special thanks goes to coaches Holly P and Meghan K, and team manager, Lisa J.

Photo: Premier Lacrosse Team

Sports

Squash. NZ Secondary Schools Team v Australia

Year 13 Squash Captain Lucy Cadness-Aspinall was selected for the New Zealand Secondary Schools Squash team to compete in a Trans-Tasman Test Series in Wellington last month. The team played the Australian States, and the 3rd seed won all her singles matches 3-0 and along with her doubles partner, Erin Wylie from Otumoetai College, they won the doubles just as convincingly.

Overall, the NZ contingent was too strong for the Aussies and on the final day the NZ team beat the Aussies 25 matches to 5 to retain the Secondary Schools Trans-Tasman Series Trophy.

Lucy now moves on to Nationals and has been selected for the Auckland Junior Squash Team as number one girls’ seed and will compete at the New Zealand Champs at the North Shore Squash Club during the October School Holidays.

 

 

Sports

Young Footballers finish in Top 5

The Westlake Girls 1st XI Football team competed at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Football Championship in Nelson with a very young squad, making them one of the youngest teams at the tournament. With 11 out of 16 players aged Year 11 or younger, and for many, their first time away at a tournament, the pool play phase started with a frustrating loss to Queen Margaret College from Wellington. However, from that moment on, the girls united superbly to beat Taradale, 7- 0 and then Waikato Diocesan 3-0, to advance out of the group.

In the first knockout round, Westlake beat a strong Otumoetai side 2-1, but then came undone in their quarter-final match against Epsom, with Westlake narrowly losing 2-3. The team bounced back in the next two games to beat New Plymouth 1-0 and secure a Top 5 finish after defeating Sacred Heart 2-0 win. This achievement is an outstanding result for the very young squad, giving Westlake a consecutive Top 5 finish for Westlake at the National Championship.

Sports

Hockey

Premier Hockey

Our 1st XI hockey team finished up their season competing at the NZSS Federation Cup/Marie Fry tournament in Hamilton last week.  Our team performed admirably, finishing up 6th overall out of the 32 teams in the tournament.

The team came out firing in pool play, first defeating local rivals Rangitoto College 5-0 before defeating St Paul’s on their home turf 2-0.  A 1-1 draw against St Matthew’s meant the team finished undefeated at the top of the pool as they moved into the knockout rounds. After a 2-0 victory against Whanganui Collegiate to move into the Fed Cup quarterfinals, the team was left to face several of the Christchurch teams which have proved to be strong this year.  A hard-fought 0-1 loss against Villa Maria led to an exciting match-up against St Margarets College.  Tied 1-1 after four quarters, the Westlake team showed their pedigree in the shootout winning 3-0.

The final game of the week was the 5th/6th final against Rangiruru.  The girls played well as a team but were outplayed by a strong Rangiruru side, eventually going down 1-3 at the final whistle to rank 6th in NZ.  This is an excellent result from a young team, and we couldn’t be prouder.

NZSS Chris Arthur Cup 

The 2nd XI Hockey team headed to Dunedin to compete in the New Zealand Secondary Schools Chris Arthur Cup, designed only for a school’s second team, and they enjoyed a great week blessed with beautiful weather and some stunning plays. Unfortunately, losing one pool game early on, which the team should have won due to their dominance on the field, resulted in a must-win game littered with interesting umpiring decisions.  The loss knocked Westlake out of the semifinals and into the bottom eight playoffs.  In their 5th/6th matches, they faced another umpiring decision that influenced the result. They ended up settling for 7th place overall, which was not a fair indication of their performance over the week, but that’s tournament!  It was a fabulous week of hockey, with the students working together brilliantly as a team and playing their best hockey all season.

Thanks to parent Rohann Pienaar for the great photos.

 

 

Arts & Culture Community

Get your art on the Yearbook covers!

Open to all current students of WGHS

Kia ora, students,

Want your artwork to be the face of the 2024 yearbook? Here’s your chance! We’re thrilled to announce the Yearbook Cover Art Competition, and it’s open to ALL students—yes, even if you’re not in an art class!

Whether you’re into painting, photography, digital design, sculpture, or any other visual art, we want to see your talent on display.

The top two entries will be featured on the front and back covers of the yearbook, plus each cover winner will score a $100 Westfield voucher!

But that’s not all. Selected pieces will also be showcased inside the yearbook.

How to Enter:

  1. Create your artwork—any style, any medium. (Aimee can photograph it for you if needed).
  2. Email Aimee for technical specs and submission details a:  [email protected]

Don’t miss this incredible opportunity to make your mark on the 2024 yearbook. We can’t wait to see your artistic brilliance!

Good luck!

Community

Technology Showcase

The Technology department warmly invites you to an exhibition of student work from Food, DVC, Hard Materials, Textiles and Digital Technology which will be held in the school Events Centre Auditorium, beginning at 3.30pm on Wednesday, 25 September.

The fashion show to display our student creations will start at 6.00pm in the auditorium. We look forward to celebrating the work they have achieved this year with their families.

Sports

Special Assembly for the America’s Cup

The America’s Cup is touring New Zealand in conjunction with the Kiwi Cup Regatta and two Westlake Girls Sailors have been selected as part of the team to represent their sailing club, the Murrays Bay Sailing Club. On 2 September, Westlake Boys hosted the ‘Auld Mug’ in a special assembly, and the Westlake Girls Sailing Team was invited to join them.

Murrays Bay Sailing Team for Kiwi Cup Regatta

Year 11 sailors Greta Satterthwaite and Emily Turner will team up with Sam Clarke and Finn Olson from Westlake Boys and Toby Dunn from Western Springs College to compete in the Kiwi Cup Regatta for Murray’s Bay Sailing Club during the first week of the October school holidays.  The teams will be hosted by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and will compete in Elliot 7 boats as well as ‘camp’ in the Squadron Ballroom during the event, an unfamiliar sight.  At the end of August, the RNZYS created history by inducting its first female commodore, Gillian Williams, another unique occurrence. The Kiwi Cup was a fundraising initiative to help schools and clubs with various projects. It offered a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the America’s Cup in Barcelona as the ultimate prize. Following the Kiwi Cup Regatta, the Westlake Girls Sailing Team will ready itself for the Trans-Tasman Inter Dominion Series in the second week of the October holidays, where it will look to defend the Top Australasian Girls School title that it won last year in Sydney.

 

 

Career Bites

Career Bites: Police, Dog-Handling and Corrections

We were lucky to have two outstanding speakers in Week Six. Lance Dawson is an experienced police officer working for the Police Maritime Unit. Janet Williams runs a dog-handling business specialising in supplying scent detectors and dog screening for workplace safety.

Janet shared her journey from being an ‘average’ student here at Westlake Girls to her experience in the Police Force, where she studied canine behaviour and specialised in handling scent-detector dogs. From there, she joined a brand new task force at Auckland Airport, working with bio-security beagles and helping to secure Aotearoa’s borders from Foot and Mouth disease. Janet led this programme for 13 years. She now runs her own business, providing scent-detector dogs to workplaces, and loves working with canines daily. Her advice to students is to “find your passion.”

Lance has worked for the NZ Police Force for 23 years. He has found variety in his career, starting as a constable on the beat, and spending time with the Burglary, Traffic Enforcement, Community Policing and Team Policing units. He is now enjoying the learning curve in his new role on the boats, with more of a focus on safety and search and rescue than on catching ‘bad guys’. When asked what qualities make a great police officer, Lance listed good communication skills, the ability to de-escalate fraught situations, and the personal qualities of empathy, honesty and integrity.

In Week Seven, our main Career Bites speaker was a Corrections Officer. Baileigh Greaves works at Paremoremo, New Zealand’s only maximum security prison. She was supported by Kiana Tavino, a recruitment advisor for the Department of Corrections. As a C.O., Baileigh’s work focuses on keeping prisoners safe and helping them to rehabilitate. Her pathway began with studying law, but after realising university wasn’t for her, she found her way into Corrections “on a whim”. However, she found the recruitment process smooth and the training exciting, as she learned how to de-escalate situations and execute Control and Restraint “takedowns”.

Like Lance, Baileigh emphasised the importance of communication and empathy. Her best days are those when even one prisoner says thank you, and she knows she’s helping someone to change for the better.

Students interested in criminology and psychology could consider Corrections as a career pathway. There are many roles under the Corrections umbrella, including administrators, nurses, case managers, psychologists, health and safety representatives, and staff welfare officers.

Our speakers offered great insights into the wide variety of roles in their fields. They inspired students with their energy, professionalism and enthusiasm for helping others and keeping communities safe.

Academic

Oscars Evening

On Wednesday, 28 August, the Media Studies department held our annual Oscars Evening, in which we screen the best Year 12 Narrative Music Videos and Year 13 Short Films and present awards in a variety of categories (just like the real Oscars!) such as Best Cinematography, Best Acting, Best Editing, Best Costume and Makeup, Best Concept, and more.

The calibre of students’ work this year was very high. This made it difficult to choose the two big winners of the night, but ultimately, ‘Best Year 12 Narrative Music Video’ went to Uratua Burnell, Kiera Miller and Brittney Ye for ‘Without Me’ and ‘Best Year 13 Short Film’ went to Eva Johnston, Emma Natan and Layla Whiteside for their short horror film, ‘Repeat’.

The evening wrapped up with a highlights reel showcasing snippets from all the Media students’ work this year.

The evening was a great success and it was lovely for the students’ families and friends to see the results of their hard work. Well done to all the nominees and winners this year!

Community

Become a teacher. Best job in the world.

If you are a recent graduate or looking for a career change, teaching might be for you.

Or maybe you know someone who would make a wonderful teacher?

We have places available on our in-school teacher training courses offered through ASTTP (Waikato University) and The Teachers Institute

Have a look at the following websites School-Based Training org and  Teachers’ Institute Org

Why choose Westlake?

  • Inspiring Environment: Empower young women.
  • Quality Training: Hands-on experience with supportive mentors.
  • Strong Community: Join our vibrant, diverse school.

For more info: Email Sarah Hooper

Community

Golf Day - selling fast!

Click on our Fundraising  Event Page below to see the companies we’ve already got signed up!

Fundraising Event Page

 

Don’t miss out – limited places! 

To take part, please get in touch with Dean Flyger, Community Relationship Manager.

Email: [email protected]