Newsletter Week 23 Term 3

Waiheke High School 5th August, 2022

Principal's Message

Tēnā koutou katoa,

We have hit the ground running in term three with the senior ball and many curricular activities taking place in the first two weeks of term. A massive thanks to Mr Bill Godbout and the ball committee for the organisation and running of the ball. It was a great evening.

Senior students only have 11 weeks of classes remaining in the year prior to going on exam leave. This means good attendance is an absolute necessity. Please encourage your students to complete work and assessments.

Many of our year 7 and 8 students are preparing for the AIMS games in Tauranga. This is exciting given the event has been cancelled the previous two years. Thank you to all the parents who are fundraising for our teams.

As with other places around New Zealand/Aotearoa, sickness and covid continues to impact our community. Thank you to our staff, students, whānau and community for showing continued resilience at this time.

Kaua e mate wheke, me mate ururoa.
Do not concede like the octopus, but fight like the hammerhead shark.

Ngā mihi nui,

Mikaere October

Principal

Upcoming Events

15 - 19 August - Mobile Dental Clinic
21 August - Open (2023 Enrollment) Day
26 August - TEACHER ONLY DAY
29 August - MID WINTER BREAK
15 - 21 Sept - Senior Derived Grade Exams
26 - 30 September - Second Year 9 Mountain Trip
31 September - LAST DAY OF TERM 3
17 October - FIRST DAY OF TERM 4

Attendance Strategy

Good attendance has a direct correlation with student achievement at school. Students who attend more frequently are far more likely to achieve. To promote greater attendance, Waiheke High School has introduced a new attendance strategy.

Students who have unexplained absences will be given a print out of their attendance on Monday. They then have until Wednesday to fix this up. This might include speaking with their teachers or asking you to contact the school with information. Changes will be made on the student management system.

Students who still have unexplained absences by the end of Wednesday will be asked to catch up on school work during interval or lunch on Thursday or Friday.

Please help us, by contacting the front office with any absence your young person may have.

Thank you for your assistance.

International Students Return to Waiheke High

Willkommen and welcome to our 3 new international students! Pascal Krüger and Lena Glücklich join us from Germany and Freddie Moor from the United Kingdom. We are delighted to see international students back in our kura after New Zealand’s border being closed for the past two years and are looking forward to welcoming more new students next term and in 2023.

Every year, as a part of an established transition programme, Waiheke High School welcomes Year 6 students from Te Huruhi Primary School and Year 8 students from Waiheke Primary School to come and experience a morning at the high school.

The students follow a simplified timetable of Science, Art, Mathematics, Digital Technology, Performing Arts and PE. This allows them to get a taste of some of the subjects on offer and to experience the classroom and whole school environment at Waiheke High School.

They are shown the ropes from some of our Year 7 and Year 9 students who help to escort them around and take part in the classes with them.

This transition programme is vital to ensuring that students feel comfortable as they move on to a high school setting. The school visit held on Thursday 16th June, is just one of the opportunities for the primary school students to get acquainted with the high school. They will come again near the end of the year to take part in more classes and activities.

An online zoom meeting for Waiheke Primary and Te Huruhi Primary school whānau will be held on Tuesday 28 June at 7.30pm. This will be an opportunity to hear about the vision of Waiheke High School from the principal, Mikaere October. Contact your school for further details.

Our annual Waiheke High School Open Day will be held on Sunday 21st August from 10am until 12pm. This will allow members of the Waiheke Community to come and see all that the high school has to offer.

Maths Week will take place next week in school. Students will be taking part in interesting activities in their Maths lessons. There will also be a couple of fun activities at lunchtime. These will be advertised in the Student Notices.

Sustainability Group

On Thursday we were invited to attend the Principals' Regenerative Leadership Hui at Sylvia Park School. Our role was to be ‘Keynote listeners’. Genevieve, Ella, and Sophia attended the event. All of us keynote listeners were split into groups, with around three of us older keynote listener students with a few of the Sylvia Park School students. Our group was Te Paru, ‘the mud’. It represented being stuck in the mud, or something difficult that Tamaki Makaurau’s school principals had been through. For most, this was COVID-19 and the struggle the pandemic brought to their kura.

The Leadership Hui was a chance for Principals from other Enviroschools to meet and hear about initiatives that are happening around Auckland. It was an awesome opportunity and experience and we have many thanks for Nicky Elmore and the Enviroschools team and the Sylvia Park School rep that organised the day, Hayden, as well as Anya who was the keynote speaker of the day. It was super cool to meet other akonga that had amazing ideas and experiences to share with us about how sustainability and conservation works in their respective kura and communities. Thank you to Mrs Cole for helping us out massively with organisation for this hui, we really enjoyed it.

Genevieve, Ella, and Sophia

Waiheke High School Sustainability Group

As the Enviroschools Facilitator for Waiheke HS I would just like to mihi to Genevieve, Ella and Sophia. They were a credit to your school. They successfully navigated fog-bound ferries to make their way to Sylvia Park School. They confidently collaborated with students from other schools and actively interpreted and recorded the conversations that were had in the Te Paru (the mud) station for Te Taiao. The Kaupapa of Enviroschools: “Creating a Healthy Peaceful Sustainable World through people learning and taking action together”, is closely aligned with the concept of Regenerative Leadership. Regenerative Leadership looks to Te Taiao for inspiration, sustenance and support, to grow young leaders. The Principals were challenged by the young people to support opportunities that enable rangatahi to share sustainability experiences, and to integrate sustainability across all curriculum areas. Our future is in the hands of these rangatahi and they are actively bringing about change. An exceptional group of students who were such fun to share the day with.

Nicky Elmore

Auckland Council

Sustainable Schools

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Waiheke HS and Sylvia Park students and Rhada from Western Springs College. Great rangatahi networking.

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Waiheke students with Nicky Elmore

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Genevieve reporting back as a key note listener in Te Paru (the mud)

Kia ora whanau,

Now is the time to book an appointment for your child to see the mobile dentist at Waiheke High school. See information and link below

The Dental Planet mobile dental unit is coming to your school soon! Dental care is free for NZ residents under 18 years old and we provide government-funded dental care on-site at many high schools in Auckland and Waikato. Working in partnership with the DHB on behalf of the Ministry of Health, our aim is to improve the number of high school students accessing quality dental care. Our mobile dental unit is scheduled to visit Waiheke 15th August to the 19th August. This will be for Year 9 to Year 13 students. See the School Nurse for any questions email: nurse@waihekehigh.school.nz or mobile 027 618 9225

To enrol your child with Dental Planet with us, simply click on this link and follow the prompts.

Peace Week

Did you know that The Peace Foundation have organised a Peace Week from Sunday 7th August.

The theme is “The Power of Unity”. Often we try to do things alone, but what we can see is that there is power in unity. When we work together, we can achieve great things.

On Wednesday Lunchtime at Waiheke High School, we are setting up a Peace Table on the A deck. Students are invited to come and see Liz and Maggie and to write their message of Peace and Unity to share with their peers. There might even be a few tasty snacks to share. We hope they will come along and be part of the Peace Week celebration.