Tena Koutou

Firstly, a very warm welcome to the new students, and a warm welcome back to our returning students. It was an honour to welcome the new students and staff at our Powhiri on Tuesday, 31st of January. It was great to see so many whanau and family members join us on this formal occasion.

There are many exciting events coming up in the next few weeks. Our Year 13’s will attend Camp Ruakawa in Katatahi Whanganui from the 27th of February until the 1st of March. This is a great opportunity for the year group to form connections with their peers and to learn new skills by challenging themselves though adventure based learning. They’ll also be setting goals for the year. Many thanks to Miss Brown for organising and finding the financial support that makes this more affordable for the students.

On Thursday 16th February, the year 12 students will be taking part in RYDA. The students have been given information about the day, which will be held at Donnelly park. The programme focuses on driver safety, and has been thoroughly enjoyed by students who have attended in previous years. More information about RYDA can be found on their website RYDA.

Two of the major House Competition events are scheduled for week 4 and week 6. Swimming Sports on Wednesday the 22nd of February will kick off the battle for the Burnham Trophy. Entries for this will be collected next week, and we encourage all students to get involved, the more house members who compete the more chance you have of winning the competition. Similarly Athletic Sports will be on 10th of March. I’m looking forward to seeing the school dressed in house colours and the strong competition between Blackwater, Makeretu, Ōhau, and Ōtaki.

It’s great to see everyone's uniform looking immaculate as we start the year. A quick reminder that slides and jandals can’t be worn as uniform. If you have any questions about uniforms please contact us for clarification.

This year we will be focusing on attendance. After the last three covid affected years it’s important that this year we’re back to business as usual. Please ensure we have your correct contact details with the office as we will be contacting home when students are absent. Ideally if your student is absent please contact the office to let us know before we contact you.

I’m looking forward to the year ahead and upcoming events. In particular the celebration of the School’s Golden Jubilee, to be held over Labour weekend. Planning for this event has begun so look out for more details in the near future.

A reminder if you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact us, 3688303.

Ngā mihi

Guy Reichenbach.

Kirsten first joined the PE Department at Waiopehu College in 2005 straight from Teachers Training college. After a few years teaching Kirsten took a 5 year break to go to live and work in London returning back to Waiopehu College in 2013.

As well as her duties as a PE Teacher, Kirsten has been a House Dean and more recently the Year 13 Dean.

Last year Kirsten joined the Senior Leadership team as acting Assistant Principal before successfully being appointed Assistant Principal at the end of 2022.

As always we have a settling period for our timetable at the start of each year. If you or your child have any questions about their timetable please contact their house dean. Please note that we will not make any changes to student timetables after Friday 17th February as it becomes too difficult for students to catch up on missed work. We have made changes to our elective structure this year and so they look different for each year level.

Year 9 and Year 10 students take two electives per week. They should have zero gaps showing on their timetables.

Year 11 students take three electives per week. They should have zero gaps showing on their timetables.

Year 12 students take two electives per week. (They may take three electives if they choose). With two electives they will have two timetable study gaps at the start of two days of the week.

Year 13 students take one elective per week. (They may take three electives if they choose). With one elective they will have three timetable study gaps at the start of three days of the week.

Year 12 and 13 students are allowed to utilise their study periods at home or if they are at school they are expected to study independently in the library unless they are working with a member of staff.

Contact Information for Deans

Cameron Brown: cameronbro@waiopehu.ac.nz

Donna Price: donnapri@waiopehu.ac.nz

Caroline Kauri: carolinekau@waiopehu.ac.nz

Karlene Roeven karlenemac@waiopehu.ac.nz

Tātai whetū ki te rangi, mau tonu, mau tonu.
Tātai tangata ki te whenua, ngaro noa, ngaro noa.
Ka tū au ki te pae o Tararua kia mihia te hunga kua whetūrangitia
Ka rere me ngā wai e tere ana i te awa o Hōkio kia whakahono, kia tū kaha, Muaūpoko tēnā rā koutou!
Ka tau ahau ki te kāreti o Waiopehu ki te mihi ki ngā kaiako me ngā tauira.
Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.

This year in Te Hau Aroha we began our year with the blessing of a new taonga. This taonga was designed and carved by our whakairō tauira of 2022 under the tutelage of Matua Manu Bennet. Following our pōwhiri to welcome the new whānau the Muaūpoko Tuturu whānau unveiled our new tohu that now adorns the entrance to our whare. Our whare is Te Hau Aroha the wind of love and our tohu represents the atua Tawhirimātea and his realm. Ka mau te wehi!

This year we have a few kaupapa we are running which includes Waka Ama, Kapahaka regionals etc. If you would like more information please like and follow us on our facebook page Te Hau Aroha - Waiopehu College.

Ngā mihi nui

Ngā kaiako o Te Hau Aroha

The Waiopehu College Performing Arts department are excited to announce two projects that they will be working on in 2023.

Creatives in Schools project - Taitoko Kanikani Collective

Waiopehu College have been lucky enough to have their creative project proposal selected to have a dance professional group come and work with the dance and drama department throughout term 1 and term 2.

Ballet Collective Aotearoa will be coming into Waiopehu College twice a week throughout Term One and Term Two and working with the dance and drama students to co create a performance that the students will perform alongside the Ballet Collective Aotearoa in public performance held at Waiopehu College during the beginning of June.

The students are very excited to be able to work with a professional company and learn some new skills that will support them throughout their dance studies.

Also the Waiopehu College Performing Arts department have been given the rights to perform Legally Blonde Jr at the beginning of Term Three. As Waiopehu College have not presented a formal production for some time, the students are also very excited to be able to work with their teachers and fellow students to present their version of Legally Blonde Jr.

There are lots of amazing performance opportunities for our students within the Performing Arts department so please encourage your students to give these opportunities a go and we appreciate your support by coming and watching our public performances. Further details of the public performances will be advertised in Term 2

Congratulations to our gold medal winning student Courtney Fitzgibbon. Courtney was the sole representative from our region at the Secondary School Athletics Championships held in Inglewood in December. After winning a bronze medal in the Junior Girls 3000m final Courtney then went on to win Gold in the Junior Girls 2000m steeplechase. She also competed in the Junior Girls 1500m final and recorded personal best times in all three events.

Well done Courtney and again congratulations.

Juniors may issue 5 books, and seniors are allowed 7, for three weeks at a time. Please return or ask to renew them past this time.

We have one of the largest manga collections of NZ High schools, so if you love anime, come in and see if we have your favourite series. There are also many new fiction and non-fiction titles as well as our regular magazine selection.

Juniors will get an introduction to the library in a visit with core classes, but if you have any questions please come and ask the librarian.

You can see all our books and other useful links on our library website: http://library.waiopehu.ac.nz:2001/#!dashboard Sign in with your school login to reserve or renew books.

If you would like to suggest a book for our library please email library@waiopehu.ac.nz

Ceire Hopley

Librarian

Below are some new books in the library.

This year as well as making all sports free to play and brand new uniforms for all our sports teams we have special golden jubilee apparel for students, families and the community to purchase.

To order any of these items, please email Director of Sport, Matthew Good, matthewgoo@waiopehu.ac.nz with your order plus sizes. Orders must be in before close off, Friday 17th February.

Term 1 review topics;

- Legislation and Administration Policy

- Student Attendance

- Enrolment

- Privacy

- Office Information Requests

- Uniform / Dress Code

Waiopehu College welcomes your input on the policies up for review this term.

If you would like to look at the SchoolDocs site, or would like to review the policies you can access the link via our homepage on our website. www.waiopehu.ac.nz which also provides log in information.

To review a policy, please go to the current review tab and you will see the documents to review and instructions for how to give feedback, which needs to be in by the end of this term. SchoolDocs considers all of the feedback they receive and will let us know if there are any changes proposed to the policies.

A reminder that you can see the school calendar via your school portal

16 February

- Kai and a Kōrero, 5pm-7pm (more information above in the newsletter)

22 February

- Swimming Sports

- Board of Trustees Meeting

27 February

- 1 March - Year 13 Camp

3 March

- Class and Individual photos

6 March

- Biology Field Trip, Pukerua Bay

7 - 9 March

- Year 12 Front of House Course

10 March

- Athletics Day

13 March

- Catch up Individual photos

14 - 16 March

- Year 11 Front of House Course

24 - 30 March

- Year 9 Day Camps

25 March

- School Ball

3 - 22 April

- Japan Trip

4 - 5 April

- Restaurant Nights

5 April

- Board of Trustees meeting

6 April

- Last day of Term 1

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