6 minute read
Westlake Girls’ High School
$10,000 raised for World Vision
Thanks to an outstanding effort by Year 13 student Sarah Binnie and her 40-Hour Famine Committee, more than $10,000 was raised by students for World Vision this year.
“We held two really effective lunchtime events where we had a guest speaker and held an information event to inform the students about what is happening in Sub-Saharan Africa,” says Sarah. “Our other event was a lunchtime quiz and simulation event which also attracted a lot of students.”
The 40-Hour Famine Committee went around classes to promote these events and to also encourage students to sign up for the famine. The hard work paid off, with $10,088.90 raised – exceeding the $10,000 goal.
“Last year I attended a scholarship summit through the school and this meant that this year I got the opportunity to have an interview through LifeFM as they were running a 40hour broadcast for the 40-Hour Famine,” says Sarah. “It was an awesome opportunity to talk about what the 40-Hour Famine committee had done this year, and also enabled me to encourage the listeners to participate in the famine.”
Sarah Binnie with LifeFM presenter Eloise in Percy the Caravan.
Pictured with Jonine at the piano are from left: Hannah, Lisa and Melody. WGHS students (from left) Hannah Jones and Alanah Jones with members of Voicemale and Choralation after their wins at Big Sing.
Music takes centre stage after Covid disruptions
It’s been a tremendous year to date for the Music Department at Westlake Girls High School, following most events and performances being cancelled in 2020.
Firstly, Westlake schools cleaned up at the Auckland Regional Big Sing competition held in June. The Big Sing Festival is the largest choral competition in the southern hemisphere with around 10,000 high school students singing in 200 choirs around New Zealand. The Auckland regionals is the largest centre with three full days of competition and 60 choirs.
It was a tremendous time of choral music with outstanding performances by Westlake Girls, Westlake Boys and combined choirs: • Winner of Best Festival programme by a mixed choir – Choralation (Director Rowan Johnston) • Winner of Best Festival programme by a female choir – Cantare (Director Fiona Wilson) • Winner of Best Festival programme by a male choir – Voicemale
(Director David Squire) • Runner up for the Adjudicators Award – Voicemale • Winner of the Spirit of the Festival Award – Cantare
Shortly after the Big Sing, Year 13 students from Westlake Girls have been awarded first, third and two highly commended awards in the NZCF Federation Choral Composition competition.
Jonine Tiakia won with her composition piece Invictus. Lisa Qian came third equal with A Night Thought, while Hannah Jones and Melody Zhang both received a highly commended for Voices of the Air and Tree at my Window respectively. The NZCF-SOUNZ Choral Composition Competition was introduced to mark the third millennium, with a trophy presented by NZCF Auckland Region. The competition is run in conjunction with SOUNZ Centre for New Zealand Music, and awards a prize for the best choral piece composed by a New Zealand secondary school student. There were 23 entries in this year’s competition.
New Rotary Interact Club making a difference in the community
Earlier this year, the new Westlake Girls High School Rotary Interact Club was launched. As an official youth group, the group of students operates based on the Rotary model, and is sponsored by local Rotary Clubs.
The club’s first project was collecting blankets for the City Mission, with 50 blankets handed over at the end of June. The next project is a Beach Clean-Up on Saturday 21st August – and we’d love you and your family to be a part of it.
It will just be a couple of hours out of your day - from 12 to 2pm (or as much time as you can spare) and there will be a draw for prizes. Lots of fun guaranteed as you join our group walking along the shoreline collecting rubbish from Mairangi Bay to Browns Bay beach. Bags will be provided, but please bring gloves. A gold coin donation will be gifted to Keep New Zealand Beautiful.
You can find out all the details on the @Rotarywghs instagram page or just turn up at Mairangi Bay and look for the large group of enthusiastic volunteers. We'd love to see you there!
Members of Westlake’s Rotary Interact with the blankets for the City Mission.
A record medal haul for snowboarding team
Westlake Girls won a record number of medals at the 2021 Auckland Secondary Schools Snowboarding Championship in June.
Competing against 13 schools, the fiveperson team of Harriet Gowing, Coco Mauger, Meadow Mauger, Jorgina Mackenzie and Saffron Frost-Macky won 12 medals, consisting of seven gold, three silver and two bronze medals, to be crowned the girls Auckland Secondary School Snowboarding Champions.
Eager to improve on last year’s second place, they produced several standout performances. However it was the final of the Girls Dual Slalom which produced the biggest cheer. Year 11 student Harriet Gowing met a student from Long Bay in the final race of the knockout event - the competitor she had lost to last year. Flying out the gate, Harriet got off to a
scintillating start. Her competitor fought hard to close the gap, but Harriet held on to cross the finish line 3/100th of a second in front. The medal haul began with Year 9 student, Meadow Mauger, who won Silver in the Junior Girls Slopestyle. Slopestyle is the root of snowboarding and riding rails with heart skipping jumps that are difficult and scary. The brave youngster also won a Bronze medal in the Junior Slalom race. Jorgina Mackenzie, Meadow Mauger, The other individual medals went to Harriet Gowing, Coco Mauger and Saffron Frost-Macky. Meadow’s older sister Coco and fellow Year 9 student, Jorgina Mackenzie. Coca won Silver in the Senior Slalom race and came third in Dual Slalom. Jorgina did extremely well to come second in the Junior Slalom Race, the young Westlake Team, under the guidance of April Ieremia, has created a great foundation for years to come.
Westlake for the win after nail-biting finale
The final game of 2021 Auckland Secondary Schools Squash Championship had spectators on the edge of their seats as the defending champions, Westlake Girls, met Takapuna Grammar in a cliff-hanger championship decider.
Levelled at two-all with one match to play, TGS won the first two sets of the best of three matches and were looking set for an early finish. However, Lucy CadnessAspinall, the WGHS captain, surprised all when she produced some miraculous game play and took three sets in a row. The final score was 13-15, 8-11, 11-7, 11-6 and 11-3.
The Premier team of Cadness-Aspinall, Aishah Lotfy, Myriam Lotfy, Anna Jowsey and Tayla Harre are preparing for the New Zealand
Anna Jowsey, Tayla Harre, Lucy CadnessAspinall, Aishah Lotfy and Myriam Lotfy.
Secondary Schools Championship held in Tauranga from 6th-8th August. In Division 2, the Senior A Westlake Girls team worked hard to finish third with a Bronze medal. Captained by Georgia Heron, the team only lost to tournament favourites, MacLeans and Western Springs Colleges who went on to finish first and second respectively.
