7 minute read
Westlake Boys’ High School
Matua Johnny Waititi.
Sportsman of the year Cameron Gray.
Outstanding Service in the Music Department winner Fergus Dunlop.
Music and Sports Awards for 2021
Despite Covid restrictions placing a dampener on our usual end of year events such as Senior Prizegiving, Music Awards, Sports Dinner, and Graduation celebrations, we have continued to adapt and moved some of these online, while others have gone ahead in a much smaller capacity.
Our Senior Prizegiving is yet to take place. However we have had a virtual Sports Awards evening, and a scaled-down outdoors Music Awards ceremony.
Congratulations to the following young men on their achievements in the sporting and musical arenas.
SPORTS:
Sportsman of the Year: Cameron Gray Outstanding Sporting Achievement: Lewis Bower Attitude & Sportsmanship: Brayden Hamilton True Sportsmanship: Connor Chatfield Team of the Year: Distance Running (sponsored by Davenports Law) Student Coach of the Year: Levi White & Isaac Tetro
MUSIC:
Outstanding Service in the Music Department: Fergus Dunlop Most Improved Senior Musician: Zazi Ndebele Excellence in Composition: Matt Siqueira Excellence in Vocal Performance: Cameron McConchie Excellence in Instrumental Performance: Liam Wright
Westlake welcomes back staff
This month we profile a few of our staff who have recently returned to Westlake Boys after time away to study or travel.
Nau mai hoki mai e te rangatira ko Johnny! Warm greetings and welcome back to our very own Matua Johnny Waititi who was awarded study leave for most of 2021 so he could complete his Masters of Educational Leadership at Auckland University. He is now back in full force and we're looking forward to the new developments he is helping instigate at WBHS. Matua Johnny says, "My returning to Westlake Boys will give me an opportunity to put into practice all that I have learned. 2022 will be an exciting for us as we see the most significant change for our Māori students at Westlake with the establishment of the bilingual class at Year 9. I have a passion for te reo, Māori performing arts and supporting the educational aspirations of our Māori students and their whānau. "From 2022 and beyond we will have a student cohort moving through the school that will be grounded in te reo Māori and tikanga Māori which will add strength to our te reo programme, so very exciting. We will be only one of four schools in Auckland to have a Māori medium programme and we are the only secondary school on the North Shore, adding that Westlake Boys is the only school on the North Shore to have Te Ao Haka – Māori performing arts as a subject along with te reo Māori. "2022 will be an important year for Māori and for Westlake as we move into a new era where Māori knowledge will be valued and promoted across the school, supported by an awesome team of kaiako from Te Puna, so I am excited to be back and be a part of all of this. "I will finish referring to the words of a great Māori leader from Tainui, Te Puea Herangi: 'Mahia te mahi, hei painga mo te iwi – Work hard for the betterment of your people' ".
Dr. Nick Brown is the Head of drama and theatre arts at Westlake Boys, and an Across School Lead for the Püpuke Kahui Ako (our Community of Learning). Last October and November he was seen on stage as Mr Banks in 'Mary Poppins' at The Civic Theatre.
Nick’s work at Westlake has led to some remarkable school successes, including 21 Auckland Live and iTicket, Showdown Awards, and five University of Otago Shakespeare’s Globe Centre New Zealand Awards. In 2020 he qualified with a PhD from the University of Canterbury: ‘Shaking my practice: navigating curriculum, aesthetic and social curiosity’.
Westlake Boys was happy to welcome Dr Brown back after the completion of his PhD, and alongside Ms Milburn from Westlake Girls, he has recently announced that in a departure from the norm, Westlake will be producing two shows in 2022 – a musical and a play – in a two-week season, from June 29th–July 9th 2022.
The musical will be Stephen Sondheim and Larry Gelbarts' comedy musical – 'A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum'; the play will be 'Antigone' by Sophocles. The two will play against each other on alternate nights across the season – a musical that is also a Roman farce, and a play that is a Greek tragedy.
Nicke says, “I have been very happily employed at Westlake Boys’ for seven years now. As head of drama, my joys are numerous: I lead a highly talented and productive department of three; create staging for our top Westlake choirs, Voicemale and Choralation; and lead the combined schools’ productions. I also work as an Across School Lead for the Pupuke Kahui Ako, our Community of Learning. "The Westlake whānau of staff and students is wonderfully diverse and equally talented. This is reflected in their remarkable creative output, especially of our singers and actors. My most memorable recent joy is of directing the production of 'Les Misérables' in 2019, in which we had a dedicated cast of 100 actors, 25 student musicians, 20 student technicians on lighting and sound, and a team of 25 staff making the magic happen. Les Mis was performed to over 3,000 people across six shows, and each received a standing ovation. This year, in a time of Covid-19, we created a production based around six 15-minute Shakespeare scenes, called Socially Distanced Shakespeare. Innovation is at the heart of how I create meaningful performance artworks with my fellow collaborators, students and staff. "Westlake Boys’ has also provided me with profound opportunities to grow as a teacher and a leader. In 2020, I took a sabbatical to finish a PhD in drama, theatre & performance in education. My research looks at how young adults discover, explore, and perform a developing sense of themselves, through drama processes and products. I graduated in April this year. "I consider myself profoundly fortunate to work at Westlake Boys’: Its staff and students are a daily source of inspiration, stimulation, and innovation. Long may it continue!”
Welcome back also to Carla
Boniolo in the English department, after two years teaching overseas. Carla says, “I began teaching English at Westlake at the beginning of 2017 where I quickly became keenly involved with many aspects of Westlake life – assisting with all the school productions and leading the Year 12 English course were two of my highlights. After two and a half years at Westlake, I temporarily relocated to London Carla Boniolo in front of the Tyne Bridge, Bristol. in order to develop my teaching practice in an international setting and – of course – to enjoy lots of northern hemisphere travelling on the weekends. I based myself in West London and lived in the suburb of Maida Vale. My flat was a 10 minute walk from Abbey Road music studios and a 15 minute walk from Lord’s cricket ground. I adored the fast-paced London lifestyle. I was lucky enough to frequent many West End musicals ('Come From Away' and '& Juliet' were favourites!), trek out to various royal palaces (the grandeur of Hampton Court took my breath away), spot a few celebrities (seeing singer Sam Smith outside a Starbucks and petting his dog was a delight), and commute to work via the iconic London tube.
I taught at two co-educational academy schools and gained experience teaching the UK GCSE qualification as well as the International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma. Unfortunately, London was hit hard at the start of the pandemic and we had many months of harsh lockdown restrictions. As a result, I taught via Zoom from a makeshift desk in the corner of my tiny bedroom for a total of six months (split over two periods of school closures).
After securing a prized MIQ spot for September, I journeyed home to Auckland (via a two week quarantine at a hotel in Christchurch). I am excited to be back at Westlake, reconnecting with my wonderful English department colleagues and my past students. Westlake Boys is a very special place and I am thrilled to be back."
