Westlake Girls’ High School

Elaine can count on being one of NZ's best!

Idea ‘unfurls’ into award-winning prose

Being good with numbers is one thing, but being as good as Elaine Zhou is a whole different thing altogether! The Year 10 student was recently announced as one of the top 30 maths students in New Zealand for her year level – the second year in a row!

The result is from the Otago Maths Competition which is a two-round competition for students in Years 9-11. Last year Elaine entered and scored 71 out of 73 in the first round. “I then progressed onto the second round which was a paper exam,” she says. “I ended up placing in the top 30 in Year 9 which came as a big surprise.”

Boosted by last year’s results, she undertook the challenge again this year, finding it a little harder at Year 10. “The round was online and consisted of 80 multichoice or short-answer questions, testing various maths skills. Then the top 15% of candidates progressed onto the second round which consisted of full-length exam questions. These questions are mostly based around playing with numbers and there is a strong emphasis on problem solving,” she says. “I found out that I was placed in the top 30 at House assembly on 7th September. I was actually very surprised because I thought that I hadn’t done very well. I had been struggling to understand some of the sections in the exam, and ended up running out of time before completing all the questions.”

The talented mathematician originally competed in the Otago Problem Challenge in Year 6. “I really enjoyed it and did very well – I think I placed in the top 1% and got some prize money too! I continued to participate up until Year 8. Then at high school in Year 9 I heard about the Otago Maths Competition from my form teacher and decided to enter it because I thought it would be quite similar to the Otago Problem Challenge, which I really enjoyed.”

Elaine says she enjoys the logic of mathematics. “I like how you can find many patterns within numbers, and I really like finding out how

Sue Higgins, Elaine Zhou, Katie Pearson and Will Anderton.

numbers change when you do things to them.” As for the future? “I'm not really sure where my journey in maths will take me,” Elaine says. “I think that my focus has always been to do these competitions because I find them interesting and fun, so I've never really pressured myself to do things. I usually sign up for competitions that pop up and seem interesting. “I'm also studying AS mathematics outside of school which has been really challenging for me and has exposed me to a lot of harder content. I think I want a career that involves mathematics in some way but it's been quite hard for me to make up my mind. A lot of careers involve maths in some way but my goals are always changing.” In the meantime, Elaine will continue to be a shining star in Mrs Smolko’s STEAM maths class! Elaine is pictured with (from left): Sue Higgins (Westlake’s Head of Mathematics Department), Katie Pearson and Will Anderton (Akoranga House Deans).

Recently, I found out that I won the High School category for the Barfoot and Thompson Young Author Challenge annual writing competition. This means not only do I receive some prize money and books, but Westlake Girls also receives $1,000 prize

Julia Wilkins. money and $1,000 worth of books!

I love to write; creative writing is my passion. When I submitted my story, I didn’t really think anything would come of it since there are so many schools and lots of entries. After a while, I completely forgot about the competition. Then, the day before my birthday, while sitting in Social Studies class, my phone started ringing in my pocket. My mum tried to call me in the middle of class, so I was very alarmed and emailed her asking what was wrong. This was when I saw the email telling me I had won the high school category, and the message from my mother (all in caps lock) screaming with excitement. I wore a ridiculous smile for the entire afternoon.

My mum is a teacher, and she was getting her class to enter the primary level competition. She was the one who suggested I enter. The theme was ‘a great day out’, and while I wasn’t initially inspired by this broad prompt, an idea slowly unfurled itself in my mind. After a few days of it taking shape in my subconscious, I finally pulled up a blank document and started writing.

This year, I signed up to do windsurfing through Westlake Girls at Lake Pupuke with Madloop Windsurfing. I loved it. There’s just something about being out on the lake, with water under your board, the sun glinting off the lake, and a wind in your sails. I feel connected to nature and just so free. While the weekly sessions only went on for a term, my joy for windsurfing led me to continue going to the lake, even as the weather got colder. The most recent time I was windsurfing, it was raining and the wind had turned the water into a rushing mess of dark grey and blue. It was a challenge to windsurf in the conditions, but it was so exhilarating.

This experience is my story; a descriptive, slightly exaggerated (the amount of storminess, at least) piece of writing inspired by one girl’s love of storms and windsurfing..

By Julia Wilkins, Year 10

Rugby Team.

Junior Premier Basketball team. Senior Premier Basketball team.

Teams take out top spots

Basketball

Senior Premier: After winning the 2021 Auckland Secondary Schools Premier Basketball title, Westlake Girls has done it again. The delayed start to the Auckland final between Westlake Girls and Mt Albert Grammar only unsettled the local team for one quarter (17-16) before they opened the scoring lanes to lead 44-26 at halftime.

With a successful press in the third quarter, Westlake Girls extended their lead to 28 points (73-45). And blessed with a bounty of talent including New Zealand Under 18 representative Mackenzie Chatfield, New Zealand Under 17 representative Amy Pateman, and New Zealand Under-15 newby Emma-Kaye Schroeder, the league leaders won the championship, 87-54.

Junior Premier: Gold medal winners! The Westlake Junior Premier Basketball team competed at the Basketball Junior Champs and played seven great games across four days in our Winter Tournament Week.

A combination of our top Year 9 and Year 10 players from the Junior A and Senior A, and two players from our Senior Premier team beat Takapuna (84-34), Epsom (71-38), Rangitoto (64-47), Northcote (125-21) and Mt Albert (66-41) before losing by one point to Carmel College (55-56) in the round robin games.

Our athletes then went on to the finals to face the strong side of Carmel College again, but this time showed a clear dominance and finished the game 69:43 to claim the gold medal and become Junior A Basketball Team Zone 1 Champions.

Rugby

The Westlake Girls Premier Rugby team played in the North Harbour Rugby Youth 17 final on 22nd August. Our opposition was Birkenhead College, a composite team made up of girls from there, Northcote, Glenfield, and Carmel Colleges and Hobsonville Point Secondary School.

Birkenhead College came to play and the first half was closely contested. It was a tough, physical game fitting of a final. Our forwards made some strong carries, and the backs executed some smart kicking and at half time we were in the lead 24-14. In the second half our defence took over with any Birkenhead attacks shut down by our relentless tackling and team commitment to not concede any more points. On attack we spread the ball wide and ran in some excellent team and individual tries.

The final score of 51-19 resulted in the team being crowned North Harbour Champions for the second year in a row.

Gold Award for fundraising efforts

World Vision has recognised WGHS with a Gold Award certificate for raising more than $10,000 during the 40-Hour Famine. The total raised was $10,496.20. Westlake’s Famine Committee was also given an Outstanding Student Leadership Team Award for all their hard work and dedication.

Thank you to everyone who got involved to raise awareness and funds for the vital cause of bringing clean water to those around the world!