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ISSUE #1 2020
HGHS BULLETIN Hamilton Girls’ High School
MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL Belonging - whanaungatanga Tena Koutou katoa Nau mai, haere mai...welcome to our first Principal’s Assembly. We are creatures of habit - whether we like it or not. Coming back to HGHS over the past week would have caused a stir of emotions. Many of you may be battling the back to school blues but like anything else we dread, we need to come to terms with it so it doesn’t become a habit. This is a time not to remain stagnant, but to feel refreshed and look at school as another new beginning. My challenge to you is to continue to develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow. Every new day teaches us new things whether we realize it, or not.
MARIE GORDON Principal
I would like to take this opportunity to welcome our new staff and new students to our HGHS community. Our place may appear to be overwhelming at times with many new faces, new systems, new rules, new values, but there exists a sense of community, a sense of belonging and a sense of identity that unites all of us. Over time, relationships will strengthen as we get to know each other, but at this very moment, we as tangata whenua, must embrace and welcome our manuhiri, our new students and staff, to our community. Remember, even simply having someone smile and say kia ora or hello in the morning can make the biggest difference to any person’s day. By championing the importance of community for our wellbeing, by highlighting the many wonderful and diverse communities that exist in our kura, our school, and by exploring new ways for people to belong, it is important that continue to create a place in which people feel connected. It is my pleasure to welcome and introduce our new staff: FIRST NAME
SURNAME
DEPARTMENT
Graham
Sinclair
Science/ Chemistry
Ngawai
Hooker
SLT
Lee
Hill
English
Jake
Spence
Technology
Cathy
Liu
Mathematics
Ally
White
PE/Heath
Cassidy
Grace
English
Anna
Strickett
English
Chitose
Izuno
Languages
Rebecca
Dredge
Guidance
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IMPORTANT INFORMATION
TERM 1 2020
NEW LIBRARY HOURS Monday 8:00-4:00 Tuesday 8:00-3:00
CORONAVIRUS Regarding Coronavirus, if you notice any flu symptoms please stay away from school. The Ministry of Education has put out a release and is linked below. It has been advised that if you recently travelled from China, or been in contact with someone that has returned from overseas, and they have flu like symptoms, (which could be early stages of Coronavirus) please seek medical advice and do not come to school at this time. If you are in doubt, contact Healthline (0800 611 116), a GP or medical centre before attending. Please contact the school if you believe this applies to you at absences@hghs.school.nz http://www.education.govt.nz/news/novel-coronavirus/
ANGLESEA ST/BRYCE ST SAFETY IMPROVEMENTS ​​ part of its focus on improving the wellbeing of Hamiltonians, As Hamilton City Council has adopted a Vision Zero target of ending deaths and serious injuries on our city's roads. To help achieve this target we will be making several safety improvements to the Anglesea St/Bryce St intersection in early 2020. The proposed enhancements include a raised platform across the intersection to lower speeds and changing the traffic signal phasing to prioritise the safety of pedestrians. This work is supported and co-funded by Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency who aim to achieve significant and sustained reductions in deaths and serious injuries on state highways and local roads across New Zealand. We are also investigating options to improve safety for pedestrians who cross the road on Anglesea St from the Hamilton Transport Centre to the bus stop located across the road, and on Bryce St from KMart to the Transport Centre. The improvements will tie into a future project to improve and liven up the Hamilton Transport Centre. Intersection closed for up to three weeks The intersection will be closed for three weeks from 28 January to 16 February 2020 to complete safety improvement works. Access to all businesses and pedestrian and cycling facilities around the site will be maintained. When re-opened, the intersection will be under traffic management until the end of March 2020 (weather dependent). For more information, visit the website: https://www.hamilton.govt.nz/our-city/city-development/transport/Pages/ Anglesea-St-Bryce-St-safety-improvements.aspx
Wednesday 8:00-4:00 Thursday 8:00-4:00 Friday 8:00-4:00
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TERM 1 2020
MATHEMATICS DEPARTMENT
YEAR 10 LEADERSHIP CAMP 2019
A BIG WELCOME to our new Y 9's.
EMILY SHUTE
2020 brings with it new challenges. This year in the Mathematics Department we are trying something new: all students will be given regular "challenges" to complete as part of their homework programme. Please support your student/s in getting these challenges finished. The purpose of this is to develop and enhance a growth mindset within the maths environment. Some information for new Y 9 whanau: Mathletics is the online mathematical thinking and practice programme which supports the learning completed in class with the teacher. The fee of $35 is due by the end of February. Please pay through the parent portal online or at the Finance Office at school. Information for Y 10's and students doing 1MAT, 2MAT, 3MTS and 3MTC they will be using Education Perfect which has a fee of $22. This will need to be paid soon.You can pay online through the parent portal or at school, at the Finance Office.
In December last year we took 168 students and 25 staff to Turangi MiCamp where we spent two nights and three wonderful days kayaking, swimming, Orienteering, BMX riding, presenting skits and chants and tribal competitions to name a few.. A full on three days of fun was had by all staff and students, culminating in a Year 10 Camp and Careers Assembly Celebration upon our return to school. The year 10 leadership camp aims to challenge our students, engage and make new friendships, develop leadership skills and self discovery. Each and every year, many students leave feeling apprehensive. However, they return with a different perspective on social interaction, management, participation, and fears are overcome. They also see the staff outside of the school environment in a different light. As with every year, HGHS students and staff made the camp a successful one and left a lasting positive impression on the MiCamp staff.
VISUAL AND ENGLISH DEPARTMENT PERFORMING ARTS Welcome to another year in the English Department. The 2020 Mission Statement is that our students be: articulate, actively involved, lifelong learners, who strive for excellence and who have learnt to be self-starters and critical thinkers for a globally changing world. We want our English Department to be innovative, purposeful teachers, who have high expectations and know the needs of their students, in order to be able to empower them.
Visual and Performing Arts have a large range of extra curricular activities that students can participate in. This includes: Dance, Drama, Kapa Haka, Music, Pasifika, Debating, Film and Media Clubs, Multicultural Committee, SVA Award Activities and much more. To find out more about each group or club contact the TIC listed for each activity. Groups and Clubs 2020:Visual and Performing Arts
With this in mind, our articles in both the school bulletin and newsletter will reflect how we are accomplishing these goals. We look forward to sharing our journey of learning with year over this year.
GROUPS AND CLUBS 2020
We wish to congratulate Avalon Carter for being selected as our English Department prefect. We look forward to a fun and interesting year for our English Students’ Committee.
PASIFIKA
Finally, families, we invite you to mark in your calendars Tuesday, April 7th for the Ugly Shakespeare Company who will perform Othello. This will be hosted by the department in the school hall with a cost of $5 for your daughter. We ask that you plan for this event as it is always disappointing when the girls miss out because they may have overlooked this performance or they forget to pay the entry fee.
MUSIC DEPARTMENT The Music Department has had a busy start to the year with organising the extra-curricular music programmes. We began the term with the choir’s first rehearsal on Monday 10th February. This will be closely followed by the school orchestra. For the other groups, such as rock band or jazz band we ask that students follow the notices in the daily bulletin. Our most diverse programme is the Itinerant Music scheme. Thank you to those who attended the first meeting and signed up to the many classes we are offering this year. It is heartening to note that we have twelve itinerant teachers teaching more than ten instruments. Families, for your information the lesson times will be posted on schoology.
Warm Pasifika Greetings to our HGHS Pasifika families. It has been a very busy and very hot beginning to our Pasifika year. We welcome the new families to HGHS and wish them well on their Pasifika journey at Hamilton Girls’ High School. Our focus for 2020 is to raise Pasifika achievement. This means that our Pasifika teachers will be working closely with your daughters so that they will experience success as Pasifika. To start things rolling in a positive direction, many departments are looking at Pasifika texts and experiences in their teaching and learning strategies. It is good to see how invested the school is in wanting to build success for our girls. We now ask that as families you continue to encourage your daughters to do their very best. Regular mentoring opportunities for our senior Pasifika students will occur over the next three terms. In doing so, we expect that our girls are achieving success; however, it is a partnership which requires hard work on their part as well. We congratulate Susana Satini our Pasifika Prefect and look forward to working with her and the Pasifika Council this year. We will bring you more from Susana in our next bulletin article.
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TERM 1 2020
SPORTS DEPARTMENT
SPORTS REGISTRATION FORMS
Internal Memo
Welcome Back Sports Whanau... The Sports Department hopes you had an action packed, fun filled, and well rested holiday break. We hope you were enjoying being active and achieved some great active moments over the holidays! We have hit the ground running with our sports programme to date, with Summer sports trials commencing and seasons starting to trials for all our winter codes that start up in Term 2! Our Sports department welcomes back our HOD Abby Rakete, Zara Henderson and Stacey Chandler. However, we have just received a resignation from Stacey who is heading off overseas on her OE adventures and leaves us on Friday 21st February. Stacey has been a great asset to the team since she arrived and always has a positive and caring approach to the students and whanau that she is dealing with. She has been a huge advocate for participation in sport and we truly value and appreciate her time with us, but understand the needs of exploring at such a young age! We definitely wish you all the best Stacey and Thank you for all your hard work! We do welcome to our sports team this year a Director of Netball, Kim Howard. Kim has come to us from the Sunshine Coast in Australia where she has heavily been involved in Netball. Kim has spent the last 10 years in Netball in Australia and has been a representative Coach in both women’s, age groups and school netball on Sunshine Coast, Game Development Manager Caloundra Netball and prior to moving to the Sunshine Coast was the game development officer for Eastern Netball Region. Further to this Kim was the team Manager of the successful Sunshine Coast Lightning team winning two Premiership titles under the Head Coach Noeline Taurua. Kim brings a wealth of netball experience, enthusiasm and foresight and will lead the Netball Strategy at HGHS.
All our Sports Registration and Information, Athletics Day Registration and Swimming Sports Day Registrations are live on our school website for you to sign up and has been sent to student school email addresses and caregivers emails that are loaded on your daughters school details. Get involved and get active in our Sports programme Whanau! Athletics Day Registration Form Wednesday 19th February
Swimming Sports Registration Form Thursday 12th March Cross Country Day Registration Form Wednesday 6th May
2020 Sports Information & Registration Form
CONDORS RUGBY 7S 2019 At the end of our 2019 school year we took 2 teams, U15 & U18 to the National Secondary Schools Rugby 7s tournament, Youthtown Condors in Auckland. The U15 team had an action packed campaign that had some highs and lows, but above all the girls really gave it all out on the fields in extremely high heats. In the lead into their semi finals game, the team had a significant injury with Tayla Norman, but the team still rallied together to put up a good fight. They made it through to the Semi Finals, but unfortunately lost this match and ended up 4th place based on points. Top 4 in the country is still an amazing effort and we would like to thank their coach JP and Manager/TIC Zara Henderson for all their support and work with the team.
WATERPOLO Also at the end of last year our Junior Water Polo team attended the Junior Secondary School Nationals in Auckland. The girls played exceptionally hard and came up against some tough and rough games where they learnt new craftyness from their opposition. Our girls persevered through the tournament and learnt and built more post each game. Their overall result was that they came Plate winners, which is a fantastic result and it highlighted their determination and resilience as the games progressed and to come away with a Plate win is awesome! A Huge Thank you to our coaching, management, teacher in charge Madison Scott and Whanau for all your support with our Water Polo team, we truly value and appreciate your work.
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NZSS TOUCH NATIONALS 2020 At the end of 2019 once Hamilton Girls was officially finished for the year the Hamilton Girls Premier Touch Team set off to compete at the NZSS Touch Nationals held in Rotorua. The team had worked so hard for this and we were very excited. Over the weekend as a team we went to the Gondolas, dressed in crazy outfits, went out for dinner and managed to have a really good time off the field. Once the tournament started, it was a gruelling 3 days where the team had some extremely tough competition and some nail biter games. Day 3 saw the team go through to the top 3 to play a round robin. The top 2 teams from this would go through to the final. First up was Columba college who were the reigning champs from 2018 and we managed to beat them convincingly 6-3. Next up was St Kentigans who came 2nd in 2018, again a great game that tested our very young team, but we came away with another good win. Finals that afternoon meant we would be playing Columba College. We knew that fnals was going to be a very different game. It was a slow start for us, trailing in the first half, but once our second wind and fitness kicked in the girls played outstanding and I believe they had no more to give.We beat Columba 6-4 and were crowned the 2019 NZSS Touch National Champions. We were very proud of our girls. Hylan (Pani) Potts was awarded MVP, Veisinia Fakalelu, Capri Paekau and Arita Mauriohooho were all named in the tournament team. We would like to thank all our management, coaching staff and whanau for the help and support. A special mention to the Ieremia WhÄ nau who go above and beyond for our girls. We are so grateful to you all. We are looking forward to 2020 and what it has in store for HGHS Touch.
Please Share with us your daughter’s sport achievements so we can celebrate with you either email sport@hghs.school.nz or send a msg to our Facebook Sport Page! Give us a LIKE!
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TERM 1 2020
NCEA Special Assessment Conditions (NZQA might allow a student to have special help with their Apply to Mr Mitchell as soon as possible. This is because students assessments, this help could include; extra time, a computer, a reader, are only allowed these conditions for their internal assessments after a writer, a reader writer, enlarged papers, separate accommodation, NZQA has approved their applications. etc. The student might need such help because of a learning disability, medical condition, or some other reason.) Start checking your results on the NZQA Database
5th April (Updated on the 5th day of each Month)
Last Date to Withdraw from External NCEA & Scholarship Exams
School’s deadline – Friday 7th August 2020
Last Date to Withdraw from Internal Standard Unless you have been given an adequate assessment opportunity
School’s deadline – Friday 23th October 2020
ABSENCE FROM (OR UNABLE TO DO) AN ASSESSMENT:
If you are absent from, or are unable to do, an assessment then you may be assessed later if: 1. The reason is beyond your control, 2. It is practical to do so, and 3. If the application for a further assessment opportunity is received within two weeks of the absence/incident occurring. How to apply: • Absence beyond your control, e.g. accident or illness. • First, contact the Office on or before the day of the assessment, and let them know that you will not be able attend the assessment and give the name of teacher assessing it. • Secondly, get documentation to support your absence, e.g., a medical certificate for an accident or illness or a signed letter from the caregiver for a mechanical breakdown. • Thirdly, see Mr Mitchell (NZQA Liaison) and give him the appropriate documentation within two weeks of the absence/incident occurring. • School activity outside the classroom: Approved extra-curricular activities take priority over an assessment (i.e., EOTC events published on the school calendar, e.g., field trip, sports exchange – ask your teacher if you are unsure). In such cases you should be granted a further assessment opportunity only if it is practical to provide one. Other extra-curricular activities, assessments take priority over these. • GATEWAY work placements: GATEWAY work placements take priority over an assessment. In such cases you should be granted a further assessment opportunity only if it is practical to provide one. • Approved leave: If you know you will be absent from school then you must request leave in writing to Mrs Carter (Deputy Principal) prior to your departure. • Students who absent without an acceptable reason or who do not follow the established procedures: Students who are wilfully absent or who do not follow the established procedures will: • Be considered to have had an adequate assessment opportunity and will be awarded “Not Achieved” for that standard, and • Not be offered another opportunity to be assessed against that standard again.
SPECIAL ASSESSMENT CONDITIONS • •
Students with significant issues may apply to have special assessment conditions for both their internal and external assessments. This includes, but not limited to, students: • with reading issues who may need a reader • with problems expressing themselves on paper may need a writer • with anxiety issues may need to sit their assessment in a separate room • with poor sight who need enlarged examination papers, • who have physical difficulties in writing and need a computer, or
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Special assessment conditions may include: • computer assistance, • enlarged papers, • extra time, • separate accommodation or a • combination of the above
•
Students who are granted special assessment will receive their results just like any other student. There will be no mention of the special assessment condition on their results; it is a private issue between the student, school and NZQA. To apply you must contact Mr Mitchell (07 839 1304 EXT 893 or mitchellm@hghs.school.nz).
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When to Apply: Apply as soon as possible as students are only allowed these conditions for their internal assessments after NZQA has approved their applications.
SCHOOL CONTACT Mr Mitchell is the Principal’s Nominee (NZQA Liaison) at the school. You can contact him by: E-mail: mitchellm@hghs.school.nz Phone: 07 839 1304 EXT 839 PO Box 4082 Mail: Mr Mitchell Hamilton Principal’s Nominee
TERM 1 2020 TERM 1 / WEEK 3
! W EN GS NO EVVIN H IT SA W RE O M
TERM 1 / WEEK 3
KEY DATES THIS TERM 19 FEBRUARY 26 FEBRUARY 28 FEBRUARY 5 MARCH 5 MARCH 12 MARCH
Athletics Day Wintec Course Overview (1.30pm - 2.10pm Library) Star Course - Printmaking at Wintec Y9 Meet the Teacher Evening University of Waikato - Course Overview (1.30pm - 2.10pm Library) Swimming Sports
CAREERS The HGHS Careers Dept is able to assist all students with a range of services – subject selection, course planning, tertiary information, CV writing, job searching, interview skills, work experience. It is never too early to begin to explore career pathways. Labour market information is becoming increasingly important for young people to understand as they explore opportunities. Some good sites to begin this exploration are: https://skillshortages.immigration.govt.nz/assets/uploads/long-term-skill-shortage-list.pdf https://skillshortages.immigration.govt.nz/assets/uploads/immediate-skill-shortage-list.pdf https://occupationoutlook.mbie.govt.nz/ https://www.careers.govt.nz/job-hunting/whats-happening-in-the-job-market/jobs-in-skill-shortage/ During Term 1 the school hosts all eight universities and a variety of other providers to give students and overview of tertiary courses and pathways.This information will be advertised through the daily notices and also on the HGHS Careers/Gateway Facebook site. https://www.facebook.com/HamiltonGirlsHighSchoolCareersDepartment Key Dates – Term 1 20th Feb Frid
LattitudeNZ – International Gap Year Experience
26th Feb Wed
Wintec - course overview
27th Feb Thurs
Whakapiki Ake – Health pathways Maori students - University of Auckland
5th March Thurs University of Waikato – course overview 9th March Mon Massey University – course overview 13th March Frid University of Auckland – course overview 18th March Wed AUT – course overview 20th March Frid University of Otago – course overview 8th April Wed
Lincoln University – course overview
4th May Mon
Victoria University of Wellington – course overview
23rd March Mon University of Canterbury – course overview
TERM 1 2020