Newsletter No 6 –July 2013
Welink is a newsletter produced as a link between the College and community. Welink is given to the students at school to take home to parents. Please make sure that your daughter brings a Welink home. It contains essential information as well as news.
us provide more support for students and families in our school community We are mindful of the complex challenges facing young people and are seeking to better resource our community to face them together.
It is also on our website – www.wegc.school.nz
I look forward to see you at school events this term.
Principal’s Message
Nga mihi nui
Tena koutou katoa
Sally Haughton Principal
This was not the break we expected with the startling Wellington earthquakes. I hope that you were all safe, at home and in the workplace. We closed the school for staff and students’ use until the buildings were checked by engineers towards the end of the second week. To our relief the buildings were cleared for occupancy. This experience certainly brings home the care we need to take with decisions about the use of buildings. There have been some recent staffing changes. We farewelled Richard Maddren who has served the school for 12 years as Finance Officer and, lately, as Executive Officer. Richard has played an important role in the financial stewardship of the school. We thank him for that and wish him well in the future. Craig McWilliam will join the staff as Executive Officer. We look forward to working with him in this role. We farewelled Amy Moli towards the end of Term 2. She has left on Maternity leave and we wish her well for the birth of her son. Anna Perelini will continue with us as HOD Sport in a relieving capacity and Maz Willis has joined the department for Term 3. Gareth Newton has taken leave from his role in Science/Physics for the rest of the year and has been replaced by Derek Ashworth who is already making a contribution to the department. There have been very pleasing shifts in two major property projects. The Ministry of Education will be seeking ministerial approval for the commencement of the first stage of the Master Plan. We expect a decision on this by the end of the year. The first stage of the project involves the Main Block redevelopment. The current plan is to retain the historic façade/vestibule and to build a new building behind the façade which will incorporate modern learning spaces. We will be able to share the details of the plans once we have approval for funding. There will be some stabilising work done on the south banks and the car deck area during the second half of the year. Steve Hind and Gary Hurring, acting for Swimming Trust of Wellington, have been successful in their bids to seek funding for the project to redevelop the swimming pool and to establish an indoor Community Pool facility at the college. We are now able to put together a project team to complete this exciting development. We will be joined this term by a new school counsellor and social worker. These will be part-time roles and are designed to assist
Board of Trustees On 10 June, the new Board held its first meeting following the recent trustee elections. This meeting was an opportunity for the new Board to get to know one another, and to make some key decisions about the wider membership and make-up of the Board. One of the first decisions the new Board was required to make concerned the role of Chair, and in a break with tradition, the Board has agreed to a Co-Chair arrangement. So for the term of this Board, Doug Ferry and I will share the Chair responsibilities. This is a reflection of the increased workload associated with the role of the Chair, particularly in relation to the likely building activity that will occur over the next few years. We are looking forward to working together in this new arrangement. Another set of decisions for the Board centred on the co-option of representatives from community groups onto the Board. I am pleased to announce that the following representatives have been co-opted onto the Board:
Yvonne Carroll and Honiana Love jointly representing Te Whanau Tutahi
Bessie Fepulea’i and Mino Cleverley jointly representing the Samoan Parent’s Association
Margie Wheeler Association.
representing
the
Past
Pupil’s
We are thrilled to have such a range of skills and experience on the new Board and are looking forward to working together in the coming months. Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank outgoing Board member, Jill Ford for her service to the Board. Jill joined the Board after the last election, and made a terrific contribution in that time. The Board met again on Tuesday 30 July, with the August meeting scheduled for Tuesday 27 August at 6.00pm in the Careers Room (71). Parents are welcome to join us at any of our meetings. Nga mihi Amanda Malu
Term 3 Diary Dates August 6 6 12 13 13 15 19 22-28 22-28 27 29
Swimming Sports Day Tū Tāhi Whanau Meeting – Room 66 – 6.00pm Kojimachi Gakkuen school leave WEGC WEGC Old Girls’ Assn Meeting – Room 71 – 5.30pm Samoan Parents’ Assn Meeting Sports Centre – 6.00pm New Settlers Parents’ Assn Mtg – Room 42 – 6.00pm Careers Expo Day – Hall Senior Exam Week Enrolment meetings Board of Trustees Meeting – Room 71 – 6.00pm BOT Student Rep election info given at assembly
September 5 Parents’ Assn Meeting – Room 71 – 7.00pm 9 Student BOT Rep nominations close 10 WEGC Old Girls’ Assn Meeting – Room 71- 5.30pm 10 Poly Group Family Perform – Sports Centre – 6.30pm 11 “Brainwaves” Event – tba 12 Student BOT Nominees speak at assembly 17 Tū Tāhi Whanau Meeting – Room 66 – 6.00pm 19 Founders Day Assembly 19 New Settlers Parents’ Assn Mtg – Room 71 – 6.00pm 23 Tu Tangata Festival – Opera House 24-26 Nga Manu Korero Nationals – Hamilton 24 Student BOT rep voting 24 Board of Trustees Meeting – Room 71 – 6.00pm 26 Senior Reports posted 26 Student BOT representative announced 27 Term 3 ends 29 School Ball (Years 12 & 13)
WEGC Parents’ Association The Parents' Association meets regularly through the year. It provides an easy way to get to know other parents and caregivers, to keep in touch with what’s going on at school and to help contribute to school life and future planning in ways to benefit our girls at WEGC.
They must be received at the College by Friday 23 August. Prompt payments will avoid the NZQA late fee of $50
Costs: This flat fee covers as many or as $76.70 per candidate few standards as a student enters. This also includes one, two or three Scholarship subjects Each additional Scholarship subject $76.70 per subject Fees for International Fee Paying students: Any NZQF standards $383.20 per candidate Each additional scholarship subject $102.20 per subject Financial Assistance: You can apply for assistance if: Your family receives a benefit or holds a Community Services Card There are more than two students in the family entering as candidates with fees more than $200.
We are a Winning School Hubbards Foods Ltd recently gifted Wellington East Girls’ College with a new ipad. We were nominated by one of our parents in a recent competition held by Hubbards at Countdown Supermarkets. As one of the 168 winning schools, we are very excited to add this piece of technology to our teaching aids. Thanks to Hubbards and to our parent Kirsten Bone for nominating us.
Salvation Army Store Miramar A reminder from the Miramar Salvation Army Store to think of them if you have any sellable goods. They will pick up items if you phone them on 380 9140, or you can go to see them at 63 Miramar Avenue, Miramar.
School Production “Chicago”
Members of the Parents' Association helped out at the recent Open Evening and had an enjoyable evening, despite the stormy weather! This year, as well as serving tea and coffee to the adults, we served hot chocolate to all the students. This was much appreciated both by visiting Year 8s, and by our wonderful WEGC girls who were braving horrible conditions to assist with parking and leading tours. We are also planning to help out with serving refreshments at the Careers Expo. These are all good ways for us to connect with the girls and their families.
The 2013 musical, Chicago, was performed for 4 nights to very appreciative audiences, who described it as a brilliant show and great fun evening. We have received feedback from the community about how slick and professional it was, and it has been compared favourably to other shows. Some comments were: “the students’ standard was definitely up to the shows one would normally see in any of the main city venues,” and “we thoroughly enjoyed the show, more than the professional version of the show we saw on Broadway in New York earlier this year.”
We would encourage you to keep the evening of Wednesday 11 September free, so you can come along to a presentation from the Brainwave Trust on Brain development in the adolescent years. Find out how the teenage brain works, and why teenagers can be liable to risk taking and impulsive, emotional behaviour. It's going to be interesting, informative and well worth listening to.
Altogether there were 34 girls and 9 boys in the cast, backstage and operating the sound and lighting, 60 making elective and 20 in the fund-raising elective, students will have some good memories to take school.
If you would like to get involved or find out more, please come along to the next meeting on Thursday 1st August at 7pm in Room 71. Our meetings are friendly and welcoming, and they are usually over by 9pm. You can also get in touch with us by contacting Kate Ridley (021 641 558), or you can email us from the WEGC website by going to the 'Community' tab and then the Parents' Association section. This will also give you more information about who we are and what we do, as well as the dates of all the meetings for the rest of the year.
NZQA Qualification Entries 2013 Statements for NZQA have recently been sent to you. If your daughter is sitting exams and she hasn’t received a statement please telephone the School Office.
Payment can be made by installments or by Direct Credit to the school, as well as a one-off payment
10 working in the setso a lot of away from
We would like to thank the local community, parents and friends for all their support, in donating goods for the raffles, lending us props and coming along to the show. We couldn’t have done it without you.
Homestay Required A Thai family wishes to find a homestay for a Year 10 student recently arrived from Thailand for the rest of the school year. This student is keen to live in an English-speaking home so that she can adjust to NZ culture as quickly as possible. The family is prepared to pay Wellington East international student homestay fees. If interested please contact HOD English Language, Linda Todd: linda.todd@wegc.school.nz
International Students Welcome! Valentina, Victoria, Ha My, Kwun Tung, Beate, Sabrina, Vanessa and Juri. We have eight new international students beginning their studies at Wellington East Girls' College
in term 3. They come from Germany, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Japan. If you happen to meet any of them in class please help them to settle into their lovely new school and feel a part of the scene.
All the information on applying for each scholarship is provided – eligibility criteria, how much money is available, closing dates, how to get an application form, and who to contact for more information.
We also welcome 16 students from Kojimachi School in Japan. We have a fantastic group of host families from Wellington East Girls’ College ready to take care of them while they are here for just under two weeks. We thank you all for coming forward and offering your homes to these visitors.
From there, it is over to you to get the application form, complete it, gather any required documents and submit those by the due date. You can use BreakOut on any school computer. It is easy to access from the front page of Moodle.
National Choir Achievement Student Communications Contact details: The Student Services Centre has been looking at ways of improving communication to parents/caregivers and to ensure our database holds current information. As a result a new email address has been established for advising of all changes to student details including: Changes of addresses, home and mobile telephone numbers, email addresses, change of details for caregivers, emergency contact details, and updating of medical information. New enrolments and enrolment queries are also to be forwarded to this address: enrolments@wegc.school.nz Absences: A reminder that absences are to be advised to our absence line 385-8514 then press 1 to leave a message, or alternatively e-mail to: absence@wegc.school.nz If we have not heard that your daughter will be absent from school by 10.15am an Early Notification Text will be sent to known mobile numbers advising of her absence.
National Samoan Speech Competition
Congratulations to Prue Dreaver-Stimpson who has been selected as a member of the NZ Secondary Students’ 2013-2104 Choir. The students underwent a rigorous, nationwide audition process to become one of 60 members from 39 schools. The choir will meet for one week during each school holidays, culminating with an overseas two week tour to Brazil and Argentina in July 2014. You can see her and the choir in Wellington in April 2014.
Web Programming Event Joely Huang has attended a Ruby web programming event hosted in Xero on the 7th and 8th of June. This course was for young woman interested in Information Technology and involved developing web applications. (There are endless job opportunities available for women who know how to code). Joely tells us that she met a lot of amazing people including one participant who was only 11 years old. The event was informative, fun and tasty; they had cupcakes, dumplings, cakes and drinks, along with a free coffee. They also now run Ruby Tea Parties on Saturdays to encourage women to learn how to code. Well done!
Tara Cleverley, Rosa Fanualelei and Valerie Soli recently competed at the 2013 National Samoan Speech Contest held by the Faalapotopotoga Mo Le Aoaoina O Le Gagana Samoa I Aotearoa Society. Well done to Tara Cleverley who came third in an exceptionally high standard of students.
Careers Expo
What do I need to do to prepare for life after school? What difference does subject selection make? Careers Information and Course selection evening will be held in the Hall on Monday August 19th 5-8pm. The evening will include: Head of Departments available to speak about your daughter’s progression in a given subject Seminars by Deans about key points to consider in course decision making Over 20 Tertiary providers will be exhibiting so you can find out what is available and what the entrance criteria are for future study or work
Scholarships
Scholarship season is now open Wouldn’t it be great if someone would just give you some money to study to bring you closer to achieving your goals? Did you know that someone actually might do that?! You just have to know where to look…. BreakOut is an online search tool full of information about scholarships, grants, and awards. Whether you’re looking for assistance with education, sport, art or personal or professional development, BreakOut is the tool to search – and you don’t have to be an A+ student as there are scholarships for everyone.
Sport Cross Country Three major Cross Country events have been held this term. The first one was the Karori Cross Country relays held in May, WEGC entered 6 teams with each girl running 2km each. It was fantastic to see the girls all supporting one another on a challenging course. Kelsey Forman recorded the fastest lap in the Under 16 girl’s grade.
The next event was the CSW Cross Country Champs at Trentham, with 14 of our students competing. The students gave it their all, so it was disappointing that the timing chips did not work and we were unable to record the time of all our runners. However, this meet came with great success with both the teams and individuals placing. The Intermediate team of Kelsey Forman, Amelia Harris and Meg Grimmond won the Intermediate 3 person team event and Kelsey came in 2nd in the individual event.
Kelsey Forman and Amelia Harris ran at the NZSSCC champs held in Christchurch in June. Kelsey cleared away from the field early with the 1st and 2nd placed runners to dominate the 3km event. Kelsey finished in 3rd place two seconds behind the winner and Amelia finished a very creditable 18th in a field of over 100 runners. Wellington East has not won a medal at a NZ Cross Country event in recent memory. Well done to both our girls. The College is very proud of your efforts.
Jess Iggo Scarlett Tacon Amelia Clareburt Emma McCaw Zaniah Bettany
4th 50m Butterfly 1st 200m Free, 2nd 50m Butterfly, 2nd 100m IM, 2nd 50m Breaststroke 4th 100m Butterfly 3rd 50m Backstroke, 4th 100m Backstroke 2nd 50m Breaststroke, 3rd 100m Breaststroke
Underwater Hockey Netball WEGC – College Sport Wellington Champions 2013. Twenty-four teams took part in the College Sport Wellington tournament. Wellington East got one back over St Mary's in the final of the College Sport Wellington premier netball tournament. East had been beaten by St Mary's in the national college knockout competition last month but we recorded a 19-15 win.
Wellington Girls v Wellington East Winter fixture: Wellington Girls hosted our annual fixture, we had no postponement date and it was to go ahead rain or shine. We got the rain! Fortunately it did not faze the East girls; we got very wet and muddy but came out victorious in 4 of the 5 codes taking out the main shield.
Congratulations to our Senior and Junior Underwater Hockey teams that have qualified for NZSS Underwater Hockey Nationals. The junior team placed 4th and the senior team placed 5th at the Regional competition. The teams are busy training and fundraising for their tournament in Auckland in September. Well done to you all.
Hockey Representative Players Congratulations and good luck to Charlotte Eastman, Whena Munn and Nina Terpstra who are representing Wellington in the U18 National tournament to be played at Palmerston North in the holidays.
Badminton Sport
Result
Player of the day
Badminton Hockey Netball Football Basketball Underwater Hockey OVERALL WINNER
5-1 East 2-0 East 38-20 East 3-2 East 31-26 Wgc No Game
Donelle Rota Charlotte Eastman Lee-Jean Friesen-Kahui Cheyenne Horne Rebekkah Carter No pool space available
EAST 12-3
Swimming North Island Secondary Schools – Palmerston North Five girls from WEGC recently competed in the Championships. This Championship is well supported with 55 colleges and around 200 swimmers. Everyone made finals and our placings were as follows. Jess Iggo 1st 50m Butterfly, 1st 100m Butterfly, 2nd 200 IM, 4th 100m Free - NISS Scarlett Tacon 1st 200m Free, 2nd 50m Breaststroke, 3rd 200m IM – NISS Amelia Clareburt 1st 50m Butterfly, 2nd 100m Butterfly, 3rd 400m Free - NISS Natasha Rae 4th 200m Breaststroke, 5th 100m Breaststroke, 6th 100m Free - NISS
CSW Regional Champs 10 WEGC students swam in the College Sport Wellington Regional Championships. Congratulations to the following students who placed in the top 4.
At the College Sport Junior Championships we had 11 students competing. It was an all-East final in the Junior Plate Doubles Championship. Maya Roche and Natasha Milton won the championships over Grace Bush and Issy Riddell-Garner. In the singles Plate championship Amy Bridges made it to the final before being narrowly beaten. Well done all.
Waterpolo As the Welink goes to print we have the following WEGC students representing NZ in various tournaments:
NZ Cadet Girl’s squad (under 15) Evie Mills: World Youth Club Water Polo Challenge in Canberra Ciara Flynn: Trans-Tasman challenge in Brisbane
NZ Youth Girls squad (under 17) Abigail Cartmell and Selina Duggan : World Youth Club Water Polo Challenge in Canberra Breanna Ward and Kate Grealish : Trans-Tasman challenge series in Brisbane