Newsletter Week 12 Term 2

Tēnā koutou katoa,

Welcome back to a new term. Term Two is a busy term, where a large chunk of learning and assessment takes place. The colder months bring their own challenges, but also provide some opportunities. Matariki is now a public holiday and will be celebrated widely, not only in our community, but nationwide. Waiheke High School’s Matariki celebrations are now in their 15th year and Piritahi marae have their own celebrations planned.

A reminder that NCEA has been reviewed and changes are being made to the current system. As part of the change, secondary schools have been allocated four ‘Accord Teacher Only Days’ in 2022 to plan for the change. The first will occur on Tuesday 17 May, therefore, the school will be closed for instruction on this day.

In the previous newsletter I highlighted that there would be opportunities for parents to come in with their students and to re-engage with Waiheke High School. There will be more information about this in the coming weeks. Thank you for your continued support of high attendance and correct school uniform.

I am keen to engage and create positive relationships with as many of our community members as possible. If you belong to or have contacts with an organisation or business in the community who would like to form a relationship with Waiheke High School, please get in touch.

Ngā mihi nui,

Mikaere October

Principal

• 17th May - TEACHER ONLY DAY (NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS)
• 20th May - Pink Shirt Day
• 30th May to 3rd June - Senior Assessment Week
• 6th June - QUEENS BIRTHDAY
• 23rd June - Matariki Celebrations
• 24th June - MATARIKI DAY HOLIDAY
• 8th July - LAST DAY OF TERM 2
• 25th July - FIRST DAY OF TERM 3

This is a big term for sports. All of our winter sports teams kick off their seasons next week.

• Monday nights - Year 9 Netball, Netball North Harbour
• Tuesday nights - Basketball teams, Auckland Venues
• Girls Football - Wednesday afternoons, home and away venues
• Junior Rugby - Wednesday afternoon, home and away venues

We would like to wish all these teams best of luck for their seasons, and will keep everyone updated as to how they are going.

Our Central Zone Year 7/8 one day tournaments also begin this term.

• Football
• Table Tennis
• Rugby
• Hockey

Please let Shelley know if your child would like to sign up for these events this term.

We would like to say big congratulations to Ashley Mutize who competed at the Auckland Athletics Champs last term and placed 2nd equal in the high jump, jumping an outstanding height of 1m 69cm. Well done Ashley! I would also like to congratulate Ata, Kip, Acacia and Lexus who also competed and came back with amazing results, Kip threw a personal best in his Javelin event.

Please email Shelley on fosters@waihekehigh.school.nz if you have any sporting queries.

Healthy Body Healthy Mind

Shelley Foster

Sports Co Ordinator

The food and drink review findings have been collated and a summary will be shared with you soon. Thank you to those of you who took the time to complete that survey.

There was strong support for the breakfast club from students, staff and whānau. We will be starting our Waiheke High School breakfast club from Monday 16th May. Thank you to Waiheke Budgeting for providing us with the food that we need to make this happen.

The breakfast initiative will take place every day, and will be open to each and every student in our school. There will be two parts to the free breakfast provision.

1. Breakfast club

This will run from 07:50am - 8:20am in F2 and will be run by a daily team of staff, students and whānau/community members. Free cereal, toast, spreads and Up and Go will be provided.

2. A ‘grab and go’ second chance breakfast

This will be available from outside the Dean’s office every interval and will be run by our student leadership team. Free fruit and muesli bars will be available on a grab and go basis.

These two things will be promoted to all students, no questions asked.

We are now looking for help from our students and whānau members to run the breakfast club.

Volunteering would involve helping out in the classroom one morning per week (7:45-8:30am), alongside a small daily team of staff members. It simply involves helping to set out the food items and assisting with the clean up and pack up.

If you are interested in volunteering with the breakfast club in any way, please email Mrs Rose on roser@waihekehigh.school by Monday 9th May.

Congratulations to Tomas Ofman and Billie Treadwell who have made it into the final of the University of Otago Junior Mathematics Competition. This means that they were in the top 15% of participants nationally for Part One of the competition. A fantastic achievement!

A reminder that Maths Help Club is on every Tuesday lunchtime between 1.30 p.m. and 2 p.m. in room A3 with Mr Yesli and Mrs Kennedy. Please encourage your child to come along if they are struggling or want help with their homework.

Help!
Do you have an old smartphone that you no longer use?
We are hoping to collect a class set of old phones that students can use for some of their other features such as their camera and GPS abilities.
If you have any old mobile phones, preferably with chargers that you would be prepared to donate to the school, we would be delighted to have them. We will ensure that all private information is removed and obviously we do not want any sim cards.
The phones can be dropped off at the school office.
Many thanks!

Principal:
Mikaere October

Senior Management:

Tony Sears (Deputy Principal)
Rachael Wheeler (Business Manager)

Email: Enquiries@waihekehigh.school.nz
Website: http://waihekehigh.school.nz/
Location: 11 Donald Bruce Rd, Surfdale, Waiheke Island 1081, New Zealand
Phone: (09) 371-9000
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WaihekeHighSchool/

The Friends of the Street is an organisation that has been going for the past 20 years. It was started in 2002 in response to the many young people having difficulty getting home late at night from work situations, babysitting and get togethers with their friends. The cost of taxis, infrequent bus services, dodgy dark potholed roads and having to get their parents to come and pick them up made life difficult for many parents.

So every Friday and Saturday night between 10.30pm and 2am, 2 adult volunteers go out in the Paravan – an 10 seat van that provides teenagers a ride home for a gold coin donation if they have one. The service is paid for by the Community Organisation Grants scheme who provide $3000 each year towards insurance and accountants fees. Donations from students, parents and organisations like Rotary also help keep us on the road, but it’s the volunteers who provide a driver and co driver who answers the texts from kids who are the backbone of the service.

We haven’t been out much this year because of covid but are starting up again very shortly – when we get enough volunteers. Volunteers usually go out 1 night a month – saves lots of parents going out weekly.

We are looking for more volunteers to help us. If you would like to come out and see how much fun it is call or text Russell 027 204 2817. Help keep our young people safe.