HVHS Term 3, Week 1

Newsletter - 29 July 2022

PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE

Nau mai, haere mai, welcome to term three.

Sadly we are back to mask-wearing, but students have been fantastic, understanding the need to keep the bugs at bay. Let’s hope that the peak of Covid-19, cases of flu and colds, is nearly there and that we can look forward to a warm spring and life with open windows and doors.

We are in a transitional phase with our Māori Language department, which I know has caused some unrest amongst students. Our students are currently studying via Te Kura (Correspondence School). Good te reo Māori teachers are taonga and hard to come by. Our teacher Whaea Patricia is now a new mum with a healthy baby girl; she is on maternity leave for the rest of this term returning in term four. Rawiri Kapea is our newly appointed te reo, Tikanga and Social Sciences teacher - he is also our current basketball coach and former school leader. He is a special community member and will start his teaching career with us in January 2023. So we are super excited at the make-up of the department going forward and look forward to a re-energised feel.

In the meantime, we have been fortunate to welcome Kahurangi Moreahu to Kura. We thank Virginia Maxwell (our current Kapa Haka tutor from HIWA, a Māori cultural provider ) for initiating this relationship. Kahurangi is a rangatira from Te Atiawa. Few people know our local Tikanga and history more than Kahurangi and his whānau. Kahurangi is teaching Year 9 Tikanga and Year 11 Te Reo with the support of Steve Willis and Pip Solomon until the end of the year.

Some of our kapa haka wāhine performed with ‘Hiwa’ in the Classical on Cuba Festival last weekend at Thistle Hall in Wellington. This was an incredible experience for our ākonga to experience Te Ao Haka authentically. Our school Kapa Haka rehearses 4-6 pm Thursdays in the school marae, Hotuwaipara, with a team from Hiwa, and they welcome new members this term. Pop along to the marae with a friend if you want to join.

We are trying to better represent our local stories and legends in Hotuwaipara with artwork. Grace Wright approached Sandra Rogers, an artist who we knew created a beautiful piece depicting the two taniwha who legend says created Wellington Harbour - Te Whanganui-a-Tara.

Sandra is a former student representative on the School Board who, back in 1993, rallied for us to have a marae. We hoped to buy a print of her artwork. But she has gifted her piece to us. We are honoured and delighted.

The Māori legend of Ngake and Whātaitai - two taniwha connected to Whanganui-a-tara is shared with all Yr 9 students. The legend goes that Whātaitai and Ngake created Wellington Harbour after a great earthquake. The harbour was once a lake where these taniwha lived. But Ngake was restless and smashed his way through to nearby Cook Strait. Whātaitai tried to get out a different way and became stranded on dry ground. It is said that his spirit took the form of a bird named Te Keo, which flew to the top of Wellington’s Mt Victoria and mourned (tangi), hence the name of the mountain, Tangi te keo. The legend also says that Ngake’s tail swished and carved out Te Awakairangi. Hence the link with our school.

The piece will be treasured and will be hung in Hotuwaipara.

Ngā manaakitanga,

Denise Johnson, Principal

School Board Elections - Nominations Close Wed 3 August

Nominations are open for the election of 5 parent representatives to the school board. All eligible voters have been emailed a nomination form. Use this form to nominate yourself or someone in your community. Information on who is not eligible to be a board member is provided with the nomination form.

If you need more nomination forms, contact the school office.

Nominations close at midday on Wednesday 3 August 2022. You may provide a signed candidate statement and photograph with your nomination.

Click here to learn more about school boards - https://www.nzsta.org.nz/

Amy Liang - International Languages Week Poster Winner

Congratulations to Amy Liang (10MRTT) who came first nationwide in the Year 9 and 10 division of this year's International Languages Week poster competition. Amy, who studies Japanese at HVHS created a great poster to encourage students to learn a language. The jury from the New Zealand Association of Language Teachers thought she told a great story through her beautiful imagery.

Success Stories from our Music Department

William Berry who was the soloist at this weeks Concert at St Marks Lower Hutt is about to depart for Switzerland to attend a 3-week Semaine Internationale de Piano in Bionay in August which will include Masterclasses with leading pianists.

Dexter Tauvao-Stanley has recently been awarded a highly sort after Fulbright Scholarship and after years working in China and Berlin is heading off to the Aaron Copland School of Music in New York to study arranging and composition.

Simon Buxton, Gus Reece (who now has a Masters in Jazz Performance) and Alex Scott Billing were all busy performing at the recent Use Your Outside Voice celebration at Victoria University of Wellington playing in multi groups with Alex rushing between 6 bands such was the demand for him.

Stella Hill (12KO) and Sam Bennion (11BQ) both played at the recent NZ Brass Band Champs and playing for Wellington Buzzing Brass were placed in their grade.

Jaxson Cook’s (13JDFX) Murky Lights single was released on 15th July and he spent time during the holidays recording further tracks with his producer who flew over from Nashville Tennesee.

Erica Challis played her Horn in the Hawkes Bay season of The Cunning Little Vixen while on a recent weekend.

Staff from the Music Department were involved in the Smokefree Rock Contest, the Chamber Music NZ Regional Contest, The Dowse Performing Arts Concert and the Institute of Registered Music Teachers Wellington Concert and the Wellington Chamber Orchestra’s Golden Age of Film Music Concert.

Dan Walker (13YU) is performing with the Wellington Youth Orchestra this Sunday at St Andrew’s on the Terrace.

Sporting Achievements

Congratulations to the following for their recent sporting achievements:

Arhit Acharyya (11LO), Ezra Chai (12KO), Aaron Chong (10RI), Darren Leishman (10BG), William Li (11SP) and Tracy Vo (11LO) members of the Hutt Valley Badminton U17 team who won Division 2 at the NZ Badminton Junior Teams Competitions in Palmerston North.

Nate Beard (12WA), Bobby Ma (12MI), Gabriel Hutchison (12FY), Eli Church (11CN), Aadi Prashar (12MI) and Samuel Trail (12PD) - members of our Esports team for making the finals and finishing 2nd in the Wellington competition and qualifying for Nationals.

Ela Capel (12DA), Alex Irvine (12WA) and Kennedy Snelgrove (12LO) who competed at the Waterpolo Nationals tournament.

Nicholas Green (12SK) - won silver in the sprint event at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Orienteering Champs.

Finn McQueen (12SK) - a member of the Wellington U17 Indoor Cricket team who competed and won the U17 National tournament over the holidays. He was also selected in the Wellington U21 Men's Indoor Cricket team to compete at Nationals.

Maia Morehu (13JDFX) who competed at the National U18 Netball tournament in Hutt Valley U18 Netball team.

Asher Pasia (12PD) - a member of the Wellington Basketball U 17 Girls team who placed 2nd U17 National Tournament.

Congratulations to the Badminton Junior Girls and Junior Boys Division 3 Teams who both won their grade yesterday at the Junior Badminton Finals.

Junior Boys - James McNeill (9TWOH), Trysten Stanyon (9WLPA), Ben Wilson-Davey (9TWOH), Harry Yarrall (9TWOH) and Dylan Figiola (9MKTJ).

Junior Boys - Astra Behl (10MRTT), Morgan Grummitt (10MRTT) , Amy Liang (10MRTT), Elizabeth Wang (10CWOA), Vanessa Wu (10MRTT).

Well done to the Junior Badminton Junior Girls 1 and Junior Girls 2 for making finals as well.

If your student has achieved in sport, please let us know on sport@hvhs.school.nz.

Information for Students Enrolling in 2023

Enrolments for 2023 are now open for students. Please complete an online enrolment application. We ask that caregivers enrol now so that we can plan for 2023 and that they receive their student's enrolment meeting and option selections information as soon as we send it out.

Out-Of-Zone Applications

Out-of-zone applications in Year 9 students in 2023 are now closed. The closing date for out-of-zone applications for students in Years 10-13 in 2023 is Friday 14 October 2022.

Asthma Research - Medical Research Institute of NZ

The Medical Research Institute of New Zealand (MRINZ) is undertaking research to compare two different inhalers to find out which one is better at preventing asthma attacks in children.

For a student to take part they must be aged between 5 and 15 and currently only using a reliever inhaler/puffer such as Ventolin, Respigen or Bricanyl. Or, if they have a preventer inhaler e.g. Flixotide steroid inhaler but they haven't used it in the last six months.

To read more about this research project visit their website - https://www.mrinz.ac.nz/currently-recruiting/care-study or email care@mrinz.ac.nz

University of Canterbury - Request for Survey Participants

The research team at University of Canterbury asked us to pass on a huge thank you to the 50 families who have already completed the survey below. The survey is still open and they would appreciate any help if your child is willing to complete the survey. To complete the survey please click on the link below - the process starts by caregivers providing permission for their child to take part in this 15 minute survey.

The research topic aims to investigate the ways in which adolescents cope with their perceived stress, and which coping strategies appear to be the most effective for stress reduction. We feel excited to be able to support such a useful research topic, and look forward to receiving the results of the study later in the year.

To learn more about the study please click here -

http://canterbury.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5uxrm6IcY6WGLMq