HVHS Newsletter

Kia ora everyone,

As I write this newsletter, our Year 9 and 10 students and their families are joining us for their Learning Conversations. Thank you for supporting this important event. We know its success stems from our families and whānau who are always so supportive and cooperative.

It’s truly invaluable to spend these 20 minutes with a student and their family, reflecting on and planning their journey through junior school. Please note, this day is made possible by our senior students working from home, and we hope they are making the most of this time to advance in their studies.

We are keenly aware of the government’s focus on attendance, and any teacher can affirm that regular attendance, a positive learning attitude, and adequate support are key ingredients for student success. At HVHS, we've observed that students with attendance rates above 85% are likely to excel in NCEA. Clearly, time spent with our dedicated teachers makes a significant difference.

Our attendance rates are commendable and compare favorably with national levels. Our Year 9 and 10 students show excellent attendance, with over 80% attending 90% of the time, and many maintaining perfect attendance records.

However, Year 13 attendance needs improvement. With increased autonomy comes responsibility, and unfortunately, some are falling short. With 19 weeks of formal schooling remaining, we are committed to supporting Year 13 students in every possible way to reach their full potential and achieve university entrance, which can only be accomplished through hard work, perseverance, and good attendance.

The Ministry of Education has recently released new guidelines to help parents identify valid reasons for school absences. It is essential for parents to ensure regular attendance or notify the school when a child is legitimately unable to attend. Please remember that absences for family holidays or extracurricular activities are not recognised as valid reasons.

The new guidelines also provide advice on when a child might be too unwell for school, which can be accessed by clicking here. There is a fine line between coming to school slightly unwell, and spreading it to all your classmates and having a day off when you were probably well enough to attend school. I think it is tricky to know what is best. As a parent my guide was if they were well enough to attend cricket practice they were well enough to go to school; they must be really unwell when they weren’t even considering attending practice.

Our Deans and Wellbeing Team are always available to discuss any attendance concerns, and I encourage you to reach out if you need support.

Let’s continue to work together to ensure our students achieve their very best, not only academically but in all aspects of their development at HVHS.

Ngā mihi nui

Denise Johnson

A reminder to families that school will finish at the end of spell three at 12:30pm on Monday 13 May for members of the Post Primary Teachers’ Association to attend a paid union meeting.

For students who wish to remain at school to receive instruction from non-union staff members, please email Lana Goddard at office@hvhs.school.nz for supervision if required for the afternoon.

This Wednesday (15 May) from 6-8pm is Hutt Valley High School's annual Open Evening. This event is an excellent opportunity for parents, caregivers and students interested in attending in 2025 to take a guided tour around the school and see learning areas on display.

The Open Evening starts in the school hall at 6pm with an introduction from Denise Johnson (Principal). After the introduction, guided tours will run until 8pm.

Everyone is welcome to attend. No registration is required, simply come along.

Enrolments for 2025 open on Monday (13 May 2024) for in-zone and out-of-zone applications. All enrolments are now completed online. Please visit the HVHS website on Monday and go to the enrolment page to find the online enrolment form and key enrolment deadlines.

We strongly encourage parents and caregivers to enrol their child as early as possible. This allows us to plan for their learning needs and ensure a smooth transition to high school. An added benefit of enrolling now is that your child will be in the first group to receive the email with subject selections (some subjects have limited spaces).

If you have any questions, please email our Enrolment Coordinator, Lesley Mackay at lesley.mackay@hvhs.school.nz

Students Naiyah Mackie (12RI) and Lauren Belcher (12SM) received First Place in the same sex category for the Hutt Valley Rock n Roll Club Championships in the holidays! Angelica Tschurtschenthaler (12LY) and Kaitlyn Stapelberg (10NIWE) came second in the same category. Thank you to Matua Paul for all his time and energy training them.

If you're interested in joining Rock n Roll, practices are Tuesday after school and Wednesday lunchtime in the S2 Dance Room.

Images: from the Hutt Valley Rock n Roll Club Championships.

Our Junior School Leaders, Clara Archibald (13JD) and Josh Goodfellow (13JD) were tasked with creating a lunchtime hangout space where students could come to a classroom to play board games, play cards or chat with friends.

Thanks to board game donations from our school community, this space will be up and running from next week. Students are welcome to come along on Wednesday and Friday, lunchtimes to V9 and V10. The hangout space will be mediated by Year 13 students.

In term one, 41 students from Years 9-11 competed in the University of Otago's Junior Mathematics Competition. This is HVHS 's highest-ever participation rate! In the first round of the competition, students completed an online multi-choice and short answer exam. The math questions emphasise problem-solving, so students know to expect surprises (and to carefully read the question).

The following students finished in the top 15% of participants in their year group and have made it through to represent HVHS in the second round of the competition: Chase Burgess (9KSHD), Emme Rodwell (9KSHD), Miriam Water (9GSSP), Cameron Johns (10FYBB), Aaron Shaji (10NSTT), Michael Li (11BR) and Jianan Tao (11BU).

The Pink Non-Uniform Day is on Friday 17 May. Activities will run throughout next week at HVHS in support of Pink Shirt Day. These events, organised by our Student Leaders, aim to help stamp out bullying by celebrating diversity and promoting kindness and inclusion. Check out the details below:

• Monday (13 May) & Tuesday (14 May) - Aroha Cards are available to purchase with a gold coin donation under D Block at Interval on both days. What is an Aroha Card? It's a fun way to showcase your aroha for a mate by writing a personal message that will be delivered on Friday 17 May.
• Wednesday (15 May) - come along to the school hall at lunchtime to have some fun with your mates; students will be playing songs like Beauty & the Beat, Boogie Wonderland and the Macarena.
• Friday (17 May) - is a Pink Non-Uniform Day. To participate, bring a gold coin to donate. All funds raised will go directly to the NZ Mental Health Foundation.

Students can find more information about Pink Shirt Day on Google Classroom.

Congratulations to the following students for their recent sporting successes:

• Anna Jamison (13LG) competed in the Wellington Regional Powerlifting Championships over the weekend and broke the regional records for her age and weight category by 35.5kg.
• Charlie Edhouse (10PDHA) travelled to the Gold Coast to compete at the 2024 Australian Beach Handball Championships in the Wellington Parrots Women’s Team and was also a part of the New Zealand Women’s Invitational Team, who competed against Australia.
• Samuel Li (9OADS) competed at the 2024 National Under 15 Fencing Championships in Christchurch. Samuel won third place in individual Foil. Samuel is also a member of the Wellington Regional Team who placed first overall.
• Luca Marshall (11TJ) trialled and was selected to represent the lower North Island in the New Zealand U16 Super Hockey Challenge in Cambridge last week. The North Island Thunder team were undefeated during the tournament and went on to win the final 2-1 against the South Island team.

Congratulations to the following students who placed in their age group races:

• Daniel Williams (13JD) placed 2nd in the 100m and 200m Backstroke and 4th in the 50m Backstroke.
• Millie Sampson (12SM) placed 10th in 50m Breaststroke.
• Kayne Howat (11MS) placed 1st in 50m Butterfly, 3rd in 100m Butterfly, 2nd in the 200m Butterfly, 3rd in the 50m Freestyle and 10th in the 100m Freestyle. Kayne also won gold at the National Age Group Competition in April this year in the 50m Butterfly event, securing his rank as the fastest 15 year old in New Zealand for this event while also breaking the Wellington record which had remained unbroken since 1996. Kanye also won bronze in 100m Butterfly at the same event, breaking another Wellington record and silver in the 200m Butterfly.
• Hannah Sampson (10MVVY) placed 2nd in the 50m Butterfly, 3rd in the 100m Butterfly, 100m Breaststroke and 200m Breaststroke, and 5th in the 50m Breaststroke.

Message from Sports Director, Kristi Tia

Welcome to the winter sports season. It has been great to see our teams back in action on their sports fields and courts again, with good results being achieved.

Remember to play hard but fair, and be respectful to your coaches, managers, teammates, opponents and the umpires, scorers and referees who officiate our games. Represent HVHS proudly. Let's have a great winter season!

Nik Hardwick (13NA) has won the Great Wellington Area's regional competition for Challenge 1 of the Young Entrepreneurs Scheme. This challenge involved competitors submitting evidence that

they have validated their product or service by taking a prototype or a minimal viable product (MVP) to their target market.

Nik's service is 'Quela io' software company that elevates businesses' subpar websites and mobile applications to software excellence by helping manage their online stores on one interface.

HVHS has a new club for students to join. The Drawing Club has a casual weekly meet-up hosted by Olivia McVey with some like-minded artists. Students can try new drawing techniques or bring their own projects to work on. All skill levels are welcome!

Drawing Club runs in G3 every Thursday at lunchtime and counts toward Ad Alta. For any questions, please email Olivia McVey at (olivia.mcvey@hvhs.school.nz)

With all their hard mahi the Barista Team at the HVHS Coffee House have come up with another

significant profit at the end of the 2023/2024 financial year, even though prices are very reasonable and costs keep going up!

After a series of term one meetings about boring administration stuff, including duty rosters, cleaning ups, and technology, the students decided on a charity for the HVHS Coffee House to donate to. The recipient of their $3,000 donation is KidsCan!

The HVHS Barista Team believe this a worthy cause because KidsCan is Aotearoa’s leading charity dedicated to helping Kiwi kids affected by poverty. KidsCan helps tamariki by providing food, jackets, shoes and health products to schools and early childhood centres across New Zealand.

Image (left to right): the HVHS Barista Team of Amy Martell (13HR), Jacob Oliver (13LR) (front row), Aidan Meehan (13FX) (second row), Ned Sykes (13WA) and Ethan Poynter (13LG).

Hutt Valley High School follows a 3-year policy review schedule. This term, the following policies are being reviewed: Employer Responsibility, Appointment Procedure, Equal Employment Opportunities, Teacher Relief Cover, Safety Checking, Police Vetting, and Timetable.

The School Board welcomes feedback and input from the school community on these policies. The close-off date for feedback is Friday 7 June 2024. To access Hutt Valley High School's policies, go to https://www.schooldocs.co.nz/ and use the login details below:

1. Click on the ‘Search for your school’ button and enter Hutt Valley High School

2. Enter ' Username' - hvhs

3. Enter 'Password' - Adalta

We are seeking more relief teachers to join Hutt Valley High School’s relief teacher pool. If you’re currently a registered secondary school teacher looking for casual work or an experienced sports coach interested in taking relief PE classes please contact Deputy Principal, Fiona Pearson at fiona.pearson@hvhs.school.nz to learn more and to discuss your availability.

The Lower Hutt Puni Kura Cluster of schools is proud to present an informative and engaging evening with neuroscience expert Kathryn Berkett on raising resilience with our tamariki. To book tickets click here they are selling out fast!

Monday 13 May

• School finishes at 12:30pm today (PPTA Meeting)
• Enrolments open for the 2025 school year (for in-zone and out-of-zone applications)

Wednesday 15 May

• HVHS Open Evening, 6:00pm-8:00pm

Friday 17 May

• Pink Non-Uniform Day (bring a gold coin to participate)

Monday 20 May

• NZQA Literacy and Numeracy Common Assessments (run till Friday 24 May)

Wednesday 22 May

• Whānau Hui, Starts 6pm

Thursday 23 May

• Careers Presentation - New Zealand Defence Force, Airforce & Navy, 1:30-2:15pm

Saturday 25 May

• Rockquest Heats

Monday 27 May

• Samoan Language Week starts

Thursday 30 May

• Year 11 Careers Expo, 9am

Friday 31 May

• Teacher Only Day (school closed for students)

Monday 3 June

• King's Birthday (public holiday, school closed)

Tuesday 11 June

• Whanganui Sports Exchange

Wednesday 12 June

• International Student Homestay Meeting, 7pm-8:30pm

Thursday 13 June

• Parent/Teacher Meetings for Years 11-13, 8:30am-4:30pm (all year levels learning from home)

Thursday 20 June

• Parent/Teacher Meetings for Years 11-13, 8:30am-4:30pm (all year levels learning from home)

Wednesday 26 June

• HVHS Board Meeting, 5:30pm-7:30pm, Boardroom, HVHS

Friday 28 June

• Matariki (public holiday, school closed)

Friday 5 July

• Last day of Term 2

Monday 22 July

• First day of Term 3

Email: office@hvhs.school.nz
Website: hvhs.school.nz
Location: Hutt Valley High School Woburn Road, Woburn, Lower Hutt, New Zealand
Phone: 04 566 4584