The Co-curricular prizegiving will be held on 17 November and Year 11, 12 and 13 prizegivings will be held on 18 November. We are unable to invite caregivers to these occasions as we normally would, but the links to the livestream events are below so that you can see your child cross the stage.

Note these links will direct you to the event page for the live stream. When the live stream begins you will see a button or link appear automatically that will direct you to the stream.

On Tuesday we had a small but special celebration at WHHS with selected staff and whānau to acknowledge the incredible achievements of our students.

A big thank you to Lee-Anne Thompson for speaking on behalf of Rotorua Young Achievers and to Ex-Principal Violet Pelham for presenting the awards.

Another big thank you to the whānau, friends, teachers and coaches who have supported our young people to get to where they are today.

Our Young Achievers for 2021:

Luke Dorset - Leadership, Academic

Julie Gray - Academic, Leadership, School and Community Service

Zach Jans - Leadership, Cultural, Academic, School and Community Service

Haeun Kang - Leadership, Academic, Cultural, Sport, School and Community Service

Jaewon Kim - Leadership, Academic, School and Community Service

Ashton McGarvie - Academic, Leadership, School and Community Service

Cassey Olsen - Leadership, Academic, Sport, School and Community Service

Minseok Park - Sport, Leadership, School and Community Service

Liana Pont - Cultural, Leadership, Academic

Darnique Te Aonui-Whare - Sport and Leadership

Ariana Tuielu - Leadership, Cultural, School and Community Service

Congratulations to Jayden Tamariki who is the Western Heights High School Board of Trustees Student Representative for the years 2021 - 2022.

Thank you to all candidates.

Kathryn Howes

Returning Officer

Tena koutou

Information on face covering exemptions can be found on the Unite Against COVID-19 website.

2021 has been a challenging year with no China Sister-school exchanges and the Chinese Speech Competition and Culture Day cancelled yet again.

We can be proud of our “tongxuemen” students strong engagement in classes and especially the senior students successfully completing their NCEA internal assessment achieving all 14 credits! Zhuhe, Kapai, Congratulations to James, Tyra, Omeka and Aria.

Some of our Year 13 students recently took up the opportunity to present their businesses to more local community business people for feedback and advice. The Level 3 Business Studies programme encourages our ākongā to reach out to the Rotorua business community so that they can gain from the experiences of actual business-men and -women. One of these attending at our recent panel was last year’s Head Boy – Braedyn Veysi, who has developed his own financial literacy app Wisenup. We are so grateful to these community members giving up their time to guide our tauira – if you’re reading this and would like to help in 2022, please contact our kura!! Our class also travelled to the boardroom of Port of Tauranga in Week 2 to hear from senior management about how their business has negotiated the challenges of the pandemic and went on an extensive port tour.

Four year levels of Business Studies classes took their products to the market in an ‘uber-experience’. This year, our 10,11,12 and 13 Business Studies classes have developed their own businesses and the T-Block courtyard hummed with the sound of hundreds of customers on the ‘big day’. The senior classes not only used the opportunity to earn revenue for their businesses but gained NCEA internal credits for their mahi at the same time (between 6 and 9 credits).

Local tourism operator, Waimangu Volcanic Valley hosted our students this term on their business

research field-trip. Their Operations Manager, Craig Wishart welcomed our rōpū and gave our students some valuable material for them to use in their internal assessment and also in the NCEA exams. The class then went on the wanderer path, before catching a bus to the jetty. From there, students learned about the economic history of this tourism attraction and the more recent AR development on their app for the Pink and White Terraces of Lake Rotomahana. Another activity with local business, Craigs Investment Partners comes to a close today with Jodie Pepping and Paul Stewart (Investment Advisers) visiting our class to present prizes to the lucky winners of their Sharemarket Investment Challenge competition.

Over the remaining weeks of this term, our junior classes have field trips and another market day in the mix. Our two Year 9 classes will be heading on a hikoi for a local community visit to our neighbouring business Skyline Gondolas with a luge experience. Mātua Douglas will be taking his 10 Business Studies class on a trip to Te Puia to see how this tourist attraction has pivoted and responded to the challenges of COVID. In Week 7, our Year 9 ākongā will sell their products to the junior school to put into practice all their learning. Another term of ‘busy-ness’!

Round One Results

Some fantastic displays of grit, effort, skill and determination across all 4 Teams. One of our best 1st round BOP results in a long time for Girls Volley! The girls and coaches are working hard out to "get the job done"!

Results as follows :

Taumata Rau (10A) - 1st POOL A

Poirewa (9A) - 4th POOL B

Kotahitanga (10B) - 3rd POOL G

Tiniwhetu (9B) - 4th POOL G

Thanks for the on-going staff and whanau support

Placings from days 3 & 4:

Taumata Rau - 1st place in POOL A

Poirewa - 2nd place in POOL B (playing yr10s)

Kotahitanga - 3rd place in POOL F

Tiniwhetu - 2nd place in POOL E

Cross-overs and FINALS weekend Nov 13-14!

Stand outs: Paige Dudson, Lian Ormsby, Makayla Wood, Preystyss Kahu, Nessakiah Titoko, Merenia Tapsell, Kaytalia Coles and Nataley Vaipo!

Heights has done it again and continues to dominate the stage and impress at NZ Dance Nationals.

It was a long 3 days in Palmerston North for the Dance NZ Made Nationals.

We took 38 students down. On Saturday midday, Sam Patangan and Liana Pont performed their solo dances in the She shines on. Both performed beautifully in a contemporary driven competition, both dancers were commended for their choreography and movements. They were also nominated for the Special Art movement award for their unique choreography.

In the evening the team competition began. Junior crew Intensified placed 2nd in their category. Senior crew Genesis placed 2nd too - both choreographers Sam Patangan and Shawney Magill were extremely happy with the results and should be very proud of themselves and their dancers. Prosperity Mega crew with 22 dancers, choreographed by Haeun Kang and Ngawai Clendon became National Champions in the open category and placed 2nd in the top 3 scorers for the night, winning a trophy and one thousand dollars.
Prosterity was nominated for the spirit award which is amazing as the MC commended the students for their supportive nature in the competition which is strong in our Heights culture. A special mention to our first Contemporary dance group Identity performing in the Nationals choreographed by Liana Pont who created an emotional piece based on self identity.

On Friday, 29th October, three teams from Heights competed in the BOP Finals at Queen Elizabeth Youth Centre in Tauranga. The teams were:

Girls

WHHS Blue: Khori Pari 11KAA, Amber Patterson 11ADD, Connie Clark 11KBY, Gul Patel 9WDP

Boys

WHHS White: Koha Mercep 12MRA, Jago Watson 11MAB, Isaac Kleine 11WDP, Peter Sparrow 11ACM, Hayden Duyvesteyn 11KMA

WHHS Gold: Daigoh Kuroda 12PTA, Jayden Tamariki 12MRA, Phillip Sparrow 13A, Luke Dorset 13M

It was a great day of sport and our teams played really well against other top teams from across the Bay of Plenty region.

The results were as follows:

Boys’ Division 1
1st Bethlehem College 1, 2nd Otumoetai 1, 3rd Whakatane 1, 4th JPC
Boys’ Division 2
1st Whakatane 2, 2nd Bethlehem College Red, 3rd Western Heights White, 4th Western Heights Gold
Boys’ Division 3
1st Bethlehem College Blue, 2nd Edgecumbe 2, 3rd Whakatane 3
Girls’ Division 1
1st JPC Black, 2nd Otumoetai 1, 3rd Bethlehem College 1, 4th Whakatane A
Girls’ Division 2
1st Edgecumbe 1, 2nd Tauranga Girls College Red, 3rd Western Heights Blue, 4th Bethlehem College 2, 5th JPC White
Girls’ Division 3
1st Edgecumbe 2, 2nd Tauranga Girls College Orange, 3rd Whakatane C

So, we finished 3rd, 3rd and 4th in our respective divisions which is a great result for such young teams. Heights Blue and Heights White were presented with bronze medals at the end of the competition. Tino pai!

Mr Slater

TIC Badminton

Te Kaunihera o nga Roto o Rotorua (Rotorua Lakes Council) is committed to working in partnership with Te Arawa. We aspire to being a bicultural organisation and we value staff who speak te reo Maori, have an appreciation of Maori values, and a working knowledge of tikanga Maori.

Full Training provided * Fun environment * 2-3 month's work available

Think you've got what they're looking for? Up for the challenge? Follow the link below to apply

Are you eager to work and keen to learn? Looking to start your career with a company that will

support and inspire you to increase your ability and strengthen your reach to improve New

Zealand?

Join the WSP Rotorua Office as part of our Cadetship Programme, and you will be supported to

achieve a Diploma in Civil Engineering while gaining practical work experience on a range of

projects throughout their business.

Take a look at the links below to find out how you can earn as you learn

Moana New Zealand is a proudly 100% Māori-owned kaimoana and kai ora (ready to eat meals) company. We are owned by all Iwi across the motu.

They're pleased to open entries for Te Pae Tawhiti Kaimoana Enhancement Scholarship for the 2022 academic year, which is designed for Māori who have a desire to contribute to the enhancement of the Māori kaimoana industry.

To be eligible, applicants must be of Māori descent and be accepted into (and enrolled) in a kaimoana enhancement related tertiary programme at a tertiary institution.

Applications are now open via their website and close at 5pm on Friday 25 March 2022.

Please see below the information booklet to review application criteria and learn more about the programme, which has been established to honour the long-standing commitment and contribution by Mr Whaimutu Dewes to the Māori fishing industry.

We encourage any Year 13 students intending on tertiary study next year (in the kaimoana enhancement area) to apply.