9am - 1pm Office opens for 2022 school year

9am - 1pm Uniform shop opens

24 January

8am - 3.30pm Normal office hours resume

9am-3pm Heads of House available for enrolment and option confirmation

Tuesday 1 February

8.40am Year 9 students with Year 13 peer mentor leaders

4.00pm "Meet the House Tutor" in the school hall

Wednesday 2 February

8.40am Year 9 and Year 10 students

First day Te Maru students

Thursday 3 February

8.40am Year 11, 12 and 12 students

(Year 9 and 10 not required)

Friday 4 February

8.40am Year 9 to 13

Monday 7 February

Public Holiday (Waitangi Day - observed)

Senior Uniform

As you will be aware from our previous communications, our 2022 Year 11 students will be wearing a new senior uniform. 2022 Year 12 and Year 13 students may choose to wear the new uniform, or continue to wear the existing uniform. We were pleased to present the uniform to Year 10 students this week in assembly and students were issued with a pamphlet which included the uniform regulations and the uniform shop opening hours, along with a price flyer.

Year 11 students will need to purchase a new pale blue blouse or shirt (short or long sleeved) and new charcoal grey bottoms (skirt, shorts, long pants or tupelu). Senior boys currently wear light blue knee length socks, these are changing to a charcoal grey sock with a pale blue band. All other items are either the same (eg the jersey) or optional (eg the blazer). We will be making some blazers available for lease.

SAS (our uniform supplier) offers Layby and other purchase plans. Items can be bought directly from the Uniform Shoppe on the school grounds, or online (their website is currently being updated) for delivery or click and collect. Stock will continue to arrive between now and January.

School Jacket

We are pleased to confirm that a warmer, hooded school jacket will be available early next year - we expect delivery in March. The existing jacket may of course still be worn and is available for purchase until stock runs out.

What a privilege to watch the students perform!

Winners are as follows:

1st Equal: Ngongotahaa - Green

1st Equal: Te Motutapu a Tinirau - Purple

4th: Rotorua nui a Kahu Matamomoe - Blue

Congratulations on a fantastic finish to a wonderful day!

From the start of 2022, the school bus runs servicing Mamaku, Ngongotaha, Hamurana, Kaharoa will be taken over by Go Bus.

The routes are still the same, that is, there will be no change to the times or the routes that the buses take. All routes will be back in operation from the start of 2022.

A table of the routes is below.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact David Grieve, Depot Manager for Go Bus Rotorua. Ph(027) 243 6351 or eMail: david.grieve@gobus.co.nz

Unfortunately the Te Maru prizegiving held Friday, 10 December, and Junior Prizegivings (Tuesday 14 December) will need to be conducted in the same format as the Senior Prizegivings. This means they will be restricted to prizewinners only, but will be available for caregivers to view online.

If you didn't manage to catch Te Maru's prizegiving live, you can view it here

Year 10 Prizegiving is at 9.30am, Tuesday 14 Dec, please follow this link for the live stream

Year 9 Prizegiving is at 11am, Tuesday 14 Dec, please follow this link for the live stream

Congratulations to all our Level 3 Artists. After an incredibly challenging year we are very proud of all our artists that submitted their External Folio Boards across 3 subjects. Painting Photography and Design.

Here are a few of our talented Artists works.

Portia Ryder - Design

Ariana Tuielu - Painting

Gemma Fitzgerald - Photography

On the 30th November, the second half-year’s group of Year 9 ākonga left our school’s grounds for a hikoi up the road to Skyline Rotorua. This time the rōpū sat on the lawn outside the lower reception area (under AL2 outdoor air conditions) to hear from Tash all about their international operation. To round the visit off, the students then went up in the gondolas to enjoy a couple of rides on the locally designed and produced luge carts:

https://www.skylineluge.com/en/history-of-skyline-luge/;

awesome views of Lake Rotorua; and a few people went for a 150 kph ‘Skyswing’!

15 student companies from two different Year 9 classes sold their products at T-Block on Tuesday 30th November, at lunchtime. Even though the weather was cloudy and drizzling, hundreds of Year 9 and 10 Heights students still brought their cash and completed bank transfers to buy the products to support these young entrepreneurs This was the practical culmination of learning about how to be enterprising and to run their own business. Almost all of the businesses sold out of their stock within the first 30 minutes with some making profit of over 200% on their capital investment. This demonstrates the reputation that our young entrepreneurs have developed in 2021 and bodes well for future success.

To finish the year’s studies with a practical field-trip opportunity to visit a local business, Mātua Douglas organised a group visit to Te Puia to see how their business has pivoted in response to COVID. Te Puia’s Sales and Marketing Director, Sean Marsh talked to the group about the changes that Te Puia has had to make to remain as a viable operation and also how the business is marketing itself more to the domestic market with a big promotional campaign kicking off NZ-wide this week. The support kaiako, Mr McLeod took his facemask off at the end of the presentation to totally surprise Sean, having taught him back at Tauranga Boys’ in the 1990’s! Kahu - the expert guide then gave the group a special tour around the facility - visiting their wharenui, the NZ Maori Arts and Crafts Institute, and the geothermal area - and entertaining the rōpū with his fun stories.

In mid-November, we welcomed back Craigs Investment Partners’ Jodie Pepping and Paul Stewart (Investment Advisers) to our class for the final time in 2021 to announce our competition winners. Our kura’s Business Hub created a partnership with this local firm where they co-ordinated and sponsored a Sharemarket Investment Challenge for our Level One students. Our ākonga enjoyed participating in this practical fun activity - with spot prizes for participation being awarded to Charlotte Olsen, Abbey Moberley, and Bradin Cassidy; and first prize for greatest return on his initial investment given to Joshua Williams.

Photo below: Competition winner Joshua Williams receiving his prize from Paul and Jodie from Craigs IP

E nga whanau o te kura, nga mihi nui rawa atu!

After our extremely successful Junior Indoor and Beach Volleyball campaigns, Girls Volley is at it again! There were some 50+ girls who trialed for a Senior Team position which necessitated another 4 team season. #boom #gothegals #heightshearty #reppinourkura Your dedicated and enthusiastic teachers are truly excited about our 2022 Senior campaign! Whanau, here are your 2022 Heights Senior Girls Volleyball Teams and their amazing staff:

Rau Taumata: A

Rhiannon Hunter, Rileigh Barns - Rodway, Kaea Nepia, Marama Pehi, Brenna Caulfield, Pania Paul, Keira Hewitt, Nessakiah Titoko, Merenia Tapsell, Nataley Vaipo,

Coach: Mr. Wrigley, Manager: Miss Thomas

Pikihuia: B

Seke Rika, Kaia Ainsley, Kyla Samson-Wickliffe, Saraya Hemana, Youzhen Han, Ocean Redpath, Nalani Jennings, Jayme Ngatai, Jordon Forster, Grace Te Are.

Coach: Mr. Douglas, Manager: tbc Miss Dewhurst

Kahurangi: C

Paige Dudson, Scarlett Dowland, Danielle Green, Leilani Seibouma, Lian Ormsby, Kaia Hose, Nikita Rossiter, Te Awatea Tawa, Tia Rangiahua.

Coach: Mr. Lynch Manager: Mrs. Perry

Te Rongopai: D

Sheill Flavell, Kaytalia Coles, Armani Scott, Kehaulani Newton, Rachel Lochead, Chloe Tien, Natalie Montgomery, Zephania Hunia.

Coach: Mrs. Ruttley Manager: Mr. Ruttley

This could not be possible without whanau, Senior Leadership and BoT support! Our aroha and mihi to you all! Nga manaakitanga a te wahi ngaro x

Mrs. Ruttley.

Ten students missioned this expedition, carried their own pack, sleeping gear and food. They had to navigate their way through streams, mud, board walks and open gully’s and Tuscan landscape. Although there were some big winds, some tough stairs and rain, everyone was positive, supportive and challenged themselves. What an amazing outdoor playground to explore! Super effort from everyone, especially for a few first time trampers. Students were - Gemma Bunt (camp mum), Finley English, Dylan Klein, Billy Harting, Mia Staunton, Abi Thomas, Lucia Farias, Jurnee Leonard, Maria Mativa-Horn, Evelyn Fasher.

Teachers - Wendy Hague, Tomas Renna.

The Western Heights High School Chess Team will be competing in the 2021 Chesspower National Finals on Wednesday 15th December. Congratulations to our eight students who helped us to qualify and good luck to the five, Michael, Sebastian, Riddick, Te Whitimai and Curtis, who will be representing the School in the finals. Te Whitimai was voted unanimously by the rest of the team as our MVP for the year

2 photos. 1:Team, 2: Michael and Te Whitimai during the June Regional competition

Recently we had the pleasure of having Sam Winders & Erena Mikaere come to school and deliver a very inspirational talk to some of our students.

• Sam Winders - captained the Silver Ferns and is currently the Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic Captain.

• Erena Mikaere – Played netball for Magic, travelled over to Perth and then onto the Sunshine Coast playing for two ANZ Australian Premiership teams before coming home to play for the Mystics and back with her beloved Magic team.

Netball Waikato Bay of Plenty Zone is working with Rotorua Netball Centre who have identified a number of schools they would like to help grow and deliver netball and we are one of those lucky schools.

Both Sam and Erena Mikaere are also Netball Waikato Bay of Plenty Development officers and are very keen to help grow Netball within our region.

WHHS staff and students wish to acknowledge and Thank Sam and Erena for taking time out of their busy schedule. We would like to also thank Netball Waikato Bay of Plenty Zone & the Rotorua Netball Centre for giving our school the opportunity.

WHHS staff and students wish to acknowledge and thank the following organisations and businesses for their kind donations throughout 2021

• NZCT

• Lion Foundation

• Four Winds

• Grassroots/Infinity

• One Foundation Ltd

• Tu Manawa Active Aotearoa (Sport BOP & Sport NZ)

• Rob & Linley Parry ( Rotorua McDonald’s Franchisees)

Volunteer Coaches & Managers are required for the following Sports in 2022. Please contact Leona Kaye (Sports Co Ordinator) ldavis@whhs.school.nz

• Netball

• Boys Football

• Touch Rugby

We’re excited to share the news that school students aged 5-18 years old will be able to enjoy free bus travel on all Cityride services before 9am and from 2.30-6.30pm on school days next year.

To take up this free travel, students just need to have a registered Bee Card with a child concession. The key is to tag on when entering and tag off when leaving the bus, so they don’t get charged a standard fare.

This means school children can save at least $13 per week when using their Bee Card on all Cityride buses.

We are trialling the free fares from 31 January to 31 December 2022 and we encourage as many school students as possible to take up this opportunity.

To apply for a Bee Card and get a concession loaded, please visit www.beecard.co.nz or plan your bus journey at www.baybus.co.nz.

If you have any queries, please contact us at transport.admin@boprc.govt.nz or call 0800 4 BAY BUS.

Ngā mihi nui,

Bay of Plenty Regional Council Transport Team

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.