E ngā reo, e ngā mana, rau rangatira mā, ngā matā waka, tēnei te mihi nui atu ki ā koutou katoa. Ko te wawata me te tumanako ka noho ora mai koutou katoa.

For WHS, our mission of Kia Whakatāne Au I Ahau means challenging students to achieve, ensuring that all students achieve to their full potential. Whether that be academically, sporting or culturally (or all of these at the same time!), we have to put students at the centre of what we do and work hard to get the best out of them, better than before.

I am always proud to announce the achievements of our amazing students. I am really pleased with the huge amounts of success that we had with our students achieving in the highest levels for NCEA, notably NCEA Endorsement at Merit and Excellence and Scholarship NCEA exams.

I would like to acknowledge the 80+ students who achieved NCEA Endorsement with Excellence at Level 1,2 and 3. In addition the 90+ students who achieved NCEA Endorsement with Merit at Level 1, 2 and 3. Our students also achieved three NCEA scholarships in 2021, with Milla Dibben in P.E, Michael Everett in History and Joshua Carter in Physics. Our 2021 year 13 students also gained $372,000 worth of University Scholarships as they head to University as we speak. We will publish a full overview of our NCEA results in a later newsletter.

Athletics Day

Our Athletics day is an important component of our P.E and sport curriculum. The Junior and Senior students as part of their P.E and Health program have been focussing on athletics. In addition the focus for all students as part of Student Mentoring is managing health and wellbeing, sport participation and exercise is important in this regard.

After discussion with the Ministry we have been advised that our Athletics Day can go ahead as a whole school event. It is important that we don’t bring large groups of students together indoors but outdoors for curriculum related activities it is allowed. The MOE guidance is that Close contacts and contact tracing relates to indoor settings, outdoor settings are considered low risk and no active management is required.

We have postponed Athletics Day to the next available Friday. We will notify the community and students about this date.

Athletics day is not considered an outdoor community sport event, which has limits on the number of people. The school is considered its own bubble and with Council approval we have been allowed to use Athletics Park.

Some important controls to manage our students on Athletics Day:

• The event is outdoors and students do not need to wear a mask whilst they are exercising, competing, eating or drinking during the day.

• Equipment that students use will be sanitised after use. E.g. Shot Put, Discus and Javelin.

• Students will be advised to maintain distance in house bubbles and with friends.

• No visitors will be allowed. The area has been booked and reserved for Whakatane High School on the day. We are in our own bubble. This has been approved by the Council. The area will be roped off and managed by the school.

Sport

We look forward to starting up training for a variety of Sports codes. This year the BOT has funded Teachers In Charge (TIC) of our major Sports codes. They will be the point of contact for major sports teams:

• Boys Volleyball - Nic Christie (CI) - nic.christie@whs.co.nz

• Girls Volleyball - Helen McKane (MC) - helen.mckane@whs.co.nz

• Rugby - Ben Sexton (SN) - ben.sexton@whs.co.nz

• Football - Scott Marrow (MO) - scott.marrow@whs.co.nz

• Basketball - Jarrod Braddock (BK) - jarrod.braddock@whs.co.nz
  

• Multi Sport - Declan Manning (MA) - declan.manning@whs.co.nz

• Hockey - Clare Knapton (KO) - clare.knapton@whs.co.nz

Our Sports Facebook page and notifications will tell the students what training is happening each day of the week. This page can be found here:

https://www.facebook.com/sportswhakatanehigh

COVID IN OUR COMMUNITY

We are now in phase 3 of our Covid Red setting. Phases will be different as the cases in the community rise. Here is on important chart that explains Phase 3:

For more details please read here.

COVID IN OUR SCHOOL

Our plan

Remember that the school will run at all times. Your child's learning is important. The school will operate differently when cases rise and staff absenteeism is an issue. This is outlined in our business continuity plan here.

Online learning

If your child is at home isolating and can complete their schoolwork, it is important that they access their learning through their Google Classrooms. We have a complete list of every Google Classroom for every teacher.

Again, remember that if your child is exposed to a case at school, we will notify you that they are a close contact and explain the next steps.

Thank you once again to all of our students, staff and wider community that have assisted the school leadership in making sure we continue to operate as normally as possible.

Ngā mihi

Martyn Knapton

Principal

Interact Clubs are internationally recognised by Rotary International. Throughout the years, we have welcomed many students and grown a great club. If you’d like to make a difference in your community, through volunteering and/or providing services to Whakatane, come along to a meeting and see what it’s all about. We often have special guest speakers with inspirational stories and experiences to share with us.

University Recruiter Visits

We were able to host the recruiter from Massey University on Wednesday with more than 20 Year 13 students attending. Next week we have AUT visiting on Wednesday, at 1.15pm.

Armed Forces

The Armed Forces recruiters will host a virtual information evening on Wednesday 2 March from 6-7pm. Contact Ms Stuart for the link.

Gateway

The Gateway Programme allows students to experience an industry while still at school. We appreciate local employers for their support of hosting students and sharing their industry knowledge. If any of our school whanau and supporters are interested in working with us, please contact us at school. We are starting students at Whakatane Countdown, New World, Little Orchard, and MicroPico Systems over the next week. Many thanks to these employers for hosting our students.

Futures Academy

Most of our students have begun their Futures Academy Trade over the last two weeks. Some have travelled out of town, but the majority are studying here in Whakatane for one or two days a week.

Jo-Anne Stuart and Julie Ball

jo-anne.stuart@whs.co.nz

julie.ball@whs.co.nz

https://www.facebook.com/WhakataneHighSchoolCareers

• 1.5 - 2L fizzy drink bottles
• cardboard tubes - long - eg. gladwrap, tinfoil tubes
• small pieces/blocks of polystyrene
• ice cream containers
• small quantities of paint for identifying rocks - even a centimetre left in test pot is enough (any colours)