HVHS Term 3 Week 10
Newsletter 1 October 2021
PRINCIPAL"S MESSAGE
Kia ora koutou
We made it! What a crazy term in amongst an already complicated year.
Next term, nearly all our students and teachers will be on the HVHS school site. We will officially open the first eight portacoms and begin the planning for 2022, which sees a lot of shifting of office and teaching spaces across the school.
The English and Maths departments will be based in the portacom village. Students will see a V1-16 on their timetables if they have a class in the Village. C-Block will no longer be used, so the Social Science staff still based there will move to the classrooms vacated by Maths staff moving to the Village. Digitech and computing will move to B13-15 from C-Block. There are many more moves afoot - but students, please don’t get too stressed if you get a little lost for the first few weeks of next term; your teachers will be learning new routes across the school too.
Here is a link to the latest building developments.
We are close to being able to share the design for the new build. Two options are currently with the MoE - a 26 classroom build or a 20 classroom build. The work that has been completed since March when the staff and students in C-Block were given ½ hr to evacuate the building is incredible. We have gone from not having a home to Year 12 and Year 13 remote learning to using a Hub down the road, to 16 portacoms and a design already assigned to a building company in six months. It has been a massive undertaking, involving numerous people from our school, our board, the Ministry of Education and architects.
I want to thank the school community for continuing to support us this year by coaching, managing or being a supporter on the sideline or in the audience. Additional to this, the financial support made through your voluntary donations has been incredible. Thank you. This added income makes a huge difference to the programmes, support and added extras that we can offer our students. We do appreciate it.
Our school derived grade examinations are week three of Term 4. Nick Larkin has shared the detailed information with students and the link is further below in the newsletter. For those wanting some additional resources for preparing for end-of-year exams in NCEA Levels 1-3 English, Maths or Science the StudyIt forums have reopened. This online learning platform has moderated forums to discuss NCEA achievement standards with other students and facilitators. General study and exam advice, including tips on how to study smart, are also available. I know that my children found them very useful when they were in NCEA mode.
Ngā mihi
Denise Johnson
Principal
Te Awakairangi Mental Health March 2021
Spotlight on a Learning Area
The Arts
Our friends in the wider arts community have been particularly hard hit by the current pandemic: shows that have been development for many months have been cancelled, concerts planned for the summer remain in doubt, major galleries remain closed, book launches have been postponed, development of new work put on hold and the future for many in the industry remains uncertain. It’s a timely reminder of how the arts operate. More often than not art is experienced as part of a collective; at the heart of our subjects sit communication and community.
It is apt then that our next public drama performance will be the premiere of the play Inoculated, which has been in development since March and will finally, after a strange year of mould, virus and other pestilence, debut in the first week of next term. The piece is set in a student flat during the first days of a snap lockdown. Along with the three flatmates, there is the added complication of one of their partners staying over for the first time, and a stranger who has been offered a bed on their couch, after his bus trip was cancelled. An already tense situation is further complicated by the revelation that the travelling stranger is a committed ant-vaxer. When we began this play earlier in the year, we thought it would be a good match for the times we live in, but didn’t anticipate just how of the moment it would be.
Inoculated is primarily about the way we deal with different points of view in a world where the instinctive response to disagreement is increasingly tribal and insular. In a time when getting the community to work together to keep one another safe couldn’t be more important, it seems to us exactly the sort of thing theatre should be addressing.
We’re also extremely lucky to have the well known photographer and documentary maker Bruce Foster on board with this project, and we’re aiming to work with him to make a filmed version of the piece at the end of the year.
If you’re interested in seeing this play, it will be performed on the evenings of Thursday 21 and Friday 22 October at 7.00 pm in the school theatre. Tickets are $5 and will need to be purchased in advance so that we can keep numbers within our Level 2 limits.
Derived Grade Exam Timetable 2021
Congratulations
Congratulations our two teams of three students who participated in the Wellington Regional Year 11 Geography Maatangi Whenua nationwide competition at Victoria University.
2nd Place Winners were HVHS Team 2 - Solomon Tito 11MI, Finn McQueen 11SK and Isaac Crook 11SK. Their loss by 0.5 points to WGC was an outstanding effort!
3rd Place Winners were HVHS Team 1 - Hardeep Kaur 11PD, Allie Knox 11TJ and Alicia Harris 11HJ.
Congratulations to Adam Whiskin 13WA who gained first place at the Wellington invitational Fencing competition. Lewis Carroll 13KN, came 2nd.
Gateway applications 2022 are still open
Due to the impact of covid 19 ….
We are still inviting applications for next year’s programme- fully funded, skills based, multi-directional…. and we even start with a camp!!
Message from Te Kura (Correspondence) Summer School
Registrations for Te Kura’s popular Summer School will be opening in November.
We are anticipating that with the continued disruptions caused by COVID-19, there will be increasing numbers of ākonga looking to top up their credits for NCEA and University Entrance over the summer holidays.
More than 1900 ākonga took advantage of Summer School last year to complete their studies, enabling them to go on to further study, training or employment.
Te Kura Summer School 2021 advertisement
Summer School courses are delivered online, so with access to a computer and the internet, ākonga can learn anywhere and anytime. We offer a range of internal standards at NCEA Levels 1, 2 and 3.
Our qualified kaiako are already gearing up for Summer School, and will be available online to support ākonga. Our Student and Whānau Support Team is available to answer any queries, phone 0800 65 99 88 option 1, or email summerschool@tekura.school.nz.
He waka eke noa – we are all in this together.
Thank you
Upcoming Events
- First day of Term 4 - Monday 18 October
- Sports Awards Ceremony - Tuesday 19 October
- Labour Day Holiday - Monday 25 October
- Board of Trustees Meeting - Wednesday 27 October
- MMR Clinic - Thursday 28 October
Contact Us
Email: principal@hvhs.school.nz
Website: https://www.hvhs.school.nz
Location: Woburn Road Lower Hutt, 5010 Wellington
Phone: +64 4 560 1568
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hvhs.school.nz