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.

Welcome back to Term 3

It has been great to see students back at school and learning over the last two weeks. Students and staff feel refreshed after the break. Term 3 is a busy Term, there are some great things happening at WHS which we look forward to, these include:

• Arts Festival - 17-18 August

• Subject Information Evening - 24 August

• Tournament Week - 29 August - 2 September

• Student Mentor Interviews - 7-8 September

• Model United Nations - 9 September

• Open Day / Night - 13 September

• Subject Teacher Meetings - 15 September

• He Haakiri (degustation evening)- 24 September

• Cross Country - 30 September

Pathways month

Term 3 represents an important time for all students as they work hard to make progress and achieve their personal best in and out of class. In addition, thinking about careers and pathways will help bring a focus to the courses students would like to take in 2023. Subject selection for 2023 must be completed by the end of the last week of Term. Parents are invited to attend meetings with their child’s student mentor to discuss subject selection in week 7.

To help all of our students we have created Pathway Month, our students will be exposed to a range of talks, presentations and resources to help them make subject choices. As parents you can support us by talking with your child about your experiences of employment and looking at Career websites. A good site to use is:

https://www.careers.govt.nz/ also give this activity a go https://www.careers.govt.nz/tools/careerquest/

Rewarding school values and expectations

We constantly reinforce our school values and expectations. When we do this we create a great culture for learning and reinforce values that are important for success in life beyond school. Our pastoral team (Deans and Senior Leadership), have listened to student voice at each year level to make rewards and acknowledgments that we know students will value.

During each 2-3 week period we will be focusing on one of our values and students will be rewarded with a ticket when they demonstrate it. At the end of the period, all tickets will go into a draw for a chance to win prizes that students at each year level have identified as being meaningful to them. Students who have been outstanding over that period of time will also receive a certificate of acknowledgement.

Our first focus is punctuality.

Student successes and student leadership

It has been great to see so many Sports teams giving it their best over the last week. The results are not always a win, but the learning and personal growth through engaging in Sport is invaluable. It was great to see our Smokefree rockquest group ‘Scooby don't’ win the regional competition. They now enter the national semi-final, good luck. Congratulations to ex-students Hayley Mackey and Stacey Waaka for their recent efforts in the Commonwealth Games.

As always, I have been impressed by the quality of student leadership at WHS. The prefects and Ball Committee did a fantastic job organising the recent Ball. The theme of ‘Ancient Greece’ meant a lot of thought was put into the decorations. A great time was had by all and the community were engaged by the huge number of cars, trucks and motorbikes that dropped off the students to school. The photos from the ball are available to view and purchase online at lazerphoto.co.nz

School Meals

I recently emailed the school community about concerns we have had about the school meals. We were very disappointed with the food provided on Tuesday, we have raised our concerns with the Ministry who have a service agreement with the supplier. It has been great to get feedback on peoples’ feelings on the matter and the quality of the meals from our supplier.

The Ministry have responded in the following ways:

• They have asked our food supplier to undertake an investigation internally to identify the cause of the issue, and will share the results of that investigation with the school.

• They have contacted MPI to notify them of this event. IF they determine it is worthy of investigation, they will undertake this investigation and inform the Ministry of the results of the investigation.

I am thankful that the Ministry is being proactive in this matter. In the meantime I welcome feedback and suggestions about our school meals. Please email me at martyn.knapton@whs.co.nz

Thank you, as parents, for your ongoing support of our school.

Martyn Knapton

Principal

North Island Junior Championships 2022

A number of WHS girls travelled to Taranaki in the 1st week of the school holidays as part of the EBOP U14 and U16 teams to play in the North Island Championships 2022.

Parent Hannah Simmonds said the girls weathered some atrocious conditions, playing in torrential rain at times, however all girls enjoyed the tournament experience.

Results:

• U14s EBOP - Molly Fenwick, Sincerely Wikitera-Clay and Te Whetu Allen placed 9th in their grade
• U16 A team Shekinah Maxwell placed 9th in their grade
• U16 B team Lily Anderson, Akemi Tutua, Amiah Pugh and Ali Cole placed 15th in their grade

The 1st XI Boys travelled to Tauranga to play Bethlehem in a catch up game on Wednesday afternoon. The boys claimed a good win over the Bethlehem 2nd XI team, 4-2. Charlie Waters scored 2 goals with Fjord Hagger and Josh Allison also adding to the goal score. Charlie Waters had a great game and was player of the day.

The Girls 2nd XI also played on Wednesday against the Trident 2nd XI girls, The girls celebrated their first win of the season with a 3-2 win over the Trident team. Bea Knapton, Sophie Growden and Chelsea Kerr were the goal scorers for WHS. Coach Mark Hanlen said the girls were down 1-2 at half time, but the girls took on his advice and acted on his instructions managing to come away with the win.

This event celebrates and promotes the entrepreneurial flair of Whakatane High School students and will be held in the school hall.

Level 1 and 2 Senior Business Studies students have been busy designing, validating and developing their own unique products which will be launched for sale at this "Innovation Station" market day. Eftpos is available.

This will be a great opportunity to immerse yourself in a wonderful market day atmosphere while supporting young local innovative entrepreneurs.

Ben, Anneus, Johann, Louisa, Josefine, Alicia, Maxima, Julia, Johanna, Josefine and Malin enjoyed four days of orientation, which included a tour of our special landmarks. Also welcomed was our new Homestay Coordinator Ms Michelle Cossey.

Director of International Students, Mrs Sue Whale, arranged for the ten students to come on a special program by the government to allow 1,000 International Secondary Students into the country this year.

Health services provided FREE in school:

• School Nurse: daily except Wednesday morning
• School Doctor: Tuesdays P2