WSC Newsletter # 11

100 Motions Rd, Western Springs
Auckland 1022, New Zealand
Phone (+64 09) 815 6730
Fax (+64 09) 815 6740

Email:admin@wsc.school.nz

December 2016

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Calendar - Term One, 2017
Office Opens Wednesday 25 January

Week 1
Monday 30 January
Auckland Anniverary Day
Tuesday 31 January
Yr 13 & Rumaki students
Wednesday 1 February Teacher Only Day
9am Powhiri Rumaki 
new students

Thursday 2 February
10am Powhiri to
welcome new students & staff
Friday 3 February
Yr 9 & Yr 13 students only from 10am


 

Week 2
Monday 6 February
Waitangi Day
Tuesday 7 February
All students attend 8.50am

Principal's Pen

Parents, visitors, staff and students will have noticed the start of the on-site work for the first stage of the school redevelopment. Work on the temporary school will continue over the summer holidays with the aim that it will be ready for use at the start of the 2017 school year.  This will consist of nine transportable classrooms and the re-location of some of the existing teaching spaces to be used when the redevelopment is underway.  The temporary school will be used for food technology, art and some English classes generally.

In summary, work being carried out over the Christmas holidays includes;

Temporary School

• Re-location of Rumaki classrooms
• Existing re-locatables moved into temporary school

Enabling Works

• Establishment of main build site for pre-construction works
• Demolition of E-Block (Art and Food Tech)
• Re-direction of key services like gas, electrics, drainage

The Ministry project team is working collaboratively with the school board and Rumaki representatives and The Auckland Performing Arts Centre (TAPAC) on their work programme, which is being progressed at the same time as the school redevelopment. 

Nearly 80 per cent of existing accommodation will be replaced by the $75 million redevelopment of the college, including Nga Puna o Waiorea Maori immersion-Rumaki.  In addition, $4 million has been set aside to remediate weathertightness issues at TAPAC.

Construction is planned to start in mid-2017, for completion by February 2019.

Junior Prizegiving

A Reminder that the Junior Prize Giving will be held in the Hall this Friday 9th December.  The event starts at 10am but prize winners must be in their seats by 9.45.  At this time we remove the names of absent students form the announcers’ lists, so students not seated by this time will not receive their award at the event.  You will have been notified, by email or letter, if our daughter or son has been awarded a prize.  We aim to finish the event at midday; before and after the Prize Giving you are invited to view the Junior Art Display in the foyer.

In addition to the special awards, prizes are awarded for exceptional application, outstanding achievement and  significant progress, and the school values all of these equally.

 

Term 3 Junior Learner Awards

The scheduled assembly for presenting the Term 3 Junior Learner Awards was just after our last newsletter was compiled, so this is the first chance we have had to publicise the award winners.

Two Junior Learners were selected for each core class by Heads of House after they consulted with Core and Option Teachers.  Awards can be made for a number of reasons, for instance, because a student has enhanced the learner of others in the class or because of exceptional progress, achievement or effort.

There are no Junior Learner Awards for Term 4, but in the Junior Prize Giving Outstanding Learner Awards are given out; these celebrate learning over the whole year.


Year 9 Awards

9AE - Isobel Carroll and Anna Cory-Wright
9AT - Paige Cooper-Smith and Paige Cooper-Smith


9KA - Flynn Mullany and Anastasia Va’auli
9KU -  Harrison Cooke and Grace Hemingway


9MN - Angus Kirkman and Lucy McKenzie
9MO - Nami Hashimoto and Cesarina Mazza-Carson


9OA - Prudence-Rose Nimerata Joyce and Miracle-Ameria Walker-Te Are
9OR - Talia Broughton and Te Rangi Eruera-Watts


9WE - Ethan Ryan and Haruka Yamano
9WU - Josie Carter and Aum Patel


Year 10 Awards


10AE -  Lawrence Herbert and Bella Peddie-Booth
10AT -  Holly Hogan-Murphy and Garth Olliff


10KA - Cosmo Conway and Vitolio Niuloa
10KU - Eli Lyons and Grace Thevenard


10MN - Sam Grant and  Ben McFarlane
10MO - Eva Gunn and Alia Slack


10OA - Myrahkil Luamanu and Phoenix Moore
10OR - Ruameto Hamiora and Atiria Young-Ogle


10WE - Jaime Faville-McColl and David Perry-Miles
10WU - Jack Carden and Stephanie Rooke


Term 4 Junior Learner Reports


The final set of Junior Learner Reports for 2016 will be emailed out just after the end of term.  As usual the Junior Learner Reports contain two elements which are equally important, the Learner Dispositions (organisation,effort and conduct) and the Learning Outcomes specific to each particular subject. 


This set of reports focus on learning over Term 4, they are not a summary of learning over the whole year. 


Over the summer please spend some time comparing your son or daughter's four Junior Learner Reports form this year, discussing their progress over the year with them, and helping them to set goals for 2017.


SMART goals are a useful way to frame this discussion.  SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Agreed-upon, Realistic yet challenging, and Time-framed.


Paul Alford, Deputy Principal

English News

WSC Senior Speech Competition

The second annual Springs Speech Competition for senior students was held in the Library on October 20th.The finalists were Ariana Brunet, Ruby Esther, Lucy Morrin, Sam Meyerhoff, Tatiana Koteka and James MacEwen. Their brief was to put their own spin on one of the Values in the New Zealand Curriculum- to see the potential in them to say something that demands a response. They all more than managed that. The variety in content, style and delivery reflected the rich and diverse talent we have here and kept the audience of mainly Junior students enthralled and hopefully inspired them in their own speaking.Whether your concern was the environment, social justice or even the tragedy of bad pants, you would have been thoroughly entertained by what was on show. Special thanks must go to Gordon and the Lenihan-Ikin family for their generous sponsorship of the prizes. In the end, Sam Meyerhoff was adjudged the winner. If you are a Year 11, 12 or 13 student in 2017, get involved and get your voice out there. Keep an ear open for details of next year's competition.

Idealog Interview

Meet the 16-year-old Aucklander who has the attention of Silicon Valley
By NIKKI MANDOW, 28 Nov 2016

A Kiwi teenage entrepreneur just back from a tour of some of the top companies in Silicon Valley, has his own take on the famous Nike slogan.

When Zach Monk sets up his second start-up venture in January, he’s got a problem most other entrepreneurs don’t encounter - being too young to register a company.
Monk is just 16, and a Year 12 student at Western Springs College in central Auckland. During the school holidays he is planning to set up a dropshipping ecommerce business with his brother - just to keep his hand in between exams and the start of the next school year.

His first business - environmental food wrap company Wrap It Up, was established earlier this year with a group of school friends as part of the Young Enterprise Scheme, a competition where groups of students set up a real business. This experience of running a company was the first stage along a road which saw him win an all-expenses-paid trip to Silicon Valley. And there he (and five other young NZ entrepreneurs) visited 14 organisations, including Microsoft, Stanford University, Apple, Zero, Instagram/Facebook, Renaissance Leadership, and Uber.

Zach isn’t expecting dropshipping to make him a fortune, or win him another major overseas trip. But he’s keen to learn more about the nuts and bolts of being an entrepreneur, as he heads towards his career goal of being a CEO - of his own or someone else’s company.

“What I learnt from Silicon Valley is about not being scared to go after something you are interested in and have ambitions to do. In the course of this year I’ve gone from thinking ‘Oh it might be cool to get involved in the Young Enterprise Scheme’, to finding myself in Silicon Valley, the entrepreneurial hotspot of the world.”

He says meeting with people like Vaughan Smith (Facebook vice president of mobile, corporate and business development), and Ben Anderson, founder of global recruitment company Renaissance Leadership, has revolutionised his view of what might be possible.
Both Smith and Anderson are Kiwis who made good in Silicon Valley, and they passed on the message ‘Go for it’.

“They said ‘Be ambitious’. The US doesn’t have that tall poppy syndrome where you don’t celebrate your school and work achievements. They talked about being up front about your goals, taking advantage of opportunities you have. And they said that there are lots of people out there that will support you.”

Zach’s path to California started at the end of Year 11, when he heard about the Young Enterprise Scheme (YES) and decided to put a team together. One of his teachers told him about a reusable, non-plastic alternative to cling film using cotton material coated with beeswax. The beeswax coating means the product will stick to itself or a container when you wrap it around a sandwich or leftovers, but it’s also biodegradable and can be rinsed clean - for a few weeks at least, until the beeswax loses its tackiness.
Zach and his team put together a business plan and started manufacturing and selling the product. And after a couple of Dragon’s Den contests, they reached the competition’s regional finals. Zach won the Entrepreneur of the Year award for the West Auckland region.
The experience inspired Zach to enter another Young Enterprise Trust business challenge, Enterprise in Action, and success there led to him being chosen for an individual challenge - which in turn led to Silicon Valley.

“I’d always seen stories of young entrepreneurs and people that started companies. I didn’t think it would happen so quickly, and I didn’t think there would be so many

resources out there to help. I’ve met amazing people through YES - mentors and others, and I’ve realised the learning is out there.”
The next stop is a week on a Creative NZ workshop early next year - again all-expenses-paid. Eventually, Zach would like to lead a social enterprise, though he’s not clear what yet.
“I like the model where you create profit and create a solution to a problem at the same time. For example, Lovenotes, a company which makes stationary for people from their own waste paper. That’s really clever.
“My generation are sometimes called lazy, but actually we are lucky to have a lot of different potential business models, like social entrepreneurship. We just need to take up those opportunities.”

Change Making at Springs

Zero Waste Auckland

Hello parents, caregivers and students at Western Springs College.

We are a group of social studies students doing a project on the plan that Auckland council has to make Auckland a waste free city by 2040.

Right now, the average person who lives in Auckland produces nearly 1 tonne of garbage per year! The main system that the council is hoping to implement is to make the removal of compost and recycling bins free, and you will have to pay around $2.50 for them to take your general rubbish to the landfill. The alternative to this is having to drive your general rubbish to the landfill yourself. 

A few ways that you can help this initiative become a reality is by trying to reduce the amount of general rubbish that your family produces each week. A few ways you can do this is by;
Trying to not fill your rubbish bin to the top

Fill your recycling bin (you can put all your paper, cardboard and plastic recycling in together)
Start a compost bin.

Try and choose products that have less packaging or are recyclable when buying food. If this is not available then make sure the rubbish is disposed of sensibly.

Another fun way to help the environment and in which the whole family can get involved, is with a worm farm. Worms can digest almost any food scrap and are incredibly easy to maintain.

If you are interested about this initiative and would like more information, then email:
enquiry@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz

 

Refugee Appeal

Five years ago, war broke out in Syria. Since then, over 250,000 people have died, and 11,000,000 forced to flee their homes. 5 million are refugees who have fled to another country. New Zealand is one of the around 26 countries that formally hosts these refugees- civilians forced to run away from Syria due to the war and violence. Our country welcomes around 750 refugees per year, but this can’t be done without the help of Kiwis. Because many refugees often have just a single bag when they arrive in NZ, donation of goods greatly help them. You can donate items to your local Red Cross shop in each resettlement area, or contact them via email or phone.
Below are goods the Auckland Red Cross is in need of:

Pots and pans
Quality blankets, duvet inners, bed linen and towels
Cutlery, plates, cups and glasses
Donations of brand new pillows (still in packaging)

Contact: auckland@redcross.org.nz or 09 262 0942


Christmas Appeal - Auckland City Mission

Western Springs College is taking part in the Auckland City Mission’s Santa’s Helpers Appeal this year. Your family can support this wonderful initiative by bringing donations of nonperishable food - these will be collected and sent to the city mission for their annual Christmas food parcels . In 2015, schools like ours helped the Mission to distribute 4,113 Christmas food parcels, more than 10,000 gifts and put on an unforgettable Christmas Lunch for 2,000 guests. This last year has been the Mission’s busiest ever, so they really need our help! Food donations can be given to form teachers, or dropped into the Kapura Head of House office.

Together, we can help make this a wonderful Christmas for struggling Auckland families! Thank you so much for your support as we get behind this important community cause.

The school year has very quickly come to an end with our annual Junior Arts Festival being the highlight of recent weeks. This year we had a full running order to showcase the very best of the Creative and Performing Arts with Dance, Drama, Music and Art all taking part.

TAPAC was buzzing on Friday 18th November as teachers and students set up for the two show spectacular and exhibition of outstanding junior art. Students prepared all day, extremely excited about getting into the theatre, plotting lights, sound, utilising stage and seeing their work on screen too. This year we were very fortunate to have the incredible HOD Drama – Robert Pollock as MC. His introductions were an absolute highlight and truly memorable. This year we also had a marvellous team of juniors front of house assisting with the show. Special thanks to Jaime Heathcote and Hanah Tayeb – BIM - for your side of stage efforts.

Special thanks to the WSC Parent Action Group for providing drinks and nibbles to mark the occasion. Families, friends, teachers were so appreciative of all that you and your families so generously donated for the event. It was great to see our school community get together to celebrate student success and the work of all our juniors.

Thanks to TAPAC and staff for support on the day and at all events throughout the year. Thank you also to all the teachers who worked tirelessly with preparation and set-up, with rehearsing juniors for the shows and even more so for your help with the afternoon performances. This event couldn’t happen without you!

Finally, we are going to miss the amazing Melanie Turner as she embarks on a new and exciting journey. Thank you so much for all your creativity and efforts in Dance. Your contributions, organisation, energy, enthusiasm and incredible personality will be really missed.

Thanks to all for the continued support this year. Have a safe and happy holiday season.

Enjoy the Junior Arts Festival photo-documentation to follow and special thanks to Nina Gastreich Photography for recording this year’s event.

Thanks to all for the continued support this year. Have a wonderful, safe and happy holiday season.

Thanks to Siana Rivlin-Myers  – 13Art Design – for the ArtsNews Heading in this issue.

arts@wsc.school.nz                                     Kirsty Britton – Arts Coordinator

We were very proud of our dance students in the Junior Arts Festival.  Highlights included Grace Hemingway, Indie Paepke and Lucy McKenzie (year 9) performing their waka choreography, Kataraina Wiapo, Anahera Morehu, Hine-ia-Kauia Stevens, Maia Tairi and Italia Arona performing their Whakapapa choreographies, and Bella-Peddie Booth, Kaysey Jones, Stella Rogers, Kate Ingold, Finlay McWhirter and Rosa Mitchell performing the Chair Waltz.  Malcolm Williams, Mele Aho, Acacia Flewitt and Amy Stoffberg also starred.

We were also proud of our year 11, 12 and 13 students who performed their choreography at the DANZ hui, alongside Unitec choreography and Pointy Dog, to an audience of professional choreographers and dancers.  We were particularly proud to say all the work presented from WSC was student-choreographed, and at a high standard.  A huge thank-you to all the dancers who gave their time to do this – Year 13s Hannah Langton, Dione Tay, Seline Hiddleston, Eden Galo (choreographer), Year 12s Lorena Bello, Zoe de Reuck, Carla Harre, Molly Snowden (choreographer), and Year 11s Georgia Menhennet, Akinehi Munroe, Tyreece Fred, Isabella Stoyanof, Eleanor Tubman, Amira Parent-Kitchin, Paradise Fa’autaga and Robert Bloomfield.  Special thanks to the year 11s who came in early to rework their class dance with people absent, and to Georgia who learned a year 12 role as well!

Chloe and I attended the annual Unitec Dance Showcase and were thrilled to see previous students Daisha Hill-Salanoa (1st year), Oliver Carruthers (2nd year) and Cuba Haslam (3rd year) dancing and thriving in the Unitec dance degree programme.  Ollie in particular stood out in several feature roles.
In 2017 I pass the Head of Department role back to Chloe Davison.  I have loved my time at Springs working with such talented students in a very professional, experienced and well-established department.  I wish all students and staff the very best for the future.

Melanie Turner - Acting Head of Dance

months, especially with the award ceremonies and various displays of Art works.
Both junior and senior displays of Art work were on show this term.  Eleven senior classes from three Art fields were in the Library over three days, and the Y9 and Y10 work was part of the Junior Art Festivities at TAPAC.  The importance of heralding student work was also not lost on the large numbers of proud parents and supporters who came to view and celebrate their outstanding achievements.  Similar to last year we were aided by the wonderful Parent Action Group and their generosity of donated nibbles and drinks that helped make both occasions particularly memorable.
The juniors in particular have been productive – with the amazing camp opportunity to experience EOTC.  Art teachers Judy Chiang and Danielle Voyce worked with students in producing innovative water colour postcards and then collective rock assemblages at Home Bay on Motutapu Island.  Back at school – the first ever Photographic ‘Springstagram’ competition was heating up with the winners announced at the Junior Arts Festival.  The talented students were - 1st place Nina Hayes, 2nd place to Jack Carden and special mention to Lilliane Cave.

Of special note – our top Senior Art Scholar receiving the TuiSamoa Art Cup was Y13 Siana Rivlin-Myers (who is also the recipient of the ARA Mason Award of $1250 towards tertiary study).  The Christian-Slane Cup for Excellence in Junior Art will be presented for the first time to our top Y10 scholar at this year’s Junior Prizegiving.  The cup has been kindly donated by the Christian-Slane family who have had their three children (Henry, Hugo and Honor) contribute prominently to the Arts both here at school and beyond the gates.
Lastly, the department would like to thank those families who have paid their Art fees throughout the year – your contribution enables us to manage and develop our programmes to meet the needs of the students moving forward into the Creative Communities.
Ia Manuia                Lily Laita - HOD Art

Sports

TENNIS – CHAMPIONS

2016 … what a year for Tennis. Term 1 saw three tennis teams win their grades in the
North Harbour competition. Now, we have a fourth Springs team recently crowned as
NHSS Tennis Champions.

Our Junior Boys Tennis team have just completed their season in the North Harbour
competition, by winning all seven games in the Boys ‘C’ Grade. What made it quite
special was that the ‘C’ Grade is made up of teams with senior and junior players,
where as Springs supplied two Year 10s and five Year 9s.

The commitment of all players was first class, as each Monday non-playing members
would travel with the team and train at the courts. This proved vital as some weeks
we had players away at camp and so it was pleasing to see those ‘newbies’ stepping up.

Several weeks ago, we arrived to find a team had defaulted late. We decided to play
a ‘mini-tournament’ amongst all players where the winner gets to choose what he eats
on the macca’s menu when we have our final get-together. (Final - Ben beat Pranava.)
 
TEAM MEMBERS – Harrison Cooke, Rhys Davidson, Jackson Green, Jacob Lidbetter,
Ben McFarlane, Milo McPhail and Pranava Pavatran.

Homestay Families Wanted

WESTERN SPRINGS COLLEGE
HOMESTAY FAMILIES WANTED FOR TERM 1, 2017 (January)

 

Our school welcomes applications from local families who maybe interested in hosting International Students.

Ever thought of hosting an International student? Have a spare room available?

We are looking for families to host International students (male or female, long or short term) starting in late January 2017.  We offer a good remuneration to cover student costs being $275.00 per week. If you are keen or interested in becoming a host family please contact our Homestay Manager, Rachealle Tyrell for more details.

Phone 8156730 (ext 752),
Mobile 021617172 or email: internationaloffice@wsc.school.nz   Our International team would love to hear from you!

‘The Point’ Youth Hub
The Point Youth Hub is a new space that has been developed for the young people of Pt Chev. The Point will provide youth focused activities as well as a Drop In zone for young people after school. Check out our Facebook page for more info by searching for The Point.
To kick off 2017 we’re partnering with The Learning Collaborative to deliver a coding workshop. Keen to learn about website development? Learn the basics of web design with HTML and CSS, and leave with the wireframe for your very own website to show off to your friends and family! The workshop will start the week of January 23rd. Give us a shout to register your interest (Contact details below).
The Point is available for study groups during the day. Equipment available includes internet, whiteboard and projector. We’re located at 18 Huia Road, Pt Chev. Students can contact the centre to book in times.
We’re interested in hearing from local youth who would like to have a say on what sort of activities and programmes The Point provides. Please contact Sara for more info – sara.woodward@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz or phone 021 719 613
Visit our website for more info: www.ptchevcentre.org.nz

LEISURETIME LEARNING NIGHT CLASSES
FOR ADULTS AND TEENS

Delivered at Western Springs College

Enrolments are open now for night and weekend classes in 2017

Classes include cooking, abstract painting, soap making, interior design, gardening, personal finances, guitar, ukulele, organic gardening, sewing, silk screen printing, Xero, Pilates, yoga and Zumba.
www.leisuretimelearning.co.nz
E: info@leisuretimelearning.co.nz; P: 09 815-2222

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