Wellington East Girls' College / Te Kura Kōhine o te Rāwhiti o Te Upoko o Te Ika

Welink

Issue 2, Paenga-whāwhā / April 2021

Welink is a newsletter produced as a link between Wellington East Girls' College and our community, and is emailed to parents and students. It contains essential information as well as news for caregivers. It is also on our website – www.wegc.school.nz. Please advise the school if you have changed your contact details, or would like to add an email address: wegc@wegc.school.nz

Principal's Message

Tēnā koutou katoa,

I have recently been made aware of increasing numbers of students who are vaping whilst at school. I feel that there is misinformation amongst our students in regards to vaping and its impact on health. Vaping does substantially reduce the health risks to smokers. However, we are seeing young people who are non-smokers, vaping. While vaping is less harmful than smoking it is unlikely to be totally harm free. The risks associated with long-term vaping are still unknown.

Changes to legislation in November of last year saw the existing prohibition on smoking in schools extended to include vaping. This means that schools, indoors and outdoors, must be smoke free and vape free at all times and we will be placing signage to that effect around school from early next term.

Breathing any product into your lungs is not ideal which is why non-smokers should not vape. Here is the link to the Ministry of Health website with more details and facts about vaping. Could you please remind your child that vaping is not permitted at school. We do take the health and wellbeing of our students seriously and there will be consequences for students who are found to be vaping on site. Thank you for your support with this.

This week sees us come to the end of a busy first term with a range of community based meetings happening. Thursday evening the muster for Kapa Haka Regionals is being held at Rongotai College, and I wish the combined group well as preparations get underway for the regional competition. There is also a Whānau Tū Tahi meeting and WEPA AGM earlier in the week. On Saturday we have 15 students participating in the Gold Duke of Edinburgh Hillary Award qualifying journey along the Inland Abel Tasman track and our thanks go out to the parents who are supporting the students on this journey.

Wishing you all a restful Term 1 break.

Ngā mihi nui

Gael Ashworth, Principal

Board of Trustees

Kia ora koutou

As always it has been a busy start to the year, as we approach the end of Term 1, especially with Easter falling mid-term, and the completion of learning conferences across all year groups. I hope that all our new students and staff are feeling settled in their new learning and teaching environment. At the Newtown Festival last weekend, I was representing the Barnardos 0800 What'sUp team (a free help service for young people, operated by qualified counsellors) and had the opportunity to speak with many parents and rangatahi, including parents and students from WEGC. A quick reminder that our Hauora team at East, and other external support organisations, are always available to support students at times of transition, as well as at any point through their schooling journey to help them navigate the complexity of their adolescent years..

This week our Board meeting took place at He Huarahi Tamariki, our affiliated teen parenting unit based in Tawa. There are a variety of complex needs supported through HHT, and these students are provided with intensive wraparound support in response to their individual situations. Recently the students at HHT were visited by a graduate who shared with them her inspiring journey to achieving her Bachelors in Social Work. Our visit was a great opportunity for us to understand in more detail the important work of this service, and the strong community connections it fosters to support its students towards academic and life-skills achievement.

Finally, huge congratulations to the newly-crowned Wellington East Girls’ College National Secondary Schools’ Futsal champions. What an incredible achievement, and a great start to the College's sporting year. No doubt there will be many more sporting, creative and academic achievements to celebrate over the following three terms.

Ngā mihi nui

Jo Lambert, Chair

Please see the Student Calendar below for student events coming up

Uniform in Term 2 and 3

Next term we are moving into Winter uniform with a range of jerseys, cardigans and vests available for students to wear. Hoodies are not part of school uniform. Ties no longer need to be worn. The winter uniform includes a Blazer, black tights, long-sleeved blouse, black leather lace up shoes and optional blue regulation scarf.

There is more information on our website here, along with a price list. Wellington East Girls College sells new and second hand uniforms from the School Reception 8.30am to 3.30pm during term time only.

Wellington East Parents' Association (WEPA)

Kia ora kotou,

On behalf of WEPA we would like to extend our huge thanks and aroha to Rochelle Kirby, our outgoing Acting Chairperson. Rochelle has provided great leadership to our group and unwavering support for the students, staff and the school community during her time with the Parents Association.

The role of WEPA is to distribute funds raised by the community through grants, fundraising and donations, back to WEGC students to support their extracurricular activities including sports, cultural and academic pursuits. Recent examples include flexible staging for the drama department, supported learning grants, and contributions towards the cost of getting our teams to national sporting competitions. We meet the second Wednesday of each month and anyone is welcome to join us.

Throughout the year we run various fund-raising events, the first of which is coming up on Friday 28 May. We are reintroducing our Inspirational Breakfast Series, kicking off with Sinead Boucher, the Chief Executive and owner of Stuff Ltd. Please join us for a delicious breakfast and some inspiring words from Sinead. Tickets are $10 each and all proceeds go to supporting our WEGC students. Sinead is the owner of news outlet Stuff - you can read about her purchase of Stuff last year, in this article in the Guardian or in Stuff here. There will be information about tickets and how to purchase next term.

We are also after bakers, if anyone has an interest in helping us by providing baking for various fundraisers then please get in touch via parents@wegc.school.nz.

Ma te wa

WEPA committee

Pasifika Parents' Group

Our next Pasifika Parents' meeting will be held on 13 May at 6.00pm to 7.30pm. More details on our website here Parents Groups

Whānau Tū Tāhi

Our meeting of the Whānau Tū Tāhi parents group was on 13 April at 6.00pm , more information on our website here : Whanau or see our Calendar

New Settlers' Parent Group

The New Settlers' Parents group will meet on 26 May at 6.00pm at school. You can read about the group here : New Settlers

Homework Club and Peer Tutoring

The student Homework club is a space where students can eat snacks, work on assignments, and receive help from our lovely Peer Tutors and Teachers. Homework Club is run Monday to Thursday after school in the M12 space (next to the library). We run from 3:30 - 5pm on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and from 2:30 - 4pm on a Wednesday.

If you would like more assistance with school work (other than going to HW Club) then you can request a peer tutor! Peer Tutors can be available for assistance during class time, or for one-on-one help at lunchtime and after school. To request a Peer tutor students can fill out the ‘Request for a Peer Tutor’ form which has been sent out to students in their school emails. Students can also find it by heading on to the student intranet and clicking on the peer tutoring icon, under the support tab.

Pride Week 15-19 March 2021

At Wellington East we celebrated Pride Week with lunchtime events organised by the prefects - we had a drag show, film show, a Karaoke event, bracelet making and of course the school was decorated inside and out. The exteriour building lights were again lit as a rainbow for the week (see beautiful photo from Vic Deals) which received some attention from social media. Inside we covered areas in rainbow decorations. We also had our annual staff rainbow photo.

Save the date! WEGC Food Fair is back - 14 May 2021

The Wellington East Girls' College Food Fair is back on! This year, we will be holding the Food Fair on Friday 14th May at our college and are hoping to make the most of our beautiful new building and quad. The night will be full of delicious food prepared by our students, their whanau and the wider community. In addition, we will have live entertainment, showcasing student talent as well as plenty of activities to take part in.

If you are able to and are wanting to support the Food Fair this year, the school would greatly appreciate this. You can support in these ways:

Hosting a stall alongside your child, whānau, community or business. All cost of food will be reimbursed with receipts provided and, equipment, as well as any stall helpers, will be provided.
Sponsoring raffle prizes if you have affiliations with any businesses.
Helping your child to contribute to their year level stall (more information will be provided in the coming weeks on this).
Turning up on the night!

All proceeds from the Food Fair go back to the school and help us to provide for the needs of all our students, so any way that you can help is welcomed, even if that is simply turning up for some delicious food, great music and entertainment and a wonderful time.

To voice interest in supporting the Food Fair please contact schoolcouncil@wegc.school.nz Make sure to save the date on your calendars!

Nga mihi,

Rebecca Hutt and Maya Rush-Dunn (School Council Prefects)

Readers Cup 2021

East will be defending the John McIntyre cup at the 2021 Wellington Regional Readers Cup in July.

Year 9 students recently competed in the school competition to form a team. A big congratulations to Isabelle, Lucy, Jarna, Olivia and Poppy who will represent East at the regionals.

Te Aka Class - Duke of Edinburgh Camp

On the 24-26 March the Te Aka students who are 14 years and older went on a camp in Paekakariki as part of the Duke of Edinburgh Award. While our last camp was full of adventurous activities like rafting and rock climbing, this camp was more focused on the students doing things with increased independence. It was great to see everyone getting stuck in with cooking, cleaning duties, sorting their own belongings, getting their day packs ready in the morning, and looking after each other. Of course there were some decent walks, mapping tasks, camp fires, swimming, and horse riding too.

Huge thanks to our volunteer Duke of Edinburgh coordinator, Leonie King. We are all becoming more confident with our outdoor skills due to her sharing her expertise. Thanks also all the staff who gave up their time and juggled their other commitments to come along … Lydia, Shannon and Amanda. We had a fantastic group of volunteers, including Nikhita, Emily, Neve and Hannah Bertschinger (2020 graduate from WEGC).

We had a excellent team of helpers to match an excellent group of students who were kind, thoughtful, caring, who persevered when the going got tough and who were super fun to be with.

And, the moment you have been waiting for.... Lydia's awesome Camp Movie! Thanks Lydia!

Te Aka Camp movie link

Duke of Edinburgh Programme

Tena koutou. Wow, what a busy term this has been! The Duke of Ed programme has started 2021 with seventy Year 10 students embarking on Bronze, forty-nine Year 11 students taking up the challenge to continue on with Silver, thirty-one Year 12s signing up for Gold and a further seventeen Year 13s committed to finishing their Gold Award journey this year. That adds up to a total of 167 students electing to continue their Award journeys, with a number of other students focusing on completing their existing levels - active participation approximately 200! All that means a lot of admin and organisation so the ‘part-time’ role of coordinator has been keeping me well and truly busy - a great way to be!

What has been happening? Firstly, along with the assistance of a group of talented parents, two Bronze training days were run in February followed by three great tramps into the Remutaka ranges, all under canvas. Although we weren’t allowed to light fires (sadly as the marshmallows are never quite the same over the gas burners) the students practised making them (fires, not marshmallows :) along with honing other necessary campcraft skills such as hammering in tent pegs on stony ground, tightening guy ropes for windy nights and of course hugging large Rimu trees

Here are some of the quotes that have come back from students after their first Bronze tramp…

What, if anything, was challenging for you? How did you overcome these challenges?

“A few challenges were the lack of service and power. It was hard taking a break from my phone but It meant I got to connect with nature and the environment more which was great. I ended up putting my phone in my bag and instead of being on Snapchat playing cards or hide and seek with my new friends.” (Year 10)

“At the start reading the map was a bit challenging but as the weekend progressed I learnt how to do it, and enjoyed being able to tell where we were. It was also quite challenging getting my group to stick together. This was because there was a range of ability and those who could go faster weren’t super eager to slow down. I also found it a bit challenging not being in a group with my friends, especially because they were in the same group so I felt a bit left out. But I think that this was good for me because it meant that I had to make friends with those in my group which was fun and interesting.” (Year 10)

Overall , what are your feelings about the trip? What did you learn about yourself?

“Overall I loved the trip. It was great to get away from everything and just chill. It let me get to know myself and that I can have fun without technology or civilisation. I learnt I can connect with people and that when I go out of my comfort zone it goes well” (Year 10)

“I really liked this trip as a way to make new friends but also to spend time in nature and get away from technology and devices for a few days. I learnt that it is actually really easy to make new friends and that it can be good for myself to take a break from technology sometimes. I also learnt that I get tired quite easily so I am going to work on that” (Year 10)

“I really enjoyed the tramp, I felt it was a really cool out of the classroom learning experience. I have learnt that I am a bit of a natural leader and often strive to lead groups when everyone is struggling. I have learnt how to encourage communication and collaboration between individuals to find solutions for issues we may face”. (Year 10)

After Bronze comes Silver, so at the end of March it was the turn of the Silver Award students to undertake an epic three day practice journey into the notorious Tararua Ranges. This turned out to be longer and harder than anyone expected but as they say, when the going gets tough, the tough get going and it’s fair to say there are 31 tough Year 11s out there able to plunge down steep mountains, scale cliffs with only a piece of dangling rope, find their way through unmarked tracks and above all keep a positive mindset and care for others! What a trip to be proud of!

To round out term 1 the Year 13 Gold students are preparing to tramp the inland Abel Tasman route over 4 days at the beginning of the April holidays. Here’s hoping for that balmy Autumn weather for which the top of the south is renowned.

As this newsletter goes to press the second Silver practice tramp has had to be postponed, along with the Year 12 Gold practice journey. These trips will now take place later in the year.

Certificates and badges. The following students have achieved Awards since Term 4 2020 and have either already received or will receive their certificate and badge at the upcoming Awards assembly:

Bronze: Josie Aitken, Brooke Assur, Billie Baird-Smith, Katherine Baker, Grace Buur, Eloise Campbell, Lucinda Carran, Olivia Chu,Talia Connell, Eve Dalley, Bella Devereux, Mairead Elliott, Abigail Graham, Charlize Grant, Nicole Gregan Emma Groombridge, Isabella Hargreaves, Natasha Hunt, Kate Johnson,Jessica King, Caitlin Leogreen, Saiorse Lynch, Emilia Mahoney, Arien Mathews, Maddie Meech, Lara Moore, Amelia Newman,Rosa O’Donnell, Leila Paul, Alex Pethig, Charlee Poole, Tara Scott, Libby Sexton, Sofia Sidoruk, Dot Smith, Melissa Smith, Kaelin Spence,Eliza Squire, Phoebe Squire, Ilaria Stefanidis, Kaya Taite.Neve Tassicker, and Holly Taylor-Smith

Silver: Claudia Alloway, Imogen Beard, Francesca Fagan, Abbey Farrell, Divya Ghandi, Isabella Hay, Therese Lee, Carolyn Macauley, Hope McDermott, Holly Minchin, Maeve O’Regan-Smith, Isabelle Peet, Ivy Taylor, Lily Teahen, Frankie Thornton, Azarah Verner and Sadie Wilton

Finally, coming up on 15th May is the next Gold Award ceremony held at Government House where four former WEGC students, Grace Gordon, Lydia Hare, Anneke Hutt and Bella Sexton be receiving their Award from Governor General.

A busy start to 2021 :-)

Nga mihi nui

Deb Remacha, DOE Co-ordinator

HRH Duke of Edinburgh 1921 -2021

I'm sure you are all aware of the Duke of Edinburgh's passing and of the many ways he has influenced the world in his lifetime. One of the amazing legacies he has given us is the Award programme, which as they say in the video is as relevant now (if not more so) that it was in 1956 when it was first set up. The "do it yourself growing up kit" as the Duke himself described it is a wonderfully flexible and relevant programme for any young person wishing to rise to the challenge. We can be super proud of the commitment to and uptake of the programme here at WEGC - thank you all for your support in encouraging students to try, supporting them as assessors and helping out on trips - we couldn't do it without that support.

Here is a link to the short video about the Duke's influence on the Award if you would like to view.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65fwW8JIsAw&ab_channel=TheDukeofEdinburgh%27sInternationalAwardFoundation

FYI - National stats suggest 8000 people sign up for the Award each year. If my calculations are correct, this is approximately 160 students that sign up to new levels each year at WEGC mean we are 1.6% of that national total - that's impressive!!!

In memory of an amazing person, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh.

Deb Remacha, DOE Co-ordinator

Futsal - WEGC are New Zealand Champions

The summer tournament week held 22-26 March was busy for our sports teams and individuals competing in a variety of sports.

Our Futsal team were unbeaten in all their games to be named New Zealand Futsal Champions, and Anna McCarthy Year 12 was named MVP of the Tournament. There is more information about the team in this link to College Sport Wellington article on their website.

Rowing - Maadi

New Zealand’s biggest secondary schools sports event is fiercely contested, and to reach an A final and then medal is every rowers dream. WEGC rowers Ava Johnston and Kate Barham did just that this afternoon winning a silver medal in the U16 double. The competition is incredibly strong with 49 school crews from all around NZ trying to win this race so to be the 2nd best U15 crew in New Zealand is a fantastic effort. Thanks to coach Tasha Wypch for her huge commitment to WEGC rowing.

Softball

The girls played Whitby Collegiate in the final of the NZ Secondary Schools Division 2 final. The growth in this young team over the tournament was phenomenal. The team went from being well beaten by Whitby in our first up game on Tuesday morning to todays game where the girls owned it and completely outplayed Whitby. Final score in 7 innings was 11-5 They had inspirational coaching by Tivi Sila who moulded a very young team into champions in 4 days and a few practices. The girls were also well supported by Meeks Puleitu, Manager and Lou Bolger, parent helper.

Volleyball

They took the win 3-1 in their final. It was a tight one and a lot of digging deep needed.

Well done to all of the students involved, in this and all the sports over the whole Tournament Week.

List of our winners from Tournament Week :

Futsal - New Zealand Secondary Schools Champions

Volleyball - Won our division at New Zealand Secondary Schools

Softball - New Zealand Secondary Schools Division 2 Champions

Floorball - 2nd place New Zealand Secondary Schools Mixed Championships

Rowing - Silver medal U15 double, Ava Johnston and Kate Barham

NZ Champion Futsal Team, pic via CSW

Sports at East

You can find information on all sports offered at East, as well as our latest achievements - the link is here and is also on our school website.

You can also check out Instagram and Facebook pages for WEGC Sport at @wegcsport www.facebook.com/wegcsport

Cyber Safety: Netsafe Tips

As part of a school-wide approach to cyber-safety, we are going to be posting one tip per newsletter on how you can support your child to be safe online. For more in-depth information, please visit Netsafe’s advice for parents at https://www.netsafe.org.nz/online-safety-parent-toolkit/.

Five tips to help manage screen time

1. Understand what they’re doing: Talk to your kids about what they’re using digital technology for, so you have a better understanding of how they’re spending their time. Are they using the internet to learn? To communicate and create friendships with others? To create music or videos?

2. Help them to self-manage screen time: As children get older it’s important to teach them how to manage their own screen time. You can start this by talking to them about their time online and how to manage it. Some questions you could ask are:

How much time do you think you spend online in a day?
How can you tell when you’ve been online too long? (E.g. phone starts getting hot, eyes get sore or tired, start to feel unproductive or mood starts to change)
How do you feel when you spend too much time online?
What are the different ways you could manage your time online? (See our managing time online advice for tips)

Some social media platforms have tools to help you keep track of how much time you’re spending online and allow you to set up an alarm to notify you once you’ve spent a certain amount of time online. For Instagram, go to “Settings” and then select “Your activity”. On Facebook, this is under “Settings & Privacy” and then select “Your time on Facebook”. There are also phone settings and other apps that help you manage your time online too.

3. Set boundaries: Younger children will generally need more boundaries for spending time online, whereas teens will need more education to help them manage their own time. Parenting has always involved setting boundaries and explaining the responsibilities and expectations a family has for their children – just like you do when it comes to bedtimes, chores or or learning to drive.

Set boundaries when a child gets their first device means it becomes normal for internet time to be limited in your household and less difficult to enforce later on.
If your child has already been using devices for some time, an open discussion around any changes is a good idea to help them understand your motives.
Parents should also model good behaviour around screen time.

4. Technological solutions: For younger children, internet content filtering tools and safe search settings can be a good way to prevent them stumbling across unsuitable adult content and restrict the amount of time they can spend on devices. It gets harder to implement filters and restrictions as children grow up, but families can explore a range of options that include:

Restrictions at the router or modem level to limit the time online through device ‘scheduling’ settings or a service like OpenDNS
Routinely changing the Wi-Fi password and only giving access once chores or homework are completed

5. Is your child spending too much time online? If the time your child is spending online is having a negative effect on other areas of their development, it’s important to look at their internet use. Some of the questions for you to think about include:

Is excessive internet use affecting their sleep or the quality of their schoolwork?
Has their behaviour changed? Do they become angry or even aggressive if you try to limit their time online?
Are they spending so much time online that other hobbies are becoming less important?

If your children take their phone to bed with them to ensure they can keep communicating with friends late into the night, this can lead to disrupted sleep and leave your children tired, grumpy, keen to skip school or have an impact on their learning..

For more advice on this, see Netsafe: https://www.netsafe.org.nz/screen-time/

Ways to help - Fundraising for WEGC:

When you are shopping at Wellington City New World:Have your docket stamped at the time of purchase by a checkout SupervisorDeposit your docket in the East drop box provided in the main entrance of New World.Duplicate receipts can be requested, at time of purchase, if the original is required.Every time you purchase products from New World Wellington City, they will pay the school 1.5% pa of the total $ sales value.

WEGC Entertainment Books

Help us to fundraise to ensure that all East girls have access to the same opportunities.

Receive fantastic savings while you eat, play and shop with Entertainment. Memberships are convenient, easy to use and packed full of valuable 2 for 1 and up to 50% off offers for you and your family to use over any 12-month period from activation.

Get yours today online by clicking the below link!

https://www.entertainmentbook.co.nz/orderbooks/105u644

Welink Newsletter : Wellington East Girls' College, Austin Street, Mt Victoria 6011, Ph 385 8514, www.wegc.school.nz

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