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

Welink

Issue 5, Here-turi-kōkā-Mahura / August-September 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,

As we reach the end of Term 3, we acknowledge it has been a time of upheaval for students and staff, and we are grateful to be back at school and face-to-face teaching. Our senior students have just completed their school exams which will support them with derived grades should they need them later in the year. This is the time of year when Year 13 students are considering their future plans, and we have had university planning days over the past few weeks, as well as careers information sessions.

We are proud of our Year 13 students involved in the YES Business Programme. They have been developing a product that promotes awareness and prevention of drink-spiking, creating some media interest. This is another example of our students taking social action, and looking at issues that are relevant to young women.

Our building programme continues and we are pleased to advise that we are now engaged in the design process with architects regarding redevelopment work to convert Ahumairangi into a new Science and Technology hub.

I hope that you all have a restful term break and look forward to seeing you all in Term 4.

Ngā mihi nui

Gael Ashworth, Principal

Board of Trustees

Kia ora koutou

Once again, due to lockdown, many parts of the school programme have been cancelled, and expectations modified. The cancellation of the Ball, I know, will be extremely disappointing for our senior students, as well as other events such as the Winter Tournament across the school. You will have seen this week that alternative arrangements have been made for prizegiving, to enable the achievements of our students to be recognised in a COVID-safe setting.

I would like to thank Gael and her leadership team for their work to support all students and staff through this challenging term. While we are all now familiar with different COVID Alert Levels, every time we change levels there is a great deal of work and adjustment for everyone across the school. I hope the holiday break is an opportunity for all to recharge before the end of year and exam season is upon us.

Ngā mihi nui

Jo Lambert, Chair

Please see the Student Calendar below for student events coming up

Wellington East Parents' Association (WEPA)

Kia ora

Just prior to lockdown we had arranged for Karen Boyes, an expert on study skills and engagement, to come and speak with students and whānau about ways to support our students during, what can be, stressful assessment times. Thankfully Karen was able to do this seminar online. She is such an engaging speaker and we hope that she was able to provide some helpful tools to assist our leaners.

Regarding recent funding requests, we have provided funds for a third Personal Locator Device for the school, which will be helpful for any group going off-grid, and we have approved funding for an Integrated Studies Level 2 field trip for later in the year.

If any group within the school would like us to consider a funding grant then please complete an application form and return to Michelle Kennedy.

Mā te wā

WEPA committee

Pasifika Parents' Family Evening

Our next Pasifika Parents' meeting will be held on Friday 29 October at 6.30pm to 7.30pm. More details about the group on our website here Parents Groups

Whānau Tū Tāhi - Leavers Celebration

The Whānau Tū Tāhi parents group will be holding a leavers celebration on Tuesday 26 October at 6.00pm , more information on our website here : Whanau or see our Calendar.

New Settlers' Parent Group

The New Settlers' Parents group meet regularly once a term at school. You can read about the group here : New Settlers

Toitū Pōneke Community & Sports Centre - Vaccination at WEGC - 21 October

We will be hosting the Pōneke Hub at school on 21 October for any students, staff or whanau who wish to have their Covid vaccination. This could be for a first or second vaccination. We will send more information about this at the beginning of Term 4

Prize Giving WEGC 2021 - Senior and Junior event information

This year's Prize Giving will be a little bit different due to the revised NCEA exam dates and the current uncertainty with the alert level changes.

To ensure that we can run ceremonies if we are in Alert Level 1 or 2, the decision has been made to hold Junior and Senior Prize-giving ceremonies separately.

Senior Prizegiving

The Senior Prize Giving ceremony will be held on Tuesday 16th November. If we are at Alert Level 1 we will hold it at Wellington College at the Alan Gibbs Center for Years 11-13 students and families/whanau. If we are at Alert Level 2 we will hold it at WEGC, Year 11-13 students only, and we will live-stream the event.

Junior Prizegiving

The Junior Prizegiving will be held on the last day of term Wednesday 15th December at WEGC for Year 9 and 10 students. If we are in level 1 families/whānau will be able to attend. If we are at Alert Level 2, Year 9-10 students only, and we will live-stream the event.

WEGC Non-Uniform Day : 1 October

Today, Friday 1 October, is a non-uniform day. It's a gold coin/koha to support the new Wellington Children's Hospital. The dress theme is "Future jobs/Professions" to show how important it is to enable children to live out their futures

Samoan Speech Competition Regionals : July 2021

Before lockdown, on the 2 July 2021, eight WEGC students participated in the Regional Schools Samoan Speech competition which was held at the Memorial Theatre at Victoria University. Those students representing their year levels were Y11 Faith Tautiaga-Mamea, Faith Vaitogi. Y12 Cathy Aiono and Feula Fau, Y13 Salafai Palemata, Narelle Taulogo and Demaris Fau. All our students did extremely well and worked very hard writing their own speeches. Well done to all for their hard work.

In the Y11 division, Faith Vaitogi achieved second place, in the Y12 division Feula Fau achieved second place and Cathy Aiono placed third. In the Y13 division Demaris Fau achieved third place. Congratulations to all the students for their outstanding efforts.

School Exam Week 2021

We finally held our School Exams between Monday 20-Friday 24 September, and had our seniors finding spaces to study in between their exams, using the building and facilities in the best way. We are grateful to the exam team for setting up the school and keeping the students informed.

Well done to everyone who had exams; these results will be able to be used as derived grades if needed later in the year.

Tu Tagata Festival 2021

The WEGC Poly Group performed at the annual TuTagata Festival held at the TSB Arena on 28 July. The group gave an outstanding performance which was choreographed by our very own Poly Group leaders Year 13 students Anatia Ioapo, Demaris Fau, Hadassah Uele, Mia Matega and Year 12 students Feula Fau and Oshania Framhein. The group started practicing from Term 1 during their lunchtimes, after school and even in the school holidays. With their dedication, perseverance and commitment the Poly group were able to put on a spectacular performance.

We would like to thank the Board of Trustees for the grants which paid for our new uniforms. The Senior Leadership Team and all the staff who cheered us on, encouraged and supported us. A huge thank you must go out to the Poly Leaders for your tremendous efforts, for inspiring and motivating the group and teaching a phenomenal bracket. Also to the Poly group members for your perseverance and determination to be the best. You made the school and the school community very proud.

A huge thank you to all our Pasifika parents and families who supported and encouraged our students as well as providing them food for their school holiday practices. The support from our community and the Pasifika Parents Komiti has been overwhelming and we sincerely appreciate everything you did behind the scenes.

Below is the link to the Poly Group rehearsals and performance, we hope you enjoy it!

https://youtu.be/xHM2bfjNMFU

WEGC Business Students taking their product to market

Congratulations to five of our year 13 business students who have been working on a product, as part of their Young Enterprise Scheme , which has created a lot of interest. You can read about their idea for a drink-spike prevention tool below. Ava was also interviewed by Heather Du Plessis-Allan on Newstalk ZB and the group was also interviewed on The Breeze.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/126289299/students-go-viral-on-tiktok-with-product-idea-to-prevent-harm-from-drink-spiking

Niva So'o (left) and Ojhan Aukuso. Photo: RNZ / Mani Dunlop

Mātauranga Māori in Science

You may have seen this article or subject in the media during July/August - our students responded to discussions around Mātauranga Māori in Science

Article is here : Radio NZ

Are you keen to give Duke of Edinburgh a go?

WEGC offers the Duke of Ed programme from Year 10 onwards and there will be an email sent out to current Year 9 students and their families early in Term 4 to let you know about the Award and how it is delivered at school. In addition a Parent and Student Information Evening will be held on Monday 8th November, 7pm in Matairangi (Level 1).

This is for all Year 9 students and their families interested in finding out about beginning their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award journey in 2022. For more information you can check out the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award website www.dofehillary.org.nz. Note that as a school based Award Unit we are able to deliver the Award to all students in the Year 10 cohort, regardless of when in the year they turn 14 - this varies from the information stated on the DOE website.

It’s certainly been an interesting term 3 this year. This ‘outdoorsy’ quote sort of sums up the last few months of our Duke of Ed programme:

The river cuts through the rock not because of its power, but because of its persistence.

The metaphorical rock is ‘that which shall not be named’, but which has caused so many things to be cancelled, postponed or otherwise delayed. Persistent Duke of Ed students have found many ways over, around and through that rock to stay physically active (as well as distanced), build their (independent, home based, on-line) skills (the home cooking looks amazing btw!) and reach out to help others in need (grocery shopping anyone?). As they say, “tough situations build strong people”. Ka pai everyone - it has been great to see your determination and perseverance.

Things to look forward to…

In the coming weeks our adventurous journey programme gets back underway and the following trips are planned for this year (persistence by the bucket load in constantly rearranging these!)

Bronze Qualifying Journeys: Nydia Track, Marlborough Sounds: Sat 30 - Sun 31 October and Sat 27 - Sun 28 November

Silver Qualifying Journey: Jumbo Circuit: Sun 10 - Tues 12 October
Gold Practice Journey: Abel Tasman Track: Tues 12 - Fri 15 October.
Silver Qualifying Journey: Tongariro Northern Circuit: Fri 10 - Sun 12 December

Thank you so much to all the wonderful parents who continue to support our trips - they wouldn’t run without you! And to the staff that volunteer to come along too - thank you!

Gold Award Ceremony coming up

The next Gold Award ceremony will be held on 17 November at Parliament and five former WEGC students will receive their Gold Awards at this event: Demi Soulis, Kate Chu, Faith Hewitson, Ella Wipatene and Holly Alloway. What a fantastic achievement - well done!

A big thank you

A huge thank you to Chaffers New World for their grant of $2000 towards our DOE programme. The money has been used to purchase some awesome new Macpac gear, including packs, walking poles and tents. Having good gear makes all the difference in the comfort and safety of our journeys and having quality gear available to loan means barriers to participation are reduced. We are looking forward to trying them out on the upcoming trips!

Did you know that students enrolled in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award are entitled to a 30% discount in store at Macpac?

That’s all for now so I will finish with another river quote (see photo).

Journey safely

Deb Remacha

DOE Co-ordinator

Textile Art Installation at WEGC

During Term 3 the knitting/crochet club worked on creating a coral reef - it is now installed on a wall in the library for all to view. The knitting club meets on Thursday lunchtimes in the library.

Vic Uni Cybersecurity Event

IGNITE + Cybersec

We were given the opportunity to attend a Cybersecurity event for high school students at Victoria University in July. This was a great opportunity for us and we got to learn a lot about Linux systems, the dangers of hacking and the importance of cybersecurity. This was interesting and a good learning experience for us and we got to meet cool people interested in STEM and have fun with each activity and speaker.

East’s annual QR code treasure hunt game, IGNITE, was a big hit this year. It was held during house week and encouraged the students to participate for house points. The winning house was Edger with 4214 points. The winner was Bonnie Jenkins, gaining 350 points for Cooper. Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to everyone who participated. Being in week 1 of term 3, IGNITE was a great way to kick off the term with lots of house spirit!

Technology Prefects

Lia McCallum and Leila Paul

Netball Silver Fern

WEGC Old Girl, Tiana Metuarau, is making a real name for herself after an incredible debut for the Silver Ferns against England earlier this month earning her player of the match. Congratulations and we are very proud of her. Tiana played for 2 years at College level in Year 9 and 10 and then was picked for representative level and the Silver Fern development squad. She left WEGC in 2018.

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/.

Talk to your child about sexting

Netsafe research shows that the rates of young people sharing nude images of themselves is relatively low (just four percent of young people aged between 14-17 surveyed). What is more common is the pressure to share these images – one in five young people have been asked to send a nude image. The research shows that the likelihood of sending a nude image does increase with age, so it’s important that parents are having conversations with their kids early.

The findings showed that girls were more likely to receive requests for nude images than boys, but were no more likely to share nude or nearly nude images than boys. The research also revealed that young people believe sharing nude or nearly nude images is commonplace, with about half of all respondents saying sharing nudes happens “often” or “very often”.

There is a strong misconception that everybody’s doing it. The research shows young people may feel pressure to sext as they believe sending nudes is commonplace, but it’s important to let them know that this actually isn’t the case.

HOW CAN I HELP MY CHILD?

A good way to minimise the harm your child may experience is to make a plan with them ahead of time about what you’ll do if things go wrong online. We know this is one of the best ways to navigate online challenges. The plan could cover who they would talk to and discuss ways to report and remove harmful online content.

MY CHILD SENT A NUDE IMAGE TO SOMEONE AND THEY HAVE SHARED IT WITH OTHERS, OR ARE THREATENING TO DO SO. WHAT SHOULD I DO?

If content has been shared on an online platform you should:

Get your child to screenshot the content if possible
Immediately report the content to the platform that it’s on (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc.)
Report the profile/account of the person who shared the content to the platform (e.g. Facebook, Twitter etc.)
Contact Netsafe on 0508 NETSAFE to report the content and discuss the options available to you

If this has happened it is called image based abuse (sometimes called ‘revenge porn’). This is a form of online sexual harassment and can be an offence under the Harmful Digital Communication Act as well as a potential offence under a number of other Acts.

For more information, visite Neetsafe: https://www.netsafe.org.nz/sending-nudes-parents/

Ways to help WEGC - Fundraising :

When you are shopping at Wellington City New World:Have your docket stamped at the time of purchase by a checkout Supervisor. Deposit 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

WEGC Entertainment Books

Help us to fundraise to ensure that all East girls have access to the same opportunities. When you buy an Entertainment Membership, 20% of the purchase goes directly to WEGC. Get your membership today by clicking the link below!

https://nz.entdigital.net/orderbooks/105u644

Entertainment Memberships have thousands of up to 50% off and 2 for 1 offers for dining, takeaway, activities, local shopping, travel and services in our local area. Entertainment is now 100% digital, so it’s the best things about the iconic Entertainment Book on your phone.

Get out and about and support your local community at the same time.

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

Page updated

Report abuse