 Term 4 Issue 3 |
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Tena koutou e te whānau o Whangaparāoa,
The end of the year is rapidly approaching. With this, comes the additional tasks that our staff are working on to successfully close out the year.
Last Friday we held our Ministry of Education Staff Only Day to ensure we are well-planned and prepared for the 2025 school year and gaining the best possible outcomes for our learners and community. The rich conversations and meticulous detail that our staff went into was inspiring, and there is genuine excitement for 2025 (when we get there of course!).
Our senior learners continue to sit their NCEA exams. Once again, it has been great to see many of them enter (and leave) the examinations confident they have put their best effort in. We now eagerly await the marking to be completed and the results published in late January 2025.
This coming Friday we have our annual Community Food Drive. The organisation we are supporting is the Whangaparāoa Baptist Church as they prepare for the busy season and support others. There is information regarding this within the newsletter and we appreciate all donations this coming Friday.
Next week, the majority of our Year 10 learners head to Lake Karapiro for their camp. This is an amazing opportunity for those going to experience new opportunities and celebrate the end of year. We wish them safe travel and a very enjoyable trip.
Last week we had an external provider come and do some work with various Year 8 learners. It was great to receive an email from them that said, “Please can you tell your students they were really good and a pleasure to work with”. Often young people don't get the acknowledgement they deserve when they get things right, and most of them are getting it right. If you have a Year 8 learner, please pass this message of appreciation on to them, and tell them to keep it up!
Ngatahi, Whakapono, Tutuki (Together, Believe, Achieve)
Ngā mihi nui
Steve McCracken
Tumuaki
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Recent News
Community Food DriveThis year our annual food drive will support Whangaparāoa Baptist Church (WBC) and their foodbank. WBC are doing fabulous things in our community and support the college and support our learners via Coast Youth Community Trust (CYC) youth workers. We had an outstanding result from our food drive in 2023 and we would absolutely love to match that for WBC!
We would love to see all our learners bring along a food item (or items!) to school on Friday, 22 November. All learners are free to wear non-uniform on that day. | |  |
Reading SuperstarsIt has been a tight race this year to see which students borrowed the most books. Here are some of Whangaparāoa College's Top Borrowers for 2024.
Congratulations to the below learners, hope to see you back in the Library next year!
Pixie-Rose Lovegrove, Lin-Lin Lyu, Anni Zhang, Mariam Khan, Isla Moran, Ashley Coultard, Emma Morton-Jones, Peyton Murray, Sebastian Thorne, Piper Hodson, Rebekah Mountain, Jasmine Selby, McKayla Borovich, Brooke Dickie, Kaitlin Ingram, Chara Fowler, Stella Jooste, Stephanie Harman, Vika Poletaeva, Lara Dutton
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Nurse UpdateHearing Screening
Recently 143 Year 9 learners had their hearing screened.
27% reported having ringing in their ears (tinnitus).
In many cases tinnitus leads to hearing loss. This is a worrying trend being seen across New Zealand.
41% reported having unsafe listening habits
Unsafe listening habits can lead to irreversible hearing loss
Make listening safe education initiative can be found here and applies to all our learners and whanau.
Hearing Health in Schools | |  |
Late ProcessWe appreciate the support we have received from whānau in ensuring learners arrive at school on time, and are ready to learn.
We have recently done a blitz on lates.
We have halved the amount of learners late to school. Measured by 2 Mondays.
We aim to continue to reduce these numbers.
If your child is going to be justifiably late please let us know via the school bridge portal.
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday
School starts at 08:40am
Wednesday
School starts at 08:55am | |  |
University of Auckland VisitMore future education discoveries!
On Thursday, 14 November a few of our Year 10 learners visited University of Auckland - Waipapa Taumata Rau to participate in the "Te Whe" Programme.
Te Whe is a 1-day fully immersive kaupapa designed to inspire Māori and Pasifika rangatahi into healthcare professions, offering hands-on experiences and real-world examples of medical careers.
Whakapiki Ake - Te Whe | |   |
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First Place for Olivia LorenzenCongratulations to Year 13 learner Olivia Lorenzen
Olivia competed in the Top Half Round 4 at Kartsport Tokoroa Rotax DD2 taking out First Place.
Top Half is a unique series where all races count for points and you can only drop one race over the series (20 races across 4 rounds), but there is also a winner at each round.
There was a field of 6 drivers for the weekend, all looking for some final points in the series. 15 lap heats and an 18 lap final.
In the final, Olivia started first and finished first, going for a clean sweep of races. Olivia managed to get to the front and controlled the race from there, finishing in the lead by 4.3 seconds.
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