News

Nau mai, haere mai ki NCEA me te Whānau!

We are excited to be hosting an NCEA me te Whānau workshop for our community on Thursday 19th May, 5.30pm - 6.30pm in the Staffroom. The workshop is delivered by NZQA and aims to explain the NCEA system and how you can support your tamaiti at school.

The workshop will cover:

- How NCEA works

- NCEA endorsements and how to get them

- University Entrance (UE) and how to achieve it

- Choosing NCEA subjects and creating career pathways

- The importance of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) subjects, and,

- How you can support your tamaiti to succeed.

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If you think you could benefit from this free workshop or have any NCEA questions you want answered, come along with your whānau.

If you want more information check out the event below and contact NZQA directly.

We hope to see you there!

We welcome you to book for the remaining two dates of online parent teacher interviews on May 17 and May 25.

Please note that bookings will close 3 days prior to each session.

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We are using the online platform called ‘Whereby’ (which is linked to the school interviews booking system). ‘Whereby’ offers a number of features that will make these interviews manageable.

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How to book online parent interviews

1. To book for online, go to www.schoolinterviews.co.nz
   
   
2. Click on 'Make a Booking'
   
   
3. Use this code: 89nzh - Click Go
   
   
4. Fill out the form - make sure you enter how many young people you have at Wellington College and then enter their names - Click Go
   
   
5. Choose all your child's teachers at once - your child will inform you of the teachers' names and codes, but you can also find this information on the Parent Portal under attendance - Click Go
   
   
6. Make sure you choose the correct dates - there are TWO online dates on offer.
   
   
7. After making your bookings Click Go - You can print the final screen with all your bookings, but you will receive an email with the same list of booking

For online interviews, you will need to click on the video link for each teacher at the scheduled time.  This link will appear in your confirmation email.

Each online meeting can have a number of participants, in addition to the teacher.

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What do I need to participate in online interviews?

• You will need access to a device with a camera and microphone function
• It would be helpful if you were in a quiet environment.

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Can parents participate from different places?

• Yes. The whereby platform can accommodate up to 3 participants (in addition to the teacher).

• The parent who made the booking can forward the booking confirmation email / video link to enable other caregivers to join the meeting.

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How do I connect for the interview?

• At the time of your interview (see the booking confirmation email) you will need to click on the ‘join video conference’ link
• Please enter your name
• You may be required to request permission to turn your camera and microphone on. If this is the case please click on “request permission”
• Click the blue button that says “Knock”

The teacher will then give you access to the interview when they are ready.  

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If you can no longer attend your scheduled interview, please cancel it.  If you need assistance managing your bookings, please contact the College office or l.woods@wc.school.nz

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We are delighted to inform the Wellington Community that our new Headmaster, Glen Denham was welcomed to the school on Monday. It was an incredibly moving and uplifting pōwhiri, with Glen welcomed by representatives of mana whenua Te Ātiawa, led by Kura Moeahu.  The celebration was attended by various dignitaries, students, teachers and included kaumātua and a group of Massey High School students who travelled down by bus to support their outgoing Headmaster.

The Board is absolutely delighted that Glen has joined the school. His clear love for his students and his vision for the school as being ‘broad shouldered’ providing the best educational outcomes for every student and to share best practice within the region really shone through in every interaction with him.  

We formally welcome him and trust that you will have an opportunity to meet him soon.

To view video highlights of the Pōhiri, click here.

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As on-site Parent/Teacher interviews will be taking place on Monday 9 May, the Uniform Shop will be open 11am-5:30pm.

PUBLIC NOTICE

ENROLMENT FOR 2023 AT ANY OF THE FOLLOWING THIRTEEN SCHOOLS

The following notice relates to the thirteen schools above, who operate enrolment schemes to prevent overcrowding.

 1. APPLICATION DATES

 For planning purposes all thirteen schools listed above request applications from the parents of students who live in their home zone, for entry into Year 9 in 2023, (except for Otaki College whose entry is for Year 7) to be in the hands of the respective schools by Monday 25July 2022. In zone applications can be accepted at any time by the zoned college.

In the case of applications for enrolment for students who live outside the home zone of the school to which application is made, applications must be received no later than Monday 25 July 2022.Any application received after Monday 25 July 2022 will not be able to be considered.

Applications from out of zone applicants for places in Years 10 to 13 in 2023 can also be received up to Friday 14 October 2022, but acceptance of these enrolments will be subject to such factors as the optimum total roll of each school, or the number of applicants from within the school’s home zone. Any applications received after Friday 14 October 2022 will not be able to be considered.

For further information click here.

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Wellington College has a piano surplus to requirements.

We believe this is a kit-set piano branded as Dorizac, that has been a resident in the Theatre at Wellington College for a large number of years.

We would dearly love to offer this piano to a school, kura or other teaching environment in which students can benefit from its use as have many Coll students over the last 28 years.

Unfortunately there is a little bit of damage to this piano - no doubt this was a nice instrument when new but over the years it has developed some issues. It seems that the wood it is made from is not really hard enough. It has had a number of substantial chips to the top layer of the wood, and the legs have been repaired or replaced several times because the wheels are offset in a way that puts extra stress on the legs.  None-the-less it generally plays pretty true.

And while the instrument has the issues stated above, we believe it would still be of considerable use to a school or kura.

Expressions of interest, should, in the first instance be emailed to Darrell Harvey, Deputy Principal d.harvey@wc.school.nz  by Wednesday 11 May 2022.

Pick up from Wellington College

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Booking Parent Teacher Interviews

We would like to welcome you to book to attend the parent teacher interviews with subject teachers.  

Thank you for your feedback on the format of these meetings, which was overwhelmingly in favour of a mixture of online and in-person.  There will be a choice of three evenings:

• Monday 9th May (in-person)
• Tuesday 17th May and Wednesday 25th May (online).  

To accommodate the interviews, school will finish at 2:00pm on those days and the interviews will run from 3pm-6:30pm

• Click here for more information on the interviews and instructions on how to book.
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• Contact Luci Lendrum l.lendrum@wc.school.nz if you have any questions about the booking information.

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Welcome to our first eNewsletter for 2022 – an informative overview of our Wellington College community. The first three months of this year have certainly kept us on our toes – the NZ summer break seems so long ago.

Our 2022 calendar of events provides plenty of opportunities to connect with classmates throughout the year – we are in the process of planning additional events around the country and across the Tasman, and we will keep you informed of these.

Our newsletters and annual magazine contains information regarding news about Wellington College, its history, recent news and event notifications. We invite Old Boys to send us articles, memories, feedback and images for future issues. These can be emailed to oldboys@wc.school.nz

‍There are two forms of accessing this eNewsletter:

Digital: Click HERE

PDF: Click HERE

‍This quarter’s eNewsletter includes:

• President’s Message and the introduction of our new Headmaster
• 2022 AGM Date
• Reunion Programme and other scheduled events
• School News: Meet our 2022 Head Prefect
• Interesting stories and memorabilia from Archivist, Mike Pallin
• Obituaries

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Best wishes

Steph Kane

WCOBA Executive Officer

oldboys@wc.school.nz

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TaxGift lets you donate your tax rebate from any donations to Wellington College in just one easy step.

Click here to access TaxGift.

If you are an individual New Zealand tax resident who has received taxable income in the current financial year, then you are entitled to a rebate of 33% on the donations you’ve made to us. But if you choose to TaxGift that tax credit to Wellington College, TaxGift will turn it into even more for our school – all as a gift in your name.

Here’s how:

By signing up with TaxGift your total $840 school donation becomes $1,258 (an additional $418 to us) at no additional cost to you!

By TaxGifting you make a real difference to our school. These additional funds will continue to allow us to offer a wide range of subject choices, smaller class sizes, extra curricular activities and maintain and develop our outstanding facilities for our boys.

‍Historical tax credits

Here’s how you can help even further: if you haven’t claimed your tax credit on donations to us in the past four years, simply tick the box on the form when you sign up and the team at TaxGift will claim them as a further gift to us. This is a really powerful way to put thoseunclaimed credits to good use.

‍How to opt in

To opt in to TaxGift simply click on the link. It only takes a minute to sign up, won’t cost (we pay TaxGift a small fee for this service) and you won’t need to do anything more. Your donations for this tax year on will be captured. 

‍What else should I know?

It won’t cost you anything to sign up to TaxGift; no money leaves your bank account (although the school pays TaxGift a small fee for its services). Signing up to TaxGift appoints TaxGift as your tax agent solely for the purpose of gifting your tax credits back to our school. Don’t worry - it does not affect any other tax agents that you might have (for example, if you have an accountant who does your tax returns). You must be an individual New Zealand tax resident who has earned taxable income in the relevant tax year to be eligible for the tax credit and you can opt out ofTaxGift at any time by emailing their friendly team. 

You can visit TaxGift's website (www.taxgift.co.nz) for more information. 

Click here to access TaxGift.

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NCEA Information for whānau

Thank you to the whānau who were able to attend the information session in the AGC on Wednesday the 30th. It was wonderful having whānau on site for the first time in a long time, and we look forward to many more events where families can join us in person!

The slides from the presentation are available here, and a condensed recorded version of the presentation is available here.

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Year 11 students received a presentation on NCEA during their Life Skills class.  If your young person is a candidate for NCEA in 2022, they will also have received this pamphlet during tutor time.

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This finally happened! Our initial plan to run this on the 11th March was affected by Covid restrictions and the Roster for Learning from home. The day was planned and executed very well by our Together as Brothers leaders; Devon Sopoaga, Mason Aaifou-Aloisio, Herschel Potiki-Moses, Stanley Solomon, Saurani Sumasafu, Abraham Fletcher, Kaelin Logovae, Yash Parmar and Donny Aiono.

The idea behind Cultural Day came about as we couldn’t have our annual Pacific camp usually held in March. So the purpose of the day was for our leaders to run something that they had planned and executed as well as to raise funds for Tonga.

Stanley took charge of food sales for the day (thanks to Pak n Save, Kilbirnie), Saurani took leadership with the car wash, Devon took the responsibility of getting the poster organised for the event and the rest of the leaders took ownership of advertising, promoting the event to staff at the morning briefings and collecting money for the non-uniform day which was another way to raise funds.

The day started off very grim as it was raining but our leader’s excitement were a little infectious (in a good way as they were hyped and I also loved seeing our leaders/boys in their lava lava. Despite the weather, Saurani and his team washed lots of car from 8.30am to 3.30pm. The sausage sizzle at lunch time and the sapasui was a hit. At the end of the day, though all the boys were tired, they felt they had a good day raising awareness of Pacific people and culture. Iam so proud of our leaders and everyone who joined in to support us on the day. We ended up raising $2637.60 which was donated to the Tongan Relief Fund. Next time, our aim is to run a Cultural Day which is bigger and better!

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A group of Year 9 Students completed a Pedal Ready Course over two days, Mon 21 and Tue 22 March. The course is designed to improve biking skills for riding on the roads in Wellington and also familiarise the students with the safest way to get to and from school. The course was greatly received. The students commented that their key take-aways were:

• making sure they preplan their route and any turns
• making sure they are visible and predictable for vehicle drivers
• giving parked cars room to avoid doors opening on them
• how and when to signal
• signaling for 3 seconds
• safely stopping and starting, and
• having the confidence to turn right when there is traffic.

All the students felt more confident around cycling on the road. The group spent the first session practicing skills on the school grounds and on the second day they practiced lots of skills on the road, including left and right turns, signaling, turning going down hill, road crossings and pulling out into traffic. The Pedal Ready staff also pointed out that walking bikes around the Basin Reserve a block to the bike lanes starting after Adelaide Road or to Kent and Cambridge Terrace is the safest way to and from the school. Otherwise students have to navigate 3 lanes of state highway 1.

Ant Burt

Year 9 Dean

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It has been great having all year levels back at school each day this week. We believe that the best place for your young person to learn is on site and that was behind our move back from the rostering model that we had worked to for the past two weeks. 

We will continue to have all year levels back on site next week Monday 28 March - Friday 1 April. As we commented last week, this is a fluid situation and we may need to revert to a rostering system if there is an increase in staff absences, which we would communicate as soon as possible. Otherwise, unless we communicate a change, we will continue to have all students at school each day going forward this term. 

‍A reminder that this Friday (25 March) is Teacher Only Day. The focus of staff learning on this day, alongside other schools in our Kāhui Ako,  is the adolescent brain, building resilience and well-being. We can provide supervision. Please contact the Associate Principal if you need to send your young person to school  - p.bergin@wc.school.nz 

Despite many students returning to school from isolation, we recognise that others will remain in isolation over the coming weeks. Students are expected to be actively engaged in learning, whether they are at school or at home.  Please contact your young person’s teacher if you have any concerns. 

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 NCEA information evening

A reminder that we will run an information evening for parents new to NCEA on Wednesday 30 March, at 6.30-7.30pm in the AGC at school. This is primarily aimed at parents of Year 11s and is an opportunity to engage with and understand how NCEA works. This will be led by our Deputy Principals in the Curriculum and Teaching and Learning areas. Under Red Light restrictions we can only accommodate up to 100 people in the AGC so will need to operate a booking system. 

If you are keen to attend, please complete this form. In order to accommodate demand, we ask that just one person from any interested household attends.

Please contact the DPs of Curriculum and Teaching & Learning if you have any queries.

• Luci Lendrum - l.lendrum@wc.school.nz
• Nikki Corbishley - n.corbishley@wc.school.nz 
• Aaron Columbus - a.columbus@wc.school.nz 

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Thank you again for your continued support.

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Nāku iti noa, nā, 

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Senior Leadership Team

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Every year around 60 of our top Wellington College mathematicians sit Cambridge Advanced Subsidiary or Advanced Level examinations on top of their NCEA examinations. Last year more than 2 million students sat Cambridge examinations in over 10,000 schools from all over the world. We are very proud to have three Wellington College students recognised by Cambridge International for their outstanding success in the Cambridge examinations. Their exceptional results demonstrate their academic flair, subject expertise, and reflect the hard work they invested into their studies in 2021.

Sarthak Singh - Top in New Zealand - Cambridge International A Level Mathematics

Ning Chin - High Achievement - Cambridge International A Level Further Mathematics

Oscar Xu - High Achievement - Cambridge International AS Level Further Mathematics

The Cambridge Further Mathematics course is sat in the year after a student has completed their A Level in Mathematics. It is attempted by a very small number of advanced students.

The outstanding achievements of New Zealand’s Cambridge learners is usually recognised at an awards ceremony and formal dinner, however, this year, due to New Zealand's Alert Level restrictions, our students were invited to join the celebrations online on 22nd February.
Here is a link to a recording of the online award ceremony.

We commend these students for their dedication, hard work and exceptional results.

Last weekend the Wellington College Tramping club completed a memorable Southern Crossing of the Tararua ranges in superb weather. 26 boys,3 staff, one ex- staff member and 2 parents were treated to stunning views, crimson sunsets and some spectacular flora and fauna.

We split the group with half travelling west-east and the others travelling east-west. The trip was all the more significant for being100 years since the first such trip by a WC Tramping club, back in 1922. A few of us attempted to re-create some of the clothing styles of-the-era. It turned out that a tweed jacket proved too warm in the balmy conditions that we experienced…

The mid-point of the trip was at Alpha hut where vehicle keys were swapped. A different story back in 1922, when the west-bound party caught the New Plymouth express from Otaki to get home to Wellington.

While the good weather allowed for us to camp out, we had the back-up of the relatively luxurious Kime hut, a far cry from the half –built ‘Hector Dog Box’ that would have adorned the site in 1922.

Our trip this year has raised $500 to contribute to Wellington College’s support of Tonga, following the devastating December 2021volcanic eruption there that has affected so many people.

Some photos of our trip are below, with a few comparisons of the scenes back in 1922.

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Oscar Jackson played his hundredth game for the 1st XI on Sunday 15 March against a strong WCOB side.

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Oscar Jackson with his parents Kit and Marcia and brother Charlie.

The Baton is the symbol of the Commonwealth Games and has been touring New Zealand to promote Birmingham 2022, which is set to run from July 28th – August 8th.

Today the baton visited Wellington College with Commonwealth Games athletes Lewis Clareburt from swimming, Kyle Pontifex from hockey, and Sally Johnston from shooting.

Around 20 of the schools top sportspeople held a Q&A session with the athletes to learn and hear their stories of determination and success.

“It’s awesome to have the Queen’s Baton here. It’s a huge inspiration for us and the spirit that it holds for sport is amazing,” said Clareburt.

With just 136 days to Birmingham 2022 Clareburt says he’s in a preparation phase ahead of New Zealand trials.

“I’m really just grinding away at the moment and am getting itchy feet to race. I know there’s quite a bit of work to do but I’m definitely tracking along quite nicely.”

The Baton later visited the British High Commission as it celebrated Commonwealth Day, the annual celebration of the Commonwealth of nations.

All students who wish to bring a motorbike or scooter to school in 2022 must register their bike/scooter using this form https://forms.gle/ejocUZJ2osJST3sVA

Any issues please see Mr Bergin.

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Mr Ashby

Acting Principal

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‍Skylight Trust - Resources & Counselling

The team at Skylight specialises in supporting people through loss and trauma. They provide counselling and resource packs to help with anxiety and stress in both children/teens and adults. Click here for further information and to access Skylight's resources

Txt 1737

The Telehealth Counselling Line is available 24/7 to support people of all ages.  Free call or text 1737 any time, 24 hours a day. You’ll get to talk to (or text with) a trained counsellor or talk to a peer support worker. More details here.

Alcohol & Drug Support

Alcohol & Drug helpline: 0800 787 797 & www.alcoholdrughelp.org.nz

NZ Drug Foundation: www.drugfoundation.org.nz‍

Distressing Online Content - Netsafe

Netsafe encourages parents to proactively discuss with young people what they should do if they come across distressing content online. Further information is available here.

If you have any questions relating to  distressing online content you can contact Netsafe for free and confidential advice at netsafe.org.nz or call 0508 NETSAFE.

Other Key Phone Numbers

Lifeline: 0800 543 354 or text free to 4357

Youthline: 0800 376 633, free text 234

Samaritans: (anytime – 24 hours) 0800 726 666

Suicide Crisis Line: 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO)

Kidsline: 0800 54 37 54 (0800 kidsline)

What’s Up: 0800 942 8787

Anxiety New Zealand: 0800 269 4389 (0800 ANXIETY)

Te Haika

Please note that if you are dealing with an urgent mental health issue or crisis then it is best to call Te Haika (CCDHB) on 0800 745 477.

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The Wellington College uniform requires black leather, polishable shoes. These can be either slip on or lace-up. In Terms 1 and 4, students are also permitted to wear brown or black Roman Sandals. The sandals must have a back strap.

See below for what's acceptable and what's not.

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