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Western Heights School  
Week 1 T1
 
 
 
 
Western Heights School
Our Vision
We are … Caring, Creative, Confident, Critical, Curious, Contributing, Connecting.
Our Mission
Our children love to learn to lead as they dream, grow, shine and reflect. 
Love                - ourselves - others - our world 
Learn about     - ourselves - others - our world 
Lead                - ourselves - others - in our world

We Love to Learn so we can Learn to Lead so we can Lead with Love
Our Charter
 
 
 
Calendar of Events
Whanau Time is every second Friday in our hall, starting at 9:45 am sharp. Everyone is warmly welcomed to join us for these special WHS family occasions. 
Next Whanau Time - Friday 24 February - rooms 3 and 24 hosting.
WHS Calendar
 
 
 
Friday 3/2
Chinese New Year Celebrations at WHS
Wear red or gold 🙂
Assembly at 10am
All welcome.
Xīn nián kuài lè
新年快乐
 
Monday 6/2
Waitangi Day Holiday - no school today.
 
Wednesday 8/2
Meet the Teacher Picnic - 5:30pm onwards.
Visit your children’s classrooms at 6:30pm then gather in Hall at 7pm. Finished by 7:30
 
Friday 10/2
Junior School - year one and two - Beach Trip to Cornwallis Beach.
Travel by bus.
 
 
Welcome Back Families and Friends
 

We trust you enjoyed a wonderful, relaxing, rewarding, family focused holiday.

I have to say it is so exciting to be back.

It’s the beginning of a new year with new opportunities, new children, new staff, new ideas, new initiative, new energy and enthusiasm.

New is nice but what we already have is also awesome.

We have had three years of our new ways of doing things and that is long enough for everyone (but the newest ones) to have a good understanding of what we are about, what we believe, what we are striving for and what we expect. 

At the same time, it is good to revisit and reflect. 

We have some non-negotiable such as “Love to Learn to Lead” - expanded to 

“We Love to Learn so we can Learn to Lead so we can Lead with Love.”

Being Bucket Fillers, not Bucket Dippers and Protecting our Buckets is another.

“Pay It Forward” is another important non-negotiable. We expect every class every year to make a Pay It Forward contribution - either to their class, their school or their community. Some have even taken it further afield - such as cyclone relief for Fiji for example.


We will be consulting with our staff, our children and our community, including holding specific individual Ethnic group Hui where we consult with Maori, Pasifika, Chinese and Indian communities (as these are our largest ethnic groups at WHS). That consultation will involve sharing student achievement data with you; asking your opinions on the directions we are taking; asking your input on goals we should have as a learning community; answering questions and ensuring you understand all the things we do and why - such as Seesaw for example.

We want to make sure we are meeting the high and positive expectations of everybody in this school whanau-community. As Yoda from Star Wars says, “Do, or Do Not. There is no Try.”

More information on Community Consultation events will be coming soon.

 
 
Welcome To New Staff Members - Exciting Times Ahead
 

A couple of weeks ago we received the both sad and happy news that Charmaine Renner has accepted a new position at a new private school specialising in working with small groups of dyslexic children. This area is Charmaine’s absolute passion, so we are excited for her and wish her every happiness and success. Charmaine will be much missed, she has been with WHS for many years, still has a grandchild here and her partner Ray is on our Board of Trustees.

There is some good news to share though. Shradha Marshall has been working alongside Charmaine in room 13 full-time for two years. Shradha is a fully qualified teacher, hugely dedicated, greatly respected by our staff and Board of Trustees, and has a tremendous way with our children. She will take over as full time teacher half way through this year - as soon as she is able. In the meantime we are incredibly fortunate in this challenging teacher-appointment time, to have found an outstanding person to come in and teach room 13 until Shradha is available to teach full time.

Nikki Brass has 15 years teaching experience at all primary school levels. She is creative, talented, dedicated, and passionate about teaching, photography and technology in education. Nikki is heading back overseas in August (travel is another passion) to teach at an international school. She is flexible and will teach until mid year when Shradha will be able to take over. 

Nikki shares her story…

After working for three years in England, I returned to New Zealand to study and complete a Bachelor of Education (honours). I worked as a primary school teacher in Blenheim for four years, teaching six to eight year olds. The family of a child I had taught for two years, offered me an amazing opportunity to travel with them and teach their 11 year old son. We traveled for nine and a half months through Africa, the United States of America, Central America and South America. Teaching on the road meant I needed to be flexible and creative with the lessons I planned.

One of the highlights of my travels with the Kincaid family was volunteering. In Namibia, we volunteered at a wildlife sanctuary. This involved feeding and walking some of the animals and maintenance of their shelters. There was also a school for the local Bushman children that I was able to spend some time in. The other volunteer work we did was with the Leatherback Turtles in Costa Rica. At night we walked the beach and helped to relocate the turtle’s eggs so they would be safe from the elements and predators.


PS - credit where it is due, thanks to Courtney Yukich from Grey Lynn school for finding Nikki for us.

 
 
Chinese New Year Celebrations at WHS - 2017
 

We are a culturally diverse school, just as Auckland is a culturally diverse city. This is one of the things I love about WHS and Auckland. We are many peoples, but we live, learn, work and play as one people (most of the time). It is a special treat to be able to share in the special traditions and events of our different cultures. We celebrate New Year on January 1, but we also celebrate Matariki (Maori Calendar New Year) in the middle of the year. Also Diwali - the Indian Festival of Colour and Light. From now on we will also celebrate the Chinese New Year. Friday 3 February is really the last day of the Chinese New Year Celebration period, so that will be our special day here at WHS. 

There will be fun activities for classes over the first three days, and this will culminate with an assembly tomorrow - Friday 3 February. 

If children have appropriate cultural dress we would love them to dress in it for our assembly. 

If your child does not have traditional Chinese clothing or costume to wear, that is fine. If they have clothes in red or gold colours to wear, that is great. 

There will be a traditional Chinese dance performed at this special assembly.

Please do not go out and buy special outfits or clothes for this event though. We do not want this fun celebration to be a burden or problem for any parent.

Xīn nián kuài lè

新年快乐

 
 
Meet the Teacher Picnic at WHS - 2017
 

Next Wednesday evening is your opportunity to come to school with your family for a picnic, followed by an opportunity to meet your children’s teachers, and then listen to a few words from me.

We suggest you try to get here between 5:30 and 6:30pm for the picnic. Teachers will be in classrooms between 6:30 and 7pm to share their plans, systems and expectations for the year ahead.

At 7pm we ask parents to come to our hall to hear a few words from me to do with “the Big Picture” at WHS. Some of the what we do and why, a bit about Seesaw, and a bit about our Zero Hero focus.

We are hoping for great weather and a great turn-out - fingers and toes all crossed.

 
 
Big Year Ahead
 

As I outlined above, this year marks the start of my fourth year at Western Heights. In the past three years we have introduced many positive changes. I do want to thank all those parents who have shared their support and appreciation for what we have done and the way we are doing things. Our constant goal is always to be ‘Better Than Before’.


We have many positive and challenging new initiatives to introduce and implement this year. That we are able to keep growing, learning and improving, is thanks to our awesome staff at Western Heights. They are truly dedicated, diligent, hard-working and enthusiastic.

As an example, over the holiday period we have spent a great deal of time up-skilling ourselves in lots of new areas.

We spent a day on Mathematics - specifically an approach known as “ Bobbie Maths or DMIC maths”.

https://nzmaths.co.nz/mathematics-inquiry-communities 

http://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/about-massey/news/article.cfm?mnarticle_uuid=F0CF48DC-E8F3-403F-74D8-7A7539502B9B

 This training day was the first day of a year long staff development programme. We will be having lots of staff training sessions throughout the year. Our facilitators will be in class observing and mentoring  teachers and providing guidance, support, feedback and feed-forward. We are really excited, as we can see this programme is going to make a real difference to the teaching and learning of maths here.

We spent a day on Learning Through Play - the Walker Learning Approach. The Walker Learning Approach - WLA - is based upon decades of research about play-based and personalised learning and social constructivism. It is a total approach to teaching and learning which combines the need for children to be active participants in their learning (through hands-on  and creative exploration and investigation), which sits alongside formal instruction. There is explicit teaching and development of not only literacy and numeracy skills and knowledge, but also the range of vital social, emotional and life skills.       http://earlylife.com.au/info/section/walker-learning

We spent a day on Linc-Ed. This is our new Student Management-Learning Management System that we are using from 2017 onwards. Over time we will be using this for more and more purposes, including Teacher Appraisal, Reporting to Parents, automated SMS text messaging for children who are late or absent without an explanation received, and much more.        https://www.linc-ed.com

 We spent half a day on Science with Ian Milne. Ian takes a holistic, cross-curricular, awe-and-wonder approach to the teaching and learning of Science. Ian’s focus is to assist and support teachers to develop the confidence to present teaching and learning activities in science. Also to enhance both engagement by the learners and their development of understanding of the natural phenomena they engage with in their science learning. As Ian says, ”Science and literacy are both about writing, comprehending and sharing understanding. Science provides a wonderful context for teaching of literacy skills and practices and vice versa. A really rich story or poem can be a great way to get into a science topic.”  http://www.icaseonline.net/sei/june2010/p4_ian.pdf

We spent half a day on Revisiting Our Why. Simon Sinek teaches us to always focus on Why first and then How then What.    https://www.startwithwhy.com

We looked at our original Why? Why we became teachers - what drove us, motivated and inspired us? We looked at ways this has changed and hopefully reinvigorated our passion for what we do and more importantly, Why we do it. This included revisiting Relationships and the importance of Relationships and Whanaungatanga (the culture or ‘way’ of familiness).

We also ensured our Expectations for ourselves as a teaching team and staff were clearly outlined, defined and understood by all. We know that what we expect and what we accept is what we get.

We also looked at our overall focus for the year - LIFE.

Life is an acronym for Life Impacts Future Earth. In other words what we DO in our Life affects our earth now and into the future.

We want to combine our Pay It Forward value with a focus on LIFE. We will do this through the context of ZERO HERO. Again, this is an acronym for 

Zero = Every Recycle Opportunity Helps Earth Restore Ora. (Ora is the Maori word for Health).

Zero is Zero Waste. This is a long term goal for us at Western Heights School. It will be a whole school focus where:

  • We all do a bit 

  • We all do our bit

  • We take a comprehensive approach to zero waste

  • We take a comprehensive approach to restoring our planet

We have some specific focuses that we will be addressing:

  • Eating Healthy 

  • Enviro-Garden owned and operated by all

  • Litterless Lunches 

  • Composting Food Scraps

  • Worm Farm and Worm Tea

  • Shredding Waste Paper - wasting less paper

  • Chicken Coop

We don’t want to overwhelm you with information at this point, but we will be sharing more with you on each of these areas over the course of this year.

 
 
   
 
 
Student Absences - Very Important Information for You
 

Student Absences: 

It is so important that you let us know if your child is going to be absent. Our office staff often spend hours each day chasing up the whereabouts (and therefore safety) of children who are not at school and we have not been told why. 

There are lots of ways to let us know 

- send an email to our office - away@westernheights.school.nz

- click on the Absence tab on our WHS phone app - available on iTunes or Google Play Store for free. PS - this is an awesome app for parents and allows us to send urgent messages and updates to you quickly and easily.

- leave a message on our answerphone - 836 1213

- text to our school mobile - 021 0402125

- dial in to your childs classroom teachers phone - 836 1213 - extension prefix 2 then a two digit number for their room (room two would be 2 then 02).

If we dont know why your child is away, we make every effort to find out, and this can take ages, so, we are trying to find ways to sort this. 

One is to keep encouraging you to remember to let us know.

Another is to work smarter. Linc-Ed will help us as we can send automated text messages to our parents mobile phones letting you know your child is absent and we have not been informed why. Please respond to these messages as soon as possible to help us keep our children safe.

 
 
Seesaw - Getting Connected for 2017
 

Seesaw has been one of our best ever innovations. Teachers, parents and children all love it. 

We had to do a new set-up for 2017 as children have moved to new classrooms. The best advice we can give for the transition is to launch the Seesaw app on your device.

Click on the picture of your child in the top left of the screen. A menu appears with an item saying "Add Journal". You then scan the QR Code that came home today, and this will add your child as a 2017 student.

You will now have your child's name appearing twice in the list. One is their archived work from last year. The other is their Seesaw account for 2017 - it probably will not have any items in it yet.

If you get stuck, call in and see me, or your child's teacher, and we'll sort if for you in a jiffy!

 
 
Powhiri - Welcoming new Whanau Members for 2017
 

Our powhiri was awesome and we appreciated the new parents and grandparents who were able to join us. Some were from Russia and Israel, so for them this was a unique and inspiring experience. We received some wonderful feedback. Our kids were impeccable in the focus, behaviour and leadership - well done all. 

Thanks to Mr Taura for speaking for the Manuhiri - visitors - even though he has been with us for quite a while now. Tim spoke in Maori, which was a challenge for him, but one he rose to really well. Thanks also to Te Rina Ripi - Whaea Trish’s daughter - who took time off school to be our Kaikaranga - caller. Thanks also to Whaea Mina’s daughter, Eesha, who responded to the call on behalf of the Manuhiri.

It was a special day for our Assistant Caretaker Bronwyn, who was very proud to see her grandson start. Also for Stefanie Tipi, one of our much loved part time teachers, whose son Alesana also started.

 
 
 
 
 
Mark Sullivan’s Board Chairperson Graduation Speech
 

I feel extremely honoured to be asked to speak at such an auspicious occasion, so thank you.

First things first, on behalf of the Western Heights School Board of Trustees, I would like to extend a massive thank you and heart felt appreciation to all the Western Heights staff, for their unconditional effort that they put into this school year in and year out. Also to the parents and caregivers; for your dedication, every day, in getting the children here every morning and putting in the time after school helping them in their learning. 

I know exactly what it's like.

Finally, to all of our students, thank you for making 2016 such a successful year.


Now to the Western Heights, Year 6, graduating class of 2016. Again, on behalf of the Board of Trustees, we offer our congratulations to you all. Can you believe it? This is your last day at this school. But what an incredible six or so years it has been. You may not realise it now, but hopefully in years to come you will look back at your time at Western Heights School - the good and perhaps the not-so-good, with an understanding and appreciation of how much it shaped you as a leader of your own learning, and hopefully has led you along a path of success. The time, love, commitment and sometimes discipline that has been invested in you from your teachers and your parents is down to one simple reason: we all want the very best for you.

Oknow this sounds all very nice, doesnt it? But, over time you will learn that life doesnt necessarily always run smooth and I am sure you have all hit the odd speed bump along the way. But, hopefully the skills you have learnt at Western Heights have enabled you to help deal with these hiccups. Your ability to show ‘grit in the pit and not give up because it gets too hard will take you a long way in life. Remember too, no matter how big you get, you are never too old to be a bucket filler - a small act of kindness can go a long way.    

Take the philosophy of  ove to learn to lead' and spread it around your new school. Just because you will not be physically present at our school every day, it doesnt mean you are no longer part of the Western Heights family. You are our ambassadors and we want you to take all of the positive things you have learnt over the years at Western Heights and spread them though the communities in your new intermediate schools and beyond.


So, where to next for you all? Think back to your very first day of school when you turned five, and how much you have all grown since, and now sitting here as the graduating class of 2016. Come February at your new school you will start the journey again, and become a small fish in a large pond once again. With this, there may be a period of adjustment and uncertainty of how you fit in. You may even begin to doubt yourself and your abilities, because change can be scary. But, hang-on, if I could quote Dr. Seuss;

'You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. 

Youre on your own. 

And you know what you know. 

And you are the person wholl decide to where to go! 

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will indeed! (98 and ¾% per cent guaranteed) 

Kids, youll move mountains!


Well my speech is coming to an end now, so its time to say one more thank you to the Graduating Class for all the contributions you have made to our school over the past six years, we wish you all the very best in your new endeavours at Intermediate School and to say a very fond farewell to you all.

Youre off to great places!

Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.

So. get on your way!'

Have a very merry Christmas and all the very best for an exciting and challenging 2017. 

 
 
  Auckland Nines Stars Out West





























NRL Rugby League team players will visit Waitemata Seagulls Club tomorrow from 3:30 to 7:45pm.
It’s the lead-up to the Auckland Nines this weekend, and it's a great opportunity to see players from the Penrith Panthers, Melbourne Storm and Cronulla Sharks up close at the Ranui Domain.
 
 
 
Te Pai Park Tennis Club
 

Any students wishing to try tennis during the
junior coaching season (term 1 2017) are welcome to come down to the club and join in for two free sessions.
Coaching is run on Tuesday and Thursday.
We would love to see you there. 
Session Times:
Tiny Tennis Ages 4 - 7 years - 4pm - 4.30pm 
Juniors 8 years - 11 years - 4.30pm - 5.30pm
Intermediates 12 years plus - 5.30pm - 6.30pm
Any questions, phone Coach Chris 837 2682.
To parents interested in tennis. We have a club night every Wednesday starting at 6.30pm. 
You are welcome to come.
For any coaching needs phone Chris.

 
 
 

 
 
 
  Love Our Place and Our People

















































2016 Room 11 children under the expert guidance and tutelage of Jan Southgate and Caroline Leader constructed this awesome sculpture as their 2016 Pay It Forward contribution. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
 
  I Teach...
 
 
 
 
 
Thoughtful Thursday
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. Groucho Marx
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
Welcome to our Newest Western Heights Whanau
 

The warmest of warm Western Heights welcome to
Madison Uiterwijk, Garima Passi, Theodore Ip, Mikayla Meyer, Valechke Meyer, Jennifer Meyer, Bruce Qu, Moran Han, Kyla Kumaat, Nimisha Pereparambil, Varsha Pereparambil, Alex Sohn, Arjan Virdi, Giriraj Kumar, Nevaeh Lipsham, Zain Heape, Michael Ashe, Itai Pyzhanov, Han Jing, Jacob Liu, James Annan, Alex Lay, Peyton Waters, Odelya Mulipola-Samu, Ariel Mulipola-Samu, Mayan Mulipola-Samu, Emily Chen, Samuel Liu, Lucas Shen, Natalia Martin-Pava, Hartleigh Wickham, Aidan Wahrlich, Alesana Tipi, Gemma Thompson, Jake Thomas, Rhea Kishore, Chae-Rynn Jeong, Grayson Falwasser, Phoenix Bencsy-Moore, Mariya Budd, Luca Budd, Maresha Potae, Kathy Fang, Aston Bai, Skyla Moore, Rhys Williams, Alexander Child, Bella William and Kristin Maeng.
We are delighted to have you join our Western Heights whanau and hope and trust you all feel right at home here, are happy, and Loving, Learning and Leading.
  

 
 
 
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Western Heights School
126 Sturges Road
Henderson
Auckland 0612
P -  09 8361213
M - 021 779 009
 
 
 
 
 
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