Nga mihi nui kia koutou katoa. Welcome to the Westland High School newsletter for May 2021.

Tēnā koutou katoa,

Students are the life and heart of our school and it is great to be back in school now week two of term 2.

This term is full with lots of different sports events on offer, as you will see in our newsletter. Please encourage your child to check in with the notices daily to keep up to date of what is available. The winter sport competitions are now well underway with many excited and keen students taking up the opportunity to play in a school team or as individuals in various sports.

Attendance

As mentioned in the last newsletter, ‘Regular’ attendance is defined for statistical purposes as 93% or higher. However, Ministry of Education analysis shows every day has a cumulative impact on a child’s learning and there is no ‘safe’ level of non-attendance. Every day matters.

Even with a 93% attendance this is approximately 2.5 weeks (13 days) of missed school.

We are pleased to see most students have improved their attendance to 93% or above, this enables participation in non-curricular events such as sports and activities. Unfortunately students who have chosen not to regularly attend school and are below 93% remove themselves from these opportunities. 

Parents and Whanau will by now have received a couple of attendance reports from the school via email. These are important to read and more important to have a discussion with your child about why they may have been absent from school or class without a reasonable explanation. We encourage parents/whanau to contact the school and discuss your child's attendance if it is below 93%. The attendance reports are sent out fortnightly on Friday.

Reminder – Ministry of Education Accord Teacher Only Day – Tuesday 18 May

To support the implementation of changes to NCEA, and wider strengthening of curriculum, progress and achievement practice, the Ministry of Education is providing Teacher Only Days nationally for Secondary Schools in 2021.

The first of the Teacher Only Days for secondary schools on the Westcoast will be held on Tuesday 18 May 2021. The school is closed for all learners on this day. This is also the day Juniors and the bilingual class Year 7 to 10's have their student led conferences. Middle school and Senior conferences are scheduled for later this term.

NCEA, CHANGE TO COURSE ENDORSEMENTS

It is now possible for a student to have their course endorsed at either Achieved, Merit or Excellence. This is because NZQA has made it official that students can have their courses endorsed at the level of Achieved. 

To gain a course endorsement at any level a student MUST gain 14 achieved credits, of which 3 MUST come from internal standards and 3 must come from external standards with the remaining 8 coming from either internal or external standards.

What this means in terms of the level of endorsement:

1. Achieved endorsement, the credits can come from achieved, merit or excellence credits.

2. Merit endorsement, the credits can come from merit or excellence credits.

3. Excellence endorsement, the credits can ONLY come from excellence credits.

Contacting School

On occasion parents and whanau may need to contact the school. Some contacts are listed below:

Academic and Pastoral Care Leaders

Adrienne Reeves: Year 11-13 Students adriennereeves@westlandhigh.school.nz

Sara Bateup: Year 9-10 Students sarahabateup@westlandhigh.school.nz

Monica Hulme: Year 7-8 Students monicahulme@westlandhigh.school.nz

General inquiries

office@westlandhigh.school.nz

Guidance Counselor

Fiona Lauder our School guidance counsellor is available to talk with students during normal school hours. To make an appointment to talk with Fiona email her on fionalauder@westlandhigh.school.nz, Fiona will get back to you with a time to talk.

All conversations with Fiona are held in the strictest confidence.

Ngā mihi nui
Iain Murray
Principal