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Gisborne Girls’ High SchoolTe Kura Tuarua o Tūranga WāhineComing

Events

Gisborne Girls’ High School

Post PO Box 249 Gisborne 4040

Phone 06 868 6092

Fax 06 868 4226

Email info@gghs.school.nz

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Deans andForm Teachers

These people play a critical role in your daughter’s success. If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to call her form teacher in the first instance. To arrange this please call the school office (06) 8686092

The Deans for this year are:

Ingrid Meister Year 9Chrissy Bevan-Hutana Year 10Justine Ward Year 11Ian Loffler Year 12Hana Crawford-Bowden Year 13 Wendy Kirkwood International Students

The Year 9 Maths classes have started studying Geometry. As an experiment, they looked into whether bubbles are actually spherical. They discovered a myriad of shapes including cubes, cuboids and various prisms hidden within the bubble structures.

MATHS BUBBLES

MAYPink Shirt Day 20th

Gymnastics Festival 24/25th

Mufti Day 24th

Senior Quiz Night 24th

Rockquest Finals 28th JUNEBig Sing Napier 1-3rd

Queens Birthday 6th

Nga Manu Korero 15/16th

JULYEnd of Module 2 1st

End of Term 2 8th

Senior Ball 9th

SuccessCelebrating

Newsletter MAY 2016

Dear students, parents and caregivers,He kura ao, He ao kura ko Turanga Wahine. Nga mihi aroha ki nga kaitiaki a o tatou rangatira.

Welcome back everyone to Term Two. The first term was very successful for our school especially as we were reviewed by ERO and received a very positive report. The report conclusion stated: “An extensive curriculum successfully supports success for high numbers of stu-dents. A relentless, strategic focus has raised Maori student achievement over time. The new senior leadership team is managing change and raising professional capabil-ity through collaboration. The school is well-placed to continue to raise achievement and sustain school improvement.”

This has been followed by the removal of the Statutory Management at the school so that we are now back operating fully under our own governance. The ERO review has endorsed our new Strategic Plan which gives us a strong direction for the next three years.

Our students continued to make us proud last term with their many successes and activities, many of which are included in this newsletter. This term has started well and last week I attended the concert at the conclusion of the Music Mentoring programme by Annie Crummer. The talent on show from our Rockquest bands was clear to see and the input from Annie was so generous and valuable that all of the groups had made excellent progress. I wish them well for the finals next week.

Near the end of last term we held learning conferences where form teachers met with students and their whanau to discuss their goals for the year and their progress so far. These were well attended and I thank all parents and caregivers who took the oppor-tunity. A survey has been run by one of the staff professional learning groups to seek feedback from whanau about the conferencing. Of the 95 respondents, a very high 92.5% replied that they had attended a conference. The next question asked if this was a good way to engage with the school to which 89.9% said ‘Yes’. Feedback about how the process could be improved was also gathered and this is discussed further in the insert about attendance.

In conclusion, Term One was a great start to the year. We now move into Term Two which is always the most productive learning time as everyone settles into their sub-jects. I encourage all students to look back at the goals they set for themselves at the start of the year and review their progress to date. If changes need to be made to ap-plication in class and completion of tasks then now is the time to make those changes. You do not want to get to the end of the year and look back with disappointment. If you need extra help then just ask - we are always ready to help a well-motivated student who seeks guidance. Remember to also take care of your hauora and that in-cludes eating well, getting enough sleep, taking part in extracurricular activities and being kind to others.

Nga mihi nui ki a koutou.Jan Kumar

The Havelock Relay is a cross country event involving Hawke’s Bay and Gis-borne schools. Teams of four compete over a 2.2km course. GGHS were very well represented with four teams.First up was the Year 9 team. Here Briana Irving led off with a record lap of 8.00 minutes. Taylor Trott kept in touch with the leaders then Holly Williams regained the lead which was extended by Brooke Morrison. The winning time of 35.37 was a new record.The Junior Girls and the Senior Girls all raced at the same time. The Junior team of Christy Tate, Georgie Pitkethley, Heather Dobbie and Tyla Bermingham ran strong-ly for second place in 38.05. Just ahead of them was the Senior team of Holly Drain, Hannah Overbye, Alicia Hoskin and Margeaux Pittar in 37.24. This placed them third in the Senior race. Also competing in the Senior race were Tyler Burgess, Mahalia Dobbie, Sam Spence and Holly Jackson who were seventh out of 10 teams.A big thanks to Rita Halley and to parents Howard Irving and Pip Wil-liams who helped transport the ath-letes and provided encouragement on the day. The photo is of the win-ning Yr 9 Team: Brooke Morrison, Briana Irving, Holly Williams, Taylor Trott.

Careers Speeches

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Career Education in Term 1 has involved working with students in many areas including Year 9 and 10 Career Education classes, six year 12 students who are participating in the Young Enterprise Trust Scheme (Laurel Mitchell, Lucy Anderson, Anna Hyland, Fritha Rau, Hannah Scholefield and Fern Stuart) a Year 9 Camp activity and Whakapiki Ake: recruiting Maori into Health Science at The University of Auckland. We would like to congratulate two Year 13 students: Hope West and Kataraina Monika for continuing their successful journey by being accepted into COACH where they will have an all expenses paid trip to Auckland to step closer towards reaching their goals in medicine. This term we have many guest presenters continuing to come into school including GGHS gradu-ate Dr Maria Mackay inspiring students with her career story, Sarah Preston from Projects Abroad and many more. We would like to congratulate all our students for taking up the opportunities pre-sented and thank our wonderful community for all their support.

On ANZAC day this year, a group of senior students spent their afternoon attending a lecture at Tairawhiti Museum. The speaker, Professor Kay Matthews, presented a pletho-ra of information surrounding the service of nurses from the Tairawhiti region in World War One. The efforts of many women such as Ma-tron Agnes Boyd Allan, and the Busby sisters, Elsie and Eleanor, were acknowledged. As the involvement of women in the first world war goes largely unrecognised in most history books, it was both interesting and refreshing to hear more about their hardships and ser-vice to our country. Kay Matthews’ public ad-dress that day was part of a larger project of hers, for which she is recovering the stories, photos and memorabilia of the more than 40 nurses who served from our region more than 100 years ago. There is to be an exhibi-tion in 2017 at the Tairawhiti museum to dis-play her years of work. Currently, her research still continues, and she is “keen to speak with family members and locate images and ob-jects for that exhibition”. If you are interested in assisting her research, or finding out if one of your relatives is going to be featured, visit www.gisborneherald.co.nz for details. Thank you, Brooke Armstrong.

Vipasha Mehta and Holly Jackson represented GGHS in The Race Unity Speech Night, held at the Toihoukura Gallery. The topic was ‘Stand up for race unity -don’t be a bystander!’Well done to Vipasha who came second.They are photographed with event organiser Mr John Giffin who is a past teacher at Girls’ High.

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Sport Shakespeare and the Globe

The school wishes to congratulate our Ki o Rahi team for placing 2nd at the Secondary School Nationals which was held in Tokoroa during the school holidays. Combined with Gisborne Boys’ High School students, our students played extremely well displaying a high level of skill and competitiveness. We are very proud of their effort and achievement. Furthermore, we would like to con-gratulate Te Ata Tanirau-Wickliffe, O’Neill Wilson-Peipi and Te Uarangi Olsen for their selection in the New Zealand team. Hamilton Boys’ and Girls’ High won. We also wish to thank the coach Rapiata Ria for giving up his time as his continued support and coaching expertise are invaluable. With-out our volunteer coaches our students would not succeed in the sport they love. Nga mihi nui ki a koe Rapiata. Members: Back row, L-R: Bill Priestly, Azal-leyah Maaka, Samuel Christy-Lee(TSA), Jackson Christy (TSA), Treigh Christy, Gerry Taingahue,-Kora, Tyrese Casey and Renee Holmes. Front row: Parearau Kutia, Te Ata Tanirau-Wickliffe, Sharon Mafua, O’Neill Wilson-Peipi Te Uarangi Olsen and Tuteari Te Rauna-Lamont.

Ki-O-Rahi

GGHS Surfing Competition 2016A great day of fun waves was had by all ! 1st Saffi Vette, 2nd Stella Smith, 3rd Brea Low, 4th Alex Bermingham.

On 6th of May, 13 GGHS students competed in a surfing competition, held at “Northerns”, Makarori. We had small waves with offshore winds, but it was an all round fantastic day. Congratulations to all the girls who competed. We had 7 girls make it to the finals. We would like to thank Sam Mottart and Gina Samson for making this day happen. Keely Philips.Student comment “we should do this every Friday!”

On Monday the 18th of April ten drama students from the mixed year 12/13 drama class travelled to Auckland to see Romeo and Juliet at the Pop up Globe Theatre. The Globe is a full scale temporary working replica of the famous second globe theatre; well known plays written By William Shakespeare with a slight modern twist to them are performed there. We stood as ‘Groundlings’ (representing lower class people in Shakespearian times) for the whole two and a half hour play surrounding the front of the stage, while Mr File and Mrs Brown had seats in the gods (upper class people). The interaction the actors had with the groundling audience was spec-tacular; some us were splattered with fake blood while others were used as examples and talked to by the actors for some parts of the play. In term one our drama class studies Shakespeare, it was a great experience to see how other actors and groups in-terpreted the play and we were able to come back to school with a bunch of new ideas and techniques that we could put into our own performances. On the second day of our overnight stay, before travelling back to Gisborne, we were lucky enough to go to TV One and watch the morning Breakfast show being filmed, we got to see the whole process of how they run the show and we also got to meet two news presenters and take selfies and get a full group photo with them!Three year 13 Drama students (Alice Morton, Jess Candy and I) were lucky enough to travel back to the city to watch the companies second play Twelfth Night. I personally loved both of the plays and would with no doubt go to watch a third. The Pop Up Globe performances are absolutely amaz-ing and I would recommend them to anyone. By Chloe Harris.

The Shakespeare in Schools Festival is always an amazing night, and a great opportunity to see some of Gisborne’s young acting talents. Gisborne Girls’ High school entered four scenes from the plays, Cleopatra (15 min), Macbeth (5 min), A Mid-summers Night Dream (5 min) and As You Like It (5 min). Although we didn’t win the overall scenes lots of our students won awards. Laurel Mitchell won straight entry to the Shake-speare Camp in September; she also won “Exciting use of theatre form in a Shakespeare performance.” Jess Candy won “most intriguing to watch.” Alice Morton and Cheyney Biddlecombe won ‘Best Student Directed piece.”Mathew Te-Whata McClutchie won “best interpre-tation and delivery of the text.”Liam Rowe won “most promising performer” and “best interaction with the audience.”All schools gave it their all and made it a tough competition. By Alice Morton.

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Focus on TSA Out and About

My first ANZAC dawn serviceThis year’s Anzac Day dawn service was the first that I had ever attended. It was such an honour to be a part of the parade and to have marched alongside fellow TSA students and Gisborne Girls’ High School Prefects. Despite having to wake up early and bare it out in the chilly conditions, it was an honour.Teah Kahaki

ANZAC 2016This year TSA attended the ANZAC Dawn service here in Gisborne alongside our GGHS prefects.It was a lot warmer than the previous year I had attended. We went from wearing long sleeves to wearing short sleeve polo tops. I had the privilege of laying the wreath on behalf of our academy and also Gisborne Girls’ High School. I felt the service honoured our soldiers who fought for our country. Their bravery has helped build better lives for today’s generation and also the generations that are yet to come.They shall grow not old, As we that are left grow old, Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning WE WILL REMEMBER THEMLEST WE FORGET!!Allanah Tukariri

TSA at the Basic Leaders Course 2016“A team is a reflection of its leadership”, this quote was one we lived by throughout our time at the New Zealand Defence Force Basic Leaders course. This was an amazing but challenging opportunity, one that I will never forget. All of the students were split into two platoons and our platoons were split into four sections of 10 people, our’s was all girls. One of the many activities we had to do in our sections was taking our group for two Adventure Based Activities; one of these was ‘The Spider Web’. First the leader was given the instructions and then had to tell the team the task. They had to lead the team and complete the task on time while getting critically examined. There were a lot of good laughs throughout these activities and it brought our section close together as we began to treat each other like sisters. We did many other activates over our five days in Wellington such as community service work, physical training, sport, class room work, games and skits just to name a few things. I have made many lifelong friends from this course. It taught us to have patience, persevere and that everyone can be leaders if they lead by example and gain therespect of others. Holly

Basic Leaders Course 2016 – ChallengingAt the end of term one, five students were selected from Tairawhiti Services Academy to attend a Basic Leaders Course in Camp Elsdon in Porirua. It was a five day course which helped students to improve and develop strong leadership skills. We each lead our team through a variety of tasks which allowed each member to show their leadership skill, problem solving activities, community work, communication skills and team building. The most challenging activity for me was being able to express my thoughts in front of an audience. The hardest part was thinking of the right words to say when you had the pressure of leading your team. I really enjoyed the confidence building activities which enabled me to stand and share my thoughts in front of my team. I still have a long way to go but I am getting better the more I practice. An important point I I have learned is that when you put your mind to it you are able to face your fears and achieve your goals.Shahanna Mafua

Induction Experience 2016

In March the TSA Year 13 class went to the Induction Camp in Waiouru for 12 days. This camp was run by the New Zealand Defence Force and this year they had a new team taking the training so it was more difficult than previous years. It was a tough but enjoyable experience. We stayed in the barracks, had our meals in the mess with all the soldiers and walked ev-erywhere around the camp. We did a lot of activities while away at induc-tion but one stood out that really challenged me, the Assault Course. We had to complete the course not once, not twice but three times! We were swinging on ropes, climbing walls, climbing over and under nets, walking over elevated planks and a whole lot more. As tough as it was we had fun doing it. The fact that we had worked hard together seemed to strengthen the bonding within our team. We learned more about each other. At the end of the Induction Course you felt a sense of accomplishment and pride within yourself. I was happy that our TSA team had completed the course together. What a start to the year and we all look forward to the rest of our adventure together at TSA. We had the best experience and we wouldn’t change it for the world. Kacey Campbell

Navy Ship Visit11TSA: Haley BirchA day of grey cloudy skies and I’m on my way to see my first Navy ship, to have a first glance at the uniform that the sea-men wear and see what they do in the Navy. All of us year 11s and year 12s were going to have an experience that we could never forget especially when the ship was up close. We all started to get excited when we could see the ship from the wharf, the bus driver drove as close as she could to the near-est entrance, we all lined up and started to march towards the Navy ship. I was looking at ship when all the students were walking up the ladder, the ladder was built with wood on a caged ramp and the only way you could come down is turning around and walking backwards. I noticed that the ship loved to rock back and forth like a rocking chair. At the end of the ship there were some interesting equipment like scuba diving gear and a firefighter hose. Watching them use a firefighter hose for the first time was like watching a waterfall coming out of the cloudy sky and each person got to have a turn as the navy instructor showed you how it worked. Another in-structor had scuba gear and students got to try it on and to see how it felt to be in it, most said it was hot to wear. In the front of the ship there was a gun’s area where there had been a treasuretrove full with weapons of destruction. Students got to try out the weapons and pretend they were firing at the en-emy, there were lots of laughs as the navy instructors allowed us to experience the equipment. The instructors were very friendly people who were more than willing to share their ex-periences and answer any questions.

Special Olympics12TSA: Alex TuhouIt was a privilege to be given the opportunity to volunteer at the Special Olympics! It was especially cool getting to see all the smiles of the competitors’ and see how much tautoko and manaakitanga was amidst us that day. From the whanau, to the volunteers, to the organisation, you could see how much aroha there was for the kids, and it was meke as! I really enjoyed working with the girls (and ol’ brother John) because I feel as if we were having as much fun as the kids competing! Also working in this type of environment, you realise the struggles these kids go through, and some things we take for granted...y’know. But the fact that everyone participated and did so well was surreal! TSA were even given the chance to say the Special Olympics motto be-forehand! Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the at-tempt.This saying refers to the whole purpose of the Special Olym-pics; that it’s not always about winning, but just having a go anyway. I loved being amongst it all and hopefully we’ll be given more op-portunities like this in the future.