Headmaster’s Newsletter Friday 25 September

Dear Parents and Guardians

We’ve had a great term, concluding with senior prize giving this afternoon. Congratulations to all of our prize winners.

The forthcoming holidays need to be thought of as an opportunity for all of our senior students to get down to some serious studying. For our year 12 and 13 Cambridge students, exams start straight away next term and for our NCEA students’ exams will soon be upon them as we move through term four. Thank you in anticipation of your assistance with this final push before exams start.

I would like to express our appreciation again for all of your on-going support of our school and what we are trying to achieve.

Enjoy the break.

Have a nice weekend.

David Ferguson
Headmaster

2015 Senior Academic Prizegiving

Please click below for a full list of awards presented during the Senior Academic Prizegiving today.  Particular congratulations to the following students who achieved to the highest level:

Andre Jackson

PTA Award for Head Prefect

Liam Rawlings

Lex Lewis Memorial Trophy for Debating
John Patterson Memorial Award for Effort, Involvement and Loyalty

George Han

Don Johnson Trophy 1^st in Form 7
Arthur Schubert Award for Outstanding and Selfless Contribution to Westlake Boys’ High School

Full list of Prizewinners 2015

2016 Prefects

Congratulations to the following young men who were announced as the first group of 2016 Prefects during today’s Senior Prizegiving:

Commerce Department Champions

The Commerce Department are proud to announce an Economics victory in the Auckland Championships with our Business Studies team finishing runners-up.

Our Economics team comprised of Daniel Lee, Zach Huxford, George Han, Liam Rawlings and Rafi Baboe are Auckland Champions for 2015.  This is the seventh time in nine years a Westlake Boys’ High School team have won.  Congratulations to the team, and their teacher, Mr Marshall.

At the same competition, our Business Studies team were placed runners-up.  The team is Matthew Seddon, Brayden Print, Jonathan Brewis, Ernest Quimba and George Martin.  Well done also to their teacher, Mrs Keen.

Accounting finished in fourth place which is outstanding as the competition is NCEA based.  Well done to Dhilesh Vasan, Ihtishaam Muhammed, Jin Han, Daniel Randall and Ben Streten.

Westlake Boys High School Gymnasium – your opportunity to be part of the Westlake sporting milestone!

If completing the form is not convenient please simply drop an email to Community Relations Manager Vicki Fowler on vfowler@westlake.school.nz and we can make arrangements from there.

We look forward to your family being part of this exciting Westlake milestone.

Hospice Charity Fundraiser

Carol from the North Shore Hospice visited school on Wednesday 23 September to pick up the Form Class collections of second hand clothing.  The drive was a great success, and Hospice thank everyone who got involved.   Pictured right are some of the Charity Council students who have assisted this year, as well as group of Westlake Boys’ High School staff who are taking part in the Auckland Marathon and Half Marathon to raise funds for Hospice.

There is still have one more event for junior students to fundraise for Hospice scheduled in Term 4.  The Charity Council will provide details nearer to the time.

The Charity Council and Mrs Young thank the Westlake community for its support.

SOUNZ Recordings by Westlake Symphony Orchestra

The musicians started with two works by Dr Leonie Holmes, ‘In The Lair Of The Cave Weta’, which the orchestra played on tour last year in Vienna at the Musikverein, as well as in other parts of Austria, southern Germany and Hungary, and ‘Tango Mangle’.

These recordings will be used by SOUNZ to promote works by New Zealand composers that are suitable for school and community orchestras, and the project complements the SOUNZ recordings done each year by the NZSO.

Reading Programme with Forrest Hill Primary

Between 12 to 16 Westlake students helped at Forrest Hill Primary School in a reading programme.  Feedback from the school and parents of the primary school children has been very positive and we intend to continue assisting with the programme next year.

Westlake Boys Jacket

Over the last couple of years, our red and green jacket has been phased out.

From the start of 2016, students will only be permitted to wear the jacket pictured right.  These jackets are able to be purchased from our Uniform shop, or email lbbrown@westlake.school.nz

You Could Help ‘ASSASSINS’ Win a ‘People’s Choice Award’

With enough votes, Westlake’s fabulous production of ‘Assassins’ could win the ‘People’s Choice Award’ in ‘Showdown’, the Auckland Secondary School Production Competition, sponsored by iTICKET.  The show could also be in the running for an award for Most Outstanding Musical amongst others.  A judging team of experienced theatre practitioners watched plays and musicals at schools across the city and will release their shortlist of nominees in 24 categories later this month.  The winners will be announced at an awards night at Sky City Theatre in November.  If you came to see ‘Assassins’ the cast and crew urge you to vote for them!  Simply log on to the SHOWDOWN website http://www.showdown.org.nz/2014-2/ sign up and cast your vote.

2015 Westlake Boys Sports Awards Dinner, Friday 6 November 2015

Tickets are $50.00 per person and are available from the Uniform Shop in Student Services, payable by cash/Eftpos/Visa or MasterCard (no cheques). Purchase your tickets before 25 September (end of Term 3) and you will go into the draw to win a sports package worth $300. Winner to be announced on the evening.

Click here for the Sports Awards Dinner ticket order form. 

2015 Westlake Boys Graduation Dinner

Tickets will go on sale on Monday 21st September until Friday 20 November. Our seventh form students will receive the necessary Graduation Dinner information after Monday’s assembly and you can find a copy of the information letter and permission and ticket order form available to download from the school website here. Space is limited so tickets will be sold on a first-in, first-served basis with a limit of three tickets per family. We recommend that you purchase your tickets early to avoid disappointment.

Important Dates:

Westlake Sport

2015 Auckland Regional Road Race Championships

In the junior team Murdoch McIntyre backed up his third place finish at the Auckland Cross Country Champs earlier this year with a first place finish. Murdoch ran superbly over the 4km course to finish in a time of 13:56.28, 25 seconds in front of the second place runner. He was well supported by David Moore 4th place, Nikola Sovljanski 7th, Stuart Hofmeyr 9th, Josh Spraggon 14th and Daniel Robertson 16th.

The intermediate team finished second in the six person team and third in the three person team respectively with our top runner Joseph Clarke finishing in 6th place in a time of 13:30.30 over the 4km course.

Rugby League Representation

New Zealand Rugby League overturned a 22-4 deficit at half time to eventually win 30-22, with Zae Wallace setting up a crucial try.

Read more about the game here:  http://www.nzrl.co.nz/teams/nz-secondary-schools/

Skiing

For the past three years the Westlake ski team has remained a tight group and last week the team had an amazing few days at Mt Ruapehu, representing Westlake with pride. The group, who all competed last year, were supportive of each other throughout the slalom section where they compete against the clock, and the dual slalom the following day when they each race a competitor with a similar time from the day before.

Josh Reilly who has been Westlake’s top skier for three years raced with a broken collarbone, an injury he sustained five weeks ago that hadn’t fully healed. Although Josh said he would have to take it easy this year, he was still placed 8^th in the senior boys’ competition. His score for the run greatly benefitted the teams’ overall performance.

William Burt and James Wisniewski also put up good times on the senior course, while Bailey Dawson did the same on the junior course. Their combined totals earned Westlake 33^rd placing out of 127 teams from across the North Island, a solid improvement on last year’s 55^th ranking.

Oliver Kelsey was placed third in the slope style event. He was hoping to go a couple places higher, but this is still an outstanding result.

The team loses three seventh formers in Josh Reilly, Oliver Kelsey and William Burt and will look to rebuild next season with a younger crop of talented skiers.

Waterpolo

Last night the Finals for the term for Junior Waterpolo at North Harbour were held.  The Junior B team coached by Andre Jackson and Liam Sheehan met Northcote A in their B grade final.  It was a close game with 2-2 at the end of the 1^st quarter.  Good defensive play by Northcote meant we couldn’t capitalise on opportunities presented losing 8-4 at the final whistle, finishing with the silver this term.  This team has improved over the year and have been well-coached by our student coaches.

The Junior A team, coached by old boys Owen Chambers and Brayton Collecutt came up against a fighting Rosmini A team in their A grade final.  The 1^st quarter saw Brian Lee and Corban Wedlock Aston score to equalise 2-2, then it continued to be very even defensively and on attack ending at 4-4 at half time, after Brian secured 2 more goals.  During the 3^rd quarter we were up with Liam Wedlock Aston scoring 2 superb goals.  The 4^th quarter, the teams were locked at 7-7 with Hunter Pethers-Boak scoring to even it up.  In a nail-biting finish, Rosmini scored a final goal in the dying 2 seconds of the match to win 8-7.  The Junior A team came away with the silver medal.

Term 4 is the big term for the Junior teams with the North Harbour Thursday night competition continuing for all 3 teams, the Junior A and B teams start the Auckland competition on Friday and/or Sunday nights and it culminates in the North Island Competition at the end of November.  The teams will be working hard to achieve their goals next term.  We also have an event on November 1^st which is a Westlakers vs Senior team match to be held at Millennium at 5pm, followed by drinks and nibbles upstairs.  All parents, players and members of the Waterpolo community are welcome to attend.

Hockey

After a stellar Hockey season four current Westlake students have joined a number of Westlakers in the Junior and Future Black Sticks programme for 2015 and beyond.

Mitchell Ottow, Benji Edwards, JP Rossouw and Keegan Russell have impressed selectors and have been named in the Junior Black Sticks squad for 2015. The boys will attend a training camp early December before selections narrow further for a test series against Australia and Japan in early January 2016 on the Gold Coast. Having four players named in this squad is a record for Westlake Boys High School, and follows on from the large contribution that these students made towards winning the Rankin Cup just three weeks ago.

Westlakers Craig Jones, Mick Lammers, Sanjay Lala and Warren Wild (who also co-coached the 2015 Westlake 1^st XI) were named in the Future Black Sticks (U23) squad and have a large programme scheduled in the build up to the Junior World Cup in twelve months’ time.

Lacrosse Results 18 November 2015

Westlake managed to take a quick lead in the first extra time session but with the stakes so high, three of Westlake defence players were simultaneously sent to time outs for excessive roughing. Mt Roskill drew level and the game was decided in the last 30 seconds of extra time when Daniel Redpath scored the winning goal sealing a 12-11 win for a spot in the Auckland finals next Friday against Mount Albert Grammar who defeated Orewa College in their semi-final. Time and place to be confirmed on the WBHS Sport Facebook page.

Rowing – Auckland Light Blues competing in Queensland State Championships

By Matthew Barry

Please click here for an article written by Matthew Barry.

Here are the actual results from the racing in Australia last week with the New Zealand Light Blues composite crews. Westlake Boys’ High School competitors involved are Hugo Verdonk, Matthew Barry, Callum Gilmour and James Brake.

• Bronze Inter-Regional School Coxed Quad – Hugo and Callum
• Gold Championship School Pair – Mat
• Gold Championship School Eight – Mat, Hugo, Callum, James
• Gold Championship School Coxed Four – Mat
• Silver Championship School Coxed Quad – Hugo, Callum, James

Volleyball Results 23 September

• Westlake A beat Long Bay College 2-1
• Westlake A beat Orewa College B 2-0
• Westlake B beat Albany Junior High School 2-0
• Westlake B lost to Rangitoto College A 0-2
• Westlake C beat Hato Petera College 2-0
• Westlake C lost to NorthcoteCollege 0-2
• Westlake D beat Northcote College 2-1
• Westlake D lost to Long Bay College B 0-2

Auckland Schools Rogaine Orienteering Championships

There were some good performances from our Orienteers at the Auckland Schools Rogaine Orienteering Championships held yesterday.

Junior Grade

• Oscar Dorbeck & Tim Rickards came 6^th
• Alex Blackwell & Callum Irving came 10^th

Intermediate grade

• Ryan Williams & Andrei Popovici came 1^st
• Max Cantell & Ben Ross came 9^th

Senior grade

• Ryan Dawson &  Luke Merceica came 3^rd

Congratulations:

Bradlee Wong (pictured right) was awarded a Silver medal in the Under 18 55kg category of the North Island Judo Championships recently.  He then went on to win the Under 21 55kg division, and come 3^rd in the Under 21 60kg division