February 2016 Newsletter

Sacred Heart College
65 Laings Road, Lower Hutt, New Zealand
Newsletter – February 2016
Year 12 Geography trip to Tongariro National Park
Email: (Principal) principal@sacredheartcollege.school.nz
Email: (School) college@sacredheartcollege.school.nz
Website: www.sacredheartcollege.school.nz
Telephone: 04-566 1089 Absences: 04-587 1777 Fax: 04-587 1776
Key Dates for your
Diary:
 11 Mar – Japanese
students from
Shibuya arrive
 16 Mar – Project K
Students/Parents/
Caregivers Evening
 23 Mar – DOE Gold
Information
Evening
 23 Mar – Board of
Trustees Meeting
 24 Mar – Holy
Thursday Liturgies
 25 Mar – Good
Friday
 28 Mar – Easter
Monday
 29 Mar – Easter
Tuesday
 1–3 Apr – DOE
Gold Practice
Expedition Mt
Holdsworth
From the Principal
Kia Ora Koutou Katoa
Talofa lava
Fakaalofa lahi atu
Kia Orana
Namaste
Welkom
Herzlich Willkommen
Witamy
Greetings to everyone
We have had a tremendously positive start to 2016 with Year 13
Retreat, Year 9 Orientation and Mass, Powhiri to formally welcome
new members of our school community, Ash Wednesday liturgy and Leadership Mass. Beginning the
year in this manner helps us connect with one another as the Sacred Heart Girls' College community,
and it helps us connect with the Catholic belief that we are all made in the image and likeness of
God.
At Sacred Heart Girls' College our mission is to provide a Catholic education that encourages each
student to aim for excellence and to pursue her full potential. 'Excellence' in our book, is each of us
being the most excellent we can personally possibly be. It’s about continually striving and
challenging ourselves to reach that pinnacle of personal excellence.
So how do you reach excellence – because it doesn’t just happen?
You need to work at things – very rarely will something amazing happen without sheer grit and
determination being behind it. So whether it's in the classroom or in a relationship or on the sports
field, if you don’t work at it you can't expect to excel.
I see instances of people reaching excellence at our college often; excellence is the gradual result of
always striving to do better. It never seeks excuses and is not about talent alone. In fact a major
part of excellence has nothing to do with talent. It is what you do with the talent that matters.
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit"
Inside
From the Principal 1
Wellbeing Tools for
Young People
1
NCEA Parent
Information
2
Toloa Scholarship 2
Yr 12 GEO Tongariro
National Park
2
Year 13 Retreat
3
Music
4
Careers
4
Community
Donations
4
Call for Fabric
4
Cyber Safety &
Digital Citizenship 5
Library News
5
Congratulations
5
2015 NCEA Merit
& Excellence
6-7
Athletics Day
7-9
Whilst the term is full of exciting activities both in and out of the classroom, our core business
remains the same – teaching and learning – and our focus must be on outcomes that ensure success
now and in the future for all our girls.
Thank you for your on-going commitment and support and for the effort you have put into preparing
your daughter for the start of the school year. We know that it is teachers who have the greatest
impact on student learning, but we also know that the support of parents/caregivers and the
community working with us is important for students to have every opportunity of achieving and
being the very best they can be.
No reira tena kotou tena kotou tena tatou katoa.
Maria Potter
Principal
Wellbeing Tools for Young People
www.thelowdown.co.nz This website gives straight-up answers for when life sucks! It has strategies
to help young people build a healthier state of wellbeing. Strategies include the development of
resilience, places to get help should they need it, and information for anyone worried about a friend.
www.commonground.org.nz This webiste aims to ensure that parents, families, whānau and friends
of young people have easy access to information to help them support young people to manage hard
times and enjoy positive mental health and wellbeing.
Parents: Your first point of contact at school is your daughter's Form Teacher followed by her Dean.
1|P a g e
NCEA parent information evening
Thank you to all the parents who were able to attend our NCEA evening.
All Year 11-13 students have received an NCEA booklet for students. For further information on how NCEA works, please visit
the NZQA website.
www.nzqa.govt.nz/qualifications-standards/qualifications/ncea/understanding-ncea/how-ncea-works/
There is a video that can be downloaded and viewed in Te Reo Māori, Cook Island Māori, Niuean, Samoan, Tongan and NZ sign
language.
A mobile app called 'NCEA Guide' has also been written for parents and whānau. It is
free to download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.
Toloa Scholarship – Congratulations!
Sacred Heart College is proud to acknowledge that two of the four inaugural winners of the Toloa Pacific
STEM Scholarship were Year 13 students at SHC in 2015. Congratulations to Zoe So'otaga and
Melissa Kupa.
Zoe So’otaga is in her first year of a Bachelor of Building Science at Victoria University of Wellington.
Melissa Kupa is commencing her first year of Bachelor of Engineering Technology at Wellington Institute
of Technology. Melissa plans to continue working with our Pasifika students at SHC during 2016.
The scholarship, worth $25,000 over three years, is aimed to encourage Pacific people to study science,
technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects at tertiary level and ultimately increase the
number of Pacific people in those fields.
Yr 12 Geography trip to Tongariro National Park
Our journey began on a beautiful Sunday morning. The Year 12 Geography class met at school and headed off to Tongariro
National Park. The long journey took us to The Crossing Backpackers where we met the owner of the fine establishment. He
welcomed us and assigned us rooms.
After a good night’s sleep, we headed off to Tama Lakes Track and collected some raw data (soils, vegetation, climate and
moisture) to aid us in our educational advances. We then took a tour around Whakapapa Village and looked at its natural and
cultural features including the Tongariro Chateau and the hot springs. We then spent the afternoon reviewing our data. After a
movie session and water pong we stampeded to bed excited for the day ahead.
We woke early that morning to tackle the challenge ahead, The Tongariro Crossing. The track was long and strenuous but with
the encouragement of others we continued briskly up the mountain making friends with the tourists around us. During our
walk we came across crater lakes, fumaroles, lava bombs, U-shaped valleys and freeze thaw weathering. We then descended
down the mountain towards our bus driver Mike, who kindly drove us all the way home.
Catherine Alvarez, Tayla Dowman, Mollie Hanson and Katilin van Schaik
Tongariro Summit
Fieldwork
2|P a g e
Year 13 Retreat
At the beginning of week 2 we prepared for the 2016 school year with the Year 13 Retreat
at the Wellesley Country Park in Akatarawa.
Although we have been together for 4 years it was an immense way to build and
strengthen friendships with the peers in our Year group and to focus on being the 2016
leaders for our school.
On the first day we faced a number of challenging activities that excited some and terrified
others! Activities varied from climbing over walls, an extremely high flying fox and
meditation. We pushed ourselves and each other by working together, with
encouragement and praise that each of us could do it.
Something we all learnt was the importance of team work and encouragement. For a lot
of us, we would not have completed certain activities if it wasn’t for the constant words of
determination and support we had from each other.
Day 2 was an early start for a couple of us, being woken at 6:45am by chattering ducks!
We began the day by observing Ash Wednesday with a peaceful liturgy, followed by
swimming and form class meetings. The Retreat not only created a special relationship
between all of Year 13 but also our Year 13 RE and Form teachers. A huge thanks to
Mr Chote and the RE department for all of their effort and organisation.
Akatarawa means high vines, and this experience certainly inspired us to have high
expectations and goals for the year. As a year group we are incredibly excited
about our final year at Sacred Heart College.
Sophie Coffey Year 13
3|P a g e
Music
Music at Sacred Heart in 2016 is a happening thing! We welcome Mr Mike Isaacs to the Music
Department, teaching Year 9 – 11 class music and taking Orchestra and Jazz Band as well.
Mrs Rosemary Russell is teaching Year 9 -13 and is taking Orchestra and Senior Choir.
There are nearly 200 students
enrolled in lessons in voice, violin,
cello, double bass, guitar, bass guitar,
flute, clarinet, saxophone, drums and
piano. Students are expected to go to
their lessons on time and practice
during the week at home, so that
good progress can be made.
Next week many music students will be going to hear Wynton
Marsalis, jazz trumpeter extraordinaire and Kiri Te Kanawa and
Voice NZ Chamber choir as part of the International Music Festival.
Please make sure your daughter has returned her permission slip, if
she has one, to help with our organisation.
The first jazz band rehearsal was a great success.
Careers
A belated happy new year from the Careers Department. We are looking forward to a
busy year ahead.
The objective of Careers education is to allow the girls to develop the skills they need
to make good decisions and work towards their goals. We do this by showing them
where to find information and advice, and by having experts from universities and
other institutions to speak to them. We run workshops and visits and they have
access to resources in the library and Careers room.
The Careers room is open most lunchtimes and if the girls want to see Mrs Hudson for
a longer chat they need to put their name on the whiteboard.
This year we have a Facebook page, Sacred Heart College Careers News, where we will post information about Careers events
both in and out of school. An example being information about the Dunedin Tertiary open day in May. There are also links to
useful web pages. Later in the year there will be information about scholarships and student loans. For more information
about what is on the page see me, Mrs Hudson.
Our first round university visits start on 29 February at lunchtime in F1 with a presentation by Canterbury University. I would
urge all those in year 12 and 13 who are considering university to attend these sessions. They can then compare the
universities and find out all they need to know about entry requirements such as rank scoring.
I am looking forward to working with the girls this year and helping them formulate their plans.
Stationery supplies for Tonga
Lower Hutt Foodbank
Year 13s joined Wainuiomata's Sun Valley Kindergarten in
collecting stationery to be donated to a school in Tonga.
The Year 13s donated a box
of their Retreat food to Lower
Hutt Foodbank.
Head of Culture, Leiloa Tanuvasa-Kamo, accompanied by
Mrs Potter delivered the stationery to Sun Valley
Kindergarten's Head Teacher, Karen McDowell.
Mrs McDowell took
two suitcases of
stationery to GPS
Fasi Mo E Afi
primary school on
the island of Noku
Alofa to gasps of
delight and surprise
from the classroom.
Mrs Hudson
Shania Rajanayagam and
Anjeli Patel made the
delivery.
Call for Fabric
SHC's Technology Department welcomes donations of
unwanted fabric. Any type of fabric and any quantity would
be greatly appreciated by the girls. Please ask your daughter
to drop your donation into the Technology block at break
times or before and after school.
4|P a g e
Cybersafety and Digital Citizenship
The College is now entering its second year of students bringing their
own devices to school. Although the focus in 2015 was on Year 9 and
this year is on Year 10, students at any year level are able to bring a
device to school. Although phones have their place in some
classrooms when teachers allow them they are not suitable as the
main device that students use in the classroom.
With the increasing focus on technology both in and out of school all
of the girls were spoken to about cybersafety and digital citizenship
at the start of the year. The powerpoint that we used is on the
school website and we encourage you to look at it and discuss it with
your daughter. Teachers will continue to talk about safe and
responsible use of technology throughout the year.
If you have any questions or comments about the technology in the school please do not hesitate to contact Alison Spencer
spencera@sacredheartcollege.school.nz
Library
This is both an update on what we are currently doing in the library and also an opportunity for me to introduce myself. I took
over from Mrs Smith as Library Manager at the beginning of this term and am quickly finding my feet, with the help of students
and staff alike. I came from Maidstone Intermediate Library and before that Plateau Primary Library so, like the students, I’m
gradually working my way through each of the school levels! This week we recruited 61 student librarians who join
Courtney Hight our Head Student Librarian. We have already made lots of plans, which we will keep you up to date with as the
year goes on. With 61 students on the team we are definitely not short of ideas!
Our other Librarian, Mrs Keenan, created a library display highlighting the
importance of our students being good 'digital citizens' and making considered
choices when using the internet. All students sign a Responsible Student
Agreement prior to using the computers at school and the Library is keen to
support the students in considering the advantages and pitfalls of internet and
social media use.
One area that we wanted our student
librarians to consider was how
libraries use their displays.
Sometimes informative, sometimes persuasive and sometimes, just for fun. We
started the students off thinking about future displays with a paper mache
'creation' based on the importance of imagination.
The plan is to get students' work displayed in the library in the form of displays,
book reviews and art work and anything else they can think of. Hopefully, we can
add as much as our library wall space will allow. Mrs Asprey – Library Manager
Congratulations
Our Values
Bailey Robertson (Year 11) and Aroha Hibbert (Year 12) have
been named in the Junior White Sox team for July's Hawaii
Invitation Tournament.
Mana Atua
Mana Tāngata
Mana Tipuna
Mana Mātauranga
Mana Whenua
Along with Bailey and Aroha, Year 12 student Pallas Potter
has been named in the Junior White Sox training squad for
the 2017 World Championship being held in Clearwater,
Florida.
Study / Homework Club
Study/Homework Club runs every
Thursday from 3.30 – 4.30pm in the
library. It is open to all students
who need help with any subject or
who just want to come and work
for an hour.
Big Sister programme
The Big Sister Programme
runs every Thursday
from 3.30pm – 6.00pm in
A2.
5|P a g e
NCEA Results 2015
Scholarships
New Zealand Scholarship provides recognition and monetary reward to top students in their last year of schooling. New
Zealand Scholarship examinations enable candidates to be assessed against challenging standards, and are demanding for the
most able candidates in each subject.
Scholarship candidates are expected to demonstrate high-level critical thinking, abstraction and generalisation, and to
integrate, synthesise and apply knowledge, skills, understanding and ideas to complex situations.
There are two grades available, S for scholarship and O for an outstanding scholarship.
Approximately 3% of year 13 students in NZ gain a scholarship each year. We congratulate the following students who gained
scholarships in 2015.
Of particular note is the outstanding scholarship awarded to Helena Li and Celena Olivera who gained a scholarship in DVC and
was only a year 12 student in 2015. Congratulations to:
Kathleen Best
English S
Rebecca Hollingsworth
Geography S
Helena Li
English O and Chemistry S
Celena Olivera
DVC S
High Achieving Students
Girls can achieve an overall endorsement for the NCEA level qualification that they have achieved if they gain 50 or more
credits at excellence or merit level. Congratulations to you all – this is no mean feat and we understand the commitment to
your learning that has resulted in these awards. The names of the girls who gained an overall excellence or merit endorsement
at NCEA in 2015 follow:
Level 3 Endorsed with Excellence
Kathleen Best
Rebecca Hollingsworth
Helena Li
Taylor Murfitt
Aimee Sanson
Richa Sejwal
Emma Young
Level 2 Endorsed with Excellence
Olivia Boivin
Gloria Choi
Kristina Haldezos
Claudia Homan
Bronwyn Kortink
Celina Olivera
Anjeli Patel
Shania Rajanayagam
Caitlin Steere
Leiloa Tanuvasa-Kamo
Alyssa Tomkies
Level 1 Endorsed with Excellence
Catherine Alvarez
Anoochana Ammanamanchi
Eris Atienza
Tessa Barlow
Charlotte Best
Nicola Brennan
Anna Cherry
Eleanor Cox
Janelle Divinagracia
Emma Donnelly
Georgia Lewis
Klowie Loverez
Katelyn Luey
Shania Mishra
Shreeya Patel
Jessica Patterson
Renee Rammell
Alice Roberts
Lauren Rohloff
Emma Salzano
Julia Schuchmann
Vaishnavi Sivakumar
Filisita Su
Karen Suresh
Tilleigh Ultra
Lara van der Raaij
Kaitlin van Schaik
Olivia van Woerkom
Level 3 Endorsed with Merit
Alyanna Aguila
Grace Bailey
Simran Bains
Samantha Baldwin
Grace Boyle
Izla Corby
Rebecka Cox
Victoria Duffy
Shannon Eijgenraam
Rashmie Fernando
Amy Knight
Melissa Kupa
Greer McCathie
Shivani Patel
Aimee Penman
Thilini Perera
Nikki Piripi
Rachel Pollock
Aisiri Ravindra
Natalie Shackleton
Amy Smith
Celine Smith
Sophie Telfer
Emma Thompson
Sophie Trask
Kate van Dillen
Amanda Veldman
Anastasia Watt
Anastasia Williams
Ella Woollett
6|P a g e
Level 2 Endorsed with Merit
Zoe Algar
Kate Austin
Rebecca Bogisch
Rune Bosch
Abby Braid
Victoria Choi
Hayley Clarke
Sophie Coffey
Olivia Cornille
Nicole Galvin
Alanah Goldingham
Elena Gorrie
Grace Holmes
Melissa Huntsman
Chanell Jenkinson
Emma Lahood
Cassandra Langlands
Sage Mahuika
Emily McIntyre
Lily McKeefry
Grace Mellow
Neaha Mishra
Caryl Moncal
Lily Moran
Izabella Norris
Laura Pringle
Kelsey Rohloff
Melanie Roundill
Siobhan Ryan
Katrin Scott
Lauren Scott
Makaela Short
Stephanie Siazon
Savannah Smith
Madisson Te Amo
Caitlin Te One
Abbie Vallance
Olivia Wallis
Kaitlin Whitaker
Samantha Wiblin
Viena Wilson
Gemma Woolcock
Antoinelle Zapanta
Level 1 Endorsed with Merit
Aicha Ahloo
Margaret Anitelea-Ioane
Fatima Ahmed
Magnolia Akeli
Samantha Alexander
Phoebe Asprey
Meg Baron
Aria Broughton
Madison Brown
Shannon Collier
Georgia De Kort
Rebecca Falconer
Anna-Rose Galletly
Maxine Garcia
Ashley Hanaray
Olivia Henderson
Sara-Anne Heritage
Stefana Huma
Jamie-Lee Jamieson
Mikayla Johnston
Khushboo Kapoor
Georgia Kellett
Elyce Lawson
Onolina Lemana
Eva Lichtnecker
Louise Lloyd
Charlotte Logan
Marie-Belle Marcha
Ella McGregor
Olivia McLean
Zara Misseldine
Sulami Moemai
Vianka Montero
Samantha Nunns
Krishna Ogwaro
Ella Press
Madison Raiti-Young
Adut Riak
Mollie Robinson
Rebecca Salzano
Hannah Scott
Livia Serepisos
Rose Sharkey
Neha Singh
Hannah Subteniente
Gemma Swanepoel
Jessie Lee Swinn
Brooke Taylor
Lucy Traynor
Maia Trompetter
Holly Trybula
Amy Ung
Sarah van Dillen
Isabella van Hooff
Hannah Vaughan
Erin Wildman
Kayla Williams-Miles
Emily Winwood
Brooke Young
Aezielle Zapanta
Athletics Day – 18 February 2016
7|P a g e
House Points
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
Avila
Lisieux
Siena
Lourdes
Aubert
Barbier
555
552
506
444
428
409
8|P a g e
9|P a g e