Wellesley College Newsletter # 5 www.wellesley.school.nz

Above: Some of our Chinese visitors with the Junior School. Also an old photo of old boys Sam Blandford (Head Boy HVHS) and Andrew Underwood (Head Boy Wellington College) with Thomas Leggat (featured overleaf winning the Prime Minister’s award) and Edward Foley. Sam and Andrew helped give out prizes at prize giving.

Dear Parents We are in Week 6 and the year is racing along. The boys and staff are working hard in the classroom with many extracurricular activities going on outside the classroom. Year 4-8 Parent/Teacher interviews are all but complete and the Junior School interviews are well underway. Reports are due out at the end of the term.

Hopefully this is the fifth newsletter that has arrived home this year. The newsletter is a valued link between home and school. It can be found on our intranet site and as you know, the link is emailed to all families as well. Please let the office know if you would like to receive a hard copy. Pictures tell a wonderful story so do enjoy the photos as you will see they depict the wide range of activities the boys enjoy.

Rishi being a gentleman helping with shoe laces

Soccer practice

Y8 Zac with his Junior buddy Josh

Y8 fine cooks Thomas and Tim

June 10 2013

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Prime Minister’s Award As communicated earlier via email, we were delighted to see old boy Thomas Leggat from Wellington College who jointly took out this supreme prize with Nicholas On, also from Wellington College. Thomas embraced the opportunities when he was here and we are all very pleased for him. Other old boys in the news are Olympic rower, Peter Taylor nominated for Wellington Sports’ Personality of the Year award for his work in schools and also Fletcher Mills who is back on track on X Factor.

Y8s Zack, Joel, Josh and Connor.

Chinese Visitors Recently we had 27 Chinese educationalists spend half a day with us and they were an absolute delight. The whole experience was a wonderful cultural exchange and the boys involved got a lot out of the event. With China being our top trading partner, the nature of the world being a global village and our desire to learn from other cultures means we will be increasing our education focus on such experiences. Year 5 are currently liaising with a school in China and with the help from one of our parents, the Middle school will be hosting a few Chinese students in the near future.

Grandparents’ and Friends’ Day Our special afternoon is coming up on Friday September 20th at 1.00pm. Invitations will go out early in the Term but it may pay to give the boys’ intended guest(s) a bit of a ‘heads up’ if there is transport needing to be booked, etc.

Y4 Niko is an accomplished magician and he delighted our assembly with a wonderful show as can be seen by the boys’ enthusiasm.

At various lunch times over the year as one of the leadership opportunities for Year 8, I take all the boys in groups of 6 across to the Pavilion Café for a bowl of chips (I know! Not that healthy!) and a chat about school life.

Secondary School Scholarships

At this time of year many independent and integrated secondary schools (even some state boarding schools such as Nelson College) are gearing up for the 2014 Year 9 scholarship tests. Some have already started. I encourage any Year 8 parents who wish their son to try for one or more of these scholarships to approach the particular school(s) for the appropriate information. Over the years a number of Wellesley boys have won such scholarships.

World Vision Wassila Yahaya (age 12) is our school World Vision child. She lives in Niger and has 6 siblings. Congratulations to the boys who took part in the 20/40 hour famine. We are proud of your resolve. Please get in touch with your sponsors and get the funds back to school so we can forward the money to World Vision.

NZ Speech Board

‘Confidence is everything’ and being comfortable to be able to present yourself and communicate informally or formally (public speaking) certainly helps to develop confidence. We believe the development of good oral language skills is very important and from age five we foster this development on a daily basis. One of the more obvious ways is when our Year 3-6 boys are put

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through the New Zealand Speech Board Oral Language assessments. Later this term all these boys will present to an assessor. Meanwhile a lot of hard work in planning and practising will go on in class and at home. Later in the year the Year 4-8 boys all have their year level speech competitions.

Wellesley Waiting Lists

At this time of year we are trying to finalise our school roll for next year. Families with sons on our waiting list are ringing in wondering whether their child will have a place. If you are intending to transfer to another area or your son will not be attending Wellesley next year for whatever reason, please let the school office know as soon as possible. Even let us know if there is a reasonable possibility that you won’t be here next year, as it helps us with our planning. Waiting lists are fickle and when people hear that schools have waiting lists they sometimes do not even bother enquiring. If friends show an interest in Wellesley, encourage them to plan ahead and pre-enrol so they have their options covered. It is worth knowing, that although we have three main entry levels into Wellesley, namely Year 1, Year 4 and Year 7, places do periodically come up at the other year levels.

Arts Report

This term the boys have been working on clay. They have been taught various techniques and worked on sculptural and flat forms. They have created manmade and organic work. We have looked at the work of New Zealand ceramic artist, Barry Brickell. Some classes have been to the Dowse Gallery to view his work. Eve Owen

Year 7N at the Dowse Josh crafting his bird and nest .

Harry and Rob practising

Performing Arts

The choir has lots to look forward to and is working hard towards an exchange with Queen Margaret College Choir to be held at Wellesley at 12.00 noon on Friday 21st June. Hereworth School Choir is touring and will perform with us at school on Thursday July 4th at around 2.15pm. The Hereworth boys will be billeted by Wellesley boys. Thanks to Steve Girvan who will help coordinate this. Our wonderful music tutors are leading busy lives outside school - vocal tutor Stephanie Paris has just toured with the Pink Floyd Experience and Woodwind tutors Nicholas Walshe and Andre Paris with the Air Force Band. MaryAnne Morgan Our Year 6 choir performed in the ‘Kids for Kids, Everything Is Ka Pai’ concert at the Opera House on Wed 29

th May. The boys in this

choir did an outstanding job and enjoyed having the opportunity to sing with Jackie Clarke. The Artsplash Choir (Year 4 and 5 ) have begun rehearsing and are enjoying the repertoire – especially the songs from Mary Poppins. To get them in the mood and have a context for the songs, they have watched the movie. When watching the Chimney Sweep dance, one boy said, ‘they would have photo-shopped that!’ The movie was made in the 60’s and technology was quite different. They have all enjoyed this classic! The Junior School have worked hard in their Performing Arts time learning their waiata and Toia Mai to welcome their visitors from Chilton. They also performed for our Chinese visitors and did us proud. Many thanks to Harper Doak and Toby Cook for accompanying them on guitar. Year 7M and Y7/8T have been learning the ukulele and have mostly mastered the basic chords. Check them out on their class blog! They sound really good.

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Ruth Hooke Chess

Chess tuition with Mark Van der Hoorn is well underway this year. Year 4 - Monday lunchtime from 12.30pm-1.20pm Year 5/6 - Thursday lunchtime from 12.30pm-1.20pm Year 7/8 - Thursday after school from 3.00pm-4.30pm (Mark intends to run a beginners’ group in the Junior School.)

Child Cancer Foundation

Hamish Simcock in 4C has decided to raise money for the Child Cancer Foundation and will "shave his lid for a brave kid". On June 29th he'll lose all his hair in a group razoring at the Southern Cross in Wellington. So far he's raised almost $2,000.00 If you'd like to support the Child Cancer Foundation and Hamish, click on this link: http://www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/

HamishSimcock The chemistry of the moment! Alexi getting

a fright by the chemical reaction.

Science

Term 2 has been a busy and exciting one in the science room. So far, Year 2 have completed some explorations and investigations around light and colour. They made some lovely shadow puppets after being inspired by some we watched on YouTube. Year 3 have just started

some experiments based around heat and have all learnt how to use and read a thermometer. Soon Year 1 will be coming along and they are going to find out all about magnets. In the Middle school, Year 4 have just finished learning about magnets and they are carrying this on their own classrooms. Year 5 will be coming later in the term and their teachers are planning some fun, hands-on experiments for their classes! Year 6 have begun to find out all about electricity and they are learning all about circuits. Year 7 have been learning about forensic science in class and they are about to do some fun hands on CSI experiments. Towards the end of the term, Year 8 are going to have sessions using the room to learn how to use all of the tools we have to construct a simple bird feeder. This way, later in the year their ability to drill, saw, hammer, cut etc will be more accurate and they’ll be better prepared for a more challenging task. All Senior boys were offered the opportunity to complete an independent Science Fair Investigation and so far we have a few boys who have started or shown an interest to work on one at home. I am available for any help or advice and boys can either come and see me or email me. This year it is purely an optional task as we run our school science fair every second year. These are due by the end of Weel 8. There is also lots of other great science going on around the school in children’s classes. Our lunchtime Lego robotics group is up and running and now Veronica Stevens is running a lunchtime club for the Year 5 and 6. We also had National Science Week recently and many of the classes got to enjoy a fun science show that I presented. We’ve also had a group from Auckland called Science in a Van come and present two different shows based around forces. The Juniors enjoyed a highly fun and interactive storytelling session of The ”Three Billy Goats Gruff” and learnt all about pushing, pulling and friction. The “Move It!” Forces show to some of the Senior syndicate was based around Newton’s laws of motion and I’m sure all the boys will remember watching Steve the Chicken fly through the air! As you can see, there’s been much fun and learning in science and technology so far this year. You can follow along with what is happening on my Science and Technology blog http://wellesleyscienceandtechnology.blogspot.co.nz/ It’s regularly updated with what’s happening and plenty of photos and interesting links. Jo Hawthorne Xander about to blasted with air. And the temperature is…(Marco+Floyd)

William, Rowan and Dinuk studying electricity. Year 2 studying light and colour.

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Kids for Kids concert

On Wednesday 29th May starting at 7.30pm was the Wellington Kids for Kids Choir Concert. This concert was all about fundraising for World Vision and school choirs getting together to sing songs by New Zealand artists. This was the first event that the Wellesley Year 6 Choir have been involved in and we hope to be involved in many more fun shows and performances. The soloists from our school were Ethan Henry (below), Jt Penn and Wills Atkinson-Moses. One of the special guests was Jackie Clarke who was the lead singer and hostess. Her voice is very lovely and beautiful. Chris, from the Funky Monkeys, was our conductor. He had very long hair. The concert ended at 9.45pm. I thought the Year 6 Choir did perfectly well. by Wills Atkinson-Moses (6S)

Lower Hutt’s Mayor, Ray Wallace visited recently and visited classrooms (Y6L above). His PA passed on the following message which is always nice to hear. “The Mayor has asked me to pass on his personal thanks and appreciation for the hospitability shown towards him during his visit

yesterday. He was very impressed with the well thought out questions

asked by your pupils and he thoroughly enjoyed interacting with them.”

Year 7 Parent/Son House Breakfast On Wednesday June 26th at 7.20am, we will be having our first Year 7 House breakfast. First up will be Selwyn and Wellington followed by Marlborough and Croydon in early Term 3 (date TBC). A letter explaining the details of this event will arrive home soon. Old boy Dan Parker (TV3) will be our guest speaker. Dan will tell his story to date and the wisdom gained along the way. His father Bob Parker is the Mayor of Christchurch.

Uniform and Presentation

It is a good habit for the boys to polish their shoes weekly or as they become dirty. Shoelaces need replacing from time to time if they become frayed or too short to fit all the holes in the shoes. Congratulations to the boys for the care and consideration shown in changing into their slippers at the appropriate place for the winter terms. It is a bit of a nuisance for the boys taking shoes on and off as they make the transition from the grounds to the interior, but it does build respect and care for the boys’ ‘home away from home’.

A few boys are getting a bit ‘shaggy’ and need a hair cut. Some have been prompted to do this by staff but ideally the prompts need to come from home. We want to encourage the boys to present themselves in a clean and tidy fashion, taking pride in their uniform and their school.

PE/Sport

Theo fiercely competing for the ball against Hereworth’s 1st XI

Max, Zac, Christopher, Dominic, Charles

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A number of our boys enjoy Fencing as a sport and it was great to hear that old boy Isaac Rusholme-Cobb has made the NZ under 15 fencing team. The Senior school boys completed their winter sports trials and are right into the swing of the new season. The Junior and Middle sport programmes are also well underway. Hereworth School from Havelock North visited Wellesley for the first senior winter fixture of the year. Hereworth brought 74 boys and over 50 parents to Wellington for the very successful fixture. The support of the Wellesley community through billeting, catering and supporting contributed significantly to the success of the fixture. The staff and coaches would like to thank the parents for all their help and support! Wellesley came out on top on the field with wins in the 1

st XV rugby and both football games. Wellesley has traditionally been strong

in football and Hereworth are always difficult to beat in rugby. There were losses in the 2nd

XV and 1st XI hockey

games but the teams will be better for their first up games. Both of these teams were playing in new strips funded by the Parents’ Association which is appreciated by the boys and coaches. Andrew (2nd XV) competing against Hereworth. 2nd Xl Robbie setting to pass to Oscar.

Wellesley’s second winter inter-school fixture was scheduled to be played against St Mark’s School last week. St Mark’s was only able to provide football teams this year but agreed to four teams. This allowed a 3

rd XI game

to be added to 1st, 2

nd and Colts games.

Wellesley entered a team in an Underwater Hockey tournament held at Naenae Pool. The boys are introduced to the sport over a Saturday night in a tournament format. Half the team was playing for the first time and they learnt the game quickly and enjoyed the challenge. Thank you to Anna Loughnan who managed and her daughter who coached the Wellesley team. They finished fourth out of the ten teams which was an excellent achievement.

Hockey practice. 1st Xl playing Hereworth. Oliver passing.

The Year 5 and 6 Zone Football tournament was postponed until the Thursday in Week 4. Wellesley entered four teams with two in each section. All four teams finished in the top four in their sections. Thank you to the parent coaches and the parents for help with transport. Year 3 and 4 basketball teams are well into their second competition for the year. The Globetrotters and Breakers are building on their first term experience. One Year 6 and four Senior basketball teams are playing in Karori Recreational Centre leagues. There is also a Senior team playing in the Hutt Valley league at Walter Nash Stadium. All teams are competitive and developing their skills in a competitive environment. Thank you to parents who are managing these teams.

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The Senior Multi Sports boys visited the Indoor Sports Centre for their first outside away trip of the year. They have had games at school and have other planned trips as part of their programme. The main PE focus in the early part of the term was on large ball and hockey skills. The boys have been encouraged to practise the techniques relevant to their team sports at home to improve their skill base further. The junior classes are well into their KiwiSport football sessions. The sessions are run by two coaches every Friday morning until the end of term and help to improve coordination and skills in a fun way. The middle and senior boys have moved onto learning the fundamentals of badminton and table tennis. The Senior Zone Cross Country runners had their event at Trentham Memorial Park last week. Year 4-6 boys have their equivalent event this week at Boulcott School. The Senior table tennis championships are well underway. Boys are entered in singles and doubles draws which run in a knock out format. Darren Houston

Junior soccer lessons The haka before the 1stXV match-the Junior School responded from the upper quad.

Parent Education Night Please mark this in your diary 7.30pm on Tuesday July 2nd. Our staff ICT leaders will take us all through various aspects of the boys’ programme. More information to follow. Reports Teachers are currently working on this considerable task so the reports can be posted by the end of term. Wellesley Alumni Update New to the school website under Foundation Tab is Alumni News. Read what our old boys have been getting up to and some interesting recognition attempts in old school photos. Any old photos of interest from old boys would be appreciated. Margie Beattie

Please note end of Term 2 date is Friday 5th July. The Gala committee led by Phillipa Paviour-Smith and the Centenary committee led by Geof Shirtcliffe are doing a lot of work behind the scenes to make these two important events a success. We are all very grateful for their commitment and work. The Parents’ Association movie fundraiser was a great success with the theatre all but sold out. Special thanks to Sharyn Mitchell for leading the event’s organisation and to Lisa Bowker for the wonderful nibbles beforehand as well as to parent Mark Albiston (Jude Y5) who directed the movie ‘Shopping’ and his wife Amy who helped us with this fundraiser. Meanwhile all the very best. Kind regards Warren Owen Principal The Junior School loved hosting Chilton Y1-4. The day started with a powhiri and later

the boys gave the girls a tour of the school. Ezra (above) was a fantastic tour guide.

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PUBLIC NOTICES

Please note that notices posted in this section of the Principal’s Pen have not necessarily been vetted by Wellesley. We therefore advise that if you are interested in any of the services advertised that you check them out yourself.

Underground Market @ The Dowse. Second Sunday

of every month 10am-3pm.

Looking for that something different? Experience one

of Wellington’s most exclusive shopping destinations

brimming with beautifully made gifts and treats.

Meet the designers, artists and crafters and 'unearth

a little treasure' from our distinctive collection of

market-only goodies.

Indulge in coffee or brunch, browse with friends,

bring the family, or take time for yourself. Discover

a unique array of locally made designer homewares,

clothing, craft creations and gourmet food products.

The Dowse Museum

Laings Road

Lower Hutt

Tutor – experienced, registered teacher available to tutor years 1-8 students in Maths, English

(reading, writing, listening) to overcome any weaknesses, strengthen strengths or learn new skills.

Small group Italian and ukulele classes. Please contact Cecilia 021 0252 1616 or 889 0269.