Head students selected for 2020
It only seems like a short time ago that I was sitting writing our first Heads Up column of 2019, and before we know it here we are at the end of another fun filled, feature packed year.
We celebrated academic achievement at our end of year prizegivings on November 28 and December 6, and these will be reported on in separate articles in the Chronicle.
It is always a pleasure to see our amazing students achieving so well and, in many cases, their dreams of university, employment, travel or apprenticeships have all been realised. Look out for some fabulous photographs of our award winners in these articles, and you can also view the full range of photographs on our Waiopehu College Facebook page.
We crowned our new Student Leadership Team for 2020 and I am delighted to congratulate Carter Maclean and George Edwards, our new head students.
They are photographed here in front of our honours board, and both Carter and George are looking forward to following in the footsteps of some outstanding head students from previous years.
As you will be aware if you have followed our Heads Up columns during the year we are changing our curriculum for 2020, and there is a lot of excitement amongst our students and parents. Enrolments for next year are high and in fact a number of parents have commented on how they wish school had been more like this when they were teenagers!
One aspect of the new curriculum is our electives programme and we are delighted to be working with a number of volunteers, parents and partners as we put the finishing touches to these plans.
Students will be picking from a range of academic, cultural, sporting and service oriented electives that include mountain biking, circuit training, martial arts, traditional sports such as hockey, netball, basketball, soccer and more, engine building, e-sports, gifted and talented activities, university prep, scholarship papers and whakairo (carving).
In addition we are offering Spanish, Robotics, Veterinary Studies and an internship with our IT provider, Norrcom. We will also be offering the full Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards programme and, in what we believe to be the first of its kind in New Zealand, we are partnering with Sport Manawatu¯ in offering a 36 week coaching course, empowering a wide range of students all seeking to become qualified coaches in their chosen sports.
This will involve a semester of theory based learning, followed by a second semester of practical hands-on coaching of children in our local primary schools. This is just a small selection from the full range of over 100 electives everyone will be choosing from in 2020.
The future is exciting and I would like to take this opportunity of thanking all those in our local community who have stepped up to help.
If you are reading this and would like to contribute to our electives programme, or to any other aspect of life at Waiopehu College, please do not hesitate to get in touch via markrob@waiopehu.ac.nz. Every best wish for Christmas and the New Year.
Hei Kona Mai