Our annual Sports Awards Evening was held on Thursday 31st October at the Barfoot and Thompson Netball Centre (Netball North Harbour). Some outstanding sporting talent was recognised, which celebrated an exceptionally good year for Sport at WGHS.
Major Awards Winners:
Volunteer of the Year - Joel Foster
Student Official of the Year – Chloe Baker and Erin Edwards
Student Coach of the Year – Amy Brotherton
Coach of the Year – John Howard
International Performance of the Year – Aneka Mittendorff
Sportswoman of the Year – Emme Shearer
Emme was a member of the Westlake Premier Basketball and Volleyball teams. She was a NZ U19 Volleyball Team representative and was a member of the NZ U18 3 x 3 Basketball Team, also being named in the Tall Ferns squad in September. Emme was a member of the Premier Volleyball Team which was the AKSS Volleyball Champion, NZSS Volleyball Champion and the Premier Basketball team which was AKSS Premier Competition runner-up and came fourth in New Zealand. She was also selected for Basketball Without Borders (BWB) Asia Camp in Japan, where only the top U17 basketballers from the Asia-Pacific region are invited.
Junior Sportswoman of the Year – Vivian Yang
Vivian was the New Zealand Tennis U16 Indoor Singles Winner, NZ U18 Junior Doubles Runner-up, U18 G4 International Junior Canterbury Doubles Runner-up, U18 G5 International Junior New Caledonia Doubles winner x2, U18 G5 International Junior New Caledonia Singles Runner-up; and a member of the Premier Tennis team (NZSS Champions). Vivian recently represented New Zealand in the WTA Future Stars tournament in China.
Sporting All-Rounder of the Year – Tamara Otene
Tamara was in the Premier Netball North Harbour team which won the Premier grade, a member of the UNISS Netball Team and NZSS Netball Team which finished third at the NZSS Championship. She was a member of the Premier volleyball team which won the AKSS Championship and NZSS Volleyball Championship. Tamara was a member of the New Zealand U23 Volleyball Team and New Zealand Women’s volleyball team. She was part of the team which came runner-up at the NZSS Beach Volleyball Championships, and she also represented the school in the Premier Badminton team.
Team of the Year – Premier Volleyball
The Premier Volleyball team was the AKSS and College Sport Premier Grade Champion, as well as the NZSS Champion for a second consecutive year. This team was unbeaten for the entirety of the 2019 Secondary School Season.
Guest Speaker: Debbie Fuller
Debbie gave an incredible presentation about the process involved for the Silver Ferns to win the Netball World Cup. They set out to be PURE (Play to win, United we are ready, Ruthless, and Explosive), real and connect, while empowering and inspiring through exceptional leadership and consistent sustainable performances. By re-establishing their goals and approach towards the game, they won the NWC.
Celebrating our 2019 successes
Wednesday 30th October was an important day for WGHS, with our Special Awards Ceremony in the morning – celebrating students who have made a significant contribution to our school life – and our Senior Academic Prize-Giving in the evening recognising our top academic achievers. Our guest speaker for the evening ceremony was Westlake Alumna Jolie Hodson, CEO of Spark NZ.
This year’s Dux is Emma McGuigan and our Proxime Accessit Dux is Xiaole Zhan.
Emma has been a diligent, enthusiastic student who maintained an outstanding academic record during her five years of study. She achieved NCEA Level 1 and 2, each with Excellence endorsements, and this year was first in chemistry and statistics, gained distinctions in biology, history and physics – all five of her subjects - and sat Scholarship in four subjects. Emma has a keen interest in biological and environmental sciences, and she hopes to study a Bachelor of Science at the University of Canterbury.
Within Westlake, Xiaole has held roles in the student council, the Onewa cultural committee, and this year led the School Creative Writing Club while starting up a school literary journal. Xiaole has also mentored younger students as a Smart Swans Tutor. She is a member of Choralation choir and Symphony orchestra.
Outside of school, Xiaole has achieved highly across both creative writing and music. As a composer, she has received top prizes in a variety of national and international competitions, including in the Vancouver Chamber Choir International Young Composer’s Competition. Her novella ‘The Extinct’ won the Youth Laureate Prize Editor’s Choice Award and was published by Phantom Feather Press.
This year Xiaole was top in English and music, gained distinction in biology and sat four Scholarship examinations. She has a Top Achiever’s Scholarship to the University of Auckland.
SUPREME AWARDS
Emma McGuigan - Dux
Xiaole Zhan - Proxime Accessit to Dux
Shanmei Zengm - Outstanding all-round student in Cultural, Academic and Leadership
Juliette Vukets - Outstanding all-round student in Sporting, Academic and Leadership
Emma Ormsby - Citizenship - Outstanding Service, Academic and Leadership
College Sport Awards
Seven Westlake Girls students were acknowledged and celebrated for their sporting success at the recent College Sport Young Sportsperson of the Year Awards. There were 2-4 finalists named in each sporting code from more than 110 schools in the greater Auckland area. The finalists and winners for each category were:
All-rounder winner (for athletics, cross country and netball) - Jessica Lane
Athletics winner - Kaia Tupu-South
Tennis winner - Vivian Yang
Tennis finalist - Elys Ventura
Basketball finalist - Emme Shearer
Volleyball finalist - Kaila Ru-Tearoiti
Volleyball finalist - Emme Shearer
Volleyball winner - Tamara Otene
Tamara was also named as a finalist for the overall Sportswoman of the Year.
Meet our 2020 Prefects
At our recent Special Awards Ceremony, the WGHS Prefects for 2020 were announced, including our Head Prefect Kaia Tupu-South and Deputy Head Prefect Darcy Frank.
“It felt really amazing and a bit surreal to be named as Head Prefect,” says Kaia. “After the past four years of seeing all these awesome Head Prefects, it is such a privilege for me to now be the next in line.”
Kaia says her main goal for 2020 will be to encourage students to make the most of their time at WGHS. “I want to enhance their ability to set and achieve high goals for themselves and have the best high school experience possible,” she says. As well as being an exceptional student academically (she was Westlake’s Junior Dux in 2017 and top Year 11 student in 2018), Kaia is a talented athlete who won three national titles at the 2019 New Zealand Athletics Track and Field Championships – in U18 shotput, discuss and the U20 shotput.
Darcy is also excited about 2020 and her chance to give back to the school. “I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to work alongside so many amazing people, and to make a difference within the school community and beyond,” she says.
“I am incredibly passionate about the environment, and within my role I hope to place focus on generating an environmentally-conscious and sustainable Westlake Girls High School, developing new systems as well as encouraging students to live a sustainable lifestyle.
“Throughout my time at Westlake, I have been involved in many groups across different fields including Service, Cultural and Drama committees as well as Student Council. I have also been heavily involved with the arts, participating in two school productions and both leading and competing in Theatresports. Groups such as Amnesty International and Enviro-Group have also been key parts of my Westlake experience.”
We wish Kaia, Darcy and all of our prefects a wonderful 2020.
Outstanding year of music celebrated
The Annual Westlake Music Dinner is a spectacular evening celebrating the myriad successes of both Westlake schools.This year it was held on October 22nd at McHugh’s of Cheltenham, with outstanding performances by Year 13 students May Zeng and Tony Ma, and an inspiring talk by guest speaker Mark Bennett. The following students were awarded cups and trophies for their outstanding contribution to music:
Instrumental Music: May Zeng
Leadership in Music Department: Gabriella Kiefte
Leadership in Performance: Kezia Simpson
Creativity in Music: Wei Qi Lim and Xiaole Zhan
Choral Music: Isabella Brown and Paris Jagger
Excellence in Music Performance: Paris Jagger
Most Promising Song Writer: May Zeng and Judy Zhang
Accompanist: Sandra Kang
Excellence in Contemporary Music: Eternity Tuilaepa
Excellence in Ensemble Performance: May Zeng and Rachel An
University Scholarships
University of Auckland
Faculty of Arts Award: Charlotte Print
Top Achiever’s Scholarship: Hala Barakat, Sophie Hindley, Xiaole Zhan, Amy Blind, Ha-Young Gloria You, Irene Wu.
Massey University
Business School Future Leader’s Scholarship: Bethany Enright
Academy of Sport Scholarship: Aneka Mittendorff
AUT
Significant Student Scholarship: Jessica Lane
The Prime Minister’s Vocational Excellence Award: Lineni Vaotangi
University of Canterbury
Go Canterbury Scholarship: Nathania Cheung
University of Otago
New Frontiers Excellence Scholarship: Lucy Larkin, Tayla Woolley
Performance Entrance Scholarship: Meg Rowlands, Amy Brotherton
Vice Chancellor’s Scholarship: Sana Al Khudairi
150th Anniversary Entrance Scholarship: Sophie Logan
