• Connor Bell
  • Character Education Forum.
  • Before...
  • And after...
  • Westlaker Regan Hill-Male (class of 2014) with his art.
  • Student Jiro Dela Cruz with his (number 12) and other Year 12 art.

Olympic Gold for Connor Bell

The smile says it all! Well, that and the large piece of gold in his hand! Westlake Boys student Connor Bell was the proud winner of the gold medal in the men’s discus at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires last month.

The competition was spread over two days and Connor made a great start in the first stage with a throw of 66.84 metres, a Youth Olympic record. This gave him a lead of almost ten metres over his closest rival. Connor said: "My first throw was a big one, and that made me relax a little bit. But I knew the boys out there were capable of some big things, so that kept me on my toes."

After the second stage, a combined distance of 133.08m gave him the gold by 18 metres. “The coolest part was being zoned in…the crowd sort of disappeared. When I went to throw it was just me, the discus and the sector."

Connor was not the only Westlake athlete to succeed at the Youth Olympics. Two days earlier, Oscar Guo had won a silver medal in the badminton team relay event and Murdoch McIntyre ran a 15 second personal best in the 2000m steeplechase, breaking the U17 New Zealand age-group record.

Connor is deservedly ‘stoked’. “I couldn’t be happier. This was my goal a couple of years back and I’m just so proud of myself, ” he says, but he won’t be resting on his laurels. “It’s a big milestone but, moving forward, World Juniors [in 2020] is the next check on the checklist.” And after that...we’ll be watching with interest, Connor!

 

Teaching Good Character

What makes a ‘good person’? What traits and values do they have? Can we teach these? These are some of the questions that have sparked a conversation at Westlake Boys.  While academic success has always been a major focus, we also strive to provide a well-rounded education – one that equips our students with the values, virtues and behaviours that afford them the best opportunity to leave school as ‘good citizens’.  This is implicit in everything we do, but we now intend to make this more explicit and this initiative, which we call ‘Character Education’, will become a fully aligned feature of the school from 2020.

We asked for input from the wider Westlake community to help us identify what our priorities should be around Character Education.  To this end we held half-day forum with a group of 50 of our stakeholders – students, parents, staff and former students – to help us define a ‘graduate profile’.  This profile tells us what a Westlake Boys student will exemplify, incorporating the character strengths and qualities he will learn and develop during his time with us.  It will also form the framework from upon which our Character Education is built.

Everyone involved in the forum contributed enthusiastically and it was inspiring to see the participants all working together.  They told us how much they appreciated being included in the process and agreed how important this work is for our current and future students. 

 

A Sanctuary for Our Distance Runners 

Over the space of a few weeks, a dark and dirty storage space beneath the science block has been totally transformed into a new Running Office. This unique space is both a work area for all the planning and administration of the running programme and a calm, comfortable sancturary for the distance runners. Responsible for this is Theuns Strydom, the inspirational Teacher in Charge of Westlake Distance Running who, along with a number of students, dedicated many, many hours to the project.

The new office is clearly a labour of love, with the design of every centimetre planned down to the finest detail.  There are separate areas for studying, relaxing, planning training schedules and preparing lunch – apparently the boys get through a LOT of Uncle Ben’s rice! With great ingenuity Mr Strydom has constructed desks which can be folded down, to maximise the space, and has converted old gym climbing bars into a shoe rack. There are touches of Africa throughout, reflecting the school’s regular running tours to South Africa and Kenya, with gifts and souvenirs received on these tours featuring prominently.  The walls are clad in corrugated metal sheeting and wood from deconstructed pallets and the floor is varnished plywood.  Trophies and awards won by current and former students are displayed on custom-built shelves, around the walls and on a trio of revamped railway sleepers.

Mr Strydom has built an extraordinary culture of dedication, commitment, respect, and loyalty within the Westlake Distance Running family, developing not only the students’ running talents, but also their leadership and mentoring skills. The runners were quite overwhelmed, struck speechless when they saw the room for the first time. They are enormously grateful for the time and effort Mr Strydom and a few of their fellow runners have put into creating this very special space they can call their own. 

 

Art at 3.15    

The 3.15 Westlake Art Exhibition is an annual collaboration between the art departments of Westlake Boys and Girls High Schools, presenting the artwork of current and former students and art teachers.  The exhibition, now in its fifth year, takes its name from an art club many years ago that ran at 3.15 on a Friday afternoon.  This year’s exhibition was held at the Lake House Art Gallery from October 14th to 28th. The opening event drew a crowd of enthusiastic art lovers, including many of the artists themselves.

 


Issue 93 November 2018