The Prime Minister has confirmed the move to Alert Level 3 on Wednesday 22 September, 2021. Once again, thank you for the work you are all doing within your bubble with supporting learning and keeping our community safe by testing if you or anyone in your bubble has cold or flu like symptoms and taking the opportunity to get a vaccination.
LEARNING In Alert Level 3 Online Learning From Home continues in its current form, as the College remains closed with the exception of for Year 9 and 10 students of essential workers.
Year 9 & 10 Children Of Essential Workers We will have supervised classrooms available from Wednesday onwards where students will be doing online learning only. Students attending must be in school uniform, bring a packed lunch, a water bottle/drink, online learning device, and a face mask. No school buses operate under Level 3. The supervised classes are from 8:30am - 3:00pm and students can enter the College through Gate 1 by the staffroom/bikebay.
As outlined, the opportunity for good learning continues and will be ongoing until the end of term.
On our return to school in Term 4, we will still have our internal school practice exams and we will give you details for those. These practice exams are important for students to prepare for the external exams to be held later in term 4. They allow teachers to gather evidence on assessments. This evidence may be needed to make decisions later.
The External Exams start on 22 November, 2021.
Weekly Report Cards will still be issued on Saturdays. You will have received another Learning-From-Home Information for Parents which will give you a summary of the class work coming up for approximately the last two weeks of term. Remember that each teacher provides the learning for the week every Monday to your tamariki and mokopuna’s Google Classroom. Support your son or daughter by discussing the work they are receiving.
Make sure you engage in your Google Classroom work to your best level as teachers are using every opportunity to gather evidence for assessment as aspects of Senior Assessment. If you engage and take control of even small aspects of your learning it has positive outcomes.
Congratulations to students in the Learning-from-homeClass(es) of the Week: 9W Science, 10C English, PE101, 9P Social Studies, Year 9 Samoan, Health101, 9PFA Drama, Service Academy 303 and Te Reo Maori ‘Team fried bread”! Well done and the profiles are on the website HERE
CARING & HAUORA Dr Hinemoa Elder and neuroscience specialist Nathan Wallis talk about how best to support your whānau in times such as these.You can watch this HERE The ‘Tips from Waitak students for Waitak students’ is now on our website HERE. Check it out. Also check out our instagram page HERE for all the activities that are going on.
Once again I refer you to Our College Counsellors who are available via email: [email protected] and I include the Youthline number 0800 376 633 for your reference, or text 1737 for any guidance needs that may occur.
Flexibility is the key to how you and we all operate at this time. So please use your Online Learning Planner to manage your workload as you go through each week and manage breaks for physical walks and activities away from learning. Take regular breaks.
YEAR 10 - CHOOSING SUBJECTS FOR YEAR 11 - 2022 While focussing mostly on the present situation we would like Year 10 students to complete choosing 2022 subjects this week. A reminder that this is done online via the school portal. An email has been sent to parents explaining how choices can be made. The same information was also shared with students via Google Classroom.
Our Celebration Events such as Sports Awards, Arts and Culture Awards, Mana Maori Awards, Pasifika Awards and Senior Prizegiving will still be held in some form and will be confirmed as we go through Alert Levels. The Senior Dinner has been shifted to 18 November, 2021.
FOODBANK ACCESS With so many of our community in self isolation it is important to know some of our local agencies who can provide support for contactless drive in food pick up at this time. Some that we use as a College are:
The Waitakere College Foundation is a Charitable Trust formed by community leaders and past pupils of the College to:
provide opportunities for our kids to succeed in education by reducing barriers
The Foundation accepts donations of any size from individuals or businesses, who would like to enhance the educational outcomes for students of the College in a variety of ways, to support classroom learning, and provide better opportunities to succeed educationally, thus to become positively contributing community members.
For instance, challenges faced by some students currently include inequity in areas of:
Government funding to enable access to equipment and programmes that would allow them to participate fully in school life
Access to family resources for transport, camp fees, or uniform being barriers to participation in sports, performing arts and extra-curricular activity
Home access to broadband and digital learning facilities, which then puts them behind for furthering their education beyond secondary school and limits their career choices
Funds for scholarships and mentoring programmes to guide and develop them in school and in pathways beyond school
Our approach is to work with charitable donors to secure new and sustainable sources of funding for equipment, resources and activities to meet needs as above.
The Foundation Trustees will meet regularly to discuss and debate options for use of any donations raised and agree on measured outcomes of activity. The Trustees have a connection to the school via representation from the School Board of Trustees Chair, the Principal, and Business Manager. Other Trustees are past pupils or other community representatives.
Waitākere College
42 Rathgar Rd
