Westlake Girls High School Alumni and Friends

Hi Everyone,
I hope you enjoy catching up on Westlake news and alumni updates in the Alumni Newsletter out this week. We have 4,300 former students on our alumni database and 2 newsletters a year. Email [email protected] with your name, including surname when at WGHS, and years you attended, to be included on our database. Thanks, Alumni Coordinator.

WGHS Alumni Newsletter August 2026 Welcome to our winter alumni newsletter. In this issue, we are bringing you great news of Westlake’s National Award for Excellence, a new vertical form class, and musical successes.

Westlake Production Week is here!

This year's show is 'Pride and Prejudice' and opening night is tomorrow (Tuesday). Don't miss the chance to see another wonderful Westlake production!

Performance Dates:
• Tuesday 21 July – Friday 24 July | 7:00pm
• Saturday 25 July | 2:00pm Matinée

Tickets can be booked here:

eTicket Event | Pride & Prejudice etickets, pride-and-prejudice

2026 NCEA exam supervisors needed

The exam period runs from Tuesday 10th November until Friday 4th December with morning and afternoon sessions. Exam sessions are 3 hours long with a half hour briefing/prep time. Morning briefing is at 9am and afternoon briefing is at 1.30pm. The first 2 weeks are the busiest.

Supervisors will need to be 4 years out of high school and be willing to work throughout the exam season.

Key sessions that are very big and will need the full supervisor team are:
Tuesday 10th Nov am
Thursday 12th Nov am and pm
Tuesday 17th Nov am
Thursday 19th Nov am
These must be a priority for any supervisor wanting to be part of the team.
Remuneration is $100 per session.

If you are interested please email the Exam Centre Manager Liz Cable [email protected]

Last week, the inaugural New Zealand Education Excellence Awards were held at Parliament. We are proud to have won the Secondary School Excellence in Educational Leadership Award!
This recognition celebrates the dedication, leadership, and commitment of our staff, students, whānau, and wider community, whose efforts make Westlake such a special place to learn and grow. The award comes at a particularly exciting time, following our recent ERO report, which recognised Westlake's leadership as "Excelling", along with outstanding results across many other areas.
Congratulations to everyone who has contributed to this incredible achievement. We are proud to celebrate this success with our entire Westlake community!

There is another great coaching opportunity at Westlake Girls in the school holidays - for primary school basketball players!
Our Premier Champion Basketballers will lead a holiday camp over several days in Weeks 1 and 2. Full details in the flyer.

The Westlake Girls Premier Netball Team is holding a Netball Coaching Clinic on Sunday, the 19th of July, at school from 9.30 am - 12.30 pm OR 1.30 pm - 4.30 pm (choose ONE session).

We would like to invite Year 1-8 netballers to come and get ready for the end of the season, as everyone heads into the playoffs in August! It will be ideal for individuals, but we encourage teams to come together and improve as one.
Tickets are just $40, with all proceeds supporting the Westlake Girls Premier Netball Team’s journey to the Upper North Island Champs! Grab a friend, lock in your spot, and support a great cause.
Registrations close on Thursday, 16th July 2026.
Sign up on the Westlake Girls website:
https://www.westlakegirls.school.nz/student-life/sports/
If you have any questions, please email April Ieremia: [email protected] See less

A special reunion at Westlake - WGHS Class of 1966 (1962-1966)

Last week we welcomed back former students from the WGHS Class of 1966, to celebrate a special occasion – their 60-year reunion. The group included four teachers from that time who joined this foundation group of students from 1962.

We celebrated with a school tour accompanied by prefects, a welcome by principal, Jane Stanley and Matua Eddie Hudson, a waiata from Te Puna o Hiwa i te Rangi, music by Serenade String Quartet, a display of memorabilia, and morning tea in the Event Centre.

A special part of the morning was the group’s donation of a pūriri tree to mark this significant milestone. Former student, Liz Goodwin, spoke about the tree, with the message, “We give it with love and gratitude for those before us and with love and joy to those in the future”.

We enjoy being able to share occasions such as this with our alumni community. It's always a challenge to reach our former students, from the early years in particular, with changes in surnames. We send out two alumni newsletters a year to keep in touch, so please contact [email protected] with name and years of study at WGHS if you would like to be added to our alumni database.

We have some great news to share with our alumni community - Westlake Girls High School has been named a finalist in the New Zealand Education Excellence Awards for Educational Leadership for 2026!

The Prime Minister’s Education Excellence Awards recognize and celebrate outstanding performance in schooling across Aotearoa, highlighting the work being done to make an exceptional difference for their learners, educators, and communities.

This nomination reflects the passion, vision, and hard work found in our classrooms daily, driven by a leadership team, staff, and inspiring student body dedicated to excellence.

Westlake Girls Class of 1966 Reunion
The Foundation Class of Westlake Girls High School - Form 3 1962 - are getting together for a reunion at Westlake Girls on Friday 5 June 2026. For this year group - the Alumni Class of 1966 - it will be 60 years since their final year.
We are in touch with a number of former students who studied at Westlake through to their fifth year (1966) and maintained a strong connection, but have little information on most of that founding cohort who would have finished schooling at Westlake probably in Form 5 (1964) or Form 6 (1965). We’d love to find more of our founding group from the newly established Westlake Girls High School.
If you started at Westlake Girls in Form 3 in 1962 and would like more information, please email [email protected] with your name, including your surname when at Westlake.
Thanks,
Cathy Roughan
Alumni Coordinator

We’re hiring Teacher Aides for 2026 🙌
Are you encouraging, positive, and responsible – and do you genuinely enjoy working with teenagers? Our Learning Enhancement Department is looking for part-time and full-time Teacher Aides to join the team next year.
You’ll be:
• Supporting students with learning differences alongside their regular classes
• Offering encouragement and guidance (no need to teach the curriculum yourself)
• Helping with junior subject work across a range of classroom and practical subjects.
We’re looking for people who are:
• Patient and positive
• Responsible, reliable, and proactive
• Physically able to move around the school to support students as needed
You’ll be joining a team that cares deeply about educational support and gets real satisfaction from helping young people succeed.
👉 If this sounds like you, please email your CV and a brief cover letter (including your preferred hours – part-time or full-time) to Jemma Field at [email protected].
Please share or tag someone who might be interested.