Westlake Girls High School Alumni and Friends

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