Wakatipu High School

The Wakatipu High School Foundation annual Winter Gala and Auction was a fantastic night! A huge thank you to our wonderful community and the WHS Foundation for helping us raise over $42,000 for WHS students. A special thanks to Little’s Road for performing, and for the wonderful support of the Queenstown Golf Club and the many local businesses who donated.

Read more details and news from the week in our newsletter, out now:
https://wakatipuhs.schoolzineplus.com/enews?nid=251

THE RUNWAY SHOW

Our theatre was transformed last night into a performing arts, high-fashion, high-energy spectacular for the WHS 2026 Runway Show.

It was an incredible celebration of rhythm, passion, and pure imagination, seamlessly blending dynamic dance, performing arts, and wearable art garment construction.

We are so proud of every student who took the stage, and we're in awe of the incredible creativity they brought to life. We can't wait to do it all again next year.

We had the pleasure of welcoming our 2027 Year 9 students and their families to Wakatipu High School last week. It was fantastic to see the excitement from everyone as they toured our kura. A big thank you to all who attended.

For more details on enrolment for 2027, please visit our website: https://www.wakatipu.school.nz/enrolment.html

We are delighted to announce Haru Kuroe and Eve Pagan as our recipients of the prestigious ODT Class Act Awards for 2026. Throughout their time at WHS, both Eve and Haru have consistently demonstrated outstanding commitment and excellence across a breadth of academic, sporting, artistic, and cultural pursuits. They truly embody our school's vision of a great all-around education.

Find out more and all the latest news from the week in our newsletter, out now: https://wakatipuhs.schoolzineplus.com/enews?nid=250

Today we welcomed Queenstown Lakes District Mayor John Glover to WHS for our Inspiring Leaders Speaker Series. He shared fantastic insights on leadership & the council's community role with our students. Thank you, Mayor Glover, for taking the time to inspire our next generation of leaders!

Our next featured Inspiring Leaders speakers are our Head Students, Zara, Nicole, and Sammy. They recently represented WHS at the Westpac Queenstown Women in Business Conference, speaking in front of 270 of the country's top female professionals. A huge thanks to the Queenstown Business Chamber of Commerce for supporting our students at this incredible event.

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Happening this Wednesday - The Path to a Creative World.

Wakatipu High School and The Three Lakes Cultural Trust invite students and parents to an evening exploring creative careers in design, media, and the arts. This is a chance to connect creativity to modern industries that value imagination, storytelling, problem-solving, and human insight.

When: Wednesday 10th June 2026, doors open 6:15pm
Where: Wakatipu High School Theatre
Tickets are free - but limited, more details here: https://events.humanitix.com/the-path-to-a-creative-world-queenstown-lakes

Today we celebrated our junior students at our Ākonga Passport Award Assembly. We had 85 Year 9 and 10 students cross the stage who have recently achieved their bronze, silver or gold award. These awards recognise students who live the Wakatipu Way, demonstrate strong engagement in their learning, participate in extracurricular and cocurricular activities, and provide service to our school and community. Whakamihi, congratulations to all our award recipients.

Read all the details and more news from the week in our newsletter, out now: https://wakatipuhs.schoolzineplus.com/enews?nid=249

A fantastic day of school sports! A huge shout-out and a massive thank you to all the players, coaches and managers from both schools, as well as the referees who made yesterday’s annual sports exchange with James Hargest such a success. The cherry on top was WHS taking out the exchange 7-5. Full results below.

Senior B Netball: WHS 33 - 14
U15 Rugby: WHS 52 - 0
1 XI Boys Hockey: JHS 6 - 0
10 A Netball: WHS 37 - 24
Senior A Boys Basketball: JHS 65 - 63
1st XI Girls Hockey: Draw 1 - 1
1st XI Girls Football: JHS 2 - 1
1st XV Girls Rugby: JHS 26 - 12
9A Netball: WHS 20 - 18
Junior A Boys Basketball: WHS 48 - 44
1st XI Boys Football: JHS 5 - 1
1st XV Boys Rugby: WHS 59 - 14
Senior A Netball: WHS 41 - 32

2027 New Enrolments and Open Evening
Thursday, June 11 | 4:30 - 7:30 pm
We look forward to welcoming incoming Year 9 students and their parents/caregivers to our Enrolment and Open Evening next week. This is an important opportunity to take a guided tour, learn more about Wakatipu High School, and begin the 2027 enrolment process.
Please note that limited visitor parking is available; see our website for more details.

We were thrilled to welcome 26 Tahitian students to Wakatipu High School this week for an incredible cultural and language exchange.

For the first time, our amazing WHS families opened their homes to host, sparking instant friendships through shared culture and everyday experiences. Our French classes got to practice in real-world scenarios, while our Kapa Haka and Pasifika groups shared powerful moments of cultural connection through reo, waiata, and dance.

Later this year, our Year 12 French students will pack their bags for Tahiti and Moorea to keep this amazing partnership growing. A huge thank you to all our hosts and students for your incredible manaakitanga this week!