International News

School Holiday Trip

At each school holiday, the international department organises a trip or two for our international students so that they can enrich their experience in NZ while sharing a good time with their friends and the staff members. Unfortunately, we were not able to have those trips for a while due to Covid-19, but during the last July school holidays we had a fun-filled trip to Newmarket. At the start, we met at a Chinese restaurant and enjoyed the yummy Yum Cha lunch. Then we made our way to play ten-pin bowling and pool. In total, we had 20 students including the student leaders and they played in four teams. The trip was an amazing opportunity not only for having fun together but also for team building as an international student family.

Talking about “My Growth”

At the international student assemblies, we have a theme each term. This term, we focus on “My Growth”. Now that half of the school year has gone, it is a good time for each student to reflect on their growth so far and have their self-review and self-evaluation with a practical action plan to achieve the objectives for the year. At the last assembly, our international student leaders, Liya Yang Nightingill and Gavin Yang, gave a speech to address their “My Growth”. Here are the extracts of the speeches they delivered at the assembly.

Speech by Liya Yang Nightingill

The growth in stepping into my leadership has helped me have different opportunities and bring awareness to me and our school about the diversity at Western Springs. A big part of my growth has been coming out of my comfort zone to meet new people and participate in school activities/events which I typically didn’t do in my previous years of high school.

I believe that growth is such an important factor of our lives especially during high school and I’m sure you all have developed into new people since coming to this school. It’s really good for us to acknowledge the big amount of growth we have made as students and people throughout school and I really encourage you guys to think about your personal growth since coming to Western Springs.

Speech by Gavin Yang

I knew going into year 13 I wanted to be more involved in our school, and a clear option of that was applying for a leadership role. As someone who is culturally diverse, I thought that an international leader would be the right fit for me, as well as the idea of spreading the international community across the rest of Springs sounded like something that our school could benefit from. Looking back on this year, a big part of my growth is the confidence I have gained. Before this, I would never have found the confidence to meet new people and talk in assemblies. But after taking on this leadership role, I have gotten more comfortable with public speaking and meeting new friends. I have come a long way and grown a lot in just these past two years of my life, and I encourage you to acknowledge and reflect on your own growth to help better yourself in the future!