2024 WSCW Prize-Givings – Congratulations & Thank You!

20/11/2024
Front Page, Issue 8 2024, Student Success

A big CONGRATULATIONS and THANK YOU to all those involved with our end-of-year Prize-Givings for 2024, which we held across Weeks 2, 3 and 5 of Term 4:

Thursday 24th October 2024 – Pasifika Prize-Giving
Friday 25th October 2024 – Sports Prize-Giving
Wednesday 30th October 2024 – Year 13 Leavers Event & Year 13 Special Awards Evening
Thursday 31st October 2024 – Year 12 Prize-Giving
Thursday 14th November 2024 – Year 11 Prize-Giving (thank you to Ponsonby Intermediate for hosting us!)

The Top Special Prizes awarded to Year 13 students, whose names will go onto our Honours Boards in the school Hall (Te Hōro) are:

Our Top Academic Award – The Hicks Prize for Dux of Western Springs College – was presented to Nina Sipkes.
The O’Keefe Scholarship for Year 13 Overall Merit & Runner-Up to Dux was presented to Isla Taylor.
The Grant Mackie Caring Award was jointly presented to Willa Green & Darko Smileski.
The Mission Statement Award for All Round Excellence was presented to Minka Braunias.
The Year 13 Sportsman of the Year was jointly presented to Raneel Vaidya & Jack Moon.
The Year 13 Sportswoman of the Year was presented to Charli Dunn.
The Ngā Oho Award for Contribution to Ngā Puna O Waiōrea was jointly presented to Te Awerangi Hogg and Manaaki Nathan-Ahmann.
Valedictorians for 2024 were Minka Braunias (WSC), Kate Johnson (WSC) and Huia Rawiri (NPoW).

We wish all our departing students all the very best for their exams and life outside of Western Springs College-Ngā Puna o Waiōrea!

Special awards awarded to staff members:

At the Year 13 Special Prize-Giving, two staff members received awards and were acknowledged for their contribution to our school:

The Board of Trustees Award was presented to Joanne Qiao (International Director) for Outstanding contribution to Western Springs College-Ngā Puna o Waiōrea.

This award recognises Joanne’s contribution to the school and to the school community as our International Student Director for the past 17 years. Prior to taking on the Director’s role, Joanne worked in the roles of Homestay Coordinator and International Student Dean beginning in 2003, making a total of 22 years of service to the school. In her role as International Student Director, Joanne has managed the exponential growth of our International student roll – peaking at 123 students in 2019 prior to Covid.

During her time in leading the growth of the International Department, Joanne’s work ethic and focus has raised extra funds for the school as well as promoting meaningful cultural exchanges with students from all over the world. Many of these ex-students remain loyal to the College and promote us as a great place to study for future students – a classic win-win situation.

We thank Joanne for her dedication, hard work and absolute joy in bringing so many students from a wide variety of countries and cultures into our lives here at Springs/Waiōrea.

A Long Service Award to our school community was presented to Mrs Sharda Patel for her 29 years of service in a range of roles at Western Springs College.

Mrs Patel will be remembered for her calmness at all times, her wisdom, and her pride in the roles she has held in the school – as a teacher, a previous Head of Department for Social Studies, a Head of House for Whenua and finally as our Teacher in Charge of the Library.

Fun fact – Mrs Patel also served on the staff here for 3 years immediately after graduating from teacher training – so she has actually devoted a total of 32 years to the students of Seddon High School/Western Springs College/Ngā Puna o Waiōrea!