CHESS CLUB REPORT Sadly, this year has finished, not with a bang but a quiet whimper. We had qualified for the National Finals of the ChessPower event but it was eventually cancelled due to Level 2 Covid restrictions.
That said, the chess team did well this year. We have had more students playing than ever before and enjoyed a few school competitions during the year. Mr Manning put the challenge out to play ten players at the same time and only lost one game. He said it was very hard to concentrate on ten different games at the same time but really enjoyed the competition. More of that next year!
We are currently running the final school competition to see who will be crowned Chess Champion 2021 for WHS. We say goodbye to Michael Everett and Kahlua Tawai who have been stalwarts of the chess team for most of their school life. We wish them all the best for their futures!
We sent three teams to the BOP Championships and missed out on second by half a point. All teams performed well and showed we have good depth for the next few years. We also managed to win our regional qualifier and therefore gained entry to the ChessPower National Final. Sadly it is no longer but we hope to get the chance to play in it next year.
2021 was another successful year for our Enviro Club. We ran a wide range of activities that offer something for everyone.
Enviro Club
Our Vegan Cooking Class was so popular that we ran two classes this year! Thank you to Caitlin and the wonderful senior students who worked hard to get this organised. The food was amazing! We also had heaps of exciting outdoor activities running as well. The Whakatāne High School trapline continues to successfully reduce the risks to our native species with catches such as rats and hedgehogs. We were lucky enough to have support from Halo who have run several sessions with our students to train and educate the group on trap safety and building. We were so fortunate to have the ‘Noho Boys’ build a new area for the
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Whakatāne High School
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Te Waka Kura 2021
Enviro Club, consisting of a large work bench for seed planting and a shed for storage. We now look forward to using this space and working with other schools by running a Tuakana Teina programme to share the love we have for the environment. Thank you to all of our students who came to meetings, walked the trapline, got involved in our cooking classes, and organised their own, or participated in, community events. Thank you to our new staff who have jumped in and joined in with our mission. My biggest thanks are to the amazing and passionate senior students who have driven this group for the year while Ms Garner has been on maternity leave. You are all incredible young people, and we know that the world will be a better place with you all in charge of it!
