Congratulations to our Premier Boys Volleyball team who have finished 3rd in the New Zealand Secondary School Championships.

Since it is the end of the term, I would like to write about bouquets and brickbats. This is an idiom (saying) not really heard these days. We all know what a bouquet is and considering bouquets are usually used at weddings obviously it has positive connotations but brickbats is a word from the mid-1600’s and was a piece of brick used as a missile, figuratively used since, as a negative comment or insult.

We have a short survey we would love you to fill in so we can get a feel for what you think about a range of aspects of our school. This survey includes our Open Day, our school motto, the use of Schoology and KAMAR, the Hauora programme and adding an additional clothing item to our uniform.

Last newsletter we introduced our Head Students. This newsletter, meet the rest of our 2024 Senior Student Leaders:

This year we have a number of new faces within our Kura. In our last newsletter we introduced you to some of them. Check out some of our other new teachers below:

On Friday the Board of Trustees conducted interviews for the Associate Principal role. Subsequently, we are able to announce the appointment of Ryan Cox to this position.

School will close early on Wednesday 15th of May for a PPTA Paid Union Meeting

Congratulations to Yr 12 Antonia Wu (Sheppard House) for being our Student of the Week for week 5.

Congratulations to Yr 11 Paul Huggins (Rutherford House) for being our Student of the Week for week 6.

Congratulations to Yr 13 and Head Student Alex Mathieson (Rutherford House) who is the Student of the Week for Week 7.

Congratulations to Yr 12 and Volleyball Prem Boys Captain Liam Smith (Rutherford House) who is the Student of the Week for Week 8.

Congratulations to Yr 12 Noah Standring (Te Puea House) who is the Student of the Week for Week 9.

Autumn Gala, 2024’s hottest carnival was at HHS on Monday, 25th March. It was a blast and seeing the huge number of people coming and enjoying the event has brought us confidence for our future cultural events.

Our students in the cast and crew of Shakespeare's Macbeth have been working hard to perfect their performance for opening night on April 9th!

The Arts Captains Amira Stephenson and Jasmine Terry alongside the Arts Council (Zara Brassington, Max Brazendale, Sarah Briston, Chris Collett, Miya Duligall, Tammy Hogarty, Rania Khan, Madeline Molloy, Valerie Pearce, Noah Standing, Annabelle Waters and Benjamin Wong) hosted and organised a fantastic event on Thursday 21st March.

Year 13 student Leo Reid's short story A Borrowed Interest has been chosen for publication in Re-Draft 23, The Report.

A huge thank you to the HHS community. As a result of our Free Dress Day we raised $1427.70

As an inclusive school we are proud to now have our Library accessible to all students. Yesterday we had the official opening of our Library lift, the ribbon was cut by our PAC students.

Recently, the PAC visited the Cowshed, located on the outskirts of Glenview. The Cowshed is a small farm and centre dedicated to providing accessible experiences for young people with a disability, and helping support their families.

Peter Thomas, a retired Classics and History teacher who spent many years at Hillcrest High School has recently published a book.

We are very thankful for the support from Amanda Merrington of Bayleys Real Estate Cambridge.

With the recent retirement of Mr. Kelvin Whiting as Principal after almost 21 years Mr. Whiting has had his portrait added to the wall in reception.

This term our Level 1 Geography students have been exploring the Maungatautari Maunga environment.

We are pleased to hear that Risha Deo, Mila Bremner and Katie-Mae Dewys were finalists in the ever Design a Tote Bag competition run in partnership by Hamilton City Council, Waikato Regional Council and BUSIT.

On Monday 25th March, fifteen Y11 and Y12 students attended the Puuhoro Waananga, which was held at Claudelands Events Centre.

Four Hillcrest teams, senior and junior boys and girls, competed at the national secondary schools last week in Wellington.

Hillcrest High School's rowing team had a fantastic showing at the recent Maadi Regatta held at Lake Ruataniwha in Twizel during the summer tournament week. With sunny skies and perfect conditions all week, our 20 student athletes had a great time on the water.

The Waikato Bay of Plenty and North Island Secondary School Athletics meets were held recently and Hillcrest had two outstanding young athletes competing.

Between 18-20 March, three students competed in the Waikato Secondary Schools Matchplay Tournament at Te Awamutu Golf Course.

On Friday 22nd March 20 Hillcrest High School students participated in the Chiefs Experience Day. The afternoon was run by six Chiefs rugby players who were, Kauvaka Kaiveleta, Emoni Narawa, Manaaki Selby-Rickit, Ollie Norris, Reuben O'Neill, Tupou Vaaí.

A group of our Pasifika students competed in the annual Kilikiti Competition held at the University of Waikato.

Level 3 Business Studies students have been busy preparing for their upcoming Marketing Plan assessment

The School ball is one of the most looked forward to events of the student body, and we are looking to make it as great as possible.

Teacher only day this term focussed on te ao Māori.

Both the Junior and Senior Theatresports teams representing Hillcrest High won their respective age groups at the Meteor on the 11th March!

Hillcrest High School is thrilled to celebrate the achievements of our very own teacher, Whaea Niki, who recently competed in the Bunnings National Touch Championship in Rotorua.