Mā te huruhuru, ka rere te manu ‘Feathers enable the bird to fly’

It seemed that at the end of 2017, we were recruiting so many new staff to cope with roll growth and replacing staff who had moved on. At the start of 2018, it was exciting to welcome our new staff, many of them new to teaching and full of enthusiasm.

For 25 years, Jon Rogers has read out the names at Hornby High School’s prize-givings. It was the deputy principal’s job, and one he has taken pride in doing.

Retiring from teaching at the end of this year, John Minto has taught Physics and Science for the last four years at Hornby High School.

John Simons started work at Branston Intermediate in 1993 to fill the vacant metal work position. He had previously been teaching at Casebrook Intermediate so had a good understanding of Year 7 and 8 students and how intermediate schools operated.

Pete Manson was an amazing man who was taken too soon. He was caretaker and groundsman at Hornby High School for ten years until a long illness stopped him working in September. He died in mid-November aged 61. Life can be very unfair.

Malo e lelei. My name is Siaosi Kei and I am the Headboy of Hornby High School for 2018.

I had the honor of being Hornby High School's head girl for 2018.

Our school leaders for 2018 were:

The end of the 2018 school year marks the closure of the Hornby Technology Centre. This was formerly the technical department of Branston Intermediate situated at 35 Amyes Road, Hornby.

Patrick Khella - 2018 Dux of Hornby High School

Congratulations to all our prizewinners.

Our Year 7 and Year 8 prizegiving was held on Tuesday 11 December. Congratulations to all our prize winners.

Well done to all participants of the programme. What a fantastic year we had. From the wilderness adventure (3 weeks out in the bush making their way back to Christchurch), tramping and biking in May, to this years NZ Great Santa Run with the community mentors.

Earlier this year we succeeded in making a massive transition from our temporary library space to our amazing new building and the innovative Learning Commons. The Learning Commons has a variety of spaces that encourage creativity, reading, collaboration, entertainment and social engagement.

2018, The year of our big move! How spoilt are we to have a modern space, new computers, beautiful lighting and … the same old desks! Which look surprisingly good when you clean them!

This year I have thoroughly enjoyed my new role as Careers Advisor. Last year, I was lucky to receive a PPTA Scholarship which enabled me to study full time. I studied a Diploma in Career Guidance. I have been able to come back to school and put into practice what I have learnt.

Gateway has offered an enjoyable and successful year for our students. Our 28 students managed to obtain an average of 30 credits each within their industry career choice.

Maths at Hornby High School has been on an engaging learning journey. We are now much more aware that Mathematical thinking is more about depth of understanding rather than the speed that students grasp new concepts. Maths is also about creativity and making sense of how we can use our maths skills in our everyday lives.

For the Japanese department, 2018 was an especially exciting, action packed year. The main highlight would have to be our trip to Japan during the July holidays, which was greatly enjoyed by all involved.

The ESOL department welcomed new students from Vietnam, Japan, Cambodia, China, Tonga, Samoa and the Philippines this year. We celebrated our diverse department in a number of ways. Students shared their language, food and culture during class activities and at the end of term pot luck lunch.

Every year, the year 13 Biology class goes to Orana Park. This is not simply a fun day out - this is work!!

At the start of the year, two members of each form class were elected to represent their class on the student council.

Singing continues to be one of our strengths at Hornby High School.

Musical Theatre still continues to be a thriving part of our Performing Arts.

In Term 2 and Term 3, Year 7 and 8 students came together under the guidance of Miss Birtch to form a dance group.

It has been wonderful this year to have performing arts experts all working together in the glittering Whare Toi Whakaari. The energy has been amazing and the opportunities for groups to collaborate creatively has been exciting for us all.

Kia Ora. 2018 saw many changes in the Health Department. Firstly, Mrs Merrin took on a new role at the Ministry of Education and Miss Aitken returned to the Health Department.

On Wednesday 22 August, Hornby High School had 4 teams of four compete in the annual Cantamath competition.

On Thursday 16 August three Hornby High School geography students from Level 1 represented the school in the Annual New Zealand wide Maatangi Whenua Competition.

The year 11 geography class set out on 1 March for their first NCEA assessment for 2018.

On 20 March 2018 Level 2 Geography went on their annual trip to Helicopter Hill. The trip involves walking up the hill and collecting data on soil, vegetation, height of trees and relief.

On Friday 18 and Saturday 19 May, the Level 3 Geography class went to Kaikoura to research sediment size and profiles on the beaches from the Hapuku River to Kaikoura township.

2018 has been busy, fun and full of adventure.

All Year 10 students had the opportunity to attend class camps held at Boyle River Outdoor Education Centre.

The Hornby High School annual Salu Salo evening was a great success this year. We were fortunate to have students, parents and staff from Hornby Primary School join us this year and we would like to thank them for their contribution to an evening that celebrated and showcased Filipino culture and our talented students.

In March, a group of 23 Thai students and their teacher came to Hornby High School for 5 weeks.

Forty Level 2 and 3 Classics students visited the University of Canterbury central city campus for the Classics Open Day.

Creating new works is one of the most challenging tasks in the performing arts. It requires critical thinking, self-awareness and resilience to work through the process.

Seeing our HOD Music, Mrs Katie Beer, perform in Les Miserables at the Isaac Theatre Royal was the best theatre experience of 2018. The epic tale of broken dreams, passion and redemption set against a nation in the throes of revolution astounded students with the scale of the set and costume design.

Twenty talented students from Years 9-13 accepted the challenge to create four unique films over the HP48Hours, NZ’s largest guerilla film-making competition 11-13 May.

In 2018, we hosted schools participating in SGCNZ University of Otago Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival.

At a special awards dinner Mark Sowerby, one of Hornby High School's dedicated staff, received a 'Pride of Workmanship Award'.

Follow the attached link to read about our very own Unsung Hero - Support winner - Jude Howie.

This is the third year we have had an 11-aside team at Hornby High School and this has been the youngest team with many players never having played full field hockey before.

It has been another highly successful season for our school Volleyball teams with 4 teams playing at both the junior and senior level in mid-week competitions.

2018 has been a hugely successful year for Hornby High School Netball. We had a large increase in participation numbers, making up four competitive netball teams. These teams played in the Canterbury Secondary Schools Hagley sport competition every Wednesday.

Hornby High School again competed in the Senior League Nines Tournament held earlier in the year. Despite the junior tournament being postponed we arranged some games against Haeata Community College and St Thomas which were very competitive.

The 2018 Junior Boys Touch team had a very successful season. In Term 1, the boys took out the competition in Division 2. The boys won all of their games convincingly and as time went on the team's confidence grew.

This season the Hornby High School girls' rugby team combined with Villa Maria to enter the premier girls' mid week schools division. This was a step up from last season where the team played in the Development Grade. We were pleased to have the support of coaches Mark Williams and Wayne Goodgame who offered their time and expertise both pre season and in season to develop and support the team.

This year students showed interest in both indoor and outdoor cricket formats. Indoor Cricket was offered during break times in the school gym throughout the year and we also entered a team into the Thursday afternoon girls competition at Hagley Park in Term 1.

The boys' indoor football teams have had a very successful 2018. In term 1, our senior boys won Division 1 in a tightly fought contest with some of the best schools in Canterbury, an achievement that the players were ecstatic to achieve.

Hornby High School was again represented by Haylee Goodman and Bella Williamson.

Basketball is a very popular sport at Hornby High School. This year we had seven teams competing in after school competitions including two Year 7 & 8 boys teams and one Year 7 & 8 girls team.

This year we had a small but dedicated team of shooters both new and more experienced. The weekly training session with Bill Drayton went well and the students continually improved.

It was a successful season for our school Badminton teams with six teams entered into the mid-week schools competition.

This year, we gave students the choice of entering the athletics in a competitive environment or a social environment. This worked well, with just on a third of the students competing in the competitive environment and the rest participating socially to gain housepoints for each event they entered.

Congratulations to Jordan Coleman (Rugby League) and Christina Fifita (Rugby) who have both been awarded the CSF Scholarship in their respective sports.