Thank you Hannah Lawrence and Olivia Ollerenshaw, our 2023 Arts Prefects for guiding and supporting The Arts within the school. We have been very lucky to have you both. I have valued your initiative and enthusiasm for the Art Community here at St Hilda's and I wish you all the best for your future endeavours.

Thank you to all the wonderful students who have shared something creative with the school community this year. It is so much appreciated. 

Our Creatives in Schools Mentor, Abby Wolfe, has been a valuable resource for our students who got to work alongside her in a real life studio writing and recording their own songs and gaining valuable industry experience. All of these students' songs were of very high quality and were radio ready. All feedback from students and staff alike has been overwhelmingly positive and it is certainly an ongoing delight to see the way the energy of a visiting artist impacts students. Abby has a great talent for writing and contagious enthusiasm and we can see such an impact in the confidence and engagement of students in response to Abby’s mentorship. We have loved our connection with Abby and are grateful for all she has shared with us. We hope to see more of her around school in 2024.

Please see below our Arts Prefects Report and Liaison blurbs. Wishing you all a merry Christmas and happy New Year.

Helen Badcock
Arts Coordinator

Arts Prefects' Report

Term 4 has been a very busy term for everyone in the Arts Department. With all the photography and painting students putting in a huge amount of time and effort to complete their boards with the support of Mr Sutherland and Mrs Pickering.

Many thanks to our Arts Liaisons, Maia Taylor (Visual Arts), Imogen Hornal (Kapa Haka), Zara Geddes (Debating), Gion Sin (Orchestra), Megha Senthilkumar (Music), Imogen Irvine and Amelie Warlow (Performing Arts), Sings Hilda/Nga Korimako (Evie Rose Grace), Victoria Avery (Dance), Emily Wright and Charlie Williams (Hip Hop) who, in their chosen field, have kept things ticking along and celebrated successes big and small.

Thank you so much for your constant support, it has been a pleasure to work alongside you and watch you grow in your roles. See below their final reports for the year.

Finally, to the Arts Department staff, you have been amazing. Mr Sutherland, Miss Geary, Mr Potter, Mrs Pickering and Mrs McMillian. Thank you for sharing your passion and keeping the school vibrant and colorful.

A huge thank you to our amazing mentor, Helen Badcock, who has constantly been there to support us throughout the year. Whether it is chatting during our weekly meeting, bringing us hot chocolates on a cold day or there for general support we cannot show our gratitude enough. Helen has not only enhanced our skills but also brought so much joy to the entire school community.

We are so appreciative to have held the role of Arts Prefects for 2023 and we are excited to watch from afar the future Arts Prefects at St Hilda’s bring their authenticity to the role.

Hannah Lawrence and Olivia Ollerenshaw
Arts Prefects

Arts Liaisons' Reports

Visual Arts - Maia Taylor

Term 4 has been busy for the Arts Department. The Year 12 and 13s have done an awesome job finishing their art and photography boards. There was a wonderful display for friends and family to see everyone’s work come together.

Year 11 has just finished the year with their exhibition. There are lots of lovely examples of individual drawing and painting projects where students have really pushed themselves to work with a lot of focus for an extended period of time on a series of linked works, or one significant piece.

Year 10 have been working on pet portraits inspired by the paintings of Alison Friend, who brings out the character of animals by putting them into a human context.

Year 9 Have been working on papier-mâché sculptures based on their Whanaungatanga birds. These amazing artworks range in size from ones that can comfortably sit on your hand to ones that take up the best part of an art table!

This fun project brings together practical modelling and sculptural techniques with blending, layering and colour-mixing in acrylic paint.

Year 7 have been working diorama boxes. These boxes are created by cutting, and painting cards to represent how landscape has distinct layers between foreground and background in an artwork. Students have taken great care to get the colour and proportions right for these interesting miniature worlds.

Hip Hop - Charlie Williams and Emily Wright

Each and every one of our St Hilda's Hip Hop participants has had an incredible year. On August 6th, St Hilda's was represented by our gifted dancers in the Regional Hip-Hop competition. Revolution, the amazing megacrew, won first place in their division to qualify for Nationals. With their outstanding performance, the senior crew qualified for the national competition by placing fourth in their category. The lovely crew, Graphite, from Years 9 and 10, gave a fantastic performance and finished seventh overall. A few duos from St Hilda's also gave performances, and I must say that we were all quite astounded by their talent! Nationals were quickly approaching, having just finished the regional competition where Hip-Hop crews and duos displayed their talents. On Saturday, September 2, at King's High School, there was a Hip-Hop nationals event where the amazing females from Entity and Revolution gave outstanding performances. The megacrew Revolution did great, coming in first position in their category once again. We are still unsure of Entity's place but we are all incredibly pleased with each and every student who participated due to their outstanding performances and accomplishments this year. They are all going to be very successful with their futures in hip hop and we hope to see all the girls back for Hip-Hop 24! 

Again we also want to express our gratitude to Miss Geary for all of her unending support and assistance, as well as to all of the coaches and teachers who helped make St Hilda's Hip-Hop possible this year.

Coaches Graphite- Bonnie McGregor, Charlie Williams, Molly Gaffaney
Entity- Sophie Wispinski
Revolution - Emily Wright, Sophie Burke

🙌See you all next year- Charlie and Emily

Orchestra - Gion Sin

It's been a huge month for all the Orchestra members. Although the seniors are away, the juniors were practicing hard since they had to perform in the Christmas Carol Service on Sunday 26 November. They even spent their lunchtimes to make sure everyone was on track and as always, thank you to Mr Potter for conducting. The Orchestra then went on to perform several pieces at Prize Giving and sounded amazing.

Dance - Victoria Avery

Term 4 has been another busy term in Dance. Although it’s been short for the seniors we had our Dance Showcase in the first week back. This is always a highlight for all the senior dancers as everyone gets to showcase what they have been working on throughout the year. For the Year 13s this is when our NCEA 3.1 Internal Assessment Productions are shown, this is what we work on for the whole year. We were also able to thank Miss Geary for all she has done for us throughout our years at school and to say goodbye to Dance at St Hilda's. 

The year 7 and 8s have been working on their Hip Hop dances and a few students showed off their choreographies at the showcase.

Kapa Haka - Imogen Hornal

In Term 4, Nga Manu o Hira Tapu (St Hilda’s Kapa Haka), continued our practices. As a kapa we helped on St Hilda’s Day. We have been continuing to practice our different waiata and waiata-a-ringa, in preparation for Prize Giving. This year has been amazing for our group, in terms of both performance and growth. Thank you to Mrs Badcock, Mr Ellwood and our Tutor, Annelies MacDuff.

Music - Megha Senthilkumar

Music has brought many opportunities to our students in Term 4. Pupils who started recording their songs with Abby Wolfe earlier in the year have finished their final versions. To celebrate this, a listening party was held with friends and family, to listen to all the songs and have a Q&A session with Abby. Along the lines of songwriting, The senior students have all handed in their compositions and finished their performances, all of which were amazing. Some of these original songs were also specially featured in the walkthrough video of our newly developed Chapel. 

Finally, to finish the term the Year 11s have worked on their new technology unit, where they have learnt so much about music technology and what happens behind the scenes of musical performances. We would like to say a big thanks to Mr Potter and everyone else who supported us this term.