During the summer holidays, Iris Rogers travelled to the USA to take part in a CASE Space School experience. She joined 36 other students in Houston, Texas, where they worked on a variety of tasks and design challenges at the Johnson Space Centre. She visited the mission control center, NASA’s buoyancy lab, one of three Saturn V rockets on display and met real-life astronauts. 

The days were also filled with a range of sightseeing experiences, including watching a Houston Rockets basketball game. The group then travelled on to San Francisco to visit Stanford University, take a business workshop at Google headquarters and lots of other fun-filled events. Iris learned a lot during her trip and enjoyed talking to some real entrepreneurs and made lots of new friends.

Prefect Report - Demi McAlwee and Billie Crowe

Term 1 has been a busy term with many sports and competitions starting up, along with activities being run within the school. We have focused on getting everyone in our school community active and interacting with one another throughout the year groups. This year as the Sports Prefects we have had the initiative of Wednesday Lunchtime Movements. These movements include many different fitness workouts, walkie-talkies and P.E games, such as capture the flag. These movements have had a great participation turnout from all year groups. This has been a great way to bring the different year levels together, allowing the girls to have something to do at lunch that keeps them busy and outdoors.

Some events we've had this term were Shrove Tuesday Games, Summer Quad, Athletics Day and many more. Athletics Day is always an exciting day full of house spirit and this year was no different. Athletics this year was an amazing summer's day, filled with house colours and smiles. A fun social event for some, but also a great day for our talented athletes to compete in their chosen events. We were grateful to be able to have athletics (as we haven't been able to over the past 2 years), so seeing everyone outside together was a success for us. Thompson House was the best house on the day taking out the 2023 Athletics Day title!

In the many different sporting codes we have had great success, with our teams and individuals competing in their chosen sports. We look forward to watching the finals at the end of the summer sports season and the winter codes starting up. Thanks for a great Term 1, Billie and Demi xx

Multisport - Zara Geddes

St Hilda’s has had some excellent Triathlon results over the past term. The Secondary School Triathlon season kicked off with Challenge Wanaka, which also doubled as the Otago Secondary Schools’ Championships. It was great to see such good numbers from our school, with 33 St Hilda’s students making the trip to Wanaka to compete. Notably, at this event, Maddie Cockburn won the Under 19 Individual Girls division of the Otago Champs, with Zara Geddes coming in second. One of our Under 16 Girls teams, made up of Charlotte Aburn, Lily Havard and Olivia Bezett also managed to win their category, and we had numerous other placings. 

Next on the triathlon calendar was the South Island Championships, where St Hilda’s had a much smaller team of 4 competing. Despite our small numbers, all 4 students from St Hilda’s performed well, with Maddie Cockburn winning the Senior Girls Individual Triathlon, Zara Lunam winning the Intermediate Girls Individual Duathlon, Elzanne Hamman placing 3rd in the Junior Girls Individual Duathlon, and Honor Garden placing 6th in the Intermediate Girls Individual Triathlon.

The Secondary School Triathlon season is now coming to an end, however, we can be super proud of the efforts put in by everyone who competed. Awesome work everyone, and we can’t wait to see you back out there next year!

 Tennis - Molly McKenzie

At St Hilda's the tennis girls have had some good results this season. At the Quad Tournament they had some great games, beating Craighead, drawing with Columba and losing to St Margs. Overall, the tennis team came 3rd place, which was an awesome result.

This term, there has also been tennis played on Thursday afternoon down at the Logan Park courts. There were quite a few students that entered in this and they have really enjoyed getting to play the different school teams. 

At Tolcarne this term there have been tennis coaching sessions. The girls that were doing this have really enjoyed it, helping them to improve and get good results when playing on Thursdays. Looking forward to hearing the upcoming results, Molly.

Athletics - Renee Willis

This term has been a very busy schedule for athletics at St Hilda's, with many competitive and fun competitions being held. The school Athletics Day was held again, after last year's disruption due to Covid, as well as the Otago Secondary Schools' Athletics competition at the beginning of March. 

Many students got involved in the Athletics day fun, competing socially or competitively in a range of track and field events, with Thomson House taking out the overall House Champion and Cheerleading. Mia Braithwaite took the Year 7&8 Champion, Tessa Steele took out the Junior Champion, Olivia Bezett took the Intermediate Champ, and lastly, Zara Geddes took out Senior Champion! An amazing 4 records were broken on this day out, in a variety of different events. 

With the South Island Secondary School Athletics in Invercargill taking place from the 31st of March to the 2nd of April, many girls are preparing hard ahead of their pinnacle event. Also recognising Zara Geddes, for coming to an outstanding 3rd place in both 1500m as well as 5000m in the U20 grade at the national track and field champs held in Wellington at the beginning of March! Renee Willis also came 8th in the Shot-put and 9th in the Hammer throw at this same event in the U20 category. Both are amazing achievements on a national level! 

All students involved this term in athletics have continued to show resilience and support, as competitions that have been cancelled in the past are now able to take place. As the competition season is coming to an end, we are proud to see the effort everyone has committed to the sport with outstanding results over the summer period!

Summer Hockey - Anna McClean

During Term 1, we had lots of junior and senior teams entered in Otago Hockey’s summer hockey competition. The girls thoroughly enjoy getting down to the turf on a Thursday night to have a run around on half the turf. It’s also a great chance for our students who play hockey in the winter, to dust off their hockey sticks that have been stored away over the summer holidays. While everyone was out there on hot summer days having a social hit around, we did still manage to come out with wins for the majority of the season. One of our senior teams even grabbed an 18-0 win at one point! We are looking forward to the winter hockey season ahead.

Touch - Sophia Tutty & Libby Challis

Touch is already underway for the year, with many teams having played in various games across all grades. We currently have 3 Year 9 teams, 2 Year 10 teams, 2 senior teams and the Senior A team competing in the Otago Secondary Schools' Tuesday night games. All of these teams have already had a strong start to the season and it is looking promising for St Hilda’s to be getting into finals this term, as well as in Term 4. This season, our Senior A competed in the Quad Tournament, coming away with a win against Craighead, St Margaret’s and Rangi Ruru, with a loss to Columba. Placing overall in second place. 

At the Otago Secondary Schools they came across Waitaki Girls High School, East Otago, and Columba, again coming in second place - loosing to Columba in both the round robin and finals. However they were just away at the South Island Secondary Schools' touch competition held in Christchurch, which they won after beating Columba in the finals! This was a great way to end their touch campaign for Term 1.

Volleyball - Molly Gaffaney

St Hilda's has a great number of girls playing social and competitive volleyball. The three Year 7 & 8 teams (The Blockers, Hitters, and Spikers) have had an awesome season, working really hard and improving their skills. The Junior As did so well as a new team coming together and winning 4 out of 6 games. The Senior A was unable to compete in any tournaments this season, so we are hoping to go to more tournaments next season. They competed really well at the Summer Quad and placed 4th, beating Rangi Ruru 3-0. They've won 3 out of their 5 games in the Dunedin Schools' Premier Competition and have their last game of the season this week. All of the social teams, both seniors and juniors, had a great season having fun with their friends!

Honour Birks - Water Polo

So far, 2023 has started off well for waterpolo. Our teams have been going very well in the Dunedin Secondary School competition. This term we have had a Year 7 & 8 team in the Friday night competition and a Year 9, Year 10 and Senior A team in the Thursday night competition. Our Senior A team has just won their final against OGHS, meaning they came first in the Girl's A Grade. All of these teams have been playing incredibly well during the season and it will be exciting to see how the junior teams go in their finals and at their South Island Tournaments at the end of the year. 

The Senior A team has just been away to Christchurch to the South Island tournament, playing from Thursday the 30th of March - Sunday the 2nd of April, against 8 different South Island teams where they placed third! The Junior South Island Secondary School tournament will be held in Blenheim later in the year as well as the Intermediate South Island tournament which will be held in Dunedin in November. We are all looking forward to the rest of the season, tournaments and to return in Term 4

Rowing - Maddie Cockburn

St Hilda's was a school to look out for when it came to Rowing in Term 1. We had some great achievements throughout the season in all age groups. We started the year off strong with a Twizel training camp, where the squad smashed out some seat racing, pushing themselves and their teammates to the limit. This set us up Canterbury Champs where we saw some outstanding results, including a gold in both the U17 Double Sculls and Intermediate Single Sculls, silver in U17 Single Sculls and U17 Squad. The squad then returned to Twizel after a few days to compete in the South Island Club Champs. With confidence from the recent regatta and strength from our training camp we came into this regatta firing. Olivia Ollerenshaw and Perri Hore took out the U17 Double while 10 other SHCS crews battled it out in A finals. 

After a month of training back on the Dunedin Harbour we were ready to race again. The squad headed back to Twizel for SISS. This was a great regatta for the whole squad, with 8 A finals and 6 B finals made over the weekend. The novices had some great races in their final regatta for the season. Perri Hore came home with 2 bronze medals, achieving 3rd in both the U16 Single and U17 Double with Olivia Ollerenshaw. Georgia Graham and Honor Garden also gained a silver medal in the U15 Double Sculls. Our novices had a fun season in which we saw some great dedication and commitment in both training and racing. A squad of 13 SHCS girls then spent the next two weeks looking towards the Maadi Cup, held at Lake Karapiro from the 27th March-1st April. Good luck to all of these girls. We look forward to seeing some outstanding results!

Congratulations to all the St Hilda’s students who competed in Twizel over the season. It was a great one and we can’t wait to see what next season brings!

Golf - Ruby Cochrane & Molly Pryde  

This term, we as golf liaisons have been stoked with the turnout at Shelly's golf lessons on Thursday afternoons. It has been awesome to see everyone's smiling faces out there, just giving it a go. Golf has given a lot of girls the great opportunity to get outside and enjoy trying something new and having a few laughs on the way. 

So far as a group the students have learned the basics of putting, chip shots, and using the lower irons on the range. They said that they have learned lots with Shelly, such as keeping composed on the backswing, keeping your eye on the ball when hitting, how to properly grip the club and heaps of other good stuff. 

Golf lessons will be wrapping up in the next few weeks for the winter but we look forward to using this time to get out on the course and play some games putting our new skills to the test, anybody is welcome!

Harriers - Anna Carswell 

Harriers took a slow but steady start this term, gradually building up our numbers, with lots of new faces. We have done many loops for all abilities which is a great way to get that fitness and fresh air in at lunchtimes. We have been running every Tuesday and Thursday which is a great way to meet new people and mix with other year groups, as we have had members this term ranging from Year 7 to 13. 

We hope to see some new faces this coming term, whether it is a goal to get fit or just to go for a run with friends. Remember our school cross country is coming up next term, along with the cross country series - so start training for Term 2!

Cricket - Megha Senthikumar  

We have had a fantastic term filled with many opportunities to play cricket and to show and improve our skills on the field. This term we have had the chance to form three teams, consisting of the Year 7 & 8 team, the second XI and the first XI. All three teams have been practicing throughout the week, on Monday and Tuesday. However, on Wednesday afternoon we enjoyed having time to play cricket in mixed teams with other schools in Dunedin, where we beat the opposing side multiple times. The Year 7 & 8 team also had cricket on Wednesday. Here they learned many new skills which has fuelled their competitive spirit. 

We have also celebrated our first time playing in the Summer Quadrangular Tournament by coming first in cricket. We had some amazing results, with some splendid batting from Megha Senthilkumar and Ella Gibson, and tight bowling by the whole team, with a special mention to Hannah K Wilson for her hat-trick. 

We then had the amazing opportunity to take both the first and second XI to Christchurch for a few games, where we had amazing results. The second XI had three games, with two eye-catching wins against Rangi Ruru and Rangiora High School. The first XI had the opportunity to play at the prestigious Willows ground against Christchurch Girls' High School, where great batting was witnessed on the whole and by the openers, as well as some amazing batting by Chloe Deerness. We had great bowling by the team where Hannah O'Connor received 3 wickets as well as 5 wickets by Anna McClean. 

To finish the season the First XI had the qualifiers final against Otago Girls to advance to Nationals. The first XI batted and bowled to a good standard, but the fielding was exceptional and stood out, which led to our fabulous win! The Second XI also played against Wakatipu High School, where they played very well with both the bat and the ball. A massive thank you to Bronnie, our lovely manager for all the behind-the-scenes work she does for us, and another huge thank you to our amazing coach Kate Ebrahim for supporting girls' cricket and starting a second XI team by encouraging more girls to join the awesome game. Kate has helped all of us to improve our game, and we can't wait till next season to further improve ourselves.

Swimming - Sophie Hutchens 

This term the swimmers have been working hard and have competed in several competitions over the past few months. Charlotte Aburn, Victoria Aburn, Lily McGrath, Lily Harvard, Evie Gilmour and Malaika Ogbuehi competed and earned some great results in the South Island Long Course Champs. Charlotte won two 1st and two 3rd placings and Lily M gained a 3rd placing in early March. Additionally, there were a number of St Hilda’s swimmers competing at the Otago Junior/Senior Long Course Carnival a couple of weeks ago, which also resulted in multiple finalist placings as well as some good PB’s.

Last weekend, Victoria Aburn, Evie Halligan and Charlotte Leith competed in the Otago Primary School Championships held here in Dunedin. There were some great results, with a number of big personal bests swum, as well as a few finalist and podium placings, with Victoria gaining a 2nd place in both the 50m Freestyle and 50m Backstroke.

Charlotte Aburn has been competing in a multitude of surf lifesaving events. Recently she competed in the TSB Surf Lifesaving Nationals and she won two New Zealand titles in Under 15 Run Swim Run and Diamond race. She also gained a silver in Surf Swim and 6th in the Board Race. Jess Hanna also won gold in the Beach Flags event. Charlotte then took on a team event with her sister and former SHCS student Phoebe Aburn and Alli Adams. They won the Open Women’s Single, Assembly and Tube Rescue, making them the overall top Open Women’s team in the South Island!

Unfortunately, the South Island Secondary Schools' Open Water Champs in Akaroa, which were supposed to be held in February, were canceled at the last minute due to poor water quality. We have had a good term and start to the year and the team are looking forward to competing in the Otago Secondary Schools Champs at the end of May.

Rosa Smith - Trap Shooting 

Trapshooting at St Hilda's is a great opportunity to give a new sport a try. What I enjoy about trapshooting is the set of skills it requires that are not as prominent in other sports. It is a unique sport that requires a lot of precision and focus. We practice once a week on Wednesday at the Waldronville Gun Club from 4pm till 5pm. We are looking for any new people who are interested in trapshooting. Any skill levels are welcome to come give it a go.