Upper Hutt College celebrated the many successes of the senior students and also bid farewell to two long standing staff members at the annual Senior Prizegiving.

With Lane Park Church close to capacity on a humid and wet evening, many students were rewarded for a year of dedication to their studies, cultural activities, community work and sporting success.

The crescendo of the evening was Alice Harrison receiving the Board of Trustees Gold Medal and the Peter Amies Cup as well as a scholarship for being named Dux.  Alice has already passed Level 3 Endorsed with Excellence and was first in all of her five subjects.

Proxime Accessit, the runner-up to Dux, and the recipient of the Peter Lee Cup was Nathan Blackadder who placed first in four of his subjects. 

Earlier in the evening long serving staff members, Wendy Forde and Barbara Hanson, who are set to retire at the end of the year, were farewelled with flowers and tributes as well as a waiata from our cultural group.  Both teachers have been part of Upper Hutt College for 20 years.

Head students Kaitlyn Tapuai and Emoni Falepapalangi presented an emotional valedictory speech, pointing out the phrases that the Year 13 group will be remembered by including "sophisticated" and "quirky".   Emoni finished his speech with the cliche that it takes a village to raise a child and that this was ever present at UHC with all the support and help they had received.

Prior to this, the Rt Honourable Chris Hipkins, Minister of Education and Upper Hutt MP implored the student leavers to take on the challenges in front of them and emphasized that attitude was everything.

In a tribute to the late Rachel Pawsey, who tragically died in a road accident last term, a new trophy was unveiled to acknowledge All-Round Excellence in Adventure Education301.    Ms Pawsey taught PE and Outdoor Education to many students of the school and impressed a love of the outdoors on many current and former students.  The inaugural recipient of the award was Dawid Warenczuk.