Throughout the week students participated in various activities to recognise the importance of speaking up and standing together to stop bullying. 

The week ended with Pink Shirt Day on Friday which is an annual and global event where people come together and wear pink to celebrate diversity and to put a stop to bullying. 

It has been very powerful to get this message across to all students. The goal is now to sustain this message as a collective through to the end of the year and beyond.

A special congratulations to all our finalists:

Ashley Simango - 1st place
Cerys Gibby - 2nd place
Benjamin Lau - 3rd place
Yoshini Anantharangan
Oakley Cowie
Rylee Barrett
Alex Johnson
Mikayla Wilson

We are all very proud of you.

The judges (from local colleges) were really impressed with how well prepared and practiced the finalists were. It was certainly a difficult decision for them to pick the winners.

Overall, the speech finals were an interesting, hilarious experience for everyone.

The competition was held online which had its own challenges. It really showcases the dancing talent we have at HIS!

During our library opening, our library was blessed with a Karakia, then a waiata was performed by the Kapa Haka group. Mrs Pickering and Mrs Sutton cut the ribbon followed by speeches from Mrs Pickering, student Cerys Gibby, Chairperson of the Board of Trustees Mrs Christina Bevan and guest author Jennifer Beck.

This was followed by the official cutting of the cake, and morning tea was provided by our wonderful food extension students and Mrs Kaw.

Congratulations to the following students:

Rylee Barrett
Kloe Brooks
Elise Perkins
Jake Newbould
Ash Thornley
Stella Donaldson
Alex Johnson
Blake Nankivell
Yew Wei Huang
Adam Masaryk
Ana Pirini
Luke Varga
Reagan Jones
Eric Yang

Together they have collected 1851 items. The winners of the competition are:

• Most cans:   N1 with 331 items collected           
• Most creative sculpture created:  C2 

Here are some of the amazing creations the students came up with:

Our senior leadership team enjoyed the opportunity to meet with you all.

We have been very fortunate to have Murray Gadd lead writing professional learning development (PLD) with our staff and students.

The focus for teachers has been around implementing a well-rounded writing programme that engages students and identifies their next steps. The PLD has been well received by both the teachers and the students and we look forward to the remaining sessions later on in the year.