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Hobsonville Point Secondary School Communication17 July 2026 PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGEKia ora e ngā whānau, Welcome back to Term 3! I hope everyone has had a restful and enjoyable break, with time to recharge and spend time with family and friends. We are looking forward to welcoming everyone back and are excited for another busy and rewarding term ahead. Term 3 is always an exciting time of the year, with many opportunities for learning, sport, the arts, leadership, and community events. We encourage all students to make the most of these opportunities, challenge themselves, and continue to contribute positively to our school community. You may have noticed that we have made a change to one of our planned Staff Only Days. This change has been necessary due to the delayed release of the refreshed New Zealand Curriculum, which has required us to adjust our professional learning and planning. We appreciate your understanding and flexibility as we ensure our staff are well prepared to continue providing high-quality learning experiences for our students. Please take a few moments to check the key dates for the term and add them to your calendars. There are a number of important events coming up, and we encourage everyone to stay informed throughout the term. As always, we value the strong partnership between home and school. Thank you for your ongoing support of our students, staff, and wider school community. By working together, we can continue to provide the best possible learning environment for every young person at Hobsonville Point Secondary School. We are looking forward to seeing everyone back, hearing about your holiday adventures, and sharing another successful term together. Here's to a fantastic Term 3! Ngā mihi Kirsty Dowding Tumuaki Principal
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KEY DATES FOR TERM 3HPSS Open Evening for 2027 new students - Monday 27 July 5.30pm - 7.30pm. Open Day Tours for 2027 new students - Tuesday 28 July and Thursday 30 July. Book a place by completing this form. Year 12/13 Course Information Evening - Tuesday, 4 August, 5.00pm - 6.30pm. The evening is open to all current Year 11 and 12 students and their whānau to support them with selecting subject choices in 2027. Progress Reports sent to all whānau - 14 August. Winter Tournament Week - Week 7 (31 August - 4 September). Music Showcase - Wednesday, 2 September, 6.00pm. Cultural Evening - Friday, 4 September. Staff Only Day (Board) - Friday 11 September. NCEA Literacy and Numeracy Co-Req Exams - 7-18 September. IEMS: Yr 12-13 students - Wednesday 16 September 2pm - 8pm. Y11-13 Derived Grade Exams - Thursday 17 September to Friday 25 September. School Ball: Yr 12-13 - Friday 25 September.
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ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE: INTER-COMMUNITY DEBATING AND THE HPSS DEBATE CLUBIn the final week of Term 2, teams representing each community took part in a debating competition organised by student leaders from the Academic Council. Each lunchtime debate was its own uniquely entertaining and thought-provoking experience for the audience, as teams faced off against each other to debate important topics such as school uniforms, social media bans, and animal testing. Stand-out performances included Brodie Hole (Tāhere Tikitiki) with his commanding and engaging presence at the podium, Stella Kelly-Brown (Onekiritea) who carried her team with sophistication and leadership, Eman Naveed (Waiarohia) with her masterful structure and style as first speaker for her team, and the entire Tiriwa team’s advanced team-level argument structures, reflecting Hanna Reed and Arjan Virdi’s established team dynamic and skill built through their participation in the Term 1 Regional debating contest. Competitive debating involves a balance between sharing your own ideas convincingly, and listening closely to the opposing team so you can argue against their points with care - known as ‘rebuttal’. Each team showed skill in one or both of these areas, with Tāhere Tikitiki emerging as the overall champions, striking just the right balance of argument strength and rebuttal. Each team included at least one member of the HPSS debate club, which has newly formed this year. The debate club can be proud of their hard work running skill sessions and debate games each week, and their involvement in the Auckland Schools Debating junior open contest across Term 2. Their sense of adventure and purpose was clearly reflected in the quality of this year’s debating competition. It was an honour to be on the judging panel. This year, we have started a debate club for the first time ever at HPSS - and we’ve had amazing success as a debate club and in our debating teams.
On Monday evenings across Term 2, we have had 3 teams compete in the Auckland Schools’ Debating junior debate competition: Rangitoto 1, Rangitoto 2, and Lynfield 1, where they are given a topic and have to do a proper debate against other schools’ teams, complete with rebuttals and adjudicators. Thanks to Joelle and Tanya who have helped make it all happen by volunteering as adjudicators.
Both our Rangitoto teams and our Lynfield team have been successful in many of their debates, and all teams ended up just one win away from making the break for the finals. Debate club takes place in the Auditorium on Tuesday lunchtimes, and covers many skill lessons and fun games, as well as the occasional ‘proper debate’ where students can showcase the skills they have learnt throughout the term leading up to it. New members are always welcome.
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CONNECTEDNESS: NZCBA NATIONAL FESTIVAL - WEST CITY BIG BANDOn the 28th of June, HPSS students Hanna Reed (Year 12), Yan Chen (Year 10), and Jack Bitossi (Year 11) represented West City Youth Concert Band at the NZCBA National Festival in Cambridge. The NZCBA (New Zealand Concert Band Association) national festival is a highlight for concert bands all over the country. Annually, bands and performers from all over New Zealand congregate for a weekend full of music, participating in various performances and workshops. Whilst being a festival and a celebration of music, awards were announced on the Sunday afternoon. West City Youth Concert Band received a Silver award for their overall performance, and perhaps more exciting, received the PJ Snowling Award for the best community youth concert band. As this award was only introduced to the festival this year, West City Youth are proud to be the inaugural recipients. This is an incredible achievement made by our local musicians. Follow the West City Youth Concert Band's Instagram @wcycb to stay up to date with upcoming concerts and reels created by our own students!
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INNOVATION: INFINITY+1 SCHOOL TALKLast term, after a lot of planning, we were honoured to host Subash Chandar K at HPSS who is otherwise known as infinityplusone, a NCEA mathematics teacher and youtuber helping secondary students all over the country to prepare for exams. He is very highly decorated, most notably winning the 2025 New Zealand Local Hero of the Year and was a top 10 finalist for the 2025 Global Teacher prize. During his visit he visited a few maths classes and ran his 'Solve for X' workshop with over 100 of our junior and senior maths students. We all learnt a lot and will definitely be watching a few of his tutorials to help us study for our end of year exams! Megan Wiggill, Y13 Academic Leader
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SPORTING EXCELLENCE: MOVEMENT ENRICHMENT NETBALL This term, students in the EMOVE Netball Performance classes have worked incredibly hard to develop their netball skills, teamwork, and game understanding in preparation for their interclass tournament.
Midway through the term, students took part in a tournament in mixed teams, giving everyone the opportunity to play alongside different classmates and put their learning into practice. In Week 11, students then competed in ranked teams to determine the overall tournament champions.
Hannah's class finished with a commendable 5 out of 9 wins. The top two teams then battled it out in an exhibition final in front of their peers from the EMOVE classes. It was a thrilling, nail-biting match, with Elizabeth's class narrowly securing the win.
Following both tournaments, one student from each class was recognised after every game for their effort, teamwork, sportsmanship, and contribution to the match. These recognitions celebrated the positive impact students had on their team.
A huge congratulations to all players, as well as our guest coach Pipi and umpires Bella, Ruby, and Lily, for helping make the tournaments such a success. The improvement, resilience, and teamwork shown throughout the term have been fantastic, and everyone involved should be proud of what they achieved.
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ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE: UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND CATALYST CONFERENCEDuring the holidays I was invited to take part in UoA's catalyst conference for high-achieving high school students as I was also involved in their Young Scholars programme completing a first year mathematics paper in Semester 1. Over two days we took part in various mini-lectures, lab activities, and research panels acting as a taster to university life next year. My highlights were meeting a lot of new people from different schools, and the women in engineering speed networking session on the second day where we had the opportunity to talk to engineering science, mechatronics, and biomedical engineering students and ask any questions we wanted to! Megan Wiggill, Y13
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COLLABORATION: PATHWAYS INTERNSHIP STORY - ISLA HORSNELL KAIPĀTIKI PROJECTA typical day at Kaipātiki Project mainly involves doing chop-and-drops, mulching, and planting. Chop-and-drop is a sustainable, no-dig gardening technique to obtain natural fertiliser as spent plants and weeds break down in the soil, releasing nutrients the surrounding plants need, such as carbon. I have cut down branches of the Mexican Sunflower, a very fast-growing, nutrient-rich shrub, and left them to decompose into the soil while I cut off the leaves to spread around the plants that needed growing, serving as a green mulch. At the same time, I was given the task of adding new plants within the area to fill the gaps. Mulching is a great way to retain soil moisture and suppress weeds like Horehound. After I would chop-and-drop Mexican Sunflower, I would go down to the mulch pile, wheelbarrow mulch up to the food forest, and lay it out on top of the leaves and around the soil bed. What I'm enjoying the most about this internship is that every day I learn something new about nature, and I get to experience what it's like to work towards creating a sustainable, healthy environment. What I hope to learn next is probably more specifics about the garden, such as which plants are regularly maintained and what their purposes are. The team I work with at Kaipātiki Project are great! They make me feel really supported and comfortable on every task, and they're great to have conversations with. The experience of working at Kaipātiki Project has really influenced my decision to pursue a career in nature, as I have learned so much about the different organisms and what it really takes to care for them.
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COLLABORATION: NZ BLOOD SERVICE MOBILE BLOOD DRIVE: FRIDAY 7TH AUGUSTOn Friday 7th August (9am–2pm), two of our Year 13 Health students, Iyah and Eshwa, have coordinated with the New Zealand Blood Service (NZBS) Te Ratonga Toto O Aotearoa to host a mobile blood drive in our school auditorium. We highly encourage eligible students (16+) to participate. Important Information for Parents/Guardians and Whānau: Under the Care of Children Act 2004, youth aged 16 years and over are legally allowed to make their own decision regarding blood donation. NZBS strongly recommends that students discuss becoming a blood donor with their families first. If you have a specific objection to your student donating, please discuss this with them and notify the school prior to Friday 7th August. To protect the health of both donors and the blood supply, every student will undergo a private, 100% confidential interview with a nurse. Because donor criteria can be sensitive (covering medications, travel, health history, or lifestyle), students may be deferred for many personal reasons. We strictly respect everyone's privacy and ensure no student is singled out or embarrassed if they are unable to donate.
For more details, please visit www.nzblood.co.nz or call 0800 GIVE BLOOD.
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KEY DATES 2026All key dates for the year can also be found on the Calendar on our SchoolBridge app, along with Attendance, Daily Notices, Reports, Results, and Payments. Term 1 (10 weeks) - Friday 30 January - Thursday 2 April Term 2 (11 weeks) - Monday 20 April - Friday 3 July Term 3 (10 weeks) - Monday 20 July - Friday 25 September HPSS Open Evening for 2027 new students - Monday 27 July 5.30pm - 7.30pm Staff Only Day (Board) - Friday 11 September IEMS: Yr 12-13 - Wednesday 16 September 2pm - 8pm Derived Grade Exams - Thursday 17 September to Friday 25 September School Ball: Yr 12-13 - Friday 25 September
Term 4 (9 weeks) - Monday 12 October - Thursday 10 December Public Holidays: Labour Day – Monday 26 October Year 12 Prize giving - Wednesday 4 November 2.30pm Year 13 Graduation & Prize giving - Wednesday 4 November 5pm Staff Only Day (MoE: Curriculum) - Friday 6 November NCEA Exams - Tuesday 10 November to Friday 4 December IEMs: Yrs 9,10,11 - Wednesday 2 December 2pm - 7.30pm and Thursday 3 December 3.30pm - 7.30pm
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