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Hobsonville Point Secondary School Communication12 December 2025 PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGEKia ora e ngā whānau, We have reached the end of the school year for our Year 9 and Year 10 students. It has been a great year, and it was wonderful to celebrate at our prize-giving last week. It was fantastic to end the year with EOTC week and to provide these experiences for our students. Thank you to all our staff for going above and beyond to make these opportunities happen. I know that over the summer, managing screen time and boredom can be a challenge. SchoolTV provide some helpful resources and tips for summer. https://hpss.nz.schooltv.me/newsletter/managing-screen-time As this is our final newsletter of the year, I would like to extend my gratitude to you for your support and partnership. Having now completed my second year as Principal, I am proud of our community, students and staff. I hope you all have a fantastic summer break, and keep safe. We will be excited to welcome all the students back next year. Ngā mihi Kirsty Dowding Tumuaki Principal
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EOTC WEEK 2025 — A WEEK OF ADVENTURE, DISCOVERY & CONNECTION AT HPSSThe sun rose on Monday morning to the buzz of excitement that only EOTC Week can bring. Across Hobsonville Point Secondary School, students gathered—bags packed, sunscreen on, nerves humming—as they prepared to step out of the classroom and into four days of challenge, teamwork, creativity, and real-world learning. Across beaches, forests, studios, laboratories, chef’s kitchens, luge tracks, surf breaks, museums, hot pools, theatres, and creative spaces, our students stepped outside their comfort zones and embraced learning in the real world. EOTC Week 2025 was a celebration of who our learners are: adventurous, creative, collaborative, and curious. Here’s to another year of rich experiences, unforgettable memories, and learning that reaches far beyond the classroom. Here’s the story of our incredible week. TARAWERA TRAVELLERS - ROTORUA’S WILD HEARTAnother group travelled south toward the steaming earth and deep lakes of Rotorua. Their adventure included an unforgettable full-day trek along the Tarawera Trail—forest, waterfalls, and the surreal sands of Hot Water Beach, where warmth rises straight up through the ground. A water taxi whisked them back across the lake before evenings of board games, shared meals, and structured activities. On Wednesday they zoomed down Skyline’s famous luge tracks, explored the Buried Village, and took in Rotorua’s unique landscape and history. Their final day offered blissful relaxation at Waikite Valley hot pools before the journey home. WHANGATEAU WATER CAMP - THE CALL OF THE COASTFor our Water Camp crew, the week began with teamwork and preparation: Raft-building, water-competency testing, knot tying, and learning the skills they’d need for days on the sea. By Tuesday, vans were rolling north to Tāwharanui, where students swapped school shoes for surfboards, catching waves before settling into camp life and evening games. The week unfolded with early-morning fishing missions, long kayak journeys, field games under the sun, and a magical kiwi night walk beneath the stars. Their final day saw the group paddling the coastline of Wenderholm—tired arms, big smiles, and a deep sense of achievement as they headed back to HPSS.
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HIGH SOCIETY - ART, CULTURE & A NIGHT AT THE CIVICFor students diving into the arts, EOTC Week became a celebration of Auckland’s creative heart. They wandered the zoo, explored the Auckland Art Gallery, travelled the Brick Bay Sculpture Trail, and tested their detective skills in a school-based murder mystery challenge. Highlights included a high tea, a dinner trip to Commercial Bay, and an unforgettable evening at The Nutcracker at The Civic—sparkling lights, velvet seats, and the magic of live performance including meeting the lead ballerina, Cadence, after the show, an ex-student of HPSS! AUCKLAND ADVENTURES - THRILLS, SKILLS & SUNThis high-energy group spent their days at some of Auckland’s best adventure venues. Students zoomed through Woodhill Forest on mountain bikes, swung through the trees at Tree Adventures, powered through Ninja World obstacles, climbed rock walls and skated sheets of ice on the ice-skating rink. Their final day took them to Te Arai for surfing, sand-sculpture competitions, and beach games before heading home sandy, salty, and satisfied.
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FOR THE SPORT OF IT - COMPETING, SPLASHING AND STRIKINGSport lovers moved through a high-paced rotation of archery, futsal, pickleball, tennis, squash, bowling, and beach cricket. They travelled across Auckland—Pins Bowling, Parakai Hot Pools, Muriwai Beach, and Paradice Ice—putting teamwork, coordination, and resilience to the test. It was a week of friendly competition, laughter, and discovering new strengths on and off the court. SCIENCE SAFARI CLIMBING MAUNGA, CARING FOR THE MOANAThe Science Safari gave students a chance to explore the natural and scientific wonders of Tāmaki Makaurau. From the volcanic landscapes of Mangere Mountain and Maungakiekie to water-safety and paddle-craft sessions at Long Bay MERC, the week was packed with hands-on learning. A full day at Auckland Zoo deepened their understanding of ecosystems and conservation, before Thursday’s behind-the-scenes physics lab tour at the University of Auckland—complete with lab demonstrations, water testing, and real-world science in action.
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MASTER CHEF - A CULINARY QUESTThis week was packed with excitement from the very beginning. One of the biggest highlights was our trip to Orbit 360, where we visited the city, and broke out of our normal routine. We had the entire restaurant to ourselves, going behind the scenes to tour the commercial kitchens and were treated to a fine dining tasting menu. Another amazing memory from this week was when we had a professional judge, Pete Hartley visit us to judge our final Master Chef competition. This week pushed us to think for ourselves, experiment, and show our real skills. We made lots of different foods and surprised ourselves with what we could achieve using critical thinking skills. We may even have their dessert featured on the Muffin Break national menu! Thanks to Peter for judging! Overall, it was a fun, creative, and memorable week that helped us grow and learn in new ways. Summer, Isla, & Ellie SWORDS & SORCERY - CREATIVTY MEETS COMBATFor students with a love of fantasy and film, this was a dream week. They explored Wētā Unleashed, designed worlds, crafted foam weapons, learned stunt choreography, and trained in stage combat techniques at the NZ Screen & Stage Combat School. The finale? A full-scale LARP tournament in the Auckland Domain, complete with fantasy nations, character roles, quests, and combat. Pure theatre.
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MUSIC FORGE - FROM SONGWRITING TO STUDIOBudding musicians worked alongside external mentors to write, record, produce, and promote their songs. With visits to SAE’s professional studios, workshops on gig planning, streaming platforms, marketing, and album art, students gained real insight into the modern music industry. The week ended with an in-school showcase—recorded tracks, proud performers, and a celebration of creativity. KO WAI MĀTOU? - ART, IDENTITY & WHAKAPAPAThis creative inquiry group spent the week researching mural art, exploring kaupapa linked to the HPSS pepeha, and designing a collaborative mural. Their days were filled with sketching, painting, making stencils, experimenting with spray paint, and creating mini artworks to take home. The project gave students a powerful way to express identity and contribute to the school environment.
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HAUORA - CONNECTION, WELLBEING & COMMUNITYOur Hauora group grounded their EOTC week in whanaungatanga and wellbeing. Through shared activities, workshops, challenges, and community-focused experiences, they explored what wellbeing looks like in practice—connection, movement, rest, reflection, and fun. VEX ROBOTS - BUILD, BATTLE, CODEFuture engineers spent the week building robots, adjusting gear ratios, experimenting with centre of mass, and completing challenges such as tug-of-war battles, cube collecting, and castle crashing. Coding levels escalated each day, culminating in design challenges and friendly competitions that pushed innovation and teamwork.
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MESSAGE FROM THE SCHOOL BOARDKia ora e te whānau Thank you for your responses to the Draft Strategic Plan survey over the last two weeks. We received 184 replies. There was strong support for the plan with 87% affirming that it reflected their aspirations for the school/s. We appreciate the time you took to provide comment and the constructive suggestions you offered for improvement. Your feedback provided us with a really sound basis for reviewing the draft. We spent time on Saturday going through the responses and have made some adjustments to the plan – mostly tidying up the wording so the goals are expressed more clearly and succinctly, and also reverting to the original vision: To create a stimulating, inclusive learning environment that empowers learners to contribute confidently, knowledgeably, and responsibly in our changing world. The new plan will be posted on the website at the end of the week. You also provided us with some valuable feedback on strategies for implementing the plan so we will be taking that into account as we operationalise the plan and work on measures to assess our progress against the goals. While the plan covers the time period 2026-2028 we are open to ongoing modifications, especially as the new Ministry of Education requirements become clearer. But you have given us the basis and direction for our work in the new year. We will keep you up-to-date with progress over the course of year. Ngā manaakitanga Graeme Aitken (Presiding Member) on behalf of the Hobsonville Point Schools Board
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PERSONAL EXCELLENCE - YEAR 10 PRIZE GIVING 2025Celebrating Achievement, Excellence, and Community Last week, our Year 10 Prizegiving recognised the hard work, growth, and leadership shown by students as they completed their junior years. Students were acknowledged across academic, cultural, sporting, service, and our values-based awards, reflecting the diverse strengths within this cohort. We proudly celebrated our top award recipients: TE WHAKAHOUTANGA Gerard MacManus Value Award for Innovation
Jeremy Smeal, Aanika Lal and Kiukiu Liu TE WHAI MĀRAMATANGA HPSS Value Award for Inquiry
Rudra Chakrabarti TE WHAI HONONGA Steve McCullough Value Award for Connectedness
Evan Qian TE MAHI TAHI HPSS Value Award for Collaboration Charith Tadi TE POU HĀKINAKINA Excellence in Sport
Finn MacEachern TE POU MAHI Ā-RĒHIA Excellence in the Arts
Kayla Gorst TE POU TIKANGA Ā-IWI Excellence in Culture
Miccano Williams
Tāonga Tuku Iho Personal Excellence – Aanika Lal Te Iti Kahurangi Academic Excellence – Terrance Zhai Te Taurapa o te Kura Overall Excellence – Haasini Narasimha The ceremony also welcomed our 2026 student leaders for Year 11 and highlighted the readiness of Year 10 to step confidently into their learning pathways next year.
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PERSONAL EXCELLENCE - YEAR 9 PRIZE GIVING 2025Our Year 9 Prizegiving celebrated the outstanding achievements, character, and contributions of our newest students following their first year with us at HPSS. Awards were presented across our values, habits, sport, culture, arts, service, and leadership, along with musical performances that showcased the incredible talent within the year group. A major highlight was recognising our top award recipients: TE WHAKAHOUTANGA Gerard MacManus Value Award for Innovation
Toby Reed TE WHAI MĀRAMATANGA HPSS Value Award for Inquiry
Jack Dudley TE WHAI HONONGA Steve McCullough Value Award for Connectedness
Ariana Greco TE MAHI TAHI HPSS Value Award for Collaboration. Lucy Edwards TE POU HĀKINAKINA Excellence in Sport
Olivia Good TE POU MAHI Ā-RĒHIA Excellence in the Arts Casey Tait TE POU TIKANGA Ā-IWI Excellence in Culture
Mia Morrison
Tāonga Tuku Iho Personal Excellence – Bridgette Geerken Te Iti Kahurangi Academic Excellence – Hermione Zhang Te Taurapa o te Kura Overall Excellence – Ariana Greco We also announced Waiarohia as winners of the 2025 Community Shield for the first time since its inaugural year in 2014! Thank you to the kaiārahi for their inspiring words and to all the parents who joined us. It was a wonderful celebration of a cohort who have made an exceptional start to their journey at HPSS. At the conclusion of our five awards ceremonies for 2025, we want to sincerely thank all of our sponsors: The Trusts, Genesis Chartered Accountants, Rotary, House of Travel Hobsonville, Isometric, PhotoLife, Terry and Moira Wood, Pat Heron, Maurie Abraham, and our School Board. Their generous contributions provide opportunities, prizes, and encouragement that value and enrich our students’ learning and achievements. For a full list of all our prize-winners from Years 9-13, please click here.
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ALUMNI EXCELLENCE - JENNIFER BERRY - FORBES 30 UNDER 30We would like to acknowledge the achievement of Jennifer Berry, an alumni from our foundation cohort of 2018 graduates. Jennifer is a Fulbright Scholar and Ph.D student in Control and Dynamical Systems at the California Institute of Technology. After graduating at HPSS, Jennifer completed a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons First Class) in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Canterbury, and then a Master of Science in Space Engineering at Caltech. Jennifer currently serves as co-chair of the 2026 Caltech Space Challenge and has just been selected for the Forbes 30 under 30 list for Energy and Green Tech. Jennifer’s research focuses on the intersection of aerospace and sustainability: active space debris removal and low-impact exploration of planetary environments. To read more about Jennifer’s achievements since graduating from HPSS see here.
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UPCOMING EVENT - HOBSONVILLE POINT SCHOOLS WHĀNAU PICNICTo kick off the 2026 school year, HPSS and HPPS are co-hosting the annual Waitangi whānau picnic on Wednesday, 4 February. This is an opportunity for members of our school community to come together in the sun, grab a bite from one of the delicious food trucks and connect. We look forward to seeing you all there to celebrate the start of the new school year.
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INFORMATION - WHĀNAU SUPPORT AVAILABLEAs we head into the holiday period, we know this time of year can place extra pressure on some families. We’re sharing a helpful brochure that brings together a range of services available over Christmas and the summer break, including support with food, essentials, and wellbeing. If your family, or someone you know, could benefit from this information, please feel free to make use of the links provided. https://attendancewest.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Service-Available-over-Xmas-Holidays-2025-Booklet.pdf
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KEY DATES 2026Start of Year Monday 26 - Wednesday 28 January - Leadership Camp (student leaders) Friday 30 January Individual Education Meetings (IEMs - meet the Whānau Coach) for all Year 9s and new students. Booking link will be sent to all new students’ families on Monday 15 December and again in January. Monday 2 February 9am All Year 9s, all new students to HPSS, and all student leaders Tuesday 3 February 9am All students attend
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 Term 4 (9 weeks) - Monday 12 October - Thursday 10 December
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