Kia ora koutou

A massive thanks to our Hillcrest Normal School Board who have governed our school over the past three years.  During that time much has been achieved for our students learning and our environment. Thank you to our two presiding members for your board leadership, Corey Redwood and Nathan Leith, as well as to our elected members Dean Baldock, Wencui Zhu, Helen Neilson, Miel Maclean and to our secretary Prue Lye. Your time, expertise and service to our school community has been very much appreciated.

We have had an action packed few weeks with lots of extras happening.  The senior school production last week was fabulous, with many of our tamariki making the most of their time to SHINE.  We are sure this experience and important learning will stay with them as special memories from HNS in years to come.  We appreciate all the extra mahi by the staff from the senior team to make this happen.

This week we have had cross country and Parent Information evenings.  The senior curriculum information evening is on tonight in the hall from 6.30 to 7.30pm.  Please note this is for adults only.  We appreciate our community coming out to support your children.

Next week our orchestra is part of a celebration concert with the orchestra's and bands from Berkley Normal Middle School and Hillcrest High School.

As we head into the end of the season for our winter sports, we say thanks to our many parents, staff and other volunteers who have coached and managed sports team.  All the best for the last few games.  Term 4 sports enrolments are now open.

Donut day is always a highlight on the HNS calendar.  Thanks to Mrs Macintyre and the year two students and team for their organisation and our school whānau for your support.  The money raised is part of a project for outdoor equipment for our year 2 children.

Tomorrow is Daffodil Day and a chance for our students and staff to dress up in yellow and bring a gold coin donation for the cancer society if you wish.

Noho ora mai

Junior School

Last week was maths week! The year two team took the opportunity to be outside and combine fitness with maths. We had a huge scavenger hunt in the sun. We worked with a buddy to find 10 maths problems hidden around the school.  What mathematicians! We had to work with a buddy to make sure we both agreed and could explain our thinking.  We ran back and forth checking our answers.  We were puffed by the end.  

Middle School

Exploring Emotions Through the Arts

Over the term, we’ve been diving into the world of Arts and Emotions, exploring how we can express our feelings creatively through poetry, colour, movement, and more. As part of our learning, students have written their own emotion poems, using powerful imagery and thoughtful language to capture what different feelings look and feel like.

Here are just a few amazing examples of the heartfelt and imaginative work our students have created:

Guilt 

By Oscar  

Happy 

By Kenudi  

Anger 

By Ryker 

Senior School

Cross Country

On Wednesday, August 27, the middle and senior schools had our cross-country events.  The seniors ran in the morning, and the middle school students ran after morning tea.

For the senior school, the first race was the year five girls, followed by the year five boys. Then came the year six girls, the year six boys, and lastly, the fun run, where everyone gave it a go. For the middle school, the year fours went first, followed by the year threes and ending with the fun run.  To support their houses, we encouraged everyone to dress up in their house colours.

Lots of families came to support us in participating in this event.  All of the students were amazing and did a fantastic job supporting their peers.  Everyone tried their best and had fun throughout the day.

Pippa & Sara

Our English Language Learners have been looking at the season of winter and discussing the features of winter. The children wrote poems in groups and did some artwork to support their learning.

Winter

By Eleanor, Miller, Dinura, Oneli, Abdullah and Nahir.

Winter 

By Senumi, Akenya, Amy, Teresa, Jenny, Yvonne, Shania and Swayba

Winter

By Roma and Gustavo

Year 5

Year 6 

A huge thank you to everyone who supported our Donut Day fundraiser.  Together we raised $1200 towards new year 2 playground resources.

The next step will be to investigate and select equipment that will best encourage kind and positive behaviour in the playground.

We are grateful to our year 2 classes for their mahi in designing posters and promoting sales, and to our whānau for sorting and delivering donuts to classrooms.  This was a wonderful way to truly honour student agency, from the first ideas right through to the successful outcome.

Room 7 has been working on a project this year with native plants. In Term 1 we did a statistics unit about the plants we have in our school. We mapped out our native, introduced, and fruit trees in the school. We found that we had more introduced trees than native. We decided that during science we would research some native plants to go under and around our big old natives behind the turf. We wrote letters, made posters, learnt all about the plants and talked to our friends at the Hamilton City Council. We even made a full landscaping map of the plants we wanted to plant. Today we planted over 100 native plants behind the turf. Special guests included Mrs Williams and granddaughter Darcy. 

Please come and have a look at all of room 7's hard work!

By Room 7

This week we have been hosting Curriculum Evenings to work with parents, caregivers and whānau to partner together for student learning. Close to 40 parents came to Monday evening's event to see what learning looks like in Years 0-3 (Phase 1) at Hillcrest Normal School.

Some of the big changes in the new curriculum were shared and then what this means for our way of teaching by the senior leadership team. Then parents were able to see practical examples of work in classes and ask questions of our teaching team who were able to walk them through our processes. We also shared the parent portal which has lots of examples of ways you can support your child's learning at home.

Tonight is the evening for Phase 2 (learning aimed at Years 4-6). The evening starts at 6:30 and is finished by 7:30 pm in the school hall.

Term 4 registrations are now open for the following sports. 

Cricket

Years 3-6, closes tomorrow 29th August

Basketball

Years 1-6, closes Wednesday 10 September

Splash Polo

Years 3-6, closes Wednesday 10 September

The invitation to vote for our school board elections has been sent out and voting is open until 4pm Wednesday 10 September.  If you have any questions or issues, please contact Julia French - Returning Officer - jfrench@hillcrestnormal.school.nz

To register for this event as part of group Hillcrest Normal School please follow these steps :

1. Go to the website using this link: https://eventplus.net/RTB25?code=HNS25
2. Either create your account, or login if you already have an eventplus account. You can request a password reset if you need to.
3. After logging in you should be prompted to join the group.
4. Your group code is HNS25
5. Valid categories for this group are: Kids Challenge

ISSUE 6 IS OPEN, and it's supercharged with incredible reads to help boost children's reading powers. 

Our Regular Reader Reward is back!
Many families earned a $5 promo code by ordering from our last Issue. Plus, when you order from this Issue you'll earn another $5 promo code to spend in Issue 7! If you did not receive and pamphlet, we have spares at the office.

25 Doubles Passes to WIN! 
We’re giving away 25 double passes to see DreamWorks The Bad Guys 2, only in cinemas! You can find details on how to enter on the back of the catalogue or on our website. 

Issue 6 closes tomorrow, Friday 29 August.

This year's Sanitarium Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon will be held on Sunday 7th December at St Peter's Cambridge.  More information will come out closer to the time.  

All 2026 enrolments for Berkley Normal Middle School are due by 4.00pm tomorrow, Friday 29 August 2025 - this includes both in-zone and out-of-zone enrolments.  Out-of-zone enrolments must be received at the office by 29 August to be eligible for the enrolment ballot.