It was a pleasure to be able to travel down to Wellington and join ex-student and Dux, Rupert Heslop and his family at the 2026 NZ Top Scholars Awards ceremony. Rupert was presented with a Premier Scholar Award for being one of the top 13 students in the country last year as recognised by NZQA.
As I mentioned in previous email to families, this is the second time we have had a student in the ceremony in three years; a reflection of the individuals but also the learning environment we provide at HNHS. Success in examinations as demanding as scholarship require hours of additional study but also hours of support from dedicated teachers. We are fortunate that alongside the many other extracurricular activities our staff assist with, supporting students with academic endeavours is also part of our culture.
Joining Rupert on the national stage over the last couple of weeks have been a number of other HNHS students whose achievements deserve a special mention. They including Morgan Nathan (awarded a scholarship to attend the Royal Astronomical Conference in Blenheim), Max Franks (selected for the NZ team to attend European Youth Orienteering Championships in Slovenia), Gemma Buchanan (selected to attend the Bio Olympiad camp over the holiday break), Meg Benefield and Poppy Page (part of the winning NZ team competing at the Youth Rugby Festival in Portugal recently), Braden Turei (gold and bronze medals at the NZSS swimming champs), Brooke Speers (two silver and a bronze medal at the NZSS swimming champs), Oliver Hutchinson (selected for the NZ U18 canoe sprit team competing in Canada later in the year), Mia Parker (currently competing for NZ alongside Oliver at the Asia Pacific Canoe Sprint Cup) and Carrys Seccombe (selected to compete for NZ at the Oceania Football Confederation U-15 Girls Youth Development Tournament in Fiji).
Not a bad few weeks!
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