Hello Hills Adventist College Family!

I am Mrs Robina Lolohea, and I’m so excited to step into the role of Head of Senior School this year. It’s truly an honour to be part of this journey with you all as we kick off an amazing 2025.

Just like a gardener carefully tends to their plants—providing the right soil and sunshine to help them grow (think of the Parable of the Sower in Luke 8)—we are here to nurture and guide each of your children towards their God-given potential. We want to see them blossom in every aspect of their lives—academically, personally, and spiritually.

It’s been fantastic to see so many of you at our recent events! The Welcome Tea was a lovely way to start the year, and the Swimming Carnival was a splashing success (pun intended!). With camps, Week of Worship, the Valentine’s Day fundraiser, and the exciting Pathfinders and Adventurers incursion, we are only just beginning a year filled with meaningful events that strengthen our school community.

We’ve already had some great highlights this year, with our Year 12 students leading our first Middle and Senior School Week of Worship. They kicked off the year with exciting welcomes, incredible worship, and inspiring messages from our own students on the theme “Goodbye Yesterday” —saying goodbye to the old way of living and hello to who God calls us to be. Thank you to the entire Year 12 class for coming together to make it a week to remember! We are praying for you as you enter the final stretch of your schooling life.

This term in chapels, we have started the theme “Seasons of Faith,” exploring each verse of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. Let me leave you with a thought based on the idea we are exploring this term with the students!

Last week, our entire school community, from Kindergarten to Year 12, came together for a fantastic day at the annual Swimming Carnival! Students cheered on their house teams, showcasing incredible sportsmanship and enthusiasm.

This year marked the debut of the Great Race, an exciting new event that saw students of all ages teaming up in an attempt to swim the most laps for their house.

One of the highlights of the day was the much-anticipated Year 12 Novelty Race, where our senior students put on a show with their costumes and colourful array of pool cruisers. From inflatable lobsters to giant unicorns, the Year 12’s showed us how to race in style. It was a fitting way to celebrate their final swimming carnival.

Congratulations to all our swimmers, participants, and house teams for an unforgettable day of competition and camaraderie. A big thank you to the staff and volunteers who helped make the event a success!

We’re excited to welcome a fantastic group of new staff to Hills Adventist College this year. Each person brings unique skills, experience, and passion for education, and we can’t wait for our students and families to get to know them. From dedicated teachers to support staff, they are ready to inspire, guide, and contribute to our thriving school community.

Read on to learn more about the newest members of our Hills family!

Our students from Year 3 to Year 12 enjoyed a competitive day in the pool on Monday, 3rd March at the Hills Zone Swimming Carnival. The primary swimmers performed well, with many achieving personal bests from their races at our carnival. A notable mention goes to Henri K, who improved his 100m Freestyle time by 10 seconds, and Amaya K, who shaved 7.31 seconds off her 50m Butterfly event.

Our secondary students performed exceptionally well, with James P and Lewis L earning the Age Champion medallion. Congratulations to our 200m Freestyle relay team members—Kyran R, Andrew L, Kenan M, and James P—who won their event. James also broke the 50m Butterfly record, previously set by our own Preston Andrews in 2019.

Congratulations to all our swimmers who represented our College!

Our ‘Powering Plants’ Project Based Learning (PBL) entry event was quite the adventure!

Students joined a local Environmental Officer for a bushwalk, exploring God’s beautiful creations. They discovered how to identify trees, determine their age and height, and understand seed dispersal. At the plant nursery, they were hands-on with soils and seedlings, identifying plants by their distinct features. And of course, the unexpected encounter with leeches — an experience we won’t soon forget...
Let’s hope the tips from the Environmental Officer will help our PBL seeds to thrive and survive!

Mrs Smith and Mrs Honeyands

Last Friday, Kindy children from both the Kellyville and Castle Hill campuses took part in Clean Up Australia Day. This activity aligned with our HSIE learning on Special Places and the importance of caring for our environment. The children were excited to put on their Clean Up Australia Day gloves and were very keen to go and tidy up the playground areas.

Our Year 7 students started the year at Cru Camps Galston Gorge for a 3 day camp forming friendships with their peers. Students challenged themselves at mountain biking and rock climbing and worked together in teams to complete the challenge course. The pool activities were fun in the hot weather and students loved jumping in and doing a jigsaw race. The devotional time led by Cru staff and Pr Jess was engaging and insightful. A fun time with a great group of teens!

Year 8 students have been investigating the ancient past in History this term. As part of their study, they have been exploring how archaeologists work and to demonstrate this they used a toothpick to excavate chocolate chips from a cookie attempting to keep their ‘artefacts’ intact. Most students enjoyed devouring their excavation sites after the lesson.

Year 11 are looking at how History is constructed, by examining JFK’s assassination and how History has recorded that event.

To make sense of all the evidence, students created an evidence board, connecting images and documents with string and later adding some detail on post-it notes.

The class enjoyed some donuts while investigating the evidence, given they were being “detectives” on an American case – and American cops love donuts!

In Week 5, Year 12 visited Auburn as part of their studies of Islam for Studies of Religion. The Values class are also studying World Religions and took the opportunity to come along.

Students visited the Auburn Gallipoli Mosque and were given a tour by the Imam. As the name suggests, the mosque is the place of worship for the mostly Turkish Muslim community nearby.

Students then walked to ISRA (Islamic Sciences and Research Academy) for some seminars on their HSC topics, while the Values students attended a seminar relevant to their studies.

The students benefitted from hearing very knowledgeable speakers discussing aspects of Islam and now have a deeper understanding of the Islamic Faith.

If you haven’t already, please submit enrolment applications for siblings who will be starting in the 2026 school year by the end of March 2025. After this deadline, your child may be placed on a waitlist for a spot.

Looking for extra academic support? Some of our past students are now offering tutoring for any students who would like additional assistance. This is a great opportunity to learn from those who have been through it before! Their details are included below—reach out to them directly to arrange a session.

Just a reminder that Premier’s Reading Challenge for Kindergarten to Year 10 students has started and will run until Friday 22nd August 2025. It is a good way to enhance students’ love of reading while giving them a chance to earn Academic Excellence awards and contribute to their house.

We are actively meeting with potential new OOSH providers for our Castle Hill Campus and vacation care, and will update families as soon as we have more information. In the meantime, a shuttle bus service remains available to transport Castle Hill students to Kellyville OOSH for the short term. Thank you for your patience and support as we work towards the best solution for our families.

We warmly invite you to join us for our first Home & School Association meeting of the year! This is a great opportunity to connect, share ideas, and support our school community.

📅 Date: Tuesday, 11 March
📍 Location: Kellyville Campus Library
🕖 7:00pm – Light refreshments
🕢 7:30pm – Meeting begins

For those who prefer to join online, we invite you to join us via zoom . The agenda, treasurer’s report, and previous minutes will be shared ahead of the meeting.

We’d love to see you there!

Home & School Association

Last year, our Home and School were raising funds for a new playground at the Castle Hill Campus. The lower playground has been around for many years and has provided countless hours of enjoyment for students. As time has gone on, wear and tear has been appearing and the need for a new playground has been much needed.

With the assistance of the Home and School fundraiser last year, we are planning to install a new playground at the end of this term. After speaking with a numerous students about what features they like on a playground, the below design has been created. We are looking forward to many hours of engaging play thanks to this new playground.