Hillcrest High School

Hillcrest High School was established in 1976, a significant year in the history of our country, and was officially opened on 8 October in that year by Mr PRT Nel, then Director of Education in the province of Natal. To start with, there were 250 learners in Grades 8 – 10 and a staff of 10. The first principal was Mr Clive Talbot who, together with the parent advisory committee at the time, decided on a school uniform, badge and motto.

In the past 46 years, Hillcrest High School has advanced in leaps and bounds. There is now a student population of 1100 and a staff complement (academic and non-academic) of over 100. Mr Talbot was succeeded as principal by Mr Philip Hawkins, Mr Malcolm Garrett, Mr Gerald Delport and Mr Craig Girvin held the position of principal from 1 September 1999 until 25 March 2022. Mrs Denise Knight took over the reins as acting principal in 2022.

Whilst not wanting to go into school history in detail, one event bears mentioning. On 14 February 1991 the parents of the school voted by overwhelming majority (88,2%) to admit students of colour for the first time and the school became a Model B school. 11 students of colour entered the school on 11 March 1991, the pioneers for what has now become a fully multi-cultural, and therefore greatly enriched, school.

The school has enjoyed consistent success over the years, and has sustained a broad range of educational offerings at the school. The Prospectus contains details of the school’s educational programme (both academic and extramural activities) and also attests to the successes of a selection of past students. The summary of Matric results over the past few years attests to the quality of teaching at the school. The school magazine gives a broad overview of the activities of the school whilst the list of student achievers and achievements over the past few years attests to the many successes of our students across a broad range of activities.

The school’s many successes can be ascribed to five cornerstones:

• high academic standards and achievement
• competitive sport
• cultural development
• leadership training and development and
• community awareness

The school has aimed also to cater for students across the academic spectrum. More able students are extended and are encouraged to enter academic extension competitions. We have enjoyed much success in competitions like the Eskom Science Expo (a student selected to attend an international event in Beijing in 2018 and placed second), the Old Mutual Mathematics Olympiad (two students in the Top 100 in KZN in 2017) and the Afrikaans Taalbond Examination (a student placed 13th in KZN in 2018).

There is academic support for students who struggle in the form of extra lessons but, most significantly, in the Learner Support Unit (LSU) which, since 2006, has been specifically catering for students with mild learning difficulties. Students who have come through the LSU have ended up getting good Matric results, even in cases where parents had previously been advised that it was unlikely that their son or daughter would be able to get to Matric!

The school has also been a pioneer in the field of e-learning and was selected as a Microsoft Showcase School in 2017, the only one in KZN at the time, one of 15 in South Africa and one of 290 in the world. The school employs a Technology Integrator (TI) to assist staff with the integration of technology into their lessons and to drive the e-learning programme. The TI established firm contacts with Microsoft through the Microsoft Schools Programme and also with the Department of Basic Education and we were selected by the DBE as one of three schools in South Africa to pilot Operation Phakisa, a technology in education project. Sadly this project has not got off the ground.

In summary, then, Hillcrest High School prides itself on the many opportunities it has created for its students over the past 46 years, and on their many achievements. It is a school that is co-educational, multi-racial and multi-cultural and which draws its students from a wide range of socio-economic groups. Its staff and student population thus represents a broad cross section of South African society. It is built on three firm principles:

- Honour
- Hard Work
- Service

These principles are embodied in the qualities that we try to develop in our students, including honesty and integrity, and speak to the academic focus of the school and its strong community service ethos. It is a school that contributes positively to the development of South Africa’s future generations.