Overview
Extra Curricular Activities
Hillcrest runs a vibrant extracurricular programme to encourage exploration and curiosity as well as nurturing diverse talents and skills.
Cultural exploration
We are privileged to live in a community rich in cultural diversity and our school mix reflects that breadth from the nationalities of the families who join us, to the broad experience and international training of our teachers, to the learning opportunities we offer. Equally, we do our best to utilise to the maximum the opportunities presented by being located in Kenya, with its special and diverse environment.
Our family-style approach and philosophy of inclusion, means that every child feels a sense of belonging. Every opportunity is utilised to develop attitudes of cooperation, citizenship, sportsmanship and teamwork, thus building mutual respect for each other.
The annual Utamaduni Day, together with the French Day and International Day develop more in-depth understanding of cultures other than one’s own.
Friday Afternoon Activities
Friday afternoons take a very different shape to the rest of the school week. The entire student and teaching body take part in extracurricular activities with a focus on giving everyone an opportunity to stretch themselves and try something completely different. The activities are wide ranging with pre-university students improving/inventing their skills with bedsit cooking, or students of all abilities fencing each other and staff, and students running their own clubs such as E-sports and Ultimate Frisbee.
The goal is to produce ever more rounded students and reveal that the limit is the sky if they invest themselves.
Typically there are approximately 25-30 activities available and so variety can be enjoyed from the first term of Year 9 to the last term of Year 13
Sporting
The School’s sporting expertise includes Hockey, Basketball, Rugby, Football, Tennis, Squash, Equestrian, Swimming, Netball, Rounders, Fencing and Athletics. Students develop an appreciation for team spirit as well as perseverance. Inter-house competitions encourage camaraderie and often revolve around sporting activities as well as other contests. Whether developing our elite performers or opening-up sport for everyone, we make sure all abilities are catered for and that everyone is challenged, extended and encouraged to meet and exceed their potential.
Hillcrest U19 Interschool Hockey Tournament 2018 – Winners – Hillcrest Boys.
Pastoral Care
One-on-one support for every child
Every student at Hillcrest has a dedicated Personal Tutor and each tutor cares for a very small number of students. They communicate constantly with parents and teachers to draw out and develop each individual. Every tutor aims to assist their tutees in making academic progress, enabling them to interpret their world and encourages them to take on challenges so they become the best version of themselves.
In addition to Personal Tutoring we will be developing a new wellbeing curriculum which will be supplemented by a series of enrichment talks and workshops.
‘Placing mental health at the centre of pastoral care is key’
Our School Counsellor is at hand to attend to students’ pastoral needs. The Counsellor works closely with the Heads of Year, the Child Protection Officer and the Deputy Child Protection Officer to identify students who need help and to intervene in a timely and unobtrusive manner. Interventions include contacting Form Tutors and setting up initial meetings and then follow-ups with students, CPO and the DCPO according to procedures set out in the Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy.
Our caring teachers ensure that children understand what is expected of them and they are prepared to handle dilemmas, conflicts and understand the need to make the right choices. The duty of our teachers is to set firm boundaries to hone good behaviour from our pupils. Regular training sessions, provided by leading international Behaviour Specialists, ensures that all teachers are fully conversant with up-to-date classroom management practices.
Our Senior Leaders are trained annually on Safeguarding and Child Protection issues and our Health & Safety policy is reviewed regularly. First Aid is administered by our resident school nurse, who is always on site incase a child feels unwell.
The Heads of Junior School and Senior School hold weekly pastoral meetings with their teachers to ensure that recommendations from our Child Development Specialist are implemented.
At Hillcrest, we have a team of Personal Tutors that allows every single child to be given boundless opportunities to both try new things and learn from any mistakes they might make.
Student Council
The Student Council (SC) is a vibrant body of volunteer pupils who are elected by their peers to voice their concerns, compliments, ideas and interests with the school.
Every term, each form group elects one representative (boy or girl) to sit in the Council. Elections are often presided by form tutors and held during form time within the first week of each school term.
The Student Council collaboratively works together with adult mentors within the framework of the school policies. Fortnightly, the adult mentors chair, write minutes and table minutes from their meetings to the School Leadership Team (SLT) for action. Thereafter, each SC Representative relays SLT feedback to their respective form groups, and the communication cycle continues.
School Houses
All pupils at Hillcrest Prep belong to a house, named after peaks on Mt Kenya: Lenana, Batian and Nelion, while in Hillcrest Secondary, all pupils belongs to one of the houses, named after Greek Gods: Zeus, Odin and Thor. There is a strong house spirit which encourages cooperation, determination and loyalty with the younger students being mentored and encouraged by the older ones.
Throughout the year pupils participate in a variety of competitions such as Sports Days, Swimming Galas, General Knowledge Quiz, Cookery Competition, Art and Music, all of which are participated in with great enthusiasm.
School Uniform
Uniform is an important element in creating a sense of belonging to the Hillcrest family and we expect our pupils to take pride in their appearance. Our uniform has been developed to be appropriate to the climate we live in. Pupils are expected to wear correct uniform at all times.
We do request our parents to purchase this from our uniform supplier, Animet, located in The Hub, the Yaya Centre and T-Mall. Email uniforms@animet.co.ke or call 0701 018180.
Kindly check the school uniform list with the school.
School Transport
Hillcrest International Schools offers school transport to all its students.
This option is available to from Playgroup to Year 13. ‘Door to door’ pickup is subject to the schools approved routes.
