No images? Click here 14 May 2021Pinehurst School NewsletterOpening Words from the Executive Principal...Kia ora tatou, good afternoon, 你好, 안녕하세요 When I arrive at school each morning, our groundsmen are out, blowers in hand, gathering the ocean of red and gold and brown. A carpet of leaves becomes a series of small hills and then, as if by magic, it disappears, carried away. Autumn is a magical time for many of us, our trees marking the change of season. The last couple of days have seen the temperature shift too, a brisk air, while mornings begin in the dark and dusk falls before our after-school activities finish. Autumn is also, though, a time of year when our property staff have to work even harder than usual. They are the magicians who keep the school looking smart; they are the ones whose work through the summer on our lawns means that they look magnificent now; and they are the ones who provide the environment in which our students and teachers work. So thank you to Tony, Shane, John, Juan, Jason, Terry and Isaac. They do a fantastic job, and I’m very grateful to them. It feels like everyone has had their shoulders to the wheel this week. I’ve seen Year 4 students conducting experiments to examine the properties of water; Year 5 students develop their ability to manipulate sentence structure to use adverbs correctly; Year 7 students devise presentations about cities across the world; Year 8 students completing musical compositions; and Year 13 students doing something I don’t understand very well in Physics. I also had the pleasure of marking five of the best English Scholarship essays I’ve read for a good few years a couple of nights ago: our students are working really well across the school, and it’s been a pleasure to see them continue to challenge themselves. It was also a pleasure to see some Year 1 and 2 basketball on Monday, and some Year 7 and 8 hockey on Wednesday. Our basketballers are continuing to develop their skills, and were both entertaining and impressive; our Year 7 and 8 hockey players had fine starts to their seasons, and I thought the standards they reached and the commitment they showed were both outstanding. Well done to all those who took part in sports this week, and the very best of luck to those who will be playing for the first time this season at the weekend. I’m looking forward to the first day of Kidzplay on Saturday: we had a great season last year, and I’m expecting more of the same this year! Ka kite anō au i a koutou. Have a good weekend. Alex Reed 如需阅读校长的中文留言和重要事件日期,请点击此处 Dates for your Diary Week 2 Kia Ora, It was lovely to meet so many of our new parents on Monday in our meet and greet session. Those first days at school can be an anxious time for any parent of a five year old as they begin their 13 year journey at school. Siblings have probably visited the site many times with their older brothers and sisters and are very familiar with the playground in particular. New families too will have been to visit us on the weekends. In classrooms our older New Entrants have been so kind in showing their new classmates what to do and where to go and with two teachers for most of the week they have been making great progress already. Despite only being at school for less than two weeks, they have been so settled and are very ready for school. Year 1 finally got their turn to bring their wheels to school when the sun shone on Thursday. We had expected their session to be slightly more hectic as they are so young and we had plenty of councillors on hand to keep everyone safe. I have to say that they were amazing! Their skills on scooters in particular were fantastic with just the right mix of speed and balance they were very coordinated for such young children. They are obviously getting lots of opportunities at home to play outdoors and develop their gross motor skills which helps their learning in the classroom too through hand eye coordination in particular. The biggest bonus was to see the smiles and laughter of just being a child and whizzing around the playground. Perhaps we should have a day for the adults! It has been great to see more engagement with our homework programme Maths Whizz this week. At the beginning of the week I sent a sticker and message to every child in the Primary who had a green tick for three or more progressions in the last seven days. The winners of the Maths Whizz cup this week are 4TL with the highest number of students getting green. The real purpose of us promoting the programme of course is because it leads to better outcomes for students in Maths. Lots of exciting things are happening next week with our 30th Anniversary whole school photo taking place on Monday morning, STEM day on Wednesday and Cross Country on Friday. STEM day activities and lessons are currently being planned for, STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths and will be a day of integrating all of those aspects of learning to solve problems and create something new. It is a chance for children to apply what they already know from their learning in these subjects and bring them all together through fun, collaborative activities. Cross country information has been sent out already by Mrs Lindsay and there will be reminders on Seesaw. Please do come along to support your child if you can, we would love to see you. Kia pai to ra whakata, have a good weekend. Ngā mihi, Sian Coxon, Principal of Primary Peer Mediation in the Primary On Friday 7th May, our Primary Peer Mediators underwent their first training session and Monday saw our first two monitors go out into the playground to be available as mediators. The Peer Mediators play a valuable role within our school community and provide support and assistance to the teachers who are out on duty in the playground during break times. What is the aim of the Peer Mediation Programme?
We look forward to working as a team in helping make our school environment safe, happy and more peaceful. The Day the Crayons Quit P7 have started Term 2 off in a colourful way! Our shared books have been “The day the crayons quit” and “The day the crayons came home” both written by Drew Daywalt. The first book is a humorous story about a pack of crayons that decide to quit because of a variety of reasons. The students made predictions about the story using the cover and the blurb. They were excited to find blurbs on the back of their books when visiting the library. P7 wrote reply letters to the crayons to apologise and address the reasons why the crayons said they were unhappy. Each student chose a crayon who they empathised with and also selected their favourite crayon and why. In the second story the crayons were left all over the place so they decided to write postcards to Duncan. The students practised summarising the story and made connections to the book. Year 5 Dance Sports The Year 5 students are excited about taking part in Dance Sports as a part of physical education this term. They are lucky to have Marie from the UCan2 Dance Studio to coach them using age-appropriate methods and teach dances based on the natural progression of the body's movements, posture and mechanics. The students will be having fun while learning Ballroom and Latin dances such as the Foxtrot, Cha Cha Cha, Samba, and Jive. “I was nervous to start with, however it ended up being really fun learning all the new steps. I’m looking forward to the lesson next week!” Freya Busy, P16 “I thought I was going to trip over my own legs because there were lots of movements involved and dancing isn’t something I normally do, surprisingly I was actually good at it and I even had fun.” Shawn Li, P16 “Embarrassingly the teacher made us choose girls to dance with. It was a little awkward to start with, although the lesson moved fast and soon I wasn’t even thinking about who my dance partner was. It was much better than what I had expected!” Neo Yang, P16 “Excitedly, I entered the Arena with a smile on my face, ready to dance! We were learning the change of partner dance and once we got into it, I could see everyone else was enjoying it too. It was lots of fun and now I'm curious about what dance we will learn next!” Makenzie Atkinson, P16 P20’s Art and Autobiographies This week has seen the completion of two large pieces of work that were a big focus last term. In Art, we have added the finishing touches to our creatures that were designed and created in the style of New Zealand artist, Warren Pohatu. The students applied dye in two stages to the creature, and then the background. They contrasted the two areas by using warm and cold colours. After the dye had dried, they then used black pen to draw patterns which followed the contours of the animal’s body. They are very proud of their results. Back in Term 1, in our Big Writing Mission, the students were creating pieces of writing that could be put into a Time Capsule and pulled out some years later to learn about students from the past. Last term they wrote about a personal memory, then this week they wrote their autobiographies. During Lockdown, they had been assigned the task of searching through their Baby Book or their Early Childhood portfolios to find out about key events and memories of their childhood. They were able to use this research when writing their autobiography. I am looking forward to storing a copy of these autobiographies until they are in Year 13 and I will give them their copy back! I wonder how different life will be in 7 years’ time! Excerpts from our autobiographies: I first talked when I was 1 year old (from what my parents told me) and once I talked, I always talked. I was told I was a very energetic and hard to take care of. My grandma told me when I was little, I could not sit down even for a minute, I would always run away, and now I think of it I was braver than I am now! For my 3rd birthday I had a ‘Dora the Explorer’ cake. When it was time to cut the cake, I started crying because when they were cutting the cake, I thought they were killing Dora. When the year almost ended, I told my mum that I didn’t like the school and wanted to change. She said yes and that’s how I got to Pinehurst. When the year ended, I was so grateful, and I couldn’t wait till year four. I have an ambition of being a scientist – to be exact, a palaeontologist or an astrologer. But my mum wishes me to be a dentist, or any other doctor. Right now, I am working hard to be a scientist. Finally at ten years old, I went to Lakewood camp. The most memorable thing was the fact that I could not climb to the top of the climbing wall! I felt kind of embarrassed. Also, later in the year, I caught a 40cm butterfly fish! It’s bigger than a ruler! I felt excited, joyful yet heart warmed. The New to 2 Team We have welcomed 22 excitable students, who joined us this term. They have already settled in well and are navigating school life with ease. P1 and P2 are on a ‘Safari Adventure’ this term. In a few weeks’ time they will be ‘travelling’ all the way to Africa to explore the Savannah and the animals that live there. Whilst on the safari, the students will be describing what they can see and hear to help when writing facts about different animals that live in the wild. In Global Perspectives they will be investigating our world and how to look after it, with an emphasis on litter and recycling. The students will be looking closely at 'The plastic whale' which will help them to create a class art piece using recycled materials. In P4 and P5, the students have been working hard classifying animals. They have learned the different animal group names such as Amphibians, Reptiles, Mammals, Birds, and Fish. As they continue learning this term, the students will be looking at the characteristics of each animal group and why and how they are grouped there. In our Literacy this week they have been reading, ‘There’s a snake in my school,” by David Walliams and practising writing character descriptions. In Art, P4 and P5 were exploring line and shape by looking at Picasso’s paintings. The students talked about what they noticed and then had a go at making their own picture like Picasso. P4 and P5 are looking forward to creating their own Picasso inspired artworks next. P6, P7 and P8 have been learning the days of the week and colours in te reo Māori. There are a few different songs which have helped the students to remember. As it was New Zealand sign language week the students have also learnt how to sign the colours and days of the week. In Art, we are focusing on observational drawing. We are learning how to look closely at something and draw what we see rather than what we know. Our first attempt was a pencil drawing of a teddy bear. We had to look carefully and draw all the details. Year 2 learnt how to use shading to make something look 3 dimensional and tried to include shadow. Year 2 are learning about light and dark in Science. The students have identified light sources, and discovered how shadows are made. It was fun trying to make shadow puppets with our hands! Year 3-4 Syndicate We promised we'd be back this term to share more exciting activity in the middle syndicate, so here we are! The Year 4 superstars have been looking at the relationship between fractions and decimals, rounding to one decimal place, then solving mathematical word problems using the knowledge they have just learned. They are CSI detectives in Reading, drawing inferences and finding evidence in the text to support their answers. Building positive relationships with others is an important part of collaborating and learning so Year 4 students have been learning what this looks like and feels like in Health. What is Coding? The Year 4 students had a great discussion about this and shared their ideas with each other. Using first-person voice, pronouns, possessive pronouns and adverbs, Year 4 Big-Writers had to convince a journalist that the superheroes in town were real! What is better than a day at camp?...TWO days at camp! Year 3 students pushed themselves to their limits and conquered many challenges at Camp Maynard last week. Rain clouds hovered for two days but didn't burst until we were all safely home again. Rock climbing, an epic confidence course through the bush, cutting fruit ourselves to make pou whenua fruit kebabs, kite making, and creating amazing bush art were just some of the adventures on offer. Here are some thoughts from Year 3 students about their personal goals and feelings about camp...
Back at school we are back into focused learning - identifying types of angles in everyday objects in Maths, (can you spot the different types of angles in our autumn leaves?), identifying different types of rock in Science, summarising texts in Reading, and solving the mystery of 'Who stole the garden gnomes?' in Big Writing. We look forward to updating you again later this term... The Fabulous Middle Syndicate! Term 2 for Year 5 and 6 Year 6 Global Perspectives In Year 6 we are looking out how we power our lives; firstly, learning about renewable and non-renewable energy. Then we will be analysing our energy consumption at school and at home. We will consider ways to reduce our consumption. It will be interesting to hear the feedback from our students into ways we can all reduce our energy consumption especially in a winter term. We hope they will provide some great tips for us to put into practice within our classrooms. Year 6 Art This term our Year 6 artists are challenged to make their own clay tile. They will be developing ideas for their tile in response to discussion, observation and experimentation with the medium of clay. The techniques they use will come together to create a tile that reflects a story character. To motivate our students, they will be visiting the Orewa Estuary Art centre in Week 4 to observe a range of art works. We look forward to seeing the completed tiles. Year 6 English Our Year 6 writers will be developing the skills of writing biographies and autobiographies this term. Through analysing both genres they will be exploring first and third person narrative. Their aim is to link and sequence paragraphs in order to support the overall development of the text. Within their writing our students are challenged to explore the use of active and passive verbs. Year 5 English In Year 5, we are enjoying our work on the “Big Write” Programme. Each unit focuses on a different mission that is sent to the children from the “BWA” or “Big Writing Agency.” In the latest unit, the students have been introduced to Annie Albright. She is an author who has been set the task of compiling an anthology of time slip stories, and she needs the Agency’s help. The Agents need to write: a time slip story for Annie’s anthology; a review of another story; and a poem, based on their time slip story. Big Write is very motivating for our students and allows teachers to focus on the skills of writing for purpose and audience, the structure required and the language features that make writing appealing for a reader. Year 5 Art Art this term for Year 5 is focusing on recognising famous European painters. Students will learn the skills of painting, develop their mixing skills and use their knowledge of colour theory, to create their own unique piece of art inspired by art movements such as impressionism, cubism, surrealism and post modernism. Year 5 Global Perspectives In Global Perspectives this term, the Year 5’s will be focusing on ‘What is the cost of our stuff?” Students will explore the different resources we use in our daily lives and examine where these resources come from. Through research, a timeline will be created to show how raw materials become the end product that we use. Students will be engaging in conversations about needs versus wants and understanding the terms ‘renewable’ and ‘non-renewable’. We look forward to some interesting debates around the issue of ‘needs’ versus ‘wants’ as this will raise the dilemma faced when children are subjected to enticing advertising. Kia Ora, This week one of the stories in the media has been the increase in the amount of screen time that young New Zealanders have experienced in recent years. As a college we are very mindful of the amount of screen time that our students have during the school day. Students are able to do some excellent learning online, and activities are woven successfully into highly effective lessons. We are however always mindful of ensuring that lessons are varied with a wide range of learning opportunities and contexts. As well as lesson time we work hard to make sure that students have clear expectations throughout the school day. As you will be aware, students are not allowed to use their mobile phones between 8:45am and 3:15pm. Students also have their use of laptops restricted laptops during break times. We have these rules in place as we know that we play an important role in allowing students to develop their social skills through engagement with their peers. We have a huge range of activities on offer throughout the week for students to engage in. If your son or daughter has an idea for a new club or activity, please encourage them to speak to any one of the 80 students who are on the various college councils. These groups are there to provide opportunities for our students. We will continue to educate and work with students and parents around the importance of digital citizenship, the benefits, and risks of social media, as well as the safe use of devices. Through lessons in Global Citizenship, Digital Technology, PE & Health, and engagement with appropriate external groups, we aim to provide a thorough learning programme. Nga Mihi, Kieran Verryt, Principal of College JC Debating Meet our awesome Junior College Debate Teams! Year 7 and 8 students are learning to think about aspects and perspective on current issues, develop skills to speak strategically and learn how to create a persuasive argument. Our first debate will be on Thursday 27 May, during lunch where George, Andrew and Finn will try to persuade Olivia, Julie and Katrina that the Covid vaccination should be compulsory for all. Year 7 Science Year 7 Science students are investigating the energy in different food, which food has more energy? Chips, popped corn? Marshmallow? Whanaungatanga The Year 8 students have recently completed a transformation task which involved creating a poster that represented how they saw themselves. The project was called: Whanaungatanga: relationships, connection and identity. They had to do a draft showing correct mathematical working and then recreate the final design. As you can see some of them were stunning. DoE Gold Qualifier Tramp On the 7th May, eight students and two teachers set off from Pinehurst with the aim of improving our kayaking skills, being self-sustainable for four days and making some memories on our Duke of Edinburgh Gold Qualifying journey. We had a lovely morning kayaking on Friday, but then we faced strong winds when trying to reach our final destination for the day. After trying to kayak against the winds and being blown in different directions we all landed safely on shore and carried our gear to Dacre Cottage. There, we warmed up, cooked our dinners and then spent the rest of the night playing card games and deciphering riddles. Unfortunately, due to the weather proceeding to get worse we decided not to risk our safety and so returned home the following morning. This adventure was not what I hoped or expected, but it still was a journey where I bonded with my team, was faced with some tricky challenges and most importantly, made some memories. I am grateful that we were able to get out in nature to have the experience and return home safely, and even more grateful for all the skills that DoE has given me in order to prepare for being comfortable and calm in tricky situations such as this. - Charlie Toumadj, Year 13 NH Zone Day Football Well done to our Year 7 & 8 Boys who represented Pinehurst at the Year 8 Boys Football NH Zone Day on Wednesday. The team had some very close matches in pool play, including a final second loss 0-1 to Mahurangi, eventually coming away with a win and 3 losses. Playing off in the plate round, Pinehurst continued to improve every game, showing some great teamwork and determination, to finish the day with a 4-1 win over Birkdale to take 15th place overall. Thank you to Coaches Mr Reynolds and Jack Vaughan, for supporting the students at practices leading up to the day, and at the event. College Netball The College Netball competition started at Netball North Harbour. Pinehurst Year 9 team’s participation in the pre-season tournament paid off with them winning three out of their four grading games. Pinehurst 2 worked very well as a team and had a tough game against Rangitoto in their season opener last Saturday. Pinehurst 1 had an early morning game and came away with a win, combinations seemed to gel quickly, and the girls had a blast. This week Team 1 are up against an old rival, Vanguard School, with another early morning game and Team 2 are up against Kaipara 3 in the following round. First XI Girls Football Team It was an exciting start to the season for our first XI girls football team. Some great running passes into space lead to eruptions of excitement from our sideline supporters. Sadly they were not able to capitalise on all the opportunities. A rousing pep talk at half time lead to a goal shortly into the second half. Young Enterprise Scheme The Young Enterprise Scheme (YES) has provided the opportunity for students to create and run their own businesses. It is a national competition where students have challenges through the year to gain points. Some of these challenges include a business pitch to local business owners and writing an annual report. It has been a very busy start for our YES companies but they are learning so much in dealing with suppliers and customers but also how to work in a team, manage their time and problem solve some complex problems. Exciting times lie ahead for the companies! Botanical boxes: Botanical Boxes is a celebration box business run by a group of six Year 12 girls at Pinehurst, that focuses on the art of self-care and self-love. Each box is mindfully curated with the aim to assist in the process of love and restoration in one’s mind and body, something that is often difficult to achieve in the world we live in today. We are selling two boxes, a small box and a big box: products in the box vary from lip balm to scented candles, all of which are sourced from local sustainable NZ businesses. I Spy... Autumn leaves everywhere... I Spy...Year 4 Science - emulsion and travelling water experiments... I Spy...Maths activities in P1... I Spy...Rainbow Reading & Numicon classes... In Music this Week... Year 7 try their hand at conducting The Year 7s with Ms Naumovska have been learning about the history of the orchestra, it's instruments and their evolution. This week we have been focusing on the role of the conductor and the students have been learning some conducting patterns to try out their newly developed skills with their class. Armed with just a pencil and a music stand, students were challenged to reflect the conductor’s volume and speed indications and did so with a lot of laughs. Careers Speed Meet Event Save the Date: Wednesday 30 June 7 - 9pm Year 11-13 students and parents. We will have a number of alumni, parents and members of our community who are currently working or studying in a wide variety of roles/areas available for students (with or without their parents) to meet with. Later this term we will send out booking information so you can schedule appointments during the evening. Buying at the Tuckshop with Student ID Card A reminder to parents that they can pre-load funds on their student's ID cards, for those who have them. They can then be spent at the tuckshop, which is safer and easier than having to give your child cash. You can do this through the 'Monitor' section of Schoolbox. First Place Winner – Auckland Highland & National Dancing Society Congratulation to Serena in Year 2, who won her first Ballet Competition last weekend. Serena won the first place trophy in the ‘Restricted Classical under 10 year old’ competition and started ballet lessons last year. It was a very busy Saturday morning for Serena and her family with a 5am start to prepare for the event. The rest of the weekend was followed by proud admiration and lots of smiles! Open Water Champion Congratulations to Jack in Year 10 who achieved the selection criteria for the World Junior Open Water Championships which was due to take place last August in Seychelles. The meet which was originally set for 2020 was postponed to 2021, only to be cancelled until further notice. A great achievement by Jack who won the required distance, 5km in his age group at the NZ OW Champs and swam under the 17.28.00 time for the 1500m at NAGS (National Age Group Swimming event). Ballet Brilliance Congratulations to Jade in Year 6 on her successful ballet competition last weekend. The event was the AHNDS - 10-11 age group. She finished with one 1st and three 3rd places plus in the Junior Ballet Scholarship award, she was runner up. Also, 2 weeks ago in the Auckland Movement Dance Competition she got one 1st and two 3rd places. Well done Jade! |