News and events for the week ending 14th February 2020 No images? Click here Friday 14th February 2020Opening Words from the Executive PrincipalKia ora tatou, good afternoon, 你好, 안녕하세요 Happy Valentine’s Day! I’ve resisted the temptation to include a romantic poem, or to fill the page with roses, but if anyone fancies sending me a gift, I’m always up for a Terry’s Chocolate Orange. The sun has smiled on us this week, as Year 4 students have headed out to swimming lessons, Year 7-9 students have enjoyed a good splattering of fake blood at the Pop Up Globe’s production of ‘Romeo and Juliet’, and Year 10 students have nervously and/or excitedly (delete as appropriate) attacked their first Duke of Edinburgh overnight tramp on Waiheke Island. No cabins on this one: long walks and tents all round. They will be ever-so-slightly exhausted when they return later today. We have also enjoyed welcoming parents and other members of our extended Pinehurst community into school this week. On Monday, Erica Stanford, our local MP, formally opened the Library, and it was lovely to see Sherida Penman-Walters, our Founding Principal, alongside past and present parents, staff and members of the Board and Trust in attendance. Sherida and Erica cut the ribbon and unveiled the plaque, and this is a good opportunity to remind people that the library is open to 5 pm for College students and parents. On Tuesday, we ran well-attended information evenings for each of Years 4, 5 and 6, as well as for Year 7. Thank you to all the parents who were able to come in. If you weren’t able to, and haven’t seen the presentations, please just contact your class or homeroom teacher, and they will be able to send you the details. We run a number of information sessions this term, and I know it can be quite difficult to keep track of all of them, especially if you have children in multiple year groups, so please use the calendar on the website to help you. And if in doubt, just ask your class, homeroom or POD teacher. They’ll be able to tell you anything you need to know. I’ve enjoyed visiting classes this week, and I have of course been delighted to see that nearly everyone is back in school now: after Monday, there will be only a handful of families left to return to us. Our students have settled really quickly, and are working hard already. I’m also really pleased with the way our new teachers have adapted to life at Pinehurst. It’s never easy starting a new school, but their enthusiasm and expertise has been visible from their first moments in school. I’ve been particularly impressed by Primary Maths and College Global Perspectives this last week or so. Lots of great foundation number learning, some difficult, interesting discussions about the world at large, and lovely relationships between students and teachers. I also had a great time yesterday afternoon at our annual Year 9 to 13 Scholars and Student Leaders Assembly. Our Scholars numbers continue to grow. There are 26 IGCSE scholars this year, and 19 AS Level Scholars, which is over a quarter of all of our Year 13. The number of scholars reflects the sustained excellence of our results and the way in which our students continue to outdo themselves year after year. It was wonderful to see so many of our senior students celebrated for their achievements. It was also a pleasure to recognize this year’s outstanding Student Leaders. At the assembly, I talked about the varied, diverse nature of leaders, and about how acts of leadership are part of all of our lives – but that’s for another newsletter, I think. I do want to publicly thank in advance our students for all the leadership work they will do this year. I have a couple of quick things to mention: we have our annual New Parents’ Wine and Cheese Evening on Wednesday next week in the Library. All new parents are warmly invited, the wine is optional, there will be more than just cheese (promise!) to nibble on, and it’s a good chance to meet other new parents and become more involved in the Pinehurst Community. Please reply to Judy Wallace’s invitation or simply let Sylvia Lum or Nicole Chen know that you’re able to come along. We also have our first Open Days of the year coming up soon: these are on March 3rd (Years 7-13) and March 4th (Year 1-6). If you have friends thinking about our school as a possibility, our Open Days are a good time to pop along. There’s a registration form on the website, or anyone is very welcome to contact Nicole Chen. I’ll finish with a mention of the coronavirus. I think it’s worth repeating that we are continuing our current approach – 14 days isolation, additional cleaning, handwashing – and that we are also continuing to monitor actively the progress of the virus. We are doing all we can to keep everyone safe, of course, and making sure that we are ready should the situation change at all. The Board of Governors will be discussing our planning at their first scheduled meeting on February 26th, and I’m finishing my work in advance of that meeting this weekend. If you have any comments about this, or anything you would like me or the Board to consider, now is a good time to pass those comments on, so please feel free to write to me. At the same time, we are also thinking of those whose families and friends are either in Wuhan or Hubei Province, or whose lives which have been affected by the changes that have taken place in other parts of China. Our thoughts are with you. David Ward,David has spent most of his career working in schools as a property manager of sorts. David is now in his 26th year at Pinehurst. When he was employed by former Principal Sherida Penman Walters she said his role was to "make sure the housework is done". This involved dealing with contractors, cleaners, compliance codes, health & safety and property management. In 2011 David's knowledge and passion for the school's history was put to good use as he was assigned an additional role as the School Archivist. David also looks after facility bookings and set up and pack down of school events. On Saturday's David can be found at Pinehurst on the courts assisting Kidzplay Netball. He also helps the younger primary children at lunchtimes with ball handling skills. Every year David dedicates some of his annual leave to do volunteer work in Fiji or Tonga and has over the years organised for old school uniform that has been donated to be given to schools in the Islands. Kia Ora, On this sunny Valentine’s Day, we have had a busy morning of Year 13 students delivering roses all around the College. This is an annual undertaking of our senior student leaders as they get their organisation and teamwork skills going to ensure that they have an effective ordering and delivery system. They managed to deliver 320 roses this morning and made a profit of $350 which they have donated to Habitat for Humanity. During yesterday’s assembly we acknowledged the outstanding performances of students during November’s external examination session. We inducted 44 senior students into the Scholars Academy for 2020, this number represents 30% of the cohort which is a phenomenal performance by these students. We also had many families join us as we introduced our 2020 Student Leaders with parents assisting us to present their children with their leadership badges. Our Head students, James Corles and Isabella Abbott-Wheeler spoke confidently of their aspirations for the College this year. Legacy is a key focus for the student leaders as they encourage the student body to engage with all the opportunities available to them and not be left looking back with regret at not trying something new. On trying something new we have also had students on a variety of trips away from school this week. Many Year 7 – 9 students enjoyed their first theatre experience as they went to the Pop-Up Globe to enjoy Romeo and Juliet. Half of our Year 10 cohort are still tramping around Waiheke Island as I write as they embark on the first steps of their Duke of Edinburgh Hilary Award journey. The remaining Year 10 students will enjoy their adventure on Monday and Tuesday next week. Thank you to all the parents that joined us for the grand opening of our new Library on Monday night. We also enjoyed meeting some new families for of Year 7 information evening on Tuesday night. Next week we look forward to hosting our Year 9 families as we discuss the year ahead and the upcoming Year 9 Camp. Nga Mihi, Kieran Verryt, Principal of College Year 11 Physical EducationStudents in Year 11 have been exploring different physical activities that they can get involved in during their leisure time as part of a healthy, active lifestyle. Last week we explored a range of techniques in frisbee and took part in some competitive games of ultimate frisbee. Next up we will apply these skills and take part in some frisbee golf! Year 7-9 Pop-Up Globe TripAll of the students in Year 7, 8 and 9 were treated to a lively and captivating performance of Romeo and Juliet on Wednesday. It had some interesting interpretations of the characters, props and setting at times with unexpected things such as: gun shots, bubbles and lots of blood. Thank you to the staff who attended, we couldn’t have gone on this trip without you. Year 10 DoE practice hike to WaihekeMatai and Kauri Year 10 students have made a positive start to their Duke of Edinburgh award. The hike started in the heat of the day with a steep winding climb from Awawaroa. Packed and loaded with enough gear and food for 30 hours added to the challenge. Each group rallied round to support each other, finishing around 5pm and 10km later at Whakanewha camp ground. Evening skits and and a game of spotlight finished an enjoyable first day. After a very quiet night, the students rose around 6.30am to pack down and have breakfast. With the group's fitness on the up, we made light work of the final 5km along the coastline to our bus pick up. Bring on the Pinnacles! Enjoy Rimu and Totara next week. Special thanks to Potiki Adventures and their team. Kia Ora, The first full week of term has us feeling a little more back to normal and it is wonderful to see most of our students at school now. Classrooms are buzzing and progress is being made on a daily basis. In education and especially in Primary schools we do experience something that teachers refer to as the ‘summer slide,’ where the effects of being on holiday for seven weeks show us that we need to revise concepts taught at the end of the previous year so that we have a solid foundation to work from going forward. I must admit to having been a child who was very excited to have a spelling test every week and I found it easy to learn words and get them right. I was and still am, an avid reader which helps with spelling and at school was taught spelling rules which are largely easy to transfer to a number of words based on word patterns. This is not the case for every child and we know that some students struggle to spell. We have tried a variety of programmes in the past with varying degrees of success but none has had as much impact as our new programme Read, Write Inc. spelling. We are very excited to finally be using this programme across the Primary school after a very successful trial in 2019. Once students have completed their phonics programme, confidently know their sounds and can apply them in reading and writing they can then begin the Read, Write Inc. spelling programme. Read, Write Inc. has been chosen because it gets every student spelling and we have been really impressed with the results so far. Our aim is to raise standards in spelling, enabling students to be more confident and to provide them with consistency and progression in the teaching of spelling. The programme includes:
This is an interactive programme which teaches spelling in a fun and engaging way. Each unit is introduced with a short video. It helps children to learn spellings with common patterns and uses rules in order to help them recall spellings as well as teaching exceptions to these rules. Individual workbooks allow students to practise their spellings and the teaching naturally follows on from the Spell Review part of the Read, Write Inc phonics programme taught in Years 0-2 Students are already proficient at using dots (for individual sounds) and dashes (for digraphs) and prefixes and suffixes can be added to root words to help them to spell with greater accuracy, understanding and confidence. Each unit explains the rules and gives handy tips and rhymes for remembering these. During the week students will log the spellings they found tricky. At the beginning of the next unit they do a speed spell which will assess their ability to spell words with the previous weeks spelling pattern correctly. Again they will log any words that were misspelt from this activity. I have been in Primary education for many years and I am really impressed with the results our students have achieved already, the data speaks for itself with some students achieving more than two years progress in in a single year. It was wonderful to see so many parents able to attend the Year 4-6 Information Evening on Tuesday, the presentation is also available for you on Seesaw if you missed it. Teachers can answer any questions you may have. We are looking forward to seeing our Year 0-3 parents on Monday 24 February at 6pm. Free childcare is available for school aged children in the After School Care room, 5:45pm to 6:45pm. We have loved having Year 6 back after their camp last week, you will see from this newsletter that they had a fantastic time. Year 4 have been amazing going to swimming each day and will be joined by Year 5 next week. We will also have our onsite Junky Monkeys outdoor experience for Year 0-2 on the 20th February and Year 3 will head off to Camp Maynard for two days on Thursday and Friday. In Week 5, Year 6 will learn to sail at Murrays Bay in their first Waterwise session. Ngā mihi, Sian Coxon, Principal of Primary We are Superheroes in P4Students in P4 have been having a wonderful time getting to know each other in their new classroom. They created their own superpower, designed a superhero flag, and have been saving the world in dramatic play. We’ve been talking a lot about what it looks like to work hard, be a kind friend, and listen. Last week, we talked about Waitangi Day. We made pigs and food out of our playdough which represented the things the Maori and Europeans were trading. The children in P4 used our small materials and re-enacted the Europeans coming over to New Zealand. In Art, we have been working with P5 at looking at Koru patterns. We first used our eyes for some observational drawing and practiced drawing Koru patterns on a white board. Then we used our small materials to make lots of different kinds of Koru patterns. We love working with different types of materials to make things. We have been super busy in P4 and we can’t wait to keep saving the world with our superpowers! P8 NewsWe have had a busy 3 weeks in P8. In Writing, we have been learning about Splat-the-Cat and There’s a Ran Tan in my bedroom. We have been discussing how Ran Tan feels about their homes being destroyed to make palm oil. In Maths we have been focusing a bit on shapes – names of the more difficult shapes and how many sides and vertices they have, finding shapes with a vertical line of symmetry as well as sorting shapes and comparing them. Last week for art we focused on Waitangi Day and together we each made a Koru which represent our families and discussed the importance of treaties. Magnificent MathematiciansIn P16 we have been focusing on word problems in Math and learning how to break these down in order to understand what the question is asking of us. First we read through the problem and identify important information such as keywords, numbers and the question itself. Then with a buddy or in a small group we discuss all the strategies we could possibly use in order to solve this question. Then we solve it and share our thinking with others in the classroom. The last word problem we solved was.. There are eight netball teams in the local netball tournament. During the tournament, they all need to play each other once. How many games will be played altogether? Can you solve it? Science in P9Students in P9 are looking at plants this term, what they need to grow, parts of the plant and how they feed themselves. We have begun to grow Mung Beans in plastic bottles. These bottles act like little hot houses. Our next task will be designing a fair test to see if water or light make any difference to a plants growth. Swimming Lessons in Year 4This week the Year 4 students were very excited to travel by bus each day to their swimming lessons at Northern Arena. The students managed themselves extremely well during this time and were all quick to learn the routine of being organised for the day. Each class had a 30-minute lesson with a skilled swimming coach who taught students to swim and survive by learning correct stroke techniques and swim fitness. Our swimming classes will continue next week, with Friday being our last day. We will finish our lessons by wearing life jackets and learning key boat and water safety skills which is extremely important. We are looking forward to some more swimming fun next week! Year 6 CampThey survived! They survived the mud run, the camp food, sleeping in a tent, swimming in the slimy lake, riding horses, snoring bunk mates, climbing new heights, overcoming humidity and feeding farm animals! And best of all they have many new tales to tell. Here are just a few: I Spy in the PrimaryI Spy... our Rainbow Readers up & running for 2020! I Spy...Maths in Year 1! I Spy...clapping and clicking to the beat! I Spy... butterflies in the butterfly garden! College ProductionWhat a week it has been for the Addams Family cast. On Tuesday, under the expert guidance of Jemma Goeldner, the cast quickly picked up the dancing to the Act One Finale - Full Disclosure. The following day all watching parties were amazed to see the cast roughly work their way through the whole scene, acting and dancing included! It has been amazing to see the show get underway and we are eagerly waiting to see their progress in the coming weeks. In Music this WeekIntroducing Sue Braatvedt - Classical Voice Itinerant Lessons The Pinehurst Music Department is excited to welcome Sue Braatvedt to the Itinerant Tutor’s team. Sue appeared as solo mezzo soprano artist in all the major centres in South Africa, in Boston and New York City (U.S.A), in New Zealand, and in Australia. She has sung over 40 operatic roles and she has performed as a soloist in numerous concerts and oratorios. In South Africa Sue was a contracted solo artist at the State Theatre in Pretoria for many years, during which time she was awarded the Nederburg Prize for Opera for her performance of ‘Amneris’ in AIDA, and the Vita Award for Opera for ‘Maddalena’ in RIGOLETTO. In Australia Sue performed for Opera Australia, Opera South Australia, Opera Queensland, Melbourne Opera, Melbourne City Opera and Melbourne Lyric Opera. In 2008 she was nominated for a GREEN ROOM AWARD for her role as ‘The Princess’ in SUOR ANGELICA for Melbourne Opera. In New Zealand Sue performed for Canterbury Opera as ‘Marzellina’ in IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA, ‘Marthe’ in FAUST, ‘Suzuki’ in MADAME BUTTERFLY, and ‘Olga’ in EUGENE ONEGIN with Dame Malvina Major. Sue has a Ph.D in music education and she has been teaching singing for over 20 years. She organizes regular concerts to give students performing opportunities. If you would like to enrol your child into Classical Voice itinerant lessons with Sue, please click on this link and complete the enrolment form found at the bottom of the page. Jason Jones - Saxophone, Jazz combo, Saxophone ensemble Jason graduated from Auckland University (BMus) in 1994 and was already an established saxophonist in the Auckland jazz scene, routinely performing with many of New Zealand's leading players. He went on to further jazz studies at Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA, where he studied with some of the worlds leading jazz players/educators, including George Garzone, Bill Pierce and Hal Crook. On returning to New Zealand he recorded an album of original compositions entitled Subspace, winning jazz album of the year in 1999. He continues to be a freelance performer and jazz educator, including guest work with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and the Auckland Jazz Orchestra. As a classically trained pianist with an Associate Teacher’s Diploma (ATCL), teaching piano continues to be an important part of his work in both classical and jazz domains. If you would like to enrol your child into itinerant lessons with Jason, please click on this link and complete the enrolment form found at the bottom of the page. Pinehurst ConnectionSibling Photos Pinehurst Connection have organised Sibling Photos for any families who would like a photo of their children together in their school uniform. There will be two session available from 2.30–4pm on:
These will be held in P23 (Junior Primary block). If your children are unavailable to attend these dates, there will be catch-up slots available during the year. Emails will be sent to families with further details and a registration form. If you have any questions, please contact Sylvia Lum on Sylvia.lum@pinehurst.school.nz. Greenhithe Suburban Catch-Up We understand that it may be hard to connect with other families from our school because we are spread across various Auckland suburbs. This is a great chance to meet up and get to know your Pinehurst neighbours. The first suburban catch-up will be for the Pinehurst families of Greenhithe on Sunday 15th March from 2.30pm. So save the date and look out for more details that will appear in your inbox! If you are interested in hosting a suburban catchup in your area, please email pinehurstconnection@pinehurst.school.nz for more information. Dad’s Fantail and Turtle As promised, after the first successful event last year, Pinehurst Connection has organised the next Dad’s Catch-Up for Thursday 27th February from 6pm. A great casual way to meet other Pinehurst Dad’s - have a relaxing drink and a bite to eat! Auckland Athletic Championships 2020Aria Rhodes Congratulations to Aria Rhodes who placed 1st in the Under 20 Women’s Pole Vault, jumping a height of 3.47m! Fernanda Tirado New Pinehurst student Fernanda in Year 7 recently attended the Athletics Auckland Track & Field Championships as well. She had fantastic results as follows:
Congratulations Fernanda! Forrest Hill Milford AFCRegistrations open for 2020 from Grade 5 through to Seniors. Please register via www.forresthillafc.co.nz contact fhmclubmanager@gmail.com if you have any questions. |