No images? Click here 30 July 2021Pinehurst School NewsletterOpening Words from the Executive Principal...Kia ora tatou, good afternoon, 你好, 안녕하세요 Welcome back to a busy Term 3. It’s been a delight to see the children – and their parents, naturally! – back in school, smiling, glad to be seeing their friends again and looking forward to nine weeks of school. A special welcome to our new students: the 15 New Entrants, taking the first steps of their school journey, and the small number of older students joining the Pinehurst community. To the whole family: nau mai, haere mai. Welcome! It’s also great to be able to say “welcome back” to Ms Ahn, who has been overseas for 18 months, and returns as our P17 teacher. Our other new teacher is Ms Walton, who is teaching the new New Entrants class, ably assisted for the next couple of weeks by Mrs Jones-Hill. A quick word on the new class: we’ve been so impressed by the way they’ve adapted to school life so quickly. I walked into a lesson on their very first morning and they were hard at work counting, writing numbers and eagerly showing Ms Walton what they’ve been able to do. Thank you to all the Year 8 parents who attended the Year 8 to 9 Transition Evening on Tuesday this week. We’ve tried a couple of different approaches this year to give parents more opportunities to find out information about the way the school works in Years 9 to 13, and I hope that parents feel well-informed about the transition. Please do contact me, Mr Verryt, Mr Wiggin or Mr Johansen if you would like to ask any questions about this at all, or if you have any comments or ideas. Our College Production, Peter Pan and Wendy, has its second performance this evening – I had a great time in the audience last night, and I’d thoroughly recommend getting a ticket for tonight or for tomorrow’s performances. Good luck to the cast, crew, supporting staff and Ms Forrester for the shows over the next two days. Next week, we have our second College Parent and Teacher Conferences of the year: please book a slot for these as soon as you’re able. A couple of updates from me to finish this week: the Rosedale Road entrance is progressing well and should be complete within 2-3 weeks. We will be running a launch event for our Pinehurst Theatre and College 5 project in the next few weeks as well: we’re very close to releasing more details about this, but there will be a chance to contribute to the project in a few small ways. And a reminder that our 30th Anniversary Formal Dinner is approaching fast, and that there aren’t that many tickets left! Ka kite anō au i a koutou. Have a lovely 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, Everyone has been really happy to be back at school this week in the Primary. On Tuesday morning the playgrounds were full of very excited children and slightly relieved looking parents. I asked lots of students if they were happy to be back and the response was an overwhelming yes! We were straight into learning and Year 6 spent part of the week progression testing in Maths, English and Science. At the beginning of next term they will sit their Cambridge Primary Checkpoint assessments and so we are giving them the opportunity to take timed tests now so that they feel comfortable and have time to reflect on what they know well and what they still need to work on. They became more confident and relaxed as the week went on, which is great to see as it will help them to reassure them before they take their externally marked assessments. Our learning programmes for this term are detailed on the overviews sent out this week on Seesaw. If you have any questions about the learning taking place, please contact your child’s teacher who will be able to explain. In Week 5 of this term the Year 3 and 4 syndicate will perform a production of Pirates Past Noon over two nights in the Arena. Everyone has been learning their lines and dances and singing the songs; there is a definite buzz around the place as they learn to be pirates and sea creatures. The staff are busily preparing the props, costumes and make up design. The posters and tickets have been created and will be going up around the school shortly. As teachers we are beginning to sing the songs in our heads too, even at home! The greatest part about the production is the shared memories it creates for everyone involved. Next year it will be the turn of Year 5 and 6 as we will alternate between the Year 3-4 and Y5-6 syndicates. There are plans for new to 2 to have an opportunity to perform each year as well, this won’t be the big production but will give our youngest students the opportunity to perform in front of an audience. We welcomed two new staff into the Primary this week, Seran Ahn has returned to us from 18 months in Canada where she travelled with her husband, and we are thrilled to have her back teaching P17 and Vicky Walton joins us in P23. Originally from the U.K. she is very familiar with our curriculum and teaching style and has worked at St Heliers school for a number of years. We are very grateful to be able to attract such a knowledgeable and high quality team of teachers who are passionate about the work they do with our students and deeply care about the children they work with. I am heading along to the Pōwhiri shortly to welcome our new students, families and teachers to our school. Our New Entrants have settled beautifully and are already showing that they are ready for school, it will be exciting to watch them grow and learn. Kia pai to rā whakata, have a good weekend. Ngā mihi, Sian Coxon, Principal of Primary NE students back in action! The New Entrants have quickly settled back in for their second term at school. They have been busy practicing their existing sounds and learning new games to help blend the sounds into words. They loved dressing up as Sherlock Holmes to play “I spy something beginning with…” and the telephone number CVC word reading game. In Maths we have been busy estimating numbers of objects and then counting to compare our estimates with the actual amounts. We had fun finger painting the correct number of body segments of caterpillars and are working on consistently forming all of the numbers to ten correctly. In Literacy we have been learning all about nocturnal animals, we used the book 'Night Monkey, Day Monkey' to explore which animals are nocturnal and which animals are diurnal. We chose a possum to learn about, adding interesting adjectives to our descriptions to form a story map. Our story map constructs a plan which allows us to orally retell information and provides a basis for our writing. This week in P6What an exciting first week back P6 has encountered. Firstly in reading and writing P6 have been enjoying the story 'Traction Man' by Mini Gray and have been learning to write descriptive sentences using similes, adjectives and new vocabulary as well as describing the characters in the story. P6 have been refining their dictionary skills, creating speech and thought bubbles for the characters as well as identifying and sequencing key events. The most exciting learning was when they learnt about the uses of ‘onomatopoeia’ words in sentences and created their own ‘onomatopoeia’ art work. In maths we have enjoyed the challenges and have been focusing on addition and subtraction using two-digit numbers and ones, two-digit numbers and tens. Have you heard of Henri Matisse? He was a French artist back in the 1900’s and was well known for his painting but when ill health in his final years prevented him from painting, he created an important body of work in the medium of cut paper collage. P6 decided that they would start an art project inspired by Matisse with a focus on the Tokyo Olympics. The theme in the library is also the Olympics and P6 really enjoyed having the story of the ‘Frog Olympics' read to them by Mrs Blake. P6 then enjoyed finding a quiet spot and took pleasure in being able to sit and read a book of their choice. Term 3 is off to a flying start in P11!The students of P11 arrived back to school on Tuesday feeling refreshed and replenished after their lovely break. Now that we have reached our halfway point of the year, we took some time to reflect on how well Year 3 have done so far and discuss the term ahead. We brainstormed goals as a class group and also thought about our own personal goals. We talked about working hard, having fun and all of the things we are looking forward to in the coming term. Here are some student voices from P11: “My goal for Term 3 is to improve at reading analogue clocks in Maths.” – Archie “I am looking forward to singing and dancing in our production, Pirates Past Noon.” - Ben “In Term 3, my goal is to get better at dribbling and shooting in basketball.” – Sarah “I am excited to improve at solving division questions in Maths.” - Gordon “My goal for Term 3 is to improve at working as a member of a team and communicating with others.” – Aria “In Term 3, I am looking forward to exercising more and improving at shooting in football.” - Oskar “My goal for Term 3 is to improve at solving two-step words problems involving money.” – Lavender “By the end of Term 3, I would like to improve my teamwork skills.” - Sean
Snippets of our first week in P12
What a fabulous start to the term watching the children come into class, with cherry big smiles ready to start the term with such optimistic spirit. It was wonderful listening to everyone’s enthusiastic holiday stories, and the fabulous family time they had spent together. Maths Now that we have mastered drawing and identifying, Acute and Obtuse angles, the class developed the confidence at comparing and ordering angles up to two right angles by size. Our children became creative by using their rulers to measure, since we didn’t have a right-angle tester. It was great walking around and conversing with the children why they made their choice. We quickly learnt the importance of justifying answers to develop our understanding further. Here is the fun part, the children used squared paper to draw their names and identify the different angles. Now we know we have mastered angles in P12! Writing Our class thoroughly enjoys being creative when up levelling a sentence in writing. This week the children started using different colours with their learning partner as they made changes to their sentence/ short paragraph. This activity alerts and helps the children to vary their punctuation, include powerful openers and adjectives as well as use strong connectives to link their ideas together. Well done P12! Reading In Reading this week we started looking at a fiction text called ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’. Our learning intention for the week is to ‘Identify the main ideas and supporting details in a text.’ Examining key vocabulary and thinking aloud as learners is vital as it provides rich support to achieve the learning intention. P16 Coding Unplugged
For ICT this term, we will be taking our learning off devices to explore ‘coding unplugged’. We will be thinking like Computer Scientists as we learn and practise computational skills. Through tangible activities, we will be learning to describe a problem, identify the important details needed to solve this problem, break it down into small, logical steps, use these steps to create a process (algorithm), and then evaluate. Our first activity required us to think about maps and the quickest route from one place to another. We were asked to help set up a fast internet service for a single network that connected all the buildings in a small town to each other. We had to think about which paths between buildings would help keep the cost low. “Our first unplugged activity was really fun and you needed lots of thinking and problem solving to get through it.” - Neo Yang “It was cool that we didn't have to use devices to think like computer scientists.” - Nina Hou Year 6 Progression Testing
This week the year 6 students have been sitting their mid-year progression tests. These tests are designed to give teachers and students a snapshot of where students are with their learning and help them prepare for the Checkpoint Tests that they set in the final term of Year 6. There are 2 tests in each of the core academic subjects; Maths, English and Science (although Maths has a smaller 3rd paper to test the student’s mental mathematic ability). The year 6 teachers have been extremely impressed with the focus the students have shown during their tests and look forward to seeing how they have tackled the questions and problems. While these tests give us good information about student achievement, we don’t place huge pressure on the students to study and prepare. They are only young still and have many more years ahead of them before serious studying is necessary. Here are some words of wisdom from P20. Primary School BasketballBasketball in the Primary School has started this week, and we have 9 registered teams playing in the Junior Breakers League. Last semester was a successful one for all of our players, with each player developing their basketball skills, their teamwork and social skills – while of course having fun. Semester 2 sees our Basketball programme with 9 teams again. We are looking forward to a fantastic semester and know that our students are given the best opportunity to show case Pinehurst’s Sporting Culture. Primary FlippaballCongratulations to our Year 5-6 Pinehurst Makos, who had a great end to their Semester 1 Flippaball season in the first weekend of the holidays, with an exciting 3-3 draw to finish middle of their grade. This young team, most of whom were playing Flippaball for the first time ever in Semester 1, have done really well to develop their skills and game play. Special thanks to Nathan for Coaching the team in Semester 1, and to their super Manager Cherie for all her time organising trainings & games and even team activities out of the pool. Mid-Season Primary Netball TournamentA huge congratulations to our Year 4/5 netball team that took part in the Mid-season Netball Tournament at Netball North Harbour on Sunday, 25th July. It was the first time these girls have taken part in a netball tournament, and they demonstrated their developing netball skills, positive attitudes and enjoyment for the game. Overall, it was a fantastic day as the girls got the opportunity to compete against teams from all over Auckland and finished 2nd in their pool. A big thank you to coach Debbie Stanaway for taking the team, our players who filled in for us, and our wonderful parents who supported the team on the day. Kia Ora, Welcome back to Term 3. Despite the slightly shortened week for students it has been a very productive one. There is a positive atmosphere around the college as students have settled quickly into good routines. Yesterday afternoon we had an academic mentoring session during period 7. I enjoyed catching up with my small group of Year 11 and Year 12 students. I went through their midyear reports and discussed their goals for mock examinations, and their study plans for their final examinations. It was great to hear that all of the students were aware that the schedule for both their mock examinations and their external examinations was up on Schoolbox. Parents should also have access to this information, so please check in with your son or daughter if you are having any trouble finding the information. On Tuesday evening we hosted an information evening for Year 8 parents. We have changed how we have worked through transition with this age group, and the new format of small group sessions enable parents the opportunity to ask more questions than normal. There are lots of opportunities for you to engage with us in the coming weeks. Next week we have our parent and teacher conferences which are available for you to book now. In weeks 3 and 4 we will also host our Year 9 families for an IGCSE information evening, and the following week we will host our AS and A level information evening for senior students and their parents. Yesterday I also took the opportunity to watch both of the casts complete a full-dress rehearsal for this year’s production of Peter Pan and Wendy. It was great to see the culmination of all of the hard work of the students and staff come together in what I thought was an excellent performance. The students later confided in me that they had made a few mistakes along the way, and so I was left to congratulate them on how quickly they adapted, as I had not noticed any glitches. The Production is always one of the highlights of my school year. It will run throughout this weekend, so if you have not managed to get a ticket yet, the good news is, there are still some available. Nga Mihi, Kieran Verryt, Principal of College Year 7 Sustainable Cities Project The Year 7 Social Science classes have been learning about how cities can become sustainable and what key features a city needs to function. They have completed a project on building their own model of a sustainable city, where they could either create the model on Minecraft or design it offline. Some students have created amazing projects such as these ones from Aayoung, Yicheng and Linda.
Year 10 GeographyYear 10 Geography students have been studying the topic Earthquakes and Volcanoes. Students made models and demonstrated how tectonic plates interact at plate boundaries to make specific landforms. They also analysed P and S seismic waves recorded on seismograms from three New Zealand recording stations. By calculating the arrival times of P and S waves at the recording stations, students were able to locate the epicentre of a an earthquake, which then allowed them to study the geography of the epicentre and make decisions about planning a hazard response for that area. College Chess - North Shore Secondary NZCF Interschool Regional Qualifier Author Allan Rufus said “Life is like a game of chess. To win you have to make a move. Knowing which move to make comes with insight and knowledge, and by learning the lessons that are accumulated along the way”. The Pinehurst College Chess team, comprising of Fengyuan (Kevin) Guo, Kohtaro Nozaki, Junwon (Kevin) Jeong and Jiahong (Kai) Yu, spent a relaxing day at Carmel College on Wednesday playing chess for 5 hours, making the right moves and learning the lessons that are accumulated along the way. 64 Year 9 – 13 students from all over the North Shore, making up 16 teams, competed for the prize (to quote Highlander … “There can only be one”) to be the winning team to represent the North Shore at the NZCF National Interschool Championships in October. Although we did not win the tournament, we did achieve some very good individual results. Our young team of Y9 and 10 students played against many Y12 and 13 ‘Masters’. We were placed 4th overall by the end of Round 5, however, by the end of the final Round 6, the Pinehurst Team slipped back a few placings to finish 8th out of 16 teams. A good experience for our first time entering the College competition. Overall, we achieved some very good results with Kevin Guo ranked 5th Best Player at the end of Round 6 in Board 1, Kohtaro 7th Best Player in Board 2 and Kai 7th Best Player at Round 6 in Board 4. Kevin Jeong was placed 7th Best Player at Round 5 in Board 3. In the end, our team did themselves and Pinehurst proud and will return next year from this experience to fight again for the honour of saying ‘checkmate’ with a friendly smile and firm handshake. Chess players learn the value of hard work, concentration, and commitment. Chess helps students to take responsibility for their own actions and accept the consequences. Encourage your son or daughter to come along to JC2 at the start of lunchtime every Wednesday to learn to make mistakes, accept defeat, and develop the sense of self-confidence and self-worth that playing chess instils in people who take up the challenge. Remember, ‘to win you have to make a move’. New Zealand Secondary School Swimming Champs
During the school holidays seven Pinehurst students qualified to attend the NZSS Swimming Champs that were held in Auckland over four days. The calibre of entries was very high, as was the number of swimmers attending. Congratulations to Jasmine Lyles who placed 1st in 200m Breaststroke and Jack Potier who placed 2nd 200m Butterfly and placed 3rd 400m Freestyle in their respective age groups. A huge thank you to David Lyles and Matt Phillips who both coached and managed our students, attending all four days of the event. New Zealand Secondary School Orienteering ChampsLast week, two Pinehurst students, Charlotte and Zachary, headed to Hawkes Bay to compete in the NZSS Orienteering Champs. Both the Sprint and Long events proved very challenging. The Sprint was quite technical, while the Long was held high up in the hills of Whanawhana, which turned out to be very cold and muddy. Both students enjoyed the challenges of the events and had a great time away. Year 7 & 8 Table TennisOur Term 2 (Year 5-8) Table Tennis competition concluded in the first week of the holidays. We had 4 teams competing in Term 2 across 4 different grades. Pinehurst Navy (Matthew, Nathan, Henry & Alex), our Year 5 team, had and excellent start to their first year of Pinehurst Table Tennis, finishing 5th overall in C2 Grade. Pinehurst Silver (Emily, Mignon, Maisy & Jade) also played some good Table Tennis over the term, and finished 6th in C1 Grade. Pinehurst White (Marcus, Keitaro & John) had a fantastic term and finished runners up in A Reserve Grade. Special mention to Marcus, who in his first year of Table Tennis, also finished 5th individually in this grade. Our experienced Pinehurst Blue team (Youngmin, Oliver and Roey) had an outstanding Term 2, winning the Premier A Grade (this is the top intermediate grade at NH Table Tennis!) an outstanding 33 points ahead of their closest rivals! These talented players also received overall top individual honours for the league, with Youngmin 1st overall, Roey 2nd = overall and Oliver 3rd overall. Congratulations to all our Term 2 teams – we look forward to seeing you in action again in Term 3! Pinehurst Year 7 & 8 BasketballIn the first week of the holidays, our Year 7/8 Basketball teams had their final games for Semester 1. Pinehurst Lakers were playing for Bronze, and had a fantastic game, narrowly going down to MBIS to finish 4th in League 3. Year 7 & 8 WaterpoloOur Year 7-8 Waterpolo team had their final game for Term 2, on the first Friday of our school holidays. The team had a very close exciting game against Rosmini, coming away with a 7-6 win to secure the C Grade Bronze Medal. Well done team! Thanks to Coach Izzy and Manager Maxine for all your support and work with this young team - we look forward to seeing you back in action in the pool in Semester 2. Netball Zone Day
Our AIMS Netball team represented Pinehurst this week at the annual Zone Day at Netball North Harbour. This young team (who are mainly Year 7’s) had a great tournament competing in the Year 8 Grade, with 2 wins and 2 losses on the day. Defensive DrivingShore2Pass are holding another Defensive Driving course here at Pinehurst after school (3:30-5:30pm) for four sessions (13,15,20,22 September). Please note this is a private provider who comes into the school. Students must have their Restricted License at the time of the first class. Information and registration here. Yu Zhang competes in Hamilton Piano CompetitionOver the holidays, Yu Zhang (Yr 10) entered and completed in a series of Hamilton Piano Competitions where she was awarded 1st place for the Piano Sonata category, 1st place for the Romantic Piano category and 1st place for the Josephine Burry Concerto, all amassing to $780. Congratulations to Yu Zhang! To view her performance of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major, click here.
Jazz Band and Orchestra gear up for the KBBThis weekend and next, the Jazz Band and Orchestra will be involved with 3 hour intensive workshops on the prepared repertoire for the upcoming KBB competition, which begins from the 9th of August at the Holy Trinity Cathedral and St Mary’s Church, both in Parnell.
Since 1983, the KBB Festival has attracted many of New Zealand’s finest young musicians performing in secondary school orchestras, concert bands, jazz bands and chamber orchestras from within the Auckland region. From the small numbers in the original Auckland Secondary Schools Band and Orchestra Festival, the KBB Music Festival has now grown to see over 4,500 students in 145 groups taking part from more than 50 schools across the greater Auckland region and beyond. The skills required to perform in ensembles of this nature require personal dedication and time as well as a developing musical understanding and social responsibility through listening to and working with other musicians and musical directors. The Festival is recognised for the quality of the music that students perform which reflects the commitment of both the students and their teachers. Prior to 2015, Pinehurst regularly entered the competition in the non-competitive category but since switching to the competitive category, we have been awarded with various awards and accolades. Should your child wish to join either group, new members will be welcome from week 4 onwards as we begin preparing for next year’s competition then. Peter Pan and WendyPeter Pan and Wendy have had its first successful night. Hearing nothing but positive reviews from entertained audience members. Have a look at some of the photos from our technical run throughs earlier this week, which shows our school Arena transformed. Year 7 Family Fun EventCalling all Year 7 students and families to a family fun event of Go Karting, Laser Tag and Mini Golf! This event that was scheduled at the end of Term 2 was cancelled due to a clast with the 40-Hour Famine. We had so much interest in this that we have rescheduled it for Saturday 7th August at 4pm-6pm. This is open to the whole family – and if we get enough interest, it will be Year 7 vs Parents Go Karting Challenge. Tickets will be added to your account and will include pizza to end the evening. Please complete the RSVP Form for more information or to book your tickets! If you have any questions, please contact sylvia.lum@pinehurst.school.nz. Pinehurst Ambrose Golf DayWe are holding a Golf Day for Pinehurst families and friends! This will be held on Sunday 31st October at the North Shore Golf Club and is open to all levels of golfers. You can register a team of 2-4 players, or we can put you in a team of similar experience. A two-tee start from 7.50am – with the last tee-off at 8.40am. Registration is $120 and includes: Registration Pack, 18-holes of Golf, Sausage sizzle followed by prize-giving and a buffet lunch. Non-players are welcome to attend the buffet lunch – so it really is a family event! If you are interested in attending, get a team together and register using the RSVP Form. If you have any questions, please contact sylvia.lum@pinehurst.school.nz. EzlunchWe hope you are enjoying the convenience of ordering lunch online with our supplier Ezlunch. The menu for Term 3 is below for your information. ezlunch menu for Pinehurst School (tgcl.co.nz) Please note that unfortunately FED are no longer able to supply lunches to Pinehurst School as they have relocated their kitchen to Henderson. We are working with Ezlunch to investigate other suppliers who can provide similar menu options. National Diving CompetitionWell done to Zoe and Noah who competed in the National Diving Competition in Dunedin this year, at Level 3 skills and as guest divers in the Age Group Category. They completed dives on the 1m, 3m and 5m boards. Zoe won two bronzes and a silver ribbon and Noah won three silver ribbons. Noah was awarded the Lindsay Stone Trophy for the best diver (11 years and under boys). U18 Hockey NZ National ChampionDuring the holiday break, Danielle Wheeler represented the North Harbour Hockey Premier Team at the Vantage National U18 Hockey tournament held in Wellington. Her team came away with Gold and are the NZ National Under 18 Women’s Hockey Champions! The last time North Harbour won at National U18 Women’s Association was back in 2011. After being undefeated in their pre-season tri series and undefeated in their pool play at tournament, North Harbour 1 faced Canterbury 1 in the semi-final winning 2-1, securing the final spot. It was the “battle of the bridge” final and after 45 minutes of play in torrential wind and rain the game was abandoned (0-0) and North Harbour Hockey and Auckland Hockey were crowned joint NZ Under 18 Women’s Hockey Champions for 2021.
NZ Robot OlympiadWell done to Kevin (Year 10) who won three Bronze medals in the senior division at the 2021 New Zealand Robot Olympiad from July 12 to 16. Congratulations also goes to Sejong (Year 8) for the following success:
And Samuel in Year 6 for his achievements:
All 3 students have been selected to represent New Zealand at the 2021 International Olympic Robotics Competition in South Korea in December. U15 AON Basketball Nationals – National RefereeCongratulations to Kevin who was promoted to a National Referee in the U15 New Zealand Basketball National Championship from July 21 to 24. Kevin is the first student from Pinehurst to officiate Basketball at this level. Yeonsoo wins two Golf tournamentsDuring the holidays I competed in the NZ National Foursomes Championships held at Matamata Golf Course. A total of 86 people participated in this 36 hole event. The tournament came down to the wire through the tough conditions in the wind and rain as there was a bit of struggle on the greens. However, through an additional birdie on the 16th hole, we managed to clinch the title for 2021 by 2 strokes. It was my 4th national title. I also competed in the Great Northern Battle as a representative and team captain for North Harbour. It was a match play team format in which I played in the final (leading) group. I was told by my manager on the 17th (second to last) hole that the tournament was coming down to my match score as the match score was tied. I held a 1 stroke advantage over my opponent heading to the final hole where I made a minor mistake and had an uphill 10 footer to seal victory for our team. Fortunately, the putt dropped and I was able to win by 2 strokes. -Yeonsoo Artistic Swimming Championship Well done to Jessica Hu in P18 who participated at the Artistic Swimming North Island Championship. The Championship took place at Tauranga, July this year. It was a very successful competition for Jessica, she came third in Combos Competition (Beginner level) and top 10 in the individual category. U13 Badminton National ChampionshipsOver the holiday break, Shuyu (Elsa) in Year 7 attended the U13 Badminton National Championships. Elsa had some fantastic results at this event, finishing Runner Up in the Girls Singles and Doubles and Winning the Mixed Doubles. |