Alex Reed
Executive Principal 

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Marija Naumovska

Marija has been teaching at Pinehurst School since 2014, where she currently teaches music to our College students and holds the Head of Visual and Performing Arts role.  

She has collaborated with the University of Auckland teacher training programme and has a real passion for conducting, music education, developing educational music resources and presenting. In 2019 Marija developed the Unwrap of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto in A, an educational documentary about the work, in collaboration with the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra. This year Marija continues to collaborate with the Orchestra..

Marija lists the growth of the Pinehurst Orchestra and its success in the competitive field as one of her top successes since joining the school. Her teaching approach is rooted in aligning the material to the students’ passion and strength.

Her goal since joining Pinehurst school was to grow the already developed music programme which now includes 18 itinerant music specialists, and offers a number of free co-curricular groups to students, through which they can develop their performance skills and foster their love of music. With the formation of the Arts Student Council in 2019, the drama, art and music students of the school are gaining a well-deserved acknowledgement in our community.

Kia Ora,

Thank you to all the parents who attended parent conferences this week. It is always great to catch up with so many of you. The conferences not only provide valuable feedback to you on your child’s progress, but they also strengthen the connections within our community which play such a vital role in supporting our young people. In the following weeks we look forward to hosting many of you again with the IGCSE Information Evening for Year 9 parents on Monday 10th August, and the AS and A Level Information Evening the following week on Monday 17 August.

We are in the process of finalising our option lines for all of these students for 2021. As we continue to grow as a school we are able to offer even greater flexibility in both the range of subjects and the number of classes that we provide for a variety of subjects. This is significant in ensuring that our students are well-placed to select a programme that connects coherently with their aspirations.

In the past week I have been fortunate to watch some of our sports teams play. It reminded me of the range of character strengths that are built through involvement in team activities. Our Junior Boys Football team played brilliantly at Waitakere College and showed real grit and determination in striving to win the game. Our Year 7/8 Netball team had a tough day at their zone day, but they again showed resilience even when the score board was significantly against them in one match. Next week we have our rescheduled Year 9-13 Swimming Sports. There will no doubt be some outstanding performances from our top swimmers, but equally there will be a few students that haven’t been near a pool for a while who will be trying their best to earn their House some valuable points.

Nga Mihi,

Kieran Verryt

Orienteering

With Term 3 starting and Lockdown behind us, we have been able to continue with the Forest Orienteering coaching programme. Our coach, Heidi Stolberger (a NZ representative) followed up a classroom session with a morning in Riverhead Forest last weekend. The students will now progress to a competitive event this coming Sunday in Woodhill Forest.

Year 9 Ice-cream Container Project

Recently all of our Year 9 students were involved in a Measurement Project in their Mathematics classes. Each student had to put on their designer hat and also use their mathematics abilities, to create an interesting shape for an ice-cream container that would hold 1.5 litres.

We were amazed by our students’ creativity and skills in calculating the volumes of their designs. Apart from the design, mathematics and assembly of the container, students were then asked to evaluate their design in terms of practicality of storage or transportation. The students enjoyed this project immensely.

Table Tennis

The Senior College Table Tennis Team started a professional coaching training session on Tuesday with Adrian Soh, current parent and NZ Senior Table Tennis Team representative, once ranked 5th in NZ.

17 Senior Table Tennis players are taking part in the training for Term 3.

Pinehurst School is very grateful to Albert Chang, North Shore Table Tennis https://www.sporty.co.nz/northshoretta/Clubs-1/North-Shore-Club# for donating a brand new table tennis table and bats for our students to practice on. This was organised through our new table tennis coach Adrian Soh. Albert and Adrian are both very passionate about table tennis and like to encourage people of all ages and abilities to play.

We would also like to thank Rodney Bygrave from Rodney’s Table Tennis https://rodneystabletennis.co.nz/ for delivering the table to our school.

Junior Disco

Last Friday our wonderful Primary Arts and Cultural Team put together an ‘outdoor’ disco for our Year 1-2 students. A spectacular array of dancers could be spotted strutting their moves at lunchtime with the teachers also dusting off a few of their sensational disco grooves.

Edward Maclean is our resident DJ, and thanks to his supportive Mum, he set up an amazing sound system and provided the hugely popular soundtrack.

We were amazed at the very fancy footwork and great sense of rhythm we saw on the door floor.

We look forward to taking this lunchtime event of fun to the Year 3 and 4 students next.

P7 Matisse Snails

Year 2 students in P7 have been inspired by Henri Matisse with this weeks art pieces. After looking at the art piece “The snail” the students created a collage of a snail. They practiced layering coloured pieces to create a collage. After their piece was completed each student critiqued their work and commented on their buddies work.

Emily felt that she coloured the snail body and head in well and her next steps were to cover the snail shell better with the paper. Her buddy Ophelia thought the snail was cool and really liked the silver in it.

Amelia felt she covered the shell really well with collage. To improve her work she felt she could of made the body fatter. Her buddy April felt Amelia’s piece was good as there were no gaps when it was covered by paper collage.

Jimmie thought that he had blended the colours in the shell well and it looked really good. He felt he could of improved his work by colouring all the spaces so it looked much nicer. His buddy Toki thought the body was good and the face was cute.

Tyne really liked the colours he chose but felt he could of improved by not over covering the shell and making the body skinnier. His buddy Austin thought it was very neat.

Naya really liked the drawing of the shell but thought her next steps would be to cover in the white spaces with new paper. Her buddy thought she had done a great job.

Luna thought the colours of the shell were beautiful and it made her feel happy. She felt the snail could have been a bit bigger with the spiral having no gaps. Her buddy Chelsea thinks it is so pink and beautiful.

Caleb thought his art piece was good as the body was fat. His next steps would to make his shell wider. His buddy Ben said it was very impressive because of the snail and the coloured paper on the shell.

Participating and Contributing

In P14, Year 4 students have continued looking at key competencies and how they relate to us. Discussions have taken place about how key competencies are not just for school, but skills to help us in our everyday lives. 

This week, we have been focusing on the key competency ‘participating and contributing’. 

This key competency includes contributing to a group, being challenged to be involved, making connections with others and creating opportunities for others in a group. Participating and contributing is important because we know that we don’t learn much if we don’t participate and we get more out of interactions when we also contribute. We think that by participating with others, we learn different perspectives as well as strengthen our own thinking.

“If someone is stuck in the group and finding it hard to contribute, the other members of the group need to help them by asking questions and helping them contribute their ideas. You don’t just leave them out.” - Tiffany Catapang.

“Participating and contributing is about joining in group conversations and contributing your own ideas. You don’t have to feel scared or worried about mistakes or what you say.” - Neo Yang

“It’s when you learn from others by listening to what they are saying and understanding why they think that. You can tell them how you think even if it's different or you don’t agree but you have to do it in a respectful way.” - Freya Busby

Once-in-a-lifetime experience at ANZ Premiership

Seven-year-old Pinehurst student Cathy Situ won the opportunity to meet Netball Pulse Captain Katrina Rore and Stars Captain Grace Kara through the ANZ Future Captains competition. Cathy lead the captains and teams out onto the court in front of the whole stadium and had her photo taken with the captains.

Cathy was able to bring along a friend, eight-year-old Ava Zhao who also attends Pinehurst, for the exciting interactive experience. 

Applications are still open, so anyone else between the ages of 8-12 can apply to be a Future Captain too! You can apply here. 

Head Held High

Pinehurst is pleased to announce it's new partnership with Head Held High - speech and drama lessons for students Year 1-13. Students attend 1 x 30min lesson per week during school terms. Professional qualifications through Head Held High’s association with Trinity College of London and NZ Speech Board will be provided.

To enrol for Head Held High classes at Pinehurst School, simply visit here.

Your first lesson is a FREE, no-obligation trial lesson.

Got questions? We’re happy to answer them! Simply email, kateimlach@headheldhigh.co.nz