Friday 21 August 2020Opening Words from the Executive PrincipalKia ora tatou, good afternoon, 你好, 안녕하세요 Yesterday was my father’s and my grandfather’s birthday. My Dad is the oldest child in his family, and was presumably my Grandpa’s best-ever birthday present. Dad’s now 72; Grandpa is now 96; and I’m sending messages of love to them both across 12,000 miles of land and sea. It can be hard to be away from them for so long, and I know that many of our families are in the same position, unable to visit the people we love, and hoping that we may be able to do so again next year. My thoughts are with you all, and with your families. We’ve now had just over a week of the second iteration of ‘Pinehurst Online’, and I’ve been pleased by the way our teachers have reflected and responded to the support of our parents and the questions of our students. The increased live interaction in Primary has worked well; and College have been working hard to engage those students who are more reluctant to take part in online lessons. I wrote yesterday to all parents to let them know that the IGCSE, AS and A Level exams were going ahead as planned. I was delighted by this decision, and I feel that our students will be well-prepared. They’ve had less disruption than students in other schools, both in New Zealand and overseas, and it’s been good to see that they’ve adapted so well, showing a good level of resilience. Every Year 11, 12 or 13 student is anxious and feels under-prepared at this time of year, and I’m sure we’re all doing a great deal of reassurance. If you’ve got specific concerns, just let teachers know: we know how to support the students to have a healthy balance of nervousness and confidence. In this week’s newsletter you’ll see excerpts of letters that some of our Year 8 students have written to me. They have, as you would expect, some very strong opinions! They made me feel a little guilty that I’ve been writing to parents more than to students, so when we explain what we’re going to do at Level 2, I will write to students as well, and explain my reasons. In their letters, more than one student asked that we stay at home longer when we move to Level 2 to ensure that we are completely safe. Another student asked for mandatory masks for students when we return. We will make a decision about masks next week, but we will definitely be open to all students when we go to Level 2, and the school will be a safe place for all of us. The additional health and safety measures will, as you would expect, be stepped up again. We’ve published the excerpts because it is important that students’ voices are heard, but I also want us all to see the impact our conversations have on younger people. I don’t want our children to come back to school feeling it is an unsafe place to be. We are not the same as the UK, Europe or the US: we do not have widespread community infections, and we will only open when we are confident that we can do so safely. Finally: I want to celebrate the brilliant work all of our students and staff have been doing this week. We are a busy, vibrant community who have adapted again to our changed circumstances, and who are continuing to develop ideas, innovate and challenge ourselves. We’ve also made the decision to accelerate some of our smaller capital projects, moving straight into some of the work. We’re adapting, pushing forwards, and supporting our local economy and our local businesses. It’s our new normal for students and staff: staying safe and being productive and imaginative at the same time! Ka kite anō au i a koutou, 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 Viet HoangTeaching is more than just a job; it is a journey. I came to Pinehurst at the beginning of 2018 after spending 5 years teaching Mathematics at Takapuna Grammar School. My first impression of Pinehurst School was: it has a great community vibe with a lot of ongoing support from teachers and parents. Some people say “Teachers inspire students”, to me, it is the students who inspire teachers to teach. I have had many awesome teaching moments with students in the classroom. During a problem-solving session, one of the students told me “It (the solution) is so close, I can almost feel it”. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the joy of doing Mathematics. To nurture student’s creativity in problem solving, especially for those who are interested in attending MATHEX or competing in other various mathematics competitions, I proposed a programme called Maths Sport. This is the second year of this programme at Pinehurst and it has received a lot of attention from students and parents, primarily aimed at Year 7, 8, 9 and 10. You probably wonder what wakes me up in the morning to come to this job? Apart from the alarm clock, it is the passion for teaching Mathematics. I have a belief, that is, everyone can do Maths and this has always been my teaching philosophy since day one. To this end, let us finish strong with a corny Maths joke: Do you know what seems odd to me? Numbers that aren’t divisible by two. Kia Ora, A week of online learning can make it quite the challenge to write a newsletter article, but I will do my best. We have had a real focus on communication in the college this week which has enabled us to have a good understanding of what is happening in our online classrooms. Attendance from students has been excellent, and teachers have worked very hard to find different ways of engaging students and checking to ensure that they are making the necessary progress with their learning. The social connection is a key part in what we do as a community and I would encourage all of our students to ensure that they are still talking to their friends and engaging with them in the range of formats available. As I am sure you can imagine there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes to ensure that our students still get all of the opportunities that they normally would in the school year. A lot of this planning does not come to fruition as the goal posts have been moved a number of times. It is important though that our students feel reassured and know that we are doing everything we can to support them. The Year 8 winter camp is a key event that we have not been able to run this year. I can assure Year 8 students that Mr Reynolds and Mrs Smith are doing everything they can to arrange some alternate events for this cohort. Most other events are still scheduled to take place as planned, but we do now have a back-up date for the Ball, and will move the Production once again if we need to. At this time of year, we also have a range of parent evenings to ensure that you are well informed to support your children in making decisions about moving forward in their education. Again, we have penciled in alternate dates for the AS and A Level information evenings. If we cannot host these in our normal fashion, we will provide the information via online meetings and other formats. Hopefully, this time next week I will be writing this from my office with students streaming past outside. Nga mihi, Kieran Verryt, Principal of College Ladies Lunch FundraiserThank you to everyone who participated in the Citizenship Council hosted Ladies Lunch on Wednesday 5 August. There was an amazing turnout of students, teachers and staff to support the Breast Cancer Foundation of New Zealand. Our combined efforts raise just over $340! The Citizenship Council were fantastic at organising this wonderful whole school event and working together on this cause. College Chess Club“Avoid the crowd. Do your own thinking independently. Be the chess player, not the chess piece.” – Ralph Charell. Every Wednesday lunchtime the College Chess Club meets in JC2 to challenge each other and learn the skills of 'plotting and deception, to lure their opponent into a false sense of security before they unleash their army upon the unsuspecting King and Queen'. In other words, it helps young people learn to concentrate, think logically, overcome obstacles and spot patterns. It helps with the development of problem-solving skills, aids memory retention, focus of thought and self-discipline. It's a great confidence builder and teacher's resilience through learning patience and persistence. And its fun! So the next time you think you are making a 'good move', come along to the chess club and 'make a better one'. “Chess is the gymnasium of the mind.” "Chess, like life, is not always about winning. It is about learning." “Every chess master was once a beginner.” Letters to Mr ReedStudents in 8NW Global Studies were asked to write to either Alex Reed or Jacinda Ardern regarding the next steps they should take in this current crisis. Here are a few excerpts: Dear Mr Reed, I think you should not put the school in shut down considering it is only a tiny amount of people that have coronavirus and probably not anyone in our school and then if they do catch coronavirus it would be a good thing 'cause no one really dies from coronavirus, on the Internet one person had coronavirus for 4 days and then recovered. Plus you will grow immunity to it. If it even gets into the school... Josh Leuchars Dear Mr Reed, I am going to talk to you about what we should do to help stop covid-19 going around our school. I think you should keep everyone at home until we go done to level 2 for at least a week just to be certain and maybe separate the different years for a couple of weeks. When you come into each lesson you have to sanitise your hands and spray the desks and the desks have to be 2 metres apart. If you receive a fever/cold you have to leave school for 2 weeks and you do online school. Everyone should wear masks from 1-13 and if anyone is caught without their mask on they will get a detention and if you get caught 3 times it is a stand down. Taine Turner Hello Mr. Reed, In my opinion, we could stop lock down for school when the level got down to level 1 or when it’s nearly finishing for level 2. The reason I think this is on our safety rules. If we got back to level three, it would be very dangerous for us, and the virus could spread much faster. Level 2 is still very dangerous. If we stopped lockdown during level 2, there’s a very high chance of getting one in our school and spreading it, and that would make it to level 3 again but for level 1, it's much safer... Ella Deng Model making in EconomicsAt this stage of the year, IGCSE Economics students usually create a 3D model of the circular flow diagram in classes. But, as we are all learning at home, models made of ‘random stuff you have around the house’ featured in this weeks lessons. Year 7 Social Science study on Human CargoYear 7 are currently learning about migration in all its forms, both voluntary and forced. The key themes of this course are what factors influence humans to leave their homeland and what impact this had on the economies and histories of large parts of the world. As with many of the courses offered in Social Science, our students construct this knowledge with an inquiry focus, culminating with individual inquiry project to close Term 3. Here are some students’ answers to recent inquiry work into the Atlantic Slave Trade… What events led to the start of the Atlantic Slave Trade? Europeans needed slaves to work on their farms (eg cotton, sugar cane etc.). These jobs were very labour intensive, but they didn't have enough settlers or servants to fulfil their wish of producing the resources. The slaves were also sold to Europe because many African rulers wanted weapons, manufactured goods etc in exchange for slaves. This lead to the greed of more slaves. Jamie Han There were not enough European and American settlers so they needed more slaves to work on the farms because it was hard work, examples: Sugar cane, cotton and tobacco. Slaves were sold and exchanged for guns so that African tribes could be more powerful than their neighbouring enemies meaning more need of slaves to be sold. Anderson Chen Explain how the Atlantic slave trade contributed to the development of racist ideology… The slave trade contributed to racism because the Europeans thought that because they have white skin they are better than African people. They believed that black people did not deserve the same rights as Europeans and their only purpose in life was to be slaves to them. Isabella Gibson Most of the European race was Christian and in the bible it says that you can't take fellow Christians as slaves so the Europeans wanted to find a different way. As an excuse they claimed that African people were biologically inferior and destined to be slaves. They then continued to take the Africans as slaves. Ivy Roodt Year 9 ScienceYear 9 Science students recorded videos in their home on Flipgrid to show conduction, convection and radiation. Year 11 IGCSE PerformanceRecently IGCSE Drama students have completed, and performed, their devising component of their coursework. Both groups worked extremely diligently on creating unique and well thought out pieces. Both performances stemmed from one photo - A statue of a young girl, Sadako Sasaki, who died from the after effects of the Hiroshima bomb. One group delved into the idea of fate vs freewill, while the other looked at unnecessary forms of violence. Both groups used physical theater and theater technology to make their performances stand out. Kia Ora, What a great week of learning we have had in the Primary, despite being off site, lessons have continued almost as normal. Levels of engagement have been really high with close to 100% attendance in nearly every class. A huge thanks to parents for supporting us to continue with our programmes and for your positive feedback on the changes we have made with live lessons. Although none of us really want to be in any form of lockdown it is good to know that we can easily transition into online learning when we need to. Being more familiar with the technology of online classrooms has meant that we can simplify and streamline ways of delivery and troubleshoot when things don’t go according to plan. I have been amazed at the groups of students I work with and how great they have been in acting appropriately in lessons. We have been able to work in groups and run several meetings at once for children to work together, much like we would normally do in class. Our in-school students have been enjoying a little more freedom with bikes back at playtimes, always popular! We have had some under fives too, hanging out in the dance studio whilst their mums were busy teaching online. They have been painting, dancing, playing with playdough and generally having a wonderful time. Our teachers have shared the positives and humorous moments in their team meetings this week. Young children are funny, spontaneous and unpredictable and to be able to find humour and joy in otherwise trying situations is a fabulous habit of mind to develop. Semester 1 reports will go live this afternoon and we hope you can spend some time talking to your child about their successes and next steps. Our ability to continue learning online this year has meant that we have been able to write detailed reports albeit a little later than usual. We will be writing Semester 2 reports next term and they will go home at the end of the year as usual. We are hoping to be back in school at the end of next week if the Government gives the go ahead to move to Level 2 and it will be lovely to see everyone in person again, even if it is with some restrictions in place. Have a great weekend. Nga Mihi, Sian Coxon, Principal of Primary How to ‘persuade’ Primary students to write a speechJust before going home to our virtual classrooms the Year 4 – 6 students were immersed in the world of persuasive speech writing. As Mrs Jones-Hill walked around the school, students could be seen sitting at their desks researching topics, crafting attention grabbing openers and practicing voice projection. Here is a snapshot of some of the fascinating topics chosen:
The up and coming speech competition is met with a mixture of excitement and dread among our students. Many of our students ask us, “Why we do we need to do speeches?” Speech writing and presenting to an audience provides the perfect opportunity to develop the following skills:
The overall aim of persuasive speech writing and presenting is to provide our students with an opportunity to discuss issues and present ideas effectively. We look forward to being persuaded, entertained and amazed when we return! PE is Back Online!There have been some amazing photos and videos of our students completing PE at home, especially for our Friday Fun-day workouts. Physical activity, especially at a time like this is important not only in your child's physical development but also their mental and emotional well-being as well. It is important that if possible your child can get up and active even if for only a few minutes every day to assist them with their mental health and school work at home. So keep the videos and photos coming in and if you would like to join in with your child just go to "PE with Mr Taylor" on YouTube and keep your family active! Online Learning in New Entrant/Year 1All the children in New Entrants and Year 1 have taken to online learning with enthusiasm and excitement! As always, the photos of the amazing work produced at home, put a big smile on our faces! In Music the children have been learning a very catchy song with actions – all the videos sent in were very cute. Here is a video of Louisa in P1 and Rina in P2 performing their song. We have also been busy learning about space in Science. We have seen lots of different designs of Rocket Launchers and some great instructions for how to use a Rocket Launcher during a writing task. Leslie and Eddie have drawn their own Rocket Launcher and have written labels to go with their drawings. In Science we have been learning about forces. We found out that a push and a pull is a force. Leo is answering the question ‘What makes it move?’ by testing different things in his house to find out if a push or pull force is needed to make them move.
P10 Global PerspectivesYear 3 students in P10 have been learning about how homes provide shelter and the type of shelter depends on what climate you live in. Attached are Leo’s, Elizabeth’s and Owen’s shelters.
Super Learning Online in P16!P16 has adapted well to our new online learning, demonstrating a range of skills using digital technology as a base for our learning! Although the news of Lockdown was sudden and unexpected all students turned up online at our first meeting ready to go and with the most positive attitude. This past week, we have been learning our new text types in our Big Writes programme, which is focusing on some mysterious events occurring at the Red Cafe. Oh no!!! Students have experimented with time adverbials to create connections between paragraphs in narratives, creating relative clauses to include more information for newspaper articles and have been learning how to up-level texts to make them better. Last Friday our class created unique and interesting narrative texts about a mystery around a household. Check out some of our work below and the picture of Candy's story and Chloe's excellent up-levelling! It started off just like any another ordinary day, the sun was up high in the sky and the neighborhood kids were out riding their colorful bikes, just the normal weekend events. However, this was no ordinary day Because 2 Days ago at the exact same spot as I am now in the spooky well-known forest named suicide forest had a big field, now I arrive here today a strange cobweb covered cottage filled the field with haunting scare crows... *gulp*, slowly as I walked closer and closer to the creepy cottage adrenalin rushed through my veins! ‘CAWW’... (Harry Ellin) It started off just like any another ordinary day... the sun was up high in the sky and the neighborhood kids were out riding their bikes, just the normal weekend events. However, this was no ordinary day...So I went for a walk To school but strangely people From all over the town were going somewhere Strange I don't know what it was but it could have been an illusion because when I looked back behind me all the people were there so it must've been an illusion. I continued to walk but I looked in front of me and there were much more people than there were before so I think nearly everyone in the country has been hypnotized and may have been made into an illusion. Zachery Solomon Yummy Apple Sticker PromotionDon’t forget to keep munching on those Yummy Apples. We are aiming to get sports gear for our school by keeping on ‘crunching’. Please keep collecting yummy apple stickers and cut out bag labels. In Music this WeekTalented Pinehurst Harp Players Perform at the Auckland Harp Orchestra On the 26th of July, four Pinehurst students who take harp lessons with Mrs. Anna Dunwoodie, Seina Murakami, Crystal Su, Lingyao Qu and Coco Zhou, took part in the Harp Dance Concert as members of the Auckland Harp Orchestra. On the day, 19 harpists across all ages took part. Seina and two other students who are talented dancers, danced for the newly composed piece by professional harpist Michelle Velvin. A big thank you to Mrs Dunwoodie for encouraging the girls to participate in the event. To see the girls in action, click here. The girls also competed in the online-held NZ Harp Performance Competition. If you wish to enrol your child into itinerant harp lessons with Ms Dunwoodie, and find out a bit more information, click here.
I Spy in the School....I Spy in the Primary...P12's got talent! I Spy in the Primary...children working and playing in their 'bubble'. I Spy in the Primary...beautiful works of art done at home. I Spy in the Primary...online music lessons. I Spy in the Primary...online PE lessons. I Spy in the Primary...New Entrants showing off their soft toys..on top of their heads! School CounsellorDebbie Stanaway is available if any student is feeling stressed or anxious or you are concerned about a family member. Please feel free to contact her - Debbie.Stanaway@pinehurst.school.nz or 021 973 727. Pinehurst after school Chinese Classes(Only for Pinehurst students)
Pinehurst 校内中文班 (仅限本校学生) 时间:星期二至五 3:30-5:30pm 地点:初中部JC7、JC5教室 我们设有中文一册至四册班,尚有空位可以插班;三册以上班级为小班教学。 欢迎加入!查询和报名请联络Emily(Ph: 021-1725538) Email: emilyxu319@gmail.com |