No images? Click here Friday 6th March 2020Opening Words from the Executive PrincipalKia ora tatou, good afternoon, 你好, 안녕하세요 It’s a busier newsletter today, so I’m going to be more concise than usual. Pinehurst has been at its best this week: settled, purposeful, and full of students and staff working hard and enjoying themselves. My week began with a quick visit to the first pre-season training session for the Year 7 and 8 Hockey teams – really good registrations there. I’ve been lucky enough to see really good, interesting Maths, Science, Chinese and Global Citizenship lessons, welcomed a total of nearly 100 guests to our Primary and College Open Days, and spent Tuesday afternoon at an Education Law seminar, which was every bit as exciting as it sounds. At this very moment, a group of intrepid senior students are on the Abel Tasman track with Miss Murray and Mr Johansen, and I can see the first early arrivals of the day, clothed in a mixture of PE gear – I think it’s basketball training this morning – and their mufti gear. Mufti days always bring an extra edge of excitement to the students. We’re in the middle of Term 1 now, and I hope that you can all see the progress your children are making in their classes. What I’m consistently seeing is lessons that are engaging, well-structured, and both content-rich and clearly-focused on skills development. In other words, lessons that are challenging and interesting in a range of different ways. Around school, it’s good to see that the new students have integrated and found friends so quickly. For the Year 7 and Year 9 students who are still finding their feet, I know that the fast-approaching camps will work their usual magic, and that the world will seem an even more colourful place by the end of term. And for some Year 9s: there’s nothing wrong with a long drop. You’ll see what I mean. One quick bit of news: we are stopping the sale of bottled water in the tuck shop from Monday. This is a student-led initiative, and they provided me with a compelling environmental case for it. We only sell a relatively small number of bottles each day, and we have multiple, well-maintained water fountains around school. I’d say 99% of students carry water bottles with them as well, so I hope you’ll support this change. I’ll finish with our response to the coronavirus. I know that I’ve been writing almost daily about this: I generally think that over-communication when people are concerned is the best way to go. I may write again later today if there is cause to. At the moment, we are continuing to ensure that our students are safe, both physically and emotionally: yesterday, for example, all teachers talked to their students about the virus with the aim of ensuring that they had the right information. Our principle is that we are honest and direct with young people, and that they need clear, accurate details at all times. It’s the same as with our parent community about this. We are taking the risks very seriously, continue to focus on extra cleaning and handwashing, and are fully prepared to take every additional step should the situation change. We are ready and have done all of our planning. At the same time, though, we will not over-react, and our decisions will be evidence-based. Cautious, always, because safety is our first concern, but based on real risks. Please continue to let me know if you have any questions: I understand why people are concerned, and I am always happy to talk about what we are doing and why we are doing it. Our COVID-19 page on the website will continue to be updated as and when necessary as well. Enjoy your weekend, which looks set to once again be bright and sunny, and see you all on Monday. Peter Reynolds, College TeacherPeter began his teaching career in Wales after completing his master’s degree in Heath and Exercise Science. Before moving to New Zealand, he was a Year 11 Dean and had six years’ experience teaching General Science, Information Technology, Biology and Chemistry. For the past 7 years at Pinehurst, Peter has been the Year 8 Dean. Before officially starting his current role, Peter stepped in to cover a sudden staff absence and taught Year 9 and IGCSE Mathematics for two terms. He has also taught Year 7 and 8 Science, Digital Technology and Eudemology. He is currently the Senior Dean of Year 7/8 and is teaching Year 7 and 8 Science, IGCSE Physics and AS Biology. Peter has championed the use of digital technology and was one of a small team of teachers who helped introduce the Blended Learning approach to devices in the classroom. He was also instrumental in the introduction of Schoolbox as a schoolwide Learning Management System and is one of the teachers charged with ensuring its successful implementation. Peter lives on the shore with his wife and six-year-old daughter. He loves the outdoors and enjoys nothing more than getting away with his family and exploring New Zealand. Peter is also a keen Skier and has run and organised the Year 8 Ski camp for the past 7 years. In his spare time, he also enjoys playing football and helping to coach the Junior football and Futsal teams. Interestingly, he recently became a certified BJCP Beer Judge and helped to judge the National Homebrew Championship this year. Kia Ora, A little bit of rain and some sopping wet teachers marked this week as different from the rest so far this term. Our Prefect team have set up their project this year to fundraise for Habitat for Humanity. Their second event of the year was a ‘Sponge the Teacher’ event to go alongside their BBQ. Unsurprisingly, the event was very well attended as the students engaged with some good-hearted fun with the teachers who had agreed to be involved. The sponges quickly turned to whole buckets of water and a good amount of money was fundraised. Last Friday the whole college enjoyed a brilliant Athletics Day and I hope that you enjoy looking at the photos below. The House Captains led the way either through their own involvement or the constant cajoling and encouragement of other students. The bank where the crowd sat was sparsely populated for most of the day as there were constantly large numbers at all of the track and field events. As always, we finished with the relay events as all the teams were roared home by their House mates. Yesterday afternoon I enjoyed walking around the college during period 7. The college felt very calm as Mr Elliot addressed the Year 7 students while Mrs Smith meet with all the Year 8. College PODs were led in activities by their POD Mentor while academic mentoring conversations took place between students and teachers. These conversations are scheduled once a fortnight and are another layer in student support to engage them and keep them on track with the goals that they have set. I hope that you have an enjoyable weekend. In the coming weeks Mr Johansen and Mr Wiggin will write this section of the newsletter to give parents greater detail about Camps at Pinehurst, as well as upcoming reports and the systems around parent conferences. Ngā mihi, Kieran Verryt, Principal of College Europe Cultural Tour April 2021 (Y11 – Y13)We are in the planning stages of launching another Europe Cultural Tour for April 2021. We will be continuing our partnership with Student Horizons and are excited to be offering this unique opportunity to our Year 11 – 13 students next year. As part of the planning process and to gauge interest from our school community, we will be holding a Parent Information Evening:
Please complete the online ‘Expression of Interest’ form - click here or email Joseph.Johansen@pinehurst.school.nz by Friday 13 March. Please note: if we do not have enough parent interest, we may need to cancel the information evening. Should you have any further inquiries, please do not hesitate to get in contact with us. College Inter House AthleticsThe sun was scorching down as the students rolled out of the buses and onto the field ready for yet another year of Inter House Athletics rivalry. Students competed in a variety of events and were looking very colourful in their outfits. The day went off without a hitch, many records were broken and some achieved their personal best in events. Many thanks to all those that helped out to make this a successful event. Congratulations and well done to all our place-getters. Overall results below and more photos on the Pinehurst School Sports Facebook page. NH Zone Day TriathlonEarly this week, 30 students took part in the 2020 NH Zone Day Triathlon at Long Bay Regional Park. Unfortunately the conditions meant the swim leg of the event was cancelled, replaced instead by a ‘beach sprint’. All students put in a huge effort, with special mention to Tye, Anderson, Victoria, Charlotte, Emilia & Eleanor who took on the individual triathlon this year ! As always a big thank you to our parents who supported students at this event. For additional photos from the day, please see our Pinehurst Facebook Sports Page. Much Ado About Nothing at the Pop-up GlobeOn Sunday afternoon, a group of teachers plus AS Literature students attended the very last performance of Much Ado About Nothing. It was a brilliantly funny show, with plenty of impromptu comments from the cast which only added to the chaos on stage. The 'groundlings' found themselves sprayed with various questionable liquids as they became more involved with the show than they had bargained for. The students are studying this play for their AS Literature paper this year so being able to see a live performance at the Globe is probably the closest they will come to the real thing. Hopefully, this will give them a better appreciation for the play while also making it easier to write all those literary essays! Romeo and Juliet at the Pop-up GlobeLast week, on a very hot, cloudless day, Year 10 went to the Pop-up Globe to watch a performance of Romeo and Juliet. The students are studying this for their IGCSE Literature course so it was a wonderful opportunity to see the play come alive on stage. ‘The portrayal of Romeo and Juliet that we saw was very exciting and well performed. All the actors were excellent and looked very realistic in their roles. Some additional lines and actions were added in and only made the play more enthralling and entertaining. All of us really enjoyed it and I think seeing it as a play and in person helped us to understand the meanings and emotions behind parts of the play’. ‘For me, it was a highly enjoyable show. The atmosphere, actors and just the story-line itself made the play a truly unforgettable experience. The small jam-packed space perfectly re-created the Shakespearean Globe theatre; however, there were a couple of added features, like the bubble cannons that spewed out a waterfall of shining bubbles. Although, sadly, I wasn’t stained with the civil blood of the warring families like I anticipated to be, I was, however, soaked in water. Pretty much saturated. Nonetheless, that surely provided an effective way to cool down from the heat. It – was – hot! After all this, it was a particularly memorable, and worthwhile trip! - Ashleigh Bernacchi & Tim Xie Pinehurst vs St Richmond Special SchoolOn Wednesday St Richmond Special School came to play a friendly game of football. As always, the rules are debatable, as is the score, but everyone enjoyed a bit of fun as they kicked they ball around the field. Kia Ora, One of the many highlights of the week was our Leadership Assembly on Tuesday. In the early years we develop leadership skills by giving students classroom responsibilities, the lunch orders, line leaders, book monitors etc. Once students get to Year 3 they can apply to become a class councillor and in Year 6 we give all of our students an opportunity to take on a leadership role. In Year 6 we have councillors, peer mediators, Library leaders, House captains, Arts and Cultural leaders and iLeads. The roles are varied and are designed to develop the leadership skills of our students as well as contribute to the experiences and programmes that all of our children have in the Primary. They will be involved in running assemblies, presentations and formal occasions, helping students play together, distributing and assisting with iPads, organising sports equipment in the Sports Cafe, running events such as Wheels Week and the Teddy Bear’s picnic, House events and helping with our production of the Lion King. The message at the assembly was that leadership is a collective responsibility, we are part of a team. You do not need to wear a badge to be a leader. Leaders are passionate, inspirational and they have the ability to motivate and to influence others. Leadership takes courage, focus, confidence and resilience. Leadership is doing the right thing without being asked or when no one is watching. It is helping others, setting a good example for others and being a good role model for peers and younger students. A leader needs to be kind and stand up for others even when it may be the hard thing to do. We reminded students that the great thing is they have the opportunity to practise leadership every single day at home, at school, in sports and everywhere in between. Leaders of course need followers and to be able to take others along with them and so we will work with our students, especially in Year 6 to teach them how to lead themselves first and foremost and how to be a good role model for the rest of the Primary. Congratulations to our Head Councillors for 2020, Nevaliah Chapple-Wilson, Celina Lee, Nicholas Xu and Callum Morgan, we are really looking forward to your leadership this year. Ngā mihi, Sian Coxon, Principal of Primary Bubbles DayWhy are bubbles so fascinating? Is it the colours, shapes, or the way they silently float through the air? All we know is the Primary had a terrific time chasing spherical, magical bubbles across the field at lunchtime last Friday. Swirling, shimmering colours of the rainbow appeared in clusters of frothy bubbles. Bubble wands of all shapes and sizes could be seen. Our Year Six students acted as big buddies on the day to our New Entrant and Senior Year 1 classes. They ate lunch together and then escorted their junior buddy up to the field to help them undo lids, salvage lost wands in the bottom of bottles, and blow the biggest bubbles they could. Mrs Heighton provided a bubble themed soundtrack to accompany our bubbly lunchtime and many bubbles could be spotted dancing across the sunny sky. Did you know that if you let a bubble hang from a bubble wand it begins to form horizontal stripes? Great fun was had by all our bubble blowers with bubbles being chased, popped and blown. Year 3 and 4 HockeyMr Taylor and Mrs Jones-Hill invited the Year 3 and 4 girls to an exciting afternoon of Hockey on the turf. The girls were given the opportunity to experience hockey skills and drills in a fun, game format. They had to maintain contact on the ball with the stick and the ground whilst maneuvering around a slalom course of cones. This was quite tricky, but before long, they were picking up speed around the course and beginning to move onto ‘dribbling.’ Dribbling the hockey ball challenged them to not lose control of the ball! They then moved on to having a game of Numbers. This was a fun game that involved the plastic Unihoc sticks and a plastic hockey ball. The aim was to become the ‘goal scoring champions.’ Pinehurst are looking for girls who would be interested in joining a Primary Hockey team. Training is on a Friday morning before school on our turf and games take place at the North Harbour Hockey Stadium on a Monday night. We are so lucky as we are in walking distance of the hockey stadium. If your daughter is keen to join a team, please go directly to our school website. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact: jack.taylor@pinehurst.school.nz. We look forward to entering a Year 3 and Year 4 girls Hockey team in the 2020 competition! Koru Art in Year 1P5 and P4 have been working within the new Cambridge Art Curriculum to experience and experiment with the koru shape. It has been exciting to follow the creative process of initially learning about the koru and then developing ideas through a range of media to design and make our own creative responses. We learnt that the koru is an important symbol in Māori art, where it symbolises new life, growth, strength and peace. We thought this appropriate as it is the beginning of a new school year and new learning journey. We experimented with the koru shape in a variety of forms and learnt about line and shape. We did some observational drawings and responded with whiteboards, chalk, crayon and ‘hands on’ materials like playdough, pipe cleaners, stones, wood blocks and crystals on mirrors. We were able to gather and record experiences and visual information. During this process Oliver made a clever connection. He noticed the hair of a character in our Reading that also had the koru shape. We looked at the koru artworks of Reina Cottier, who adds korus inside korus, to inspire and motivate our creative thinking. When we felt confident about drawing the shape, we made an abstract representation by each producing our own cardboard stencil. We used this to make design decisions to create patterns of alternating shapes and colours. We explored rotating and sharing stencils within our design process. We reflected on our choices and then created two designs to consider for our final 3D koru panel. We are excited about our next step which is to choose our final design and make it with materials either textured, natural, or paper. We like that we can choose the best way to present our designs. We will reflect, review and refine our panels until we are happy with our individual outcomes. We look forward to sharing these when they are finished. Rumble in the P6 JungleIn Year 2 we are currently learning about animal habitats. Last week we explored the Amazing Amazon Rainforest. We read a story called the ‘Great Kapok Tree’ written by Lynne Cherry that was set in the Amazon Rainforest and introduced us to some of the unique animals that live there such as, sloths, anteaters, toucans, macaws and jaguar. Next, we learnt about the different layers of the rainforest - emergent, canopy, understory and forest floor. Different animals live in each layer of the Rainforest, for example, parrots such as the Macaws live on the emergent layer. The students learnt about what animals can be found in each layer and the reasons why. Using their new knowledge students created their own collage of the Amazon Rainforest and sorted animals into the correct layers. To share our new Rainforest knowledge with our families and friends, we are using an App called 'Book Creator' to create a Habitat E-book. Each time the students learn about a new habitat they will add a page to their E-book. The students are learning essential ICT skills such as, adding text, changing the font and size of their text, selecting and changing backgrounds and saving and adding images from the internet onto their pages. For Art, we sketched Toucans in the Amazon Jungle. After outlining the Toucans we used chalk pastel to add colour. The students learnt how to carefully add chalk to their picture then use their finger to softly blend the colours together. Next week P6 is off to the Polar regions to discover more amazing facts about our incredible living world. A Glimpse Inside P15We have had another busy week with a focus on working towards our goals and pushing ourselves to reach our full potential in P15. Every Monday, we spend one period in the library. This is a highlight for many of the students and they soak up every minute of this opportunity. Lucas said, “I love the new library. It's much bigger than our old one and it has really great places to sit and read”. Stanley went on to say, ‘we love having a chance to just read our books’. A focus for P15 is to develop a love of reading that will last an entire lifetime. When we go to the library each week, we are greeted by the lovely Mrs Walsh who reads the students a book and discusses the theme the library is focusing on. An opportunity is then given to students to browse through the books, read with their friends and select books to bring home. During ICT lessons we have been looking at online safety. The students have learnt a quick phrase to remind them of how to stay safe online, “Zip it, Block it, Flag it”. Ask your child what these three things mean in order to keep them safe online. Students have created posters this week to showcase their knowledge. In Maths, we have been looking at translating polygons. We made shapes using our bodies on the field. We agreed that to move the shape the students needed to know what direction to move and the distance too. The students then translated those shapes to a new position on the field. Our next step was to use some shapes to make patterns and finally we used grid and square dot paper to translate a variety of polygons. Our art lessons have consisted of looking at art around the world and then bringing it home to identify Maori patterns. We practised with colour pastel and experimented with shape for the past five weeks. This week however, we began to work on creating our final masterpieces. We can't wait to share these with you on Seesaw over the coming weeks. Comparing cultures and investigating environmental issues in P17This term for Global Perspectives we are looking at countries and their cultures. Over the past few weeks we have been looking specifically at cultures and finding similarities and differences. It has been great to see the students developing their research and critical thinking skills. We have learned to confirm the facts we find in more than one place so we can be certain they are correct. It takes a little longer, but it’s better to be accurate! The students were able to choose two cultures that interested them and set off to research both, before adding a summary of their findings in to a Venn Diagram. Our Big Write focus over the past few weeks has been based around animal extinction and the actions or events that make this happen. This week we have been challenged to write a breaking news article about bush fires. Students have been looking at the causes and impact of bush fires and what we can do to help prevent them. This has been an excellent discussion point, with many students being able to relate directly to the recent Australian bush fires. It is great to have a clear and relevant purpose to inspire our writing. It make us think about how we can make a difference. We have even started using our library time to do some more research! I Spy in the PrimaryI Spy... Testing materials for their transparency, strength and flexibility! I Spy... Lots of learning about Antarctica in P8! I Spy...Spelling worksheets in Year 4! In Music this WeekIntroducing Trudy Lile – one of our multi-talented itinerant teachers Trudy is a bit of a jack of all trades and certainly a master of them all. She is not only a talented piano teacher but she is also an accomplished flute and vocal performer who has been teaching at Pinehurst for a number of years. She is a flutist and vocalist based in Auckland. She has performed at Jazz and Arts Festivals around NZ with her band, Mojave, as one of The Jazz Divas, and as a Sister of Swing. She has recorded and performed with The Rodger Fox Big Band, Black Sand Diva, Whirimako Black, Ishtar, King Kapisi, Many Hands, and on the sound track of the 2013 New Zealand film, Mt Zion. She has also toured internationally to Australia, Singapore and Korea. Trudy completed a BMus in Classical performance at Victoria University in 1991, studying with Dr Alexa Still. She then took up the position on Associate Principal Flute with Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. She became the first jazz flutist in NZ to complete her Masters of Music in jazz performance. She has released two albums, Ristretto and Well Dressed Standards, both of which are available on iTunes, Amplifier, CD Baby and Bandcamp. Both of these releases combine Jazz standards with Latin and other influences. Click here to see Trudy in action. If you would like to enrol your child for piano, jazz flute or jazz vocal lesson with Trudy, please complete the application form at the bottom of this page. Pinehurst ConnectionDads Fantail & Turtle Pinehurst Connection held their second event for Dads at The Fantail & Turtle – Smales Farm. It was great to see 26 Dads attend the Thursday evening catch-up – 3 of them new to Pinehurst this term. It started at 6pm and as the beers and conversation flowed, the pizzas were not far to follow. This has been a welcoming opportunity for Dads to meet, network and create some new social hubs. There have even been some discussions about organising a Golf event for the – so watch this space! Dads Fantail & Turtle is a regular event held each term and the next one will be on Thursday 28th May from 6pm. Sibling Photos This will be held from 2.30pm-4pm in C28 (College Art Room) on:
Parents of siblings will have received an email with a form that will need to be completed and returned to Class/Pod teachers. If your children are unavailable on either of these sessions, please email Sylvia.lum@pinehurst.school.nz. Greenhithe Suburban Catchup If you and your family would like to attend the Greenhithe Suburban Catchup on Sunday 15th March from 2.30pm, please click on the link HERE. Parent Breakfast Meetings with Alex ReedWe are starting up these meetings again for the year. Dates are as follows; Tuesday 31 March 7.30am (discussing future developments) Meetings will be held at Café E-Cucina – 265 Albany Highway. If you would like to come along to one of these meetings please register by emailing judy.wallace@pinehurst.school.nz Hapunan Food Truck visiting PinehurstShore to Shore Fun RunThe Shore to Shore Fun Run is on Sunday 5th April and Pinehurst will be sending a team to participate in it. Entries are now open at www.shoretoshore.co.nz, once you’re on the website go to registrations and enter under our school. Each entry earns money to go towards new sports equipment and the winning class will once again get a special reward. So please enter yourself, your family members and friends to be into win! Any questions please don’t hesitate to ask Jack Taylor on seesaw or email jack.taylor@pinehurst.school.nz. Danielle WheelerDanielle recently competed in the 2020 Northern Regional Surf Lifesaving Championships held Feb 22 and 23 and came away with 5 medals;
Congratulations! |