Friday 12th June 2020Opening Words from the Executive PrincipalKia ora tatou, good afternoon, 你好, 안녕하세요 I’m going to talk today about a subject certain to set hearts racing: data. Well, maybe only the hearts of accountants and actuaries, but it still can be interesting, even to dyed-in-the-wool teachers of Shakespeare and poetry. We have been working on our ‘school leavers’ data this week, so it seems a good time to talk about its place in our school, and about its importance as well as its limitations in a school. Firstly: our school leavers data. Every year, the Ministry of Education publishes data about the Year 11, 12 and 13 students who leave school. The 2019 data has not yet been published yet, but it will be soon, and I will let you know when it has been officially released. These numbers tell us the highest level of achievement of every domestic student who leaves the school to go to university or work. A domestic student at Pinehurst is a student who is either a New Zealand citizen, or a resident, or whose parents are on a work visa. About 94% of Pinehurst students are domestic students. Our school figures in 2019 were that 100% of our domestic school leavers passed Year 11 (IGCSE ), 100% passed Year 12 (AS Level), and 100% passed Year 13 (A Level). They also show that 92.5% of students achieved University Entrance. These are very good figures, and reflect the students’ and the teachers’ hard work over the past few years: we’re just waiting for final confirmation from the Ministry and then we will publish them officially. This data is important, just like our 7 Cambridge Top in the World Awards, and the fact that 61% of all grades at A Level last year were an A*, A or B. Together, they show that nearly all of our children are getting the qualifications that they need for university, and that those students who are particularly gifted are achieving outstanding results. There is a similar pattern in Years 6, 9, 11 and 12 as well – these are the years in which students take external examinations. But we use data in lots of other ways too. At the moment, students in Years 11, 12 and 13 are receiving their mid-year test results: these are not full examination results because this year has been disrupted by the Lockdown, but they are still useful guides about how students are progressing. We are currently talking to students and parents about the goals our students have, and what the students need to do in order to reach them. The Parent Conferences in College are in week 2 of Term 3, and these are a crucial opportunity to talk through these goals and the latest data we have. We track this data, work with the students individually, and use it to help make sure that they make progress. In Primary, all of the teachers have been energetically combing through student-level data for their students, looking at pre-tests, post-tests and all the other information we gather. Teachers use this data in part to generate reports, of course, and talk to parents, but mainly to inform themselves about what students need to do to continue to develop their skills. We find that we have huge amounts of data by this time of the year: the trick is to work out what it’s telling us and then to adapt our teaching accordingly. This is my main point, I think. I am of course very proud of the achievements and the progress of our students: they work hard, are supported very well by their families, and educated with commitment and skill by our teachers. And most of the data we collect helps students make progress and achieve by making us ask questions. Data itself usually doesn’t provide answers: instead, it helps us work out what questions we need to ask, and what we need to do with our students to help them reach their goals. I’m off now to watch a Year 7 Social Studies lesson, but I wanted to finish today’s newsletter with a mention of the wonderful phonics lesson I saw this morning: Mrs Boniface’s lovely Senior Year 1 class were learning to use the ‘ir’ sound. They were funny, enthusiastic, clever and engaged, enjoying a fast-paced, challenging, varied lesson and keen to show how much they were learning. I loved it: the highlight of my week so far! Enjoy this week’s newsletter and 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 Kia Ora, Although this year has been far from usual there is a feeling of the familiar for this time of year and it is very comforting to finally be as close as, ‘back to normal,’ as we can be. We are still taking care of our health and well-being and continuing the good habits we established earlier in the year. Classrooms are buzzing and students are focused on their learning and happy to learn. There are smiling faces everywhere as well as children who are very eager to talk about what they are learning. As I visit children in class I ask them what they are learning. They can always tell me, even when they are 5, and I am very proud of the learning culture we have created in the Primary. Working with my own classes this week we focused on strategies we could use when we don’t know what to do. It was fascinating to watch, when they encountered some difficult problems and challenging algebra, who gave up and who didn’t. We learned ways of breaking down problems into smaller steps, looking for clues because the answer is always in the question, and using trial and improve methods. Sophisticated skills but vital to be comfortable in what is known as the learning pit and to find ways to get out of it and solve the problem. Mini missions in Year 2 Big Writing are teaching children the skills needed to be proficient writers along with the use of bossy verbs, in Year 5 subordinate clauses are adding sophistication to sentences and Year 3 have been learning how to write accurate instructions. Ten beat rhythms in Music along with recorders and ukuleles and learning how to collect data in scientific investigations have added to the variety of learning experiences taking place this week. Our aim is to provide a broad and balanced education which enables young children to build strong foundations and give them the skills to explore their environment in a conscious way. A reminder to book a conference time with your child’s teacher if you haven’t already. Reports will be sent home in Week 5 of next term and again in Term 4. We look forward to welcoming 17 new entrants to a brand new class in Term 3, they will come for a visit over the next few weeks. Next Friday the 19th of June will also be our cross country day in Primary, we look forward to seeing families who want to come and watch too! Have a great weekend. Nga Mihi, Sian Coxon, Principal of Primary Dots and Animals in P4!Who knew you could make so many beautiful things just from a dot? In P4 we have been reading and discussing the story “The Dot” by Peter Reynolds. We have been discussing the process of art instead of the outcome and how we can take something so simple and make it beautiful. We first explored with lots of different circles. Big ones, small ones, think ones, thin ones, more oval-like ones. None of them were perfect but they were perfect to us! We picked our colours. Warm colours, cool colours, our favourite colours and made a colourful dot. We then took circles of all different sizes and created a lovely flower garden. We created something so special…just from a DOT! In Science we have been taking a trip around the world and matching animals to their continents. Using San Diego Zoo, we looked at where certain animals were from in the world and matched them to our classroom map. It was very interesting to learn about all these different animals and where they come from. We’ve also done an endangered animal fact sheet where we had to research their habitat, what they eat and interesting facts about them. We have learned so much about animals around the world and what we can do to help those who are endangered. P1 & P2's Character DescriptionsIn Writing this week P1 and P2 have been focusing on character descriptions. We began by reading the book ‘The Ugly Five’ by Julia Donaldson to tie in with our topic ‘On Safari’ and looked at the adjectives used to describe the five different animals. The children then went on a ‘wow’ word hunt around the classroom to match the adjectives to the animals from the story. The children enjoyed working together, learning new vocabulary and discussing with one another which animal the word described. Once we had matched all the adjectives we began to plan, using pictures, our own character description. The children rehearsed their sentences out loud, including some of the language they liked. Some of the children then recorded their character descriptions using the app Chatterkids. Fantastic work, P1 and P2! Multiplication in P6In P6 this week for Maths we have been learning about Multiplication. The students are learning to use their understanding of skip counting to help them solve multiplication problems. Moving onto multiplication is a massive step for Year 2 children and although some already know their 'tables,' it is much more important at this age, that they understand what each multiplication facts means, for example, ‘6x2’ means ‘six groups of two’. To help the students with their understanding of multiplication facts we have been using various materials such as simple drawings, playdough, blocks and emojis to create visual representations of different multiplication facts. After creating a visual representation for a multiplication fact, the students have been practising using simple mathematical language to explain what their fact means, for example, 4 X 5 = 20 is 'four groups of five objects.' Junior Primary SpanishThe junior primary students have been busy during Spanish lessons. The Year 1 students have completed a piece of writing about themselves. They can use the correct greeting at different times of the day, say their name and age, and say where they live. When writing in Spanish, there are strong links to English literacy as we reinforce correct punctuation and writing rules. The children love writing upside down exclamation/question marks! The Year 2 students have been enjoying the Body unit and are getting very good at labelling their body parts. They were even smart enough to notice there were four different ways of saying ‘the’ in Spanish: el, la, los, las. We had fun categorising each body part into the correct group and now have a better understanding of singular and plural nouns. Check out the video of P7 singing along and pointing to their body parts. Here is the link if you would like to have a go https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOg6y-Q59eM P20 ArtP20 have been creating some bright and colourful artwork that is inspired by the curved features and odd designs of Architect and Artist, Fredrick Hundertwasser. If you have driven through the Northland township of Kawakawa, the main tourist attraction is the colourful public toilets designed by Fredrick Hundertwasser himself. First, using a sketching pencil, the students created a landscape design that included lollipop trees and lots of natural curves in the landscape and buildings. Then, the students used a vivid pen to outline every area of the design. The next step was to use Jovi crayons to colour in each area of the design. Hundertwasser used dark and bright colours in his designs – the students have also chosen to use lots of colours to represent his artwork. If you are passing the Year 6 classrooms please come in and have a look at our amazing work. Kia Ora, A full week back at school with everything running as normal has been great to experience. Yesterday our Year 7 and 8 students had their first assembly of the year, which inevitably ran slightly overtime. With Term 1 being busy with sports days and camps we had not managed an assembly for this group before everything changed in Week 9. We look forward to the Year 9-13 year groups getting the opportunity to gather as a group next Thursday as we celebrate student contributions and successes as a community. Last night we hosted 160 people for our Year 6 to Year 7 transition evening. A big thank you to all the Year 7 and Year 8 students who stayed late yesterday to engage in lessons for the evening and to lead tour groups of parents around the college. In addition, thank you to the parents from this part of the school that assisted with tours. On Monday night we will do it again for our Year 8 families who will be led on tours by our Prefects. We ask students to lead these events so that parents and younger students get to understand our school from those that experience all its nuances and idiosyncrasies every day. This week also welcomed back inter-school competition. Our golf players again performed well, and our debaters and basketball teams had some wins and some losses. I look forward to being able to get out and support more of our teams as their competitions get underway next week. Our students in Year 11-13 have had their mid-year test papers back this week. As I have mentioned previously, these tests and the feedback are a great opportunity for the students to gauge how they are going and where they can improve. They should use this information as they move forward with their learning and I encourage parents to inquire about particular aspects of their learning. Nga Mihi, Kieran Verryt Winter SportsSport registrations are now open for Term 3 – Year 9-13 Table Tennis and Year 9-10 Badminton. Register here There are still places available for weight lifting, hockey, football and girls lacrosse should your child wish to join a team. Further information is available here and register here AKSS Golf Stroke Play (Round 1)On a very cold, blustery Monday morning, four of our Pinehurst golfers, Eun Seo Choi, Yeonsoo Son, Jaewoo Son & Towa Usui, headed off to Howick Golf Club to play in the Individual Golf Stroke Play event run by College Sport Auckland. This event is played over two days, 36 holes. After Round 1 Eun Seo & Yeonsoo are well placed being in the top four of the girls division. StoryathonThis is a story from a Year 7 student, Percy Kuang. The topic was 'A Different World in Lockdown' and had to be exactly 100 words. Gloria's story was showcased on the Storyathon website along with four other students from entries throughout Australia and New Zealand. Year 9 Design TechnologyThe Year 9 design technology students have just completed a quick practical project making a small Rimu jewellery box. They learnt about; the machines used to cut and prepare the timber, gluing and assembling a simple joint, as well the ‘joys’ of sanding to get a good finish and applying boiled linseed oil for a quick protective coating. Some of the group chose to embellish their projects with a wide range of graphic images, from cats, horses and various animals, to New Zealand icons and traditional Maori patterns, and images from popular teenage culture - even Islamic and Christian symbolism and poetry. They used a wide range of techniques, choosing to experiment with wood burning designs (pyrography), embossed copper, carving or resin inlay. Some chose to line the inside of their box with satin, some wanted to inset a vacuum formed plastic tray and others preferred to feature the natural wood. Year 9 ScienceYear 9 students are doing experiments about chemical reactions. When copper sulfate is reacting with ammonia, we can see the cloudy product formed. However, heating salt cannot create any new product. I Spy in the School....I Spy in the Primary...some of the New Entrants meeting their big buddies! I Spy in the Primary...Year 1 students practicing writing their letters. I Spy in the Primary...Year 4 students in the Library. I Spy in the College...Year 8 students doing an investigation on body ratios. I Spy in the College...Year 11 students brushing up on their badminton skills. I Spy in the Primary...Year 5 students playing ukuleles. I Spy in the Primary...Year 6 students in the Life Education caravan learning about the brain. In Music this Week...Itinerant Team welcomes Marika Balzat The music department is very excited to welcome Marika into the Itinerant team as our second violin teacher. Marika comes from a very musical family and started learning the violin at the age of four. She has been passionate about music ever since. Marika loves teaching and has been a violin teacher since 2015, working with a range of students. She gained her Bachelor of Music degree majoring in violin performance in 2018. She has toured with her family band to the USA, Europe, Australia and Fiji and has worked with many great artists, including Jordan Luck, Alan Doherty, Gin Wigmore, Jon Toogood and Laughton Kora. Marika enjoys playing a variety of styles including Classical, Gypsy/Latin Jazz, Folk and Irish music and regularly plays for restaurants, weddings and shows and is always striving to learn more. To see Marika in action, click here. If you would like to enrol your child for violin lessons with Marika, on Fridays, please complete the form found at the bottom of this page. Year 9 Trio emerges from the Practical Unit All of the current year 9 Music students are working on developing their performance skills – in either solo, duet or group setting. We are not hallway through this topic and student are advancing at their own pace. This week’s featured trio has Josie Guo on piano, Matthew Verlaguet-Troncoso and Benen Sitarachiyanon playing Por Una Cabeza by Carlos Gardel. Click here to view a teaser of the work. Sport TrophiesAll Sport trophies awarded in 2019 are now being collected in. Please return to either Chrissy in reception or to the Sports Office (Downstairs of the Library). Parent Consultation Meetings with AlexAlex will be holding parent consultation meetings in his office on the following dates:
Discussion topics will include online learning, sustainability, the school environment, and the wider curriculum: how we might develop our work on students’ emotional and social identities, and what work we can do to develop their critical thinking and their understanding of themselves as active, engaged citizens in a diverse, plural democracy. Please RSVP judy.wallace@pinehurst.school.nz by 11 June. Immunise against meningococcal diseaseA new information pamphlet, Immunise against meningococcal disease (HE2596; English) is now available on HealthED. You can order or download the pamphlet here. Vaccination protects against the disease and helps stop it spreading in our communities. There are vaccines available in New Zealand that protect against strains A, C, W and Y, and are FREE for those aged between 13 and 25 years. |