News and events for the week ending 26th October 2018 Friday 26th October 2018 Opening words from the Executive PrincipalGood afternoon, Kia ora tatou, 你好 A shorter week just flies by! I hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend, whether it was a chance to welcome the summer with a break to the Coromandel, an opportunity to spring clean or paint the house, or simply an extra day to do as little as possible and gather your strength for the busy weeks to come. It has been a busy short week for us, and an exciting one as we plan for next year and get ready for all kinds of events at the end of the year. Exams are obviously a big part of the school at the moment, so I want to say ‘keep going, keep focusing’ to the students in Years 11-13: you’re nearly there, and we’re very proud of the way you’re preparing for these exams. To students in the other years who are taking exams or preparing for them: do the work you’re asked to do by your teachers, study steadily but not excessively at home, and don’t let work get on top of you. All anyone expects of you is that you do your best, and we’re all very proud of you. We’re also very proud of Maria Kopilevich in Year 13. She has been selected as the 2019 Youth MP for East Coast Bays, working with our local MP, Erica Stanford. She will have a great time next year in Wellington, learning about the business of government and experiencing what it’s like to make your voice heard among many others. Congratulations! A big ‘well done’ to all those students taking part in our summer sports programme too. As you will have seen last week, our Junior College table tennis team have won the North Shore Intermediate title (congratulations!), and our Primary Touch, Hockey and Basketball teams have all had great starts to the term as well. Spring League Netball begins on Saturday: I’m delighted that we have six teams taking part, which is a fantastic number, and I’m going to try to pop down to see them in action tomorrow. Good luck to all those taking part, especially to the students playing netball for the first time. I haven’t talked about traffic and parking for a while, but we have noticed this week that the traffic has started to pile up again. Please use our bus services when you can (we are reducing the bus prices next year considerably: please ask in our office for details), and please also treat all other road users with care and respect. This includes driving slowly – there are small children here, and speed is the biggest danger – and parking in the appropriate places. Please also respect users of our disabled parking space, and those around the school. We do have a number of parents with mobility passes: these are issued to enable people who find it harder to get around to park as close as they can to their destination. Finally, we have had two busy Open Days this week, and have enrolled a number of lovely new students for next year. We have waiting lists in most years in Primary now, as we do in Year 7. We are close to full in Years 8 and 9 as well, and have very healthy sized year groups in all years in College. The school is growing, but it is growing gently, and we are not going to increase our overall capacity. We are committed to staying the same kind of size we are now, which allows us to continue to develop and improve what we offer, whilst ensuring the space and sense of a caring, gentle community. It’s pretty much a perfect balance. This also means that our class sizes will stay capped at 22 or 23 from Years 1-9, and that our average class size will remain around 15 in Years 10 and 11, and lower than that in Years 12 and 13. I have been asked about this a few times recently, and it seems about the right time to remind everyone that we remain committed to building individual relationships with students and parents, and that this means, for us, smaller classes! Have a lovely weekend. WEEK 3: Monday 29 October
Wednesday 31 October
Thursday 1 November
WEEK 4: Monday 5 November
Wednesday 7th November
Friday 9 November
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, I often call this period of time “exam season”. Year 11, 12 and 13 students are involved with their IGCSE and Advanced Level external examinations. Year 10 students are busily preparing for their end of year examinations which begin on 12th November. Year 9 students have just completed their Cambridge Checkpoint Lower Secondary external tests and will complete History, Geography, Mandarin and Spanish internal examinations on 16th November. Year 7 and 8 internal end of year examinations begin on 5th November. Within class, students are consolidating all that they have done throughout the year. It is also a time when a significant amount of planning is done preparing for 2019. Now that Year 9, 11 and 12 students have chosen their subjects for next year we can begin to timetable classes and organise staffing. Next year we are further developing our ICT courses for Year 7, 8 and 9 students. These students will have two periods a week of Digital Technology which will involve elements of Robotics, Coding along with IT applications. IGCSE and A Level Information Technology courses will be replaced with Computer Science. Our separate Art and Graphics programmes will be taught as Art and Design and we are introducing a new Digital Media and Design A Level course. We will also be developing a general Physical Education programme for Year 12 students. Good luck to all students in their upcoming tests and examinations. Ngā mihi, Chris Wiggin and Kieran Verryt Principals of College NH Zone Day Touch RugbyEarlier this week, our JC Boys & Girls touch teams competed in the NH Zone Day Touch event at Ashley Reserve, Long Bay. This is the first time Pinehurst have entered both a boys and a girls team at this event, and it was great to see some strong Touch Rugby skills coming through in the Junior College. Maths Competitions23 Pinehurst students participated in the University of Otago Junior Maths competition. They competed against 6,600 Year 9 to 11 students from around the country. The most outstanding results were:
Additionally, in July this year, several Pinehurst students sat the Australian Maths Competition. Over tens of thousands of Year 8 to 13 students from all over New Zealand and Australia took part in this competition. The following Pinehurst students are to be congratulated for their outstanding results:
8NW Service and LeadershipOur elders have great wisdom to impart on our younger generation. Students from 8NW enjoyed a wonderful experience in our Service and Leadership programme to entertain, to listen to, and to spend quality time with the residents of our neighbouring rest home facility, Rosedale Villiage. Year 10 Geography Field TripThis week the Year 10 Geography classes embarked on a field trip to Orewa Beach. The sunny weather made for a fun and productive day at the beach carrying out our investigations. The investigations were part of the preparation process for writing Paper 4, the fieldwork paper of the IGCSE Geography examination. Year 7 Social Science - Artificial Intelligence PodcastsAll Year 7 Social Science students have been working on inquiry projects looking into the opportunities and challenges presented with different examples of Artificial Intelligence (Ai). Y7 classes spent the first few weeks exploring Ai, various examples of innovation and the influencing factors for the rapid increase in Ai over the past 10 – 15 years. Students learnt how to devise their inquiry questions, how to research, take and organise notes and reference what sources they used. Once all their research was completed, they created their own podcasts to present their findings. They did a superb job! Here are a few sample podcasts... Kia Ora, This week we held our Term 4 Open Day in the Primary. These events are a wonderful opportunity for us to showcase the day to day life of our school and visitors are always impressed with the learning taking place and the way our students manage themselves. Whilst I have been taking these tours for many years and have a well developed list of points to mention, the actual event itself affords a great opportunity to distill what it is that sets us apart as a Primary school. Our numeracy and literacy programmes are specific, targeted and designed to maximise achievement. The resources we have to support these programmes are internationally developed and world class, enabling teachers to micro teach to specific outcomes. Our Science programme is specialised, practical and hands on, allowing students to experience their world and learn how it works. It responds to their curiosity and allows them to inquire and question. Alongside this, children learn languages, music, physical education, art, technology, social studies and much more whilst at the same time developing the key competencies of the New Zealand curriculum such as thinking, relating to others, using language symbols and texts, managing self and participating and contributing. Above all we are aiming to foster a love of learning whilst working hard and having fun. It is very easy to feel a huge sense of pride in our students and staff and to be grateful to be a part of something very special. Have a great weekend. Ngā mihi, Sian Coxon, Principal of Primary Year 5 and Year 6 Camp 2019 Information EveningWe invite all parents of current Year 4 and Year 5 students to attend a meeting on Wednesday 7 November in the Staffroom. Please note: Year 5 Camp Meeting will begin at 6:00pm to 6:30pm, followed by a meeting for the parent helpers. Year 6 Camp 2019 Meeting will be 6:30pm to 7:00pm, followed by a meeting for the parent helpers. If you cannot attend these meetings, information will be emailed out to all parents following the meeting. These camps both take place in Week 2 of Term 1, 2019. Junior Primary Music ConcertThank you to all those parents who have registered their children for the Junior Primary Music Concert which takes place on Tuesday, 13 November at 3.30pm in the Arena. Just a reminder that we will be holding auditions from Monday next week, in JC8 during lunchtime. Could your children please bring in their music and instruments each day until we have heard them play. We have a piano for use. IT Coding ClubWe have spent our lunchtimes in coding club, using a mix of block coding and java script to extend our learning. Coding helps us to articulate and think logically, when we start breaking down what’s happening, we begin to predict what’s going to happen. It’s about looking around you almost like an engineer, at how things are constructed. We have been getting a better understanding of variables, sequence, selection, and repetition in programmes. We hope you enjoy our coding and the pictures of the Year 4 & 5 pupils learning coding! - By Olivia Shine and Angus Bannatyne Primary MandarinIn Mandarin, Year 5 and 6 have started their research on how birthdays are celebrated in Chinese culture and we will compare this with other cultures around the world including our own Kiwi culture. In Year 4 we are very excited about learning to write Chinese characters. Last term we learned about the rules for writing characters, this term we will apply this in our own writing. Knowing the names of the strokes will help us describe how the characters are written as well. Writing practices are also happening in the Junior Primary as well. Year 1 is learning to write numbers and do Maths in Chinese. In Year 2 and 3 we will learn to write the characters for fruits and colours. In our Chinese First Language groups, we will mainly focus on building our vocabulary knowledge in reading and writing. Some of us have set personal learning goals for the term and we will keep track of our weekly progress. In P2 this weekIn P2 we are investigating changes our environment goes through during spring and summer. We are going on regular walks around the school to see what is happening with the trees and plants. In class, we have planted some beetroot seeds, tomato plants and beans. We are keeping diaries about what happens and are hoping to eat some of our very own ‘class’ grown vegetables later in the term. We are also learning some traditional tales. This week we have been reading the Little Red Hen and talking about the moral of the story – it’s important to help others! We have also been learning that stories need a beginning, middle and an ending. Fab Phonics!This year in the Junior Primary we have incorporated Read Write Inc into our existing phonics programme from New Entrant level to Year 2, with the aim to raise standards in reading and spelling through this consistent approach. The children have responded with enthusiasm and enjoyment for the programme as confident and successful readers and writers! The school invested in a variety of resources, including a wide range of reading materials to support the programme which you can see the children enjoying in some of the photos. You can also see the children in different year groups engaged in a range of activities to enrich their learning meeting all learning styles. Hands-on activities let the students' minds grow and learn based on the experiences and the environment they are exposed to. We have found that when students have the opportunity to take learning into their own hands, they become proud and motivated to continue to grow and learn. Here are some photos of some New Entrant children in P4 engaged in hands on activities when learning their initial sounds. In P1 the children are using the sound cards to practice their sounds already taught to help them to decode and encode words. In Year 1 the children are now learning more complex sounds and you can watch the children in P6 engaged in a spelling game called Cowboys, using the sound that they are learning. Fantastic work everyone! Thank you to all the parents that have come to any of the information afternoons this year or asked questions on how to support your child at home using phonics. This support has enabled your child to consolidate their learning from school and build strong foundations. With this in mind, the summer holidays are just around the corner and are bound to be busy, but 10–15 minutes of reading with your child every day is one of the best ways you can help them with their learning. Whatever age and level of reading fluency your child is at, they’ll benefit from both reading aloud to you and hearing you read aloud to them. Reading aloud to children is a great way of building their understanding, showing them what expressive reading sounds like and letting them enjoy a story. A good idea to widen the variety of books your child reads is ‘book bingo’, where over the course of the summer children are challenged to read six different types of book – a novel, a non-fiction book, some poetry, a picture book, an old favourite and something they wouldn’t normally pick up, for example. Ticking each one off with a stamp or sticker can be a very satisfying thing to do! Art in P21In P21 we have been using printing ink and a paint roller to create three-dimensional animal prints on Styrofoam as an extension to our Term 3 Andy Warhol work. In 1983, Andy Warhol created a series of ten colour screen prints that portrayed endangered animals from around the world including Siberian tiger, zebra, Black rhinoceros, African elephant and a Pine Barrens Tree frog. Using brilliant colours, characteristic of Andy Warhol’s signature style and poignant expressions that suggest the animal’s fate, Andy Warhol creates a dynamic tension between art and reality. We have done the same using printing ink, pastel and silver and gold ink to indicate the movement of the animal as it looks towards you. We hope you enjoy our art as much as we enjoyed making it. Touch Rugby TeamOn Tuesday the Pinehurst Blue team played an exciting game of touch rugby against the St. John’s Seahawks. Our team showed terrific, tenacious spirit scoring five beautiful tries. Attacker of the day was Alex, and defender of the day was Braydon. Well done team! I Spy in the PrimaryI Spy....Year 6 getting creative in Thinking Skills! I Spy....Year 1 students repeating patterns in P1. I Spy...Year 3 'Bubble writing' I Spy......Reading Eggspress on devices in Year 4! Uniform 2019Students who are outside the standard size range will need to be measured for their uniform. Elizabeth Michael, the supplier of our blazers, blouses, shirts, skirts and navy pinstripe shorts will measure students by appointment at their shop in Grey Lynn. Please see below for Shop Hours. You need to arrive at least 45 minutes prior to closure or you can call EM on (09) 358 1680, Extension 1 to advise when you are coming. The cut-off date for this is Nov 9. Elizabeth Michael, 4 Bond St Grey Lynn
This applies to students who have not already been measured at school. Parent Consultation Meetings with AlexThursday 1st November 2pm and 5pm. Topic for discussion will be events and community engagement. Please RSVP to: judy.wallace@pinehurst.school.nz MusicIntroducing 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 has performed at Jazz and Arts Festivals around the country as well as recorded and performed with Black Sand Diva, King Kapisi, and Many Hands, to name a few. She has also toured internationally. Trudy has completed a BMus in Classical performance and became the first jazz flutist in New Zealand to complete her Masters of Music in jazz performance. She has released two albums. 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. Year 10 Music Apart from preparing for the upcoming exams, the Year 10's have been immersed in the world of The Silk Road Ensemble headed by well-known cellists, Yo-Yo Ma. We watched the documentary called "The Music of Strangers” which captures Yo-Yo Ma’s journey of self-discovery, from his Chinese roots, to his French upbringing and later, flourishing as a child performer in New York. This documentary involved many of the world music instruments and topic we cover in IGCSE Music and provokes the question of how does one preserve cultural identity in an ever-involving musical environment, yet allowing for creativity and inspiration to influence it. Want to catch a glimpse of this documentary? Click here for the trailer. If you would like to hear the Silk Road Ensemble live, click here to view ticket details for their concert on Thursday the 14th of March 2019. Dance ChampionsOver the long Labour weekend, Ryan Hughes and his dancing partner Aleksi Kilian took part in the NZ Open Dance Championship held in Hamilton. At the end of the night, Ryan and Aleksi were crowned the winners of the under 16 Latin title. The pair also placed third in a number of other categories. Robotics SuccessIn the recent October holidays, Year 12 student, Logan Cho attended the NZ Auckland University Robotics Olympiad. Logan managed to achieve a gold medal in the high school division of the ‘Battle cube’ competition and bronze medal in both the ‘Line tracer’ and ‘creative’ competitions. As a result of his success, Logan has been invited to participate in the International Robotics Olympiad which will be held in the Philippines later this year. |