Friday 6 November 2020Opening Words from the Executive PrincipalKia ora tatou, good afternoon, 你好, 안녕하세요 I’ve just come back from the Senior Primary Speech Finals and I’m, well, speechless! Our young people are so talented, articulate and funny: congratulations to Alex Stanford, who recommended the wearing of electrically-heated underpants, to Millie Wang, who wants to ban exams, partly because Maths is apparently unhealthy, to Jessica Picard, who explained to us all why burgers are actually very healthy, and to Edward McLean, our overall winner, who impersonated his father, thinks that trousers are unnecessary, and has a grudge against skinny jeans. We have been interviewing some of our teachers this week for positions of responsibility within our College team. Over the last few years, we have created more opportunities for our staff to develop their leadership skills, and I thought parents might be interested in the way that we do this. So this week, I’m going to talk about leadership structures. Briefly, I promise! In Primary, Sian Coxon, our Principal, and Catherine Jones-Hill, our Assistant Principal, have a leadership team that includes Syndicate Leaders who look after Years 1 and 2, Years 3 and 4, and Years 5 and 6. We also have two teacher mentors, who help to develop the teaching and learning skills of our teachers, a teacher in charge of literacy, especially in the Junior Primary, and a teacher whose job it is to support the reflection and inquiry skills of our staff. We also have two teachers who look after students who need additional support, and of course a GaTE teacher too. There are other positions in Primary as well, but you can see that this team, all of whom are also classroom teachers, are very focused on teaching and learning in the classroom, and I’m delighted by the way they continue to work together to support our students’ learning. In College, Kieran Verryt, the Principal of College, with Chris Wiggin and Joe Johansen, our Deputy Principals, have a really strong leadership team. We have six Heads of Department, and they are supported by a number of teachers in charge of particular parts of the curriculum. We also have four Deans, who look after the pastoral needs of students. The wider leadership team also includes three Professional Learning Leader positions and two e-learning positions. As with Primary, there are two teachers with responsibility for students with learning needs, as well as a few other positions, and you can see that both areas of the school are very focused on what happens in the curriculum, in the classroom, and with our students. All of these leaders are also teachers of Maths, Science, English, Social Sciences, PE, Commerce… and other subjects too. And they bring a diverse range of experience to their roles. I thought I would talk about these internal structures because I’ve been struck again this week by the passion, commitment and imagination of so many of our staff, both teachers and those staff with other roles in the school. I am very lucky to have my job, because I spend most of it talking to staff, students and parents who are interesting, thoughtful, lively people, which means that I learn something new with every conversation. The interviews I’ve enjoyed this week have filled me with more excitement about the future of our school: the teachers, some of whom are looking for their first leadership positions, are full of enthusiasm, bright ideas and energy. I’m very proud of the way our staff continue to develop and strengthen our school, always looking for ways to improve further. The fact that 95% of the students who left our school last year did so by passing their Year 13 courses (for us, our A Levels: this is an official measure used by the Ministry of Education) is one way to measure the success of our work, but an even better way is to gauge the range of new ideas running through our school. In these newsletter messages, I generally like to talk about our children and young people. They’re the reason we are all here, part of such a strong community. It’s been good today to talk about our staff, but I’m going to finish with another piece of advice from one of our Year 6 students: “The only thing to fear is fear itself. And spiders.” Ka kite anō au i a koutou. 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, Another action packed week this week and I am so proud of our Primary students as they are making the most of Term 4 and everything we are trying to pack into the next few weeks. Well done to the staff too, who are finding ways to ensure that no one misses out on anything that was planned in 2020, as far as humanly possible. This week we held camp meetings for 2021 parents of Year 5 and Year 6 students as we will be going away to camp in Week 2 of Term 1. The Year 5 Camp this year is the only one we missed out on unfortunately but we are busy planning an event to offer something fun as a consolation. One of my favourite events of the year is the Year 4-6 speech competition and after a few postponed dates we were finally able to hold the event on Thursday of this week. As always, the standard of topic and delivery was very high and thoroughly entertaining. Our students are taught how to write and deliver a speech in order to captivate the audience, to persuade, to build rapport, sometimes to challenge and often to make listeners laugh. Some people love to speak in public and for others it is their worst fear. It was apparent that our speakers had a great deal of confidence and had really prepared themselves for the event. Well done to all of our contestants: Year 4 - Chelsea Zhu, Alex Stanford, Makenzie Atkinson, Neo Yang, Emily Xie Year 5 - Angela Li, Jerry Yang, Millie Wang, Dylan Morgan, Zachery Solomon Year 6 - Renee Park, Callum Morgan, Edward Maclean, Jessica Picard, Daniel Yu We are going ahead with our Year 1-4 Athletics events today, it looks like the rain will hold off for long enough for us to complete the event but if not we will find a time when we can hold our races. Year 5 and Y6 will go to Millennium Stadium next week on Wednesday 11 November to have their athletics day. We are also planning for the Shore to Shore event on Sunday with a number of families running or walking from Takapuna to Milford. It will be a smaller in number this year but we are sure that everyone involved will have lots of fun. Mr. Taylor is going to run and we are all behind him to try to win this year. He came very close last year, no pressure Mr. Taylor! Whatever the weather does this weekend, I hope you have a wonderful time with your family. Ngā mihi, Sian Coxon, Principal of Primary Term 4 Buddy Meet & PlayThe new term brought with it 9 excited new children into P23 - Louise Prance’s New Entrants class, who have now been at school for 4 weeks. Early this week they met their new Year 1 Buddy who presented them with a small gift and then spent some time playing on the playground. The buddy initiative has been a great way for our Year 2 and Senior Year 1 children to build confidence socially and become a role model for their younger peers. P23 are looking forward to their Buddy Pizza Party, which will be held in a couple of weeks. Primary Council Run Sports EventThe school council were very excited to be running their first big event for the term. In mixed groups of Year 3,4,5 and 6 councillors they designed a tabloid activity suitable for a child in the Junior Primary. They set up their equipment on the top field and with great anticipation waited for their team of New Entrants to Year 2 students to arrive. We had bean bags being thrown through hoops, beam balancing, skittles, duck – duck – goose and many more challenging activities taking place. Each team had the opportunity to try up to four different stations. One of our most popular events was a cup stacking challenge designed by Ben Girvan and Neo Yang. Our councillors demonstrated patience, leadership and great organisational skills. They discovered how important it is to give instructions in small, easily understood steps. They were amazed at the excellent ball skills of throwing and catching by our younger students. We look forward to our next event – The Year 3 and 4 lunchtime disco.
Pinehurst Primary NetballWe are so excited to finally take part in the Kidzplay Netball league on a Saturday. It seems like only yesterday we were setting up the ‘Netball Have a Go Day’ to see who would be interested in joining a team this year. 2020 has seen a record number of teams for Primary netball. We have ten teams entered into the league with 3 of those teams made up of our Year 1 students. A particularly warm and sunny Saturday saw our teams take to the court and show their continually developing range of netball skills. Our results were outstanding, with 8 wins and 2 draws. We had some very excited spectators on the side lines. We have been impressed at the level of commitment our players and parents have shown towards ensuring their children get to trainings and pre-game warmups on time. As we host and run the Kidzplay Netball League we have the benefit of playing our games in our own school grounds. Playing a Winter sport is part of the quintessential ‘Kiwi’ experience. It is not the students who mind playing in the rain, it is usually the parents who find it challenging. This year has seen our Winter season move into Spring which brings the added benefit of warm and sunny skies. At Pinehurst we strongly believe in the importance of taking part in a team sport. The ability to work together towards a common goal is an important life skill. Netball is a sport that places the emphasis on teamwork and skill development and provides the perfect opportunity for both students and parents to form new friendships. Teams must co-operate successfully to attack, defend and ultimately score goals. It teaches our students how to work together and improves both social and verbal communication skills. We look forward to another 4 weeks of Saturday netball. Surf 2 SchoolThis week thanks to our health programme our Year 0-3 students got the chance to participate in the Surf 2 School programme run by Surf Lifesavers from the northern region. During the programme, our students got the chance to learn about sun safety and the 5 stages to staying safe in the sun at the beach.
Next, they learnt about beach safety and the rules to follow when spending a day at the beach.
Finally, our students got the chance to learn how to spot a rip at the beach and then what to do if they are ever caught in one, Spotting a rip
What to do
Overall, all our classes had a fun time, and I would like to say a huge thank you to the northern region surf life savers, Pippa Fleming our primary health teacher and the classroom teachers for helping our students learn a bit more around staying safe at the beach. Waterwise Term 4 2020Auckland weather is always a challenge for Term 4 Waterwise. This year was no different. However, all three Year 6 classes ended up getting their turn out on the water despite some challenging conditions and one postponement. Adapting our programme to meet more favourable weather conditions enabled our students to have more positive and memorable experiences out on the water even if some did capsize unintentionally. This was our second day of sailing this year, which is amazing given the year we have had. This has allowed the students to build on the skills they learned back in Term 1. Nearly every Year 6 student has now successfully sailed an optimist either on their own or with a buddy. To be able to run a Waterwise session we always need 3 trained parent instructors. We are very lucky that we have both Ashbjorn Aakjaer and Craig Williams who currently assist us to run this programme. On behalf of the Year 6 students I would personally like to thank you both for giving up your time to instruct our students. Calling for More Parent Help for 2021! We need to train more parents to train as WATERWISE INSTRUCTORS to help us keep running this programme in the future. You don’t have to be an experienced sailor, you just need to be willing to learn how to drive an IRB and to be out on the water helping our students to have a safe, positive experience on the ocean. We have an excellent training programme that will help you to qualify as a Waterwise Instructor. Any interested parents who would like to complete the Waterwise Instructor training in 2021, please contact Kelly.clark@pinehurst.school.nz P5 – Fairy Tales and PlantsThis term, in P5, Year 1 students have been enjoying exploring Fairy Tales. We have retold Little Red Riding Hood and this week we are looking at the wolf’s side of the story. Could we have misunderstood him for all these years? We have enjoyed some small world activities, creating and labelling the setting of the story. In Science we are learning about ‘The Living World - Plants.’ We were excited to grow some cress heads to explore what plants need to grow. This week we have planted some surprise seeds and are labelling the parts of a plant. In Art we had a lot of fun with our big buddies last week teaching them how to make 3D paper sculptures. Katie Rose noticed we were able to include some cylinders into our design. We have also explored ‘fireworks’ and created a visual response. After observing and recording the shapes, colours and lines on black paper with pastel, we used cupcake liners to make artistic decisions around composition and colour to produce our own artwork. We then reflected on our outcomes. The Power of PersuasionThe Primary Year 4-6 speech competition saw 5 finalists from each year group setting out to engage, inform and persuade the audience to believe in their carefully crafted argument. We were persuaded to play more sport, drink more water and to see that insects would be the food of the future. Our finalists confidently spoke in front of a large audience and judging panel. We were impressed with their ability to effectively deliver their speeches using pausing, pace, tone and pitch to build levels of excitement, humour and persuasion at every turn. An interesting choice of topics were chosen this year ranging from, “Why you should avoid black holes in space,” to “Why spiders should be banned from Earth.” A highlight of the speech competition was the attention-grabbing opening statements that captured the audience’s attention. Our clever speech writers constructed their arguments to appeal to our emotions, morals and sense of logic. It should be noted that parents and teachers were mentioned on more than one occasion in these often humorous and certainly persuasive arguments: “Why we should ban exams.” However, I am not sure that Ms Coxon or Mr Reed will agree with that one. Mr Reed and Mrs Jones-Hill were faced with the difficult task of choosing the winning speech in each year group. It was a tightly contested competition with few points separating the top contenders. We would like to congratulate all of our competitors on their ability to deliver powerful speeches with strong introductions, well-developed arguments and of course the ability to project voices over the strong wind and rain! The winners are as follows: Year 4: Alexander Stanford: Why we should have an inventing class at Pinehurst School. Year 5: Millie Wang: Homework should be banned Year 6: Edward Maclean: Trousers are an unnecessary piece of clothing Overall winner: Edward Maclean Runner Up: Jessica Picard: Why you should eat fast food Kia Ora, As you would expect, this has been one of the quietest weeks of the school year in the College. With end of year examinations for students next week, students have been busy in class working to ensure that they are as well prepared as possible for their assessments. I have spent time this week visiting classes and observing teachers. It has been great to witness teacher’s ability to challenge and engage all students through high quality questioning techniques. Students have responded well, and it is clear that good habits have been embedded throughout the year, and solid relationships have been formed between the teacher and students, and within the student cohort. Classrooms need to be a place where students are comfortable to put themselves out there and get things wrong, this was something that was evident in the lessons I observed. Students were able to build on each other’s responses or correct each other with respect throughout lessons. We now have less than two weeks remaining in our Cambridge examination schedule. As the examinations near an end we will have a series of subject specific cluster meetings for our college teachers to attend. These meetings are a great opportunity for our teachers to learn about any changes to their syllabus to ensure that they are well prepared for 2021 and beyond. It also gives teachers an opportunity to meet with colleagues from other schools to share ideas and continue to develop their practice. As an institution we are one of the leading CAIE schools in New Zealand and have established expertise. Many of our teachers and senior leadership are key people in promoting Cambridge Assessment International Education and supporting teachers to develop their knowledge and understanding. While next week our Year 7,8 and 10 students will be completely focused on examinations, our Year 9 students will be setting off on a variety of field trips as they have completed most of their examinations earlier in the term. These will be a great opportunity to connect what they have learnt in the classroom with the wider community. Parents should have all of the information about the various excursions. If you have any questions please contact the teachers in charge of the trips. Ngā mihi, Kieran Verryt, Principal of College NH Zone Day BadmintonThis week 8 of our Year 7-8 students took part in the NH Zone Day Badminton events held over 2 days (Boys & Girls). At the boys event all 4 players competed in singles and doubles events, with our boys improving hugely over the course of the day, showing outstanding sportsmanship and effort and having a lot of fun! Well done Tye, Will, Oliver and Damian. Our 4 girls (Anna, Olivia, Veronica & Sherrie) all played some great Badminton, with special mention to Veronica Xia who won the Gold Medal in the Girls Singles and Veronica & Sherrie Li who then also won the Gold medal in the Doubles event! A huge thanks to our wonderful Badminton Managers, Sarah & Areej, who supported the students not only over the season during the school competition, but also at the tournament this week. NH Zone Day TouchOn Monday our Year 7-8 Mixed Touch team took part in the annual NH Zone Day Touch event. The team, coached by Mr Johansen and managed by Tarnya Hawkings had a great day, the last game being their best, with a convincing 6-2 win over AJHS to finish in 9th place. Well done team. On Monday November 2nd, twelve students throughout the JC were chosen to compete in the 2020 Touch Zone day. We started off the day well scoring the first try of the match but soon conceded five tries. We developed and progressed our game over the morning improving with each opportunity. We were soon able to bounce back beating Albany Junior 7 – 2. We could’ve only achieved that win on what we had done on the other games, taken our mistakes, and learned from them. Throughout the whole tournament, we gained knowledge about touch, improved our skills (especially our defensive line) and had fun giving it all a go! By Lily McCabe & Charliee Hawkings "The Chocolate Seller on Broadway"Our Year 7–10 students were fortunate to meet and listen to Mark Grantham’s story at their assembly this week. Mark has Cerebral Palsy and is living with tetraplegia after he suffered severe oxygen deprivation from birth. This hasn’t stopped Mark from living a full and purposeful life. Mark is well known on the streets of Newmarket for his service and commitment to those less fortunate. He has sold over 50,000 chocolates to shoppers & pedestrians with all proceeds donated to World Vision and three sponsored children. Mark has an incredible sense of humour and shared stories of causing havoc “using his electric wheelchair as a bumper car” at previous disabled centres. He’s even rubbed shoulders with famous New Zealanders, such as great All Black Michael Jones. Mark left home at 18 years old, and after choosing not to live with other disabled people, he has chosen to live in his own flat with his carer Hayley. He has just recovered form bowel cancer and saved enough money to visit his sponsored children in the slums of India (see here). Mark’s story is one of true inspiration – he has a big heart, a can do attitude & incredible fight and commitment to better the lives of others. We would like to thank him, his carer Hayley & especially his Dad Chris who has supported Mark along his journey. Mark’s book : "The Chocolate Seller on Broadway” written by his Dad is now in the school library waiting to be read. School Radio/Podcast SurveyYear 8 have recently completed a unit on statistics. As part of this they were learning how to design an effective questionnaire. They were given a hypothetical scenario around the implementation of a school radio station. The class started by doing a draft which was critiqued by each other and amended. The second draft was then sent to the whole class and a Year 7 class who completed the questionnaire, and gave some feed forward. The class analysed their results to see whether there needed to be further tweaks. The final design had a last edit and the link HERE sends you to the winning questionnaire by Tara Sabor. F1 STEM WorkshopThis week, five students and Mrs West were fortunate enough to take part in a STEM online interactive workshop organised and facilitated by Dell Technologies. Matilda McAleenan is a Materials Engineer with the McLaren F1 Racing Team. She is an ambassador for encouraging women into STEM subjects and was able to share her academic journey to her current role and what is involved in her day-to-day job as an F1 Racing Engineer. The Pinehurst students found it really interesting and enjoyed learning about this particular role within STEM. Year 9 English Book ReviewsInter-house RoundersIn Week 3 our Year 9 and 10 students competed during lunchtimes to win the inter-house rounders competition. Each team played off in a round robin tournament on Wednesday with finals and 3rd/4th play off on Friday. In the final, Kauri won convincingly, beating Totara to claim top spot. This week the sport is volleyball.
College Buddy DayLast Thursday, our POD visited a Year 5 classroom as part of the buddy classes initiative. The Year 5 class was working on their market day projects, and for the duration of the period, the POD students offered help to the Year 5 students as they designed their products for the market day, planned their advertising and made decisions on price. This was a valuable experience for both the POD students and the Year 5 students. - By Douglas Lindsay, Year 10 2021 Road Patrol in TrainingNext years new road patrollers were trained this week by Senior Constable Nicholas under the guidance of Terry and Jill. They showed much promise of being reliable monitors by arriving on time to their training, using loud clear voices when calling out ‘Check’ and ‘Clear' and confidently using their arm signals. There maybe another training early in 2021 for a few more Year 10 students who wish to earn service hours for their Duke of Edinburgh. To assist our Road Patrol in running a smooth, safe crossing Constable Nicholas requests the following;
I Spy...Year 6 getting ready for PrEP Market Day. I Spy...Junior Primary Athletics Day! I Spy...beautiful spring flowers in bloom. I Spy...Senior Primary athletics stars in training. Pinehurst Quiz NightThank you to all the parents, friends and staff who attended the Quiz Night last week Friday. Your support is greatly appreciated. There was a great turnout and everyone had an enjoyable night. All teams got into the spirit of the evening as usual with amazing costumes and wonderfully decorated tables. Our Quiz Master had everyone on their toes playing games and dancing the Hula! At the end of the night, the scoreboard revealed that our top team was “SUM TEAM” made up of Pinehurst College teachers. Best Dressed went to "Full Steam Ahead" and Best Table went to "Hot & Steamy". Well done everyone. Pinehurst Christmas HampersMany thanks to those of you who have already contributed donations for our Xmas Hampers. It is tradition for Pinehurst to present these at our Pinehurst Christmas Concert on the last day of the school year, Thursday 3rd December (2.00pm-3.15pm). Contributions of non-perishable food hamper items, Xmas treats, vouchers, new toiletries, toys and games would be much appreciated. Please bring in donations to your son/daughter’s homeroom. If you would be willing to decorate our Xmas hamper boxes and are available on Wednesday 18th December 9am-12pm, please contact Nicole Webb (nicole.webb@pinehurst.school.nz). Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you again to everyone for your support with this. Foster Hope Charity Organisation will be so grateful for your kind donations in what can be a very stressful time of the year. Library NoticePlease remember all textbooks need to be returned after your exams. Charges do apply for books not returned before the end of the school year so don't forget to pop into the library and drop them off after you finish your exam! Dad’s Fantail & TurtleThe last Dad’s F&T was held on Thursday 29th October after 2 previous cancelled events. Was great hearing the feedback from some who attended, and it sounds like it was another successful event that with banter, beer and food! Thank you to the Dad’s who have been active at these events and who have attended these events - they could not happen without your support. Dad’s F&T will be returning in 2021 – so keep an eye out on for them in our calendar. Mum’s Fantail & TurtleAnd in true style, the Mum’s have the last laugh with the second Mum’s F&T for 2020. We will end the year with and evening of Bubbles Tasting and cheeseboard. Tickets are $40 each which will give you 6 tasting glasses of bubbles, cheeseboard and hosted by long time wine lover Jemma Grobbelaa. The first 20 RSVPs will receive a FREE ticket (otherwise $40) as a special introduction from Pinehurst Connection. If you are interested in attending, please RSVP as soon as possible as tickets are limited to 40 spaces!
If you have any queries, please contact sylvia.lum@pinehurst.school.nz Taylor WickmanTaylor Wickman, who graduated from Pinehurst in 2012, has recently become a finalist of the Designers Institute of New Zealand Mapr uses photogrammetry: capturing data from an action camera that can be turned into a 3D model of the underwater environment. The Awards Night is 13th November. We wish Taylor the best of luck! Junior Broadway ShowVictoria Clarke (8NW) and Isabelle Wilcock (8KS) had a very exciting week at the Junior Theatre Festival in Week 2. They were the first people in New Zealand to learn the newest Broadway Junior Show Finding Nemo. First, they had the audition, followed by an intense three days of practice, before performing in the Q theatre. It was the biggest theatre they had performed in and was thrilling! A month before that, Victoria and Isabelle had also been part of The Lion King Jnr at their local theatre group in Orewa. They enjoyed both these opportunities and ‘can’t wait to be in another show!’ Golfing VictoryCongratulations to EunSeo Choi who was crowned the winner of The Auckland Provincial Championships - Women’s category, a very prestigious tournament. Having played the qualifying rounds with scores of 68 and 78, this allowed EunSeo to proceed to the Matchplay competition. It was a hard fought 6 rounds of Matchplay from Friday to Sunday. 36 holes each day. EunSeo emerged Champion of the Woman’s category when she won the finals with 3 up and 2 holes to play. Ethan WanWell done to Ethan Wan who recently qualified to be a Surf Lifeguard. After 1 year’s training and patrol and 20 hours theory study, he passed the pool exam, theory exam and the beach exam. |