No images? Click here 28 May 2021Pinehurst School NewsletterOpening Words from the Executive Principal...Kia ora tatou, good afternoon, 你好, 안녕하세요 Fifty of our Year 6 students explored our College this week. Accompanied by their parents, most of our senior Primary students visited classrooms, tried experiments, played with robots and listened to older students explaining different aspects of College life. We ended with a short presentation in College 4 but, fascinating though we may be, Mr Verryt and I couldn’t really compete with Bunsen burners, chemicals and controlled mini-explosions. I think it will be the Science Lab that featured in the students’ dreams on Tuesday night. The evening was part of our transition process for Year 6 students, and it sparked some reflection about the idea of transition. Each year, all of our students experience a transition: they become a year older, join a new year, experience a new curriculum, and find that they have different responsibilities. We focus on some transitions more than others – starting school for the first time, Year 3 to 4, Year 6 to 7, Year 8 to 9, Year 11 to 12, Year 13 to University – but every change brings its own challenges to students. Year 7 to 8 may seem like a small step in some ways – the curriculum has the same structure, and the homerooms are still in Junior College – but we ask quite a lot of our students in Year 8. They become leaders, take on new responsibilities, and are asked to set an example to our Year 7s, about a third of whom are new to the school. Most of the year-to-year transition work takes place in Term 4 and the start of Term 1, but it’s really something that we do the whole time. Year 11, 12 and 13 are, right now, making a transition: they know that their mid-year exams mark the moment where the year gets serious and they have to narrow their focus towards their final exams. The very best of luck to all of the students, and a reminder that these exams are staging posts, marks along the way. They’re not the destination! Thank you to the Social Sciences department and the intrepid parents who accompanied the whole of Year 7 to Auckland Museum on Tuesday: it sounds like it was a very well-run, and very energetic trip around the museum. Thank you as well to the Year 6 teachers and their group of parents for accompanying the Year 6 students to Orewa Arts Centre today: the arts are a hugely important part of our curriculum, and it’s great to take the students out to experience the work of local artists. On culture: I’m really looking forward to the Senior Primary Concert this coming Tuesday. Ka kite anō au i a koutou. Have a good 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 Dates for your Diary Week 5 Kia Ora, The weeks are flying by and there is plenty happening in the Primary. On Monday we had our final call back auditions and made some very hard decisions around who would take the lead roles in our Year 3-4 production of Pirates Past Noon which is a tale from the Magic School Bus. We were impressed by the confidence, singing and acting abilities of our 7-9 year olds and we can’t wait to perform in August. We like to give every child an opportunity to be part of a big theatre show and every student will have a role to play even if they don’t have one of the main speaking parts. The ensemble will sing and act and the dancers will perform choreographed pieces in the show. Every child will have a costume and a very important pirate part to play! I have seen some super learning in Year 1 this week especially in phonics. Fred Fingers and sound buttons are helpful tools that let students understand how words are constructed, which in turn helps them to read and spell words accurately. Using mini whiteboards to write answers lets the teacher quickly see who understands and who needs some more help. Even students who have only been at school for a few weeks can confidently talk about letter formation and attempt increasingly sophisticated vocabulary. This is done through formal methods and through play with lots of talk. Talking is the key to good reading and good writing and the foundation of exploring language. Progress is very rapid in the early years and it is exciting to watch. Although my first love is teaching English I am also very passionate about Maths and love the opportunities I get to extend students in their Maths learning. Our approach in the classroom is to give our learners the opportunities to apply their knowledge in a range of situations and problem solving activities. Many of our students have a lot of knowledge, often way beyond their years, and it is our role to extend them in Maths which we do by giving them multi-step problems where they have to use what they know. In Year 5 extension we have been looking at the order of operations and why it matters which order we use to solve equations and in Year 6 we have been looking at Algebra, the difference between expressions and equations leading onto linear equations and the term to term and place to term rules. The group has been investigating algebra through mystic roses and finding the relationship between the number of equidistant points on a circle and the number of lines needed to join each point on the circle to another, once. They are currently drawing circles with 24 points and using that to create a formula or rule so that they can calculate the number of lines for a circle with say 100 points without actually drawing it. The thinking is high level, there is lots of discussion and debate and students are using their knowledge to solve problems with variables. This deepens their understanding of algebra much more than being given a formula and told how to use it. I love hearing them say how hard it is because we get the opportunity to trial and improve and use a range of strategies to solve the problem. They feel great levels of satisfaction when they find the answers. Although young children can be mean to each other sometimes, usually because they don’t understand the effect of their words on someone else, I am always impressed by the level of kindness I see and hear around school. Children cheer each other on and are happy for each other’s success on a regular basis. That comes largely from their family values and the messages they get at home, our children are a credit to their families. Kia pai to rā whakata, have a good weekend. Ngā mihi, Sian Coxon, Principal of Primary Year 5/6 Pinehurst Basketball Is your child keen to play basketball? Have they never played but would like to give it a go? Games are on Thursday afternoon/evening and trainings are on Wednesday morning at 7.20 in the arena. If this is something that your child maybe interested in and can commit to games and trainings, please email stacey.mcintosh@pinehurst.school.nz Give me some space! This week the library hosted the National Simultaneous Storytime in which a chosen book is read aloud to over one million children across Australia and New Zealand. This year’s book was titled “Give me some space!’ and was read by a real astronaut inside the International Space Station. A wonderful crowd came along to hear the story. Primary Cross Country 2021 On Friday last week, Pinehurst Primary students took part in their annual Cross Country run here at Pinehurst School. The day started off a little drizzly and overcast, but cleared in time for the first races of the day. We saw some outstanding races, and even a few photo finishes this year! Well done to everyone who raced, and a special congratulations to students who finished in the Top 3 on the day. A group of just over 40 of our Year 4-6 students will now go on to represent Pinehurst at the Super Cluster Cross Country event in Week 6 – good luck! Thank you to everyone who supported the races on Friday, it was so exciting for the children to have you clapping and cheering as they ran around the course and when they came across the finish line. P5 Antarctic Adventures and Picasso Faces In P5 this week we have been excited to start our Big Write Adventure with Alan as he journeys to Antarctica. This week we have been developing our research skills as we search for information in books and electronically to find out what Antarctica is like. We need this information to assist Alan to pack his bag and decide what kinds of clothes he needs to take. In Science we have been learning about ‘Animals’ and recognising the similarities and differences between them. We have had fun grouping them and learning how to classify those with common characteristics. In Art we have been learning about line and shape by exploring artworks by Pablo Picasso. This week we applied what we have learnt to design our own Picasso face. We used a fun dice game to help us decide on the different characteristics of the face. We think our outcomes are funny as the facial features are looking in different directions. Oscar said, “Some look ugly!” Keeping it in Context in P9 Do you know what an epsilon is? Or the meaning of the word 'improbable'? Can you spot an obtuse or acute angle, even a reflex one, as you go about your daily life? Do you know what certain nouns turn into when you add different suffixes or prefixes? Maybe you know what they are...but can you say when or how we can use them? Why do we need all these things? P9 students have been investigating the meaning of some of the concepts they have been learning about. Looking at and discussing new vocabulary is the first step, and reading books about everything they are learning, yes, even in Maths! One of the most interesting books was called 'The Boy Who Loved Math - The Incredible Life of Paul Erdos'. Who knew Maths could be so exciting and magical?! Numbers are actually pretty awesome. After some great discussion about patterns and cool tricks in numbers, P9 Maths students wrote their own missing number problems to test their buddy's knowledge and see if they could find any quick ways to solve them using what they had learned and to grow their love of Maths too. They decided at the end that Maths can actually be pretty fun after all! What do you think? As well as Maths, P9 have been investigating the properties of different rocks and creating Chatterpix videos to explain their learning from the rock's point of view, blending colours to create beautiful 'under the sea' scenes in Art, and creating adjectives from nouns in English. They managed to squeeze in some technology, Science and more Maths during STEM Day where they researched, discussed, designed and tested out paper planes. And if you still don't know what an epsilon is, come and ask some of the P9 Maths class students...! P13 Portraits Year 4 students in P13 are very proud of their portraits based on the famous artist Pablo Picasso. Did you know he had 23 names! He is also thought to have produced over 50,000 art works in his lifetime. He was born in Spain. Come and have a look in our class to see all the portraits! Life in P15 In P15 we have been learning to write timeslip stories to add to Annie's Anthology. Students have been thinking about developing settings and characters by using similes and metaphors. Focus has also been on building up tension in the story by using a range of sentence types and adverbials of manner. See below one of our timeslip stories written by Felicia Shen. In Art we have been learning about famous European artists during movements such as expressionism, impressionism, cubism, surrealism and abstract. Here we are matching artists' paintings with their names and a description about them and their work. We have also learnt about colour theory and we have been practicing mixing secondary and tertiary colours. In Math we are learning about time. In particular, how to convert 12 hour into 24 hour time, and how to calculate durations of time. Here we are busy working through time word problems. Primary Science In Year 4, our topic this term is all about the properties of gases liquids and solids. Students have had lots of practical activities exploring and making observations. We used some Science magic to keep the water in the glass when it was flipped. Students blew up balloons using our old favourite baking soda and vinegar reaction. Using the microscopes, we explored fine solids that behave a little like a liquid – salt & sugar. In Year 6 we got wrapped up! Lots of hilarity as students investigated the skins surface area. Groups of children wrapped up a student in newspaper and then used the newspaper to work out the surface area of the skin. Not so precise, but the concept of seeing the surface of the skin laid out reinforced the learning of the skin being the bodies largest organ. Primary PE This term has just begun, and it has already been a busy one for Year 4-6 PE. With cross country last week students were focused on developing their aerobic fitness within PE through cross country practise as well as participating in the 'beep test' during PE testing. Students were required to complete several tests within PE to identify key areas of improvement in the following categories: Fitness, large ball passing and catching, small ball passing and catching and kicking ability. Overall, there were some great results with all years having strong marks in large ball passing and catching. This term our focus within PE lessons is to coincide with the testing, starting off with basketball and netball, students are required to display movement skills that demonstrate increased control, fluency and variety, that include passing, dribbling, catching, shooting, attacking, and defending in a competitive environment. Next, we will be focusing on gymnastics and student's ability to perform and be able to link together a wider variety of movement skills in short sequences that include balancing, travelling, jumping, and landing on different apparatus in a competitive environment. Buddy Meet & Greet On Thursday 20th and 27th May, our Yr2 and Yr1 Buddies met their New Entrant Buddy who started in Term 2. P1 and P2 welcomed the arrival of 20 new entrant children to the school this term, who have settled in nicely. They spent the last 2 Thursday afternoons meeting their new ‘big’ buddy who each presented them with a small gift. The next 20 minutes were spent getting to know each other on the playground whilst everyone else was in class! The buddy initiative has been a part of Pinehurst for 3 years and is an integrated programme recognised as part of the Pinehurst culture. It aims to promote positive attributes in our young children and teach them friendship, kinship and mentoring values. Our senior buddies will be looking out for their little buddies on the playground and around school. They are very excited for their next event….The Buddy Pizza Party! Kia Ora, Yesterday I enjoyed the unusual sight of students and staff wearing their gumboots around school. This was an initiative brought into school by the Student Council to support the I Am Hope Charity. All of the money raised yesterday will go to I Am Hope, to support their important work they do in helping to provide funding for young New Zealanders to enable them to access counselling sessions. I did not manage to get down to the field to watch the gumboot throwing competition at lunchtime, but I trust that it managed to go well and avoided all of the students who were engaged in house sport. With midyear examinations next week the college will be a little quieter than normal. It will be the first time that our Year 11 students have had study leave and at last weeks assembly Mr Wiggin took time to explain to Year 11 how study leave worked and what our expectations of them are. If students wish to come to school next week to study, they will be very welcome. They can use either the library or the senior study space to work. Without the senior students we will be able to host a Year 7–10 assembly for the first time this year. It will be great to get this age group of students together and to focus on the successes of these students in the first half of the term. It will also provide some of the younger students with an opportunity to lead the assembly. I enjoyed watching our 1st XI Boys Hockey team on Wednesday afternoon. It is a young team with predominantly Year 10 players and they won their game comfortably. With our Year 7/8 Boys Hockey team also performing very well this season, it looks as though we have a solid foundation for a very successful 1st XI in the years ahead. With a school our size we do experience ebbs and flows of success with our team sports. From the sports that I have watched this season it looks as though we are on the up and in the years ahead and we will have some good teams competing at high levels. Nga Mihi, Kieran Verryt, Principal of College Careers Speed Meet Evening - Save the Date! Pinehurst Career Centre presents... Careers Speed Meet Evening
A chance for Year 11-13 students to meet 1-1 with people working or studying in different areas. We have 30 visitors spanning a wide range of different occupational fields. This event will operate in a similar way to Parent-Teacher conferences. Booking of appointments essential. More information on how to register will be made available soon so watch this space! Cross Country 2021 Late last week, the annual College Cross Country event was held on a sunny Autumn Day here at Pinehurst School. The Year 7 & 8 students competed first, with all students competing giving their best efforts running around the course. Our older students competed after morning tea, and it was great to see some fantastic strong runners and quick finishes over the course. Congratulations to all the College students who took part in the spirit of the event, with special mention to the students who had a top 3 placing this year. Overall house results were the same in both Year 7 & 8 and within the College this year – well done to Matai for taking out both events. Year 7 Museum Trip On the 25th of May, the Year 7 students visited the Auckland Memorial museum. They did two things; the Save the Museum Challenge and visited the many wonders of history. The students had to work as some museum staff and take on the difficult roles of Display Technician, Tour Guide, Visitor Host, Conservator and Memorial Assistant. As the staff of the museum, the students handled artefacts, found various facts, and saw displays. The Save the Museum Challenge also taught them their way around the building. They had 40 minutes to complete all the tasks of the various museum staff. The students were deeply interested looking at all the exhibits in the museum. They loved visiting the volcano area where there was a simulation room and various advice about volcanoes. There was a land exhibit with many birds and animals, and they will never forget the weird and wonderful area, with lots of preserved things in jars. - By Amelie Kleinbaum Year 8 Social Science In Year 8 Social Science we are learning about oil spills and how they affect the environment, how to clean it up and what method of cleaning up is the best for the environment. We created a mini ocean model to test on, the teacher mixed food colouring and oil and dumped some in our ocean model. We then used a spoon to recreate the skimmer, a cotton fluff to represent the boom and some detergent to represent the dispersant. YNZW Beyond Beneath Below writing competition Congratulations to Jamie Han in Year 8 who entered the Young NZ Writers Beyond Beneath Below short story competition and had her story selected to be part of the Beyond Beneath Below anthology which is published in June. With over 500 stories from 40 schools this is a wonderful achievement. Zoom in to read her story, 'The Man in Black', below. AKSS Weightlifting Last weekend, 3 of our weightlifters represented Pinehurst in the inaugural Auckland Secondary Schools competition. Our athletes performed exceptionally well, all managing to beat their previous personal records and making great progress since their last club competition in April. The 3 students, all in Year 13, have participated in weightlifting for the last 3 years as part of our school weightlifting club. The club is run out of Functional Strength, conveniently located just up the road from school. The boys all competed in the U16 category and scores were calculated using the Sinclair coefficient. In weightlifting jargon, the coefficient is the number that Sinclair came up with to represent an athlete’s bodyweight, and the variable is the athlete’s weightlifting total. This means that students in different weight categories can be better compared to get a fair score. Students have 3 attempts at 2 lifts (snatch and clean & jerk) and use the combined total kilograms lifted to form a total. Our 3 students all came extremely close and finished 4th, 5th and 6th.
AKSS Mountain Bike Cross Country Race 1 Congratulations and well done to Ben in Year 12 who placed 2nd overall in the Under 20s age group at the Auckland Secondary Schools Mountain Bike Cross Country - Race 1, last weekend. Girls First XI Football Well, it was another cracker of a game by the girls 1st XI! It had everything... near misses, penalties, strong defence, crossbar hits, tackles, falls, supportive sidelines and great sportsmanship. Pinehurst held onto possession and capitalised on goal scoring opportunities to take out the heavily anticipated match 3 - 0 against Orewa College. Next week we have an away game against Long Bay College. Look forward to seeing you there. AS Music Class trip to the Town Hall On Wednesday the 19th of May, the AS Music class were joined by a couple of our recent graduates to attend the Auckland Philharmonia’s Unwrap of Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks. Fragments of the work were unwrapped in the first part of the hour long concert seasoned with contextual information about the work’s structure, instrumentation and history. The original premiere of the Royal Fireworks on April the 27th 1749 saw spectators burned by some of the misfired 10,000 fireworks on the blustery, rainy and gusty night which also set the firework pavilion on fire. The audience was treated to Baroque instrument demonstrations of the Natural trumpet, violin, harpsichord and timpani and got to compare the difference of quality of sound when those same excerpts were re-played on the modern instruments. IGCSE Music Tutorials – Friday lunchtimes in C2 With the help of our AS Music scholars, the IGCSE Music tutorials offer individually catered support for Music students who wish to improve their theory and exam preparation skills. The Music scholars have completed the IGCSE Music course with outstanding results and are very knowledgeable of the material. Beethoven Trio wows the Transition Evening Pinehurst’s Beethoven Trio Chamber music group treated the transition evening attendees to the third movement of Beethoven’s Op 11 work on Tuesday night. The work is in theme and variation form based on a 15 bar theme which Beethoven then developed into nine different variations, no doubt inspired by Mozart’s Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Variations. I Spy... beautiful works of art in P9 ... I Spy...Year 3 making magnificent music... Parent Yum Cha Thank you to all those parents who attended the Parent Yum Cha on Wednesday at Grand Harbour Restaurant and made it such a successful event. It was wonderful to see so many of our parents enjoying the food and each other's company... (just over 100 of you!) |