Friday 25 September 2020Opening Words from the Executive PrincipalKia ora tatou, good afternoon, 你好, 안녕하세요 It’s the last day of term! I know it must feel as though the term has only just got going to some families, as we have only been back since our August Level 3 lockdown for four weeks, but it does also feel like this has already been a long year. And I do hope that everyone manages to get some kind of spring break over these next two weeks. When the children return, the trees at the front of the school will be budding, and there will be cherry blossom decorating the courts in front of the Library. The wind may still be cool at times, but summer will be on the way. I’ve spent most of the week simply feeling very proud of our young people. The senior students have been focused and sharp, preparing diligently for their exams. As I write, our Year 11 Art students are part way through a marathon two-day examination, and the College 4 Study Area is a quiet hive of study activity, full of furrowed brows and fierce discussions about abstruse algebraic equations. There’s not enough discussion of the finer points of early 20th century modernist poetry for my liking, but each to their own… Our younger students are working hard too, as well as having fun. I’m expecting to have great fun myself tonight when I see The Addams Family in the Arena. The cast and crew have done a tremendous job, and everyone was buzzing after a great dress rehearsal in front of Year 7 and 8 students on Wednesday. Such fabulous singing too! Over the next two weeks, I would expect our Year 11 to 13 students to be working hard at home – and, of course, taking advantage of the tutorials our wonderful teachers are offering – but I also want them to make sure that they have some down time too. They need to eat properly, sleep properly, take regular exercise, and do some socialising too. The hard work is essential, as is maintaining an equilibrium and keeping a sense of perspective. The exam season runs for six weeks – it’s a middle distance race rather than a sprint. In Year 6 and 9, I know the Checkpoint exams are at the start of next term, but try to keep revision to very low-key, sensible levels. And everyone else shouldn’t be doing too much work, and instead concentrating on all the other things that life offers. Over the holidays, the school will be open as usual. The Library will be open for senior College students to study between 8 and 4, and parents will be able to pop in with students of all ages if they wish to take out books. The office will also be open between 8 and 4, and the school will generally be a pretty busy place, so feel free to contact us as usual. We are still at Level 2 at the moment, so please sign in with the Covid app if you come onto the school site, and of course manage physical distancing as much as you can, as well as sanitise or wash hands on entry and exit to different spaces in school. Masks and face coverings are not mandatory at school during the holidays, and I am hoping that we will be at Level 1 when we come back, which will mean, of course, that we will be pretty much back to normal, though still with signing-in requirements and extra cleaning. A final two words for the term: thank you. It remains a huge pleasure to be part of our supportive, caring community. We’re all hoping for an unbroken Term 4, of course, after three disrupted terms. But a difficult year has emphasised just how important it is for us to be connected to each other, and the connections between our students, staff and parents – the three sides of our Pinehurst Triangle – have shown themselves to be enduring, constant and strong. Ka kite anō au i a koutou. See you in a couple of weeks! 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 Taylor QuirkSince joining Pinehurst in 2018 from Dunedin as a Physical Education and Health teacher, I’ve been fortunate to have had many opportunities and experiences that have helped me develop as an individual. Whilst growing up in Wanganui, participating in sport was a big part of my life. The experiences I had, as well as the friendships gained, demonstrated to me the importance of being active. This is one of the reasons I wanted to become a teacher, to share that knowledge and encourage students to get involved with physical activity. I am proud of the way the PE department works collaboratively to create a programme that allows students to develop confidence in playing sport as well as their holistic well-being. I believe this enables them to gain the amazing experiences that I had as a kid growing up. From creating important social connections with friends, to ensuring students are also mindful of their mental health, Physical Education plays a big role in one’s personal growth. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed developing the school tennis programme. I’ve seen not only the technical progress students have made, but also the joy they have in playing the sport; whether that be at lunchtime down on the turf or during after-school trainings. I look forward to seeing Pinehurst students continue to challenge themselves and strive for excellence. But not only that, seeing them develop into well-rounded, confident, happy and resilient individuals. Kia Ora, The end of our third term of the year and time for a well-earned rest for the students. Our Year 9 students will spend part of this break preparing for their checkpoint examinations which take place in Week 1 next term. For our senior students, a significant part of this holiday will be spent in tutorials and preparing for their external examinations. The message they have received is that they will need to take a few days to rest and recover, but the break at this time of year gives them time to really focus on their key areas of study before their examinations. Once they have finished their examinations they can then enjoy a well-deserved, very long summer break. Last night I had the privilege of watching our 2020 school production. The performance of The Addams Family was absolutely brilliant. All of the staff and students involved deserve a huge amount of credit for what they have achieved. The production has been delayed three months, had the venue changed, and had the live music element removed, but was still an absolute pleasure to watch. All of the shows are sold out over the next two days and I trust that those who were lucky enough to secure a ticket will really enjoy it. A quick reminder that when students return next term, we move back into our summer uniform. We allow some flexibility in uniform with the variations in weather at this time of year. As such if the weather is cool at the start of next term girls will be allowed to wear tights up until Labour weekend, after that full summer uniform is expected. I hope that you enjoy the October break. For those traveling around New Zealand I hope that your travels are safe and enjoyable. Those families in the community with senior students will no doubt enjoy watching their children getting dressed up for the School Ball, which will take place on Saturday 10 October. Nga mihi, Kieran Verryt, Principal of College. DoE Tramp ReportLast weekend 34 students and 3 teachers went up to Mahurangi and Wenderholm Regional Parks to complete their Silver or Gold Duke of Edinburgh practice tramp! On day one, we tramped around Wenderholm in the pouring rain for around 12km, with the purpose of exploring nature and seeing some stunning views. We then travelled to Mahurangi where we crossed the Te Muri estuary and set up at Te Muri campsite next to the beach. Despite the rain we had a great evening of games on the beach and bonding with our peers. On day two, we got up to watch the sunrise on the beach, and then set off to Sullivan’s Bay for kayaking and adventuring around the bay. It was a challenge, but everyone faced it really well and had lots of fun! We returned back to the campsite to warm up and cook dinner as we had to cross the river at 6am on Sunday. After crossing the river, we tramped around Mahurangi Regional Park in the sunshine and were able to see some breath-taking sights. We continued our day of bushwalking and then returned back to the campsite to pack up and drive back to school. The DOE Silver/Gold Tramp for 2020 was an awesome experience for everyone involved, we learnt a lot and had plenty of fun while doing so - I would like to say a huge thank you to Mrs Waldeck for making this weekend possible and to Mr Prince, Mr Spilling and Mr Williams for joining us. Looking forward to the next one! :) - Charlotte Toumadj The Readers CupThese five fabulous Year 9 students recently took part in an inter-school reading challenge called ‘The Readers Cup’. Cancelled twice due to lockdowns, the event was finally held online. Pinehurst’s team was able to compete from the comfort of our own library boardroom. Congratulations to Ashlynn, Ava, Kevin, Matthew and Natalie who showed real team spirit and commitment throughout - and came third in the North Shore final. If you are heading into Year 9 next year and love reading, you might like to join a ‘Readers Cup’ team for next year’s competitions. See Mrs Coombridge if this appeals to you. Year 9 Design and TechnologyThe Year 9 Design Technology students have spent part of the term learning about metals, basic sheet metal working processes and using the tools and machines to make an aluminum mobile phone stand. They started the project by seeing how the product design development process works. Starting with problem identification through user analysis and prototype development. They found out what a designer needs to consider when creating functional products from function constraints, aesthetics, materials qualities and machine capabilities. They put all this into practice marking out, cutting, shaping, bending, joining and finishing a product. In the course of which they found out how to use a range of hand tools, used a big scary bandsaw, the cutting and folding press and the effort required to end up with a nice finish. Kia Ora, This week there were quite a few tired faces around especially at drop off time in the morning and it is clear that our students are ready for a break. They have done so well in both their physical lessons and online learning and have moved really easily between the two. This morning we were able to allow children onto the playgrounds for a run around before school and it was great to hear happy sounds of play and interacting with each other. Teachers have been planning their programmes for next term and trying to include as many of this year’s planned events as possible. Year 4 and 5 will sit Cambridge Primary progression tests in Maths, English and Science during Week 1 and Week 2 of Term 4 and teachers will send out timetables so you can see when these are. Year 6 will sit Cambridge Primary Checkpoint tests in Maths, English and Science in Week 1 of next term, we are looking forward to them showing how well they are achieving. They have really worked hard despite the disruptions of the year. After last week’s book week it has been fantastic to see so many children with books in their hands when they come through the gates. There is nothing quite like the excitement of a new book and the promise of an adventure to come. I am certainly looking forward to having some time to get through a few novels in the next couple of weeks, bliss! Now that we are in Level 2 we are looking forward to running some of our after school clubs again next term and being able to participate in some more sports. Children need to be occupied and have some time running around playing, socialising and burning off some energy. Participating in sports is so good for our students both physically and mentally, helping their wellbeing and their quality of sleep which is very important in the classroom. Our Chess teams are off to Mount Maunganui this weekend and our Primary team, consisting of Nicholas Xu, Jerry Yang, Shuntaro Nozaki, Ivan Wu and Richard Zheng will be competing in the National Primary Chess competition. We wish them the very best of luck and a great deal of strategy too! Finally I would like to thank all of our parents, grandparents and families for the support you have given us this term. It didn’t go totally according to plan but it was nevertheless extremely successful and satisfying to be able to continue learning whether at home or at school. We appreciate the work you have done at home to help your children and for the kind words and care you have given us too. If you are taking a break enjoy your family time and we will see you in two weeks time. Ngā mihi, Sian Coxon, Principal of Primary Pinehurst Touch (Afterschool) in Term 4 – Players NeededWe have lots of Year 1-6 players keen to play Pinehurst Touch this year, but unfortunately we do not currently have quite enough players for teams in each age group. Touch is a fun, social sport that best described as a modified (non-contact) version of Rugby. It is a great sport for boys & girls to play to improve their fitness, teamwork and ball handling skills. Check out this video to learn more about TOUCH https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7vQciY-wrU Information regarding Primary Touch can be found here: Year 3-6 https://www.pinehurst.school.nz/media/2337/2020-year-3_6-touch-rugby-information-letter.pdf Any questions – please contact Year 1-8 Sport Coordinator Kelly Lindsay kelly.lindsay@pinehurst.school.nz Welcome to P2!This term we've been exploring the theme of ‘Midnight Garden’ where we have researched what happens at night. From nocturnal animals scuttering through the grass or owls and bats flying through the night sky, we have used incredible language and facts to write Fact Files on these wonderful animals. Over the last few weeks we switched from Non-Fiction writing to Fiction where we explored what is needed to write a good story. We are now at the inventing stage of our learning journey where we are writing our own stories that include a problem and a solution. We created story maps to help organise our ideas in preparation for our Big Write. With our buddies we practise retelling the story using actions, it is so much fun! We explored good and bad characters and used what we have learnt to create our own characters. The children have shown excellent enthusiasm in our I.T. programme where there was a lot of fun using the B.Bots and OSMO coding kits. It is fabulous to see how well the children work together to solve problems and communicate effectively when sharing the equipment. In Art, the children have worked with Mrs Fleming to create beautiful clay tiles using patterns and colour. They used various equipment around the classroom like LEGO, pencils and cutlery to create different rubbings and patterns in the clay before painting them in bright colours. In our Friday topic sessions the children explored various artists and created their own pieces using wax crayons, cutting and sticking and night colours. Primary PEOver the course of this term we have been working on a range of movement skills within PE. We started with focusing on our hand eye coordination in rugby, learning about Touch and Rippa rugby skills, we then moved to full body fitness while in lockdown with some amazing video's coming from the students working out at home. Once back from lockdown, Year 2-6 participated in a range of fitness tests, looking at 6 main movement skills in sport; catching, passing, kicking, striking endurance and speed. There were some outstanding results, and each child tried their best. With Athletics' Day just around the corner we are beginning to work on our movement skills to get us fully prepared for the competition which involves, running, jumping and throwing events. I hope everyone has a good break and that you all find some time to keep active and developing your movement skills in the holidays. Art with a MessageThis term in Art, P16 have been looking at the different purposes of artwork and how some famous paintings, drawings and sculptures around the world are created to display a message to others! The Year 5 students decided that they would create their own artwork with a specific message using paint and panel artwork. We chose to look at sustainability issues around NZ and the rest of the world that impact us directly now and in the future as our inspiration for this term's artwork! After independently researching information about different issues, we selected one that we found most interesting and important to us personally and decided to create an artwork that displayed the effect this issue has. Some of this included deforestation, over population, water pollution, litter, global warming and so many more! Throughout these sessions, we learnt how to sketch ideas with space and the message in mind and how to accurately use the paint brush to mix and blend paints together to create a world of different colours. We are excited to see our final artworks come together to show a before and after of each issue! Samuel - My artwork is about climate change within the Antarctic. My before shows everything being peaceful and how it should be then global warming happened rapidly and the ice within the animal's habitat melted away leaving them with little to live on. Linda - My artwork with a message is about air pollution. My before panel shows some houses with trees around them and clear blue skies with fresh and clear air, then as the houses are knocked down and replaced by factories the air becomes unhealthy and polluted. I showed this by using greys to show how unhealthy this is for people to be breathing in. Book Week in P19The Year 6 students in P19 enjoyed the daily Book Week quiz last week, there was some debate over the answers with the majority vote being used when needed! Here are a few quotes from the students in P19...
The Addams Family music production kicks off spectacularlyThe 30 College student strong cast of this year’s musical, wowed their audience for their opening night on Thursday. It has been a pleasure watching each student rise to the challenge and embody their characters. We have been lucky to have the fantastically talented Cut Above Academy who have taken care of the hair and make up needs of the cast, in a process that takes more than two hours each night. Thank you to the parents who have been incredibly flexible with the changes in the production schedule due to Covid. Thank you to the fantastically talented cast and crew, some of which have spent nearly two hours in transport, twice a week in order to participate in the rehearsals and the show. Your versatility and resilience has been admirable and it has been a pleasure to see you through this journey. I Spy... in the school.I Spy in the Primary... Year 3's beautiful artwork! I Spy in the Primary...Year 2 pirate maps and instructions to the treasure! I Spy in the Primary...relay races in Physical Education! I Spy in the College...Year 7 hard at work on their masterpieces! Library open during holidaysThe Library will be open for Senior College students to study between 8am and 4pm, and parents will be able to pop in with students of all ages if they wish to take out books. Uniform shopThe uniform shop will be open during the holidays between 10am - 2pm on the following dates:
Ladies LunchDon't forget to book your spot for the Ladies Lunch - Friday 23rd October! There will be prizes, a raffle, a drink on arrival, a lovely lunch, splendid views and the company of lovely ladies! Get a group of friends together and enjoy a wonderful day out. Cammando Basketball Academy – Term 4, 2020Registrations for all Cammando Basketball Term 4 classes are now open. Coach Cam is looking forward to seeing you all there! Sessions are held at Pinehurst School Gymnasium, 75 Bush Road Albany. All sessions run for 6x weeks in Term 4. Please register at cammando_basketball@outlook.com Rookies (Year 7-10)
Cammando Half Court (Year 9-13) What: A session focused on one vs one moves, and 3 on 3 games. Shooting Range (Year 9-13) What: Shooting range is focused on improving form, footwork, and getting a lot of repetitions in. Includes competitive shooting drills. Jam Session (Year 9-13) What: What is the best way to improve? Play the game. Jam session is an hour of guided scrimmages held weekly to increase playing experience. |