News and events for the week ending 31st May 2019 Friday 31st May 2019 Opening words from the Executive PrincipalKia ora tatou, good afternoon, 你好, 안녕하세요 I’m going to start with something very dear to me: music! I think the highlight of the week for me was the Senior Primary Music Concert on Tuesday. It was full of wonderful performances on a very wide range of musical instruments, kicked off with a very sweet song from the choir. I’d like to thank Mrs Watters, Mrs Du Toit and Mrs Naumovoska for their organisation and passion, and of course the students for sharing their talents with us. I watched, alongside proud parents, with a very proud smile on my face. Our music continues to go from strength to strength, and it’s great to see (and hear) the new music practice rooms getting so much use. We’re heading into the season of performances now, and I’m really looking forward to seeing some of our musical groups in action. I am also looking forward to the Junior College production: we’re less than two weeks away now, and I continue to be impressed by the commitment and skill of our young performers. Tickets are available on The Pumphouse website so please come along and support them in action. I wrote to Year 6 and Year 8 parents earlier this week to let them know that we have our Year 6-7 Transition Evening on June 19th, and our Year 8-9 Transition Evening on June 11th. These are evenings in which we showcase what we do in College, and we welcome students already at Pinehurst, as well as those who are thinking of joining us. Classrooms will be open, students and staff will be in school, and there will be a tour that finishes with a presentation in College 4. On June 5th, we have a Curriculum Information Evening for parents: this is simply a presentation, and this year we will be talking about the way the curriculum works from Year 1 to Year 13, focusing especially on transitions. Mr Wiggin and I will be presenting, and we will then be asking parents to tell us what they think of the way we organise our curriculum, especially the way we support students’ transitions. It’s a consultation as well as a presentation, and I welcome those of you with students in any year if you would like to attend. I have been thinking a great deal about our curriculum recently, and I thought I’d add a few of my thoughts on the subject. I’ve written a piece that you can find on our website here. Our curriculum is a ‘connected curriculum’. It is a Cambridge curriculum with a strong New Zealand element and with an international flavour. A connected curriculum is an inter-disciplinary curriculum with subjects that develop distinct, but connected, skills. And it is a “future-ready” curriculum because it develops students’ abilities in different disciplines, or subjects, and encourages them to make connections between them, just as they will have to in their future lives. It is a curriculum that also ensures that they have the knowledge – because knowledge and content matters - and cultural capital to ensure that the skills they have developed are contextualized: skills need a foundation of understanding. Subject disciplines are distinct and rigorous, not blurred into confused cross-curricular courses; and teaching and learning is explicit, shared and pedagogically rigorous too. That’s the curriculum we teach at Pinehurst. I won’t go on! The longer piece is available for you on the website, and please stop me and ask if you have any questions about what we do and why we do it. And I hope to see many of you over the next few weeks at our Open Days, Curriculum Evening and Transition Evenings. Have a lovely weekend. WEEK 6 Monday 3rd June
Tuesday 4th June
Wednesday 5th June
Thursday 6th June
Friday 7th June
WEEK 7 Monday 10th June
Tuesday 11th June
Wednesday 12th June
Thursday 13th June
Friday 14th June
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, There are many wonderful moments during a week in the Primary school and I am very grateful to have chosen a profession where each day is different and is filled with funny memories and the wonder and imaginations of young children. Every morning as each child makes their way to class many will stop, give a wave or a small smile, maybe looking for the reassurance of the familiar. Others jump up and down laughing, waving, giggling and recently quite a few stop for a dance! It is a very special part of my day and one I look forward to. All of our students do the best they can on the day, their youth means they generally want to please and their teachers get excited about their learning as the small triumphs add up to a great deal of progress over a year. From time to time a child comes to see either myself or Catherine with their special work and to get a sticker, hopefully of the gold variety! We always stop what we are doing to spend time celebrating their progress and success. To see a child who has previously struggled to form a sentence, bring a page of well constructed writing is very special. They are literally beaming with pride and they skip out of our building holding onto their stickers as if they were the Crown Jewels. As our teachers come to the end of writing the Semester 1 reports it is obvious how well they know their students and how dedicated they are to creating learning experiences that will enrich the lives of the young people they work with. We are looking forward to sharing your child’s progress with you towards the end of the term in their reports and conferences. Have a great long weekend with your children, we will see you on Tuesday. Ngā mihi Sian Coxon, Principal of Primary Year 0-4 Cross CountryLast Friday, our annual Junior Primary Cross Country event took place at Pinehurst School. It was a stunning Autumn morning, and lovely to see so many smiling happy students out enjoying the fresh air. Well done to all students who took part, with a special mention to the students who were top 3 in their race – we will be recognising these students at an assembly this term. Thank you to Mrs Heighton and her class, who did a wonderful job helping as marshalls, runners, recorders and photographers for the morning! We loved seeing all our parents and families supporting the races too, thank you! Winter Netball at KidzplayHow lucky have we been to see the winter netball season begin with such sunny weather? As we all know it can often be a wet, soggy start to the netball season, with puddles being the main attraction on the court. Our winter teams have been training before school on Tuesday and Thursday mornings to develop their netball skills and familiarise themselves with the different positions. Netball is a fast moving, dynamic sport made up of passing a ball and shooting into a goal similar to a basketball hoop but without a backboard. Once a player has caught the ball, they cannot run or dribble with it and have three seconds to pass or shoot, depending on where they are on the court. Our players have a range of new skills to learn in this training sessions. Our youngest team (Year 1) has made a tremendous start to the season winning all of their games. When you consider the range of skills they are having to master this is a credit to them, Suzanne’s coaching, and their side line of enthusiastic supporters. Our training sessions focus on developing the players in the following areas: passing and catching, dodging and pivoting, defending and shooting; all with the aim of putting these skills together when playing against an opposition team. We have seen a significant improvement in skill level and on court awareness in the three weeks we have been competing and we look forward to seeing our teams develop over the winter season. Don’t forget that netball is played in all weather and not to be put off with a raindrop or two. Dinosaurs in P2This week we have been doing some observational drawings of dinosaurs for our Art. This also links very nicely with our Social Studies lessons. We started by using photos of dinosaurs, both on the internet and in books as our resource. Mrs Boniface said that we needed to record all the shapes that we could see. When we looked closely we were very surprised at all the shapes and where we could see them. After we had noticed the larger shapes, we started to look more closely. We saw lots of details and patterns in the pictures. Some dinosaurs had spines on their backs, some had horns, and others had wings and tails. Katherine spotted the ‘sharp triangles on the legs.’ Kenneth saw the ‘pointy shapes on the face and scaly body.’ We were also very interested to learn what types of dinosaurs they were too. P20 on the Building SiteMuch excitement last week in P20 as they were invited onto the construction site to learn about the huge crane that has been operating directly outside their classroom. The new library is beginning to take shape with the huge steel structure that was being put into place last week. The students in P20 were all very excited to have front row viewing of the daily progress. Thanks to Mr Tandy (site manager) for giving up his time to take us on site to explain what was happening. P17 Lino Print ArtYear 5 students in P17 have been learning how to create a variety of textures and shapes using lino cutting tools. They drew their design onto a lino tile, using vivid. The next part got interesting when they started to experiment with the lino cutting tools! The children have learnt how to use the tools carefully and precisely, remembering the safety rules. They cut sharp lines into the lino to create texture and raised areas to contrast between light and dark. When the lino templates are finished they’ll create lino-prints with their designs. P17 look forward to sharing their finished prints soon! Year 5 RoboticsYear 5 robotics students have been working on two challenges in their lessons this term; Follow the Line and the Driving Challenge. In the Follow the Line challenge students had to programme the colour sensor to measure light and dark levels and use those values to find the average light level. This becomes the threshold, which is the point the Driving Base/Robot starts performing a different action, which is to follow the dark line. In the Driving Challenge, the students had to programme their Driving Base/Robot to drive forward, wait at the pedestrian crossing for 10 seconds and then follow the course, finishing by reversing with a backing noise into the garage successfully. Many weeks have been spent programming, modifying and trailing their programmes to complete both challenges successfully. Different motor blocks and sensor blocks have had to be programmed to allow their Driving Bases/Robots to complete the different challenges. Lots of fun has been had trialing these programmes and watching and learning from others. One group have been working with NXT intelligent bricks and the other group have been working with EV3 intelligent bricks. Both groups have been completing the same challenges with varying degrees of success. Senior Primary Music ConcertOur annual Primary Music Concert took place on Tuesday this week at 3.30pm in the Arena. This was a wonderful opportunity to showcase our musically talented students from Years 4-6 and the event also featured the Senior Choir who performed “Colours of the Wind” from Pocahontas. We were treated to performances on a variety of instruments – a kalimba, harps, guitars, drums, saxophone, flute, piano… the list goes on. Truly a magical afternoon of listening to some wonderful music from our senior students. I Spy in the PrimaryI Spy …. Year 1 and their results from experimenting with insulated cups! I Spy...Flooring going onto the new library! I Spy....Alex hard at work in P4! I Spy...hot and cold colours in P11! Kia Ora, I am sure that Senior College students in Years 10, 11, 12 and 13 will be looking forward to their extended weekend now they do not have examinations to prepare for. Next week, these students will receive the feedback from their Mid Year examinations. This feedback is invaluable and is aimed at helping to support and extend students moving forward with their courses. Throughout the week students will have papers returned to them. Whilst it is natural to focus on the mark or final grade I am always telling students to make sure they listen to and understand the feedback messages that they are been given. And if it is not clear to them they must discuss the next stages of what they need to do with their teacher. Next week, on Tuesday 4th June, we host our second College Open Day of the year. This is already looking like it will be one of the busiest that we have had. It is always a pleasure to show visitors and guests around our school. I always find it very rewarding to view our day to day activity through the eyes of someone experiencing Pinehurst for the first time. Visitors, many of whom are used to working in other schools, will often comment on the calmness that they experience moving around the school and on the levels of student engagement that they see in the classrooms. This week we have been planning for a number of upcoming parent evenings. On Wednesday 5th June there we will be a College Curriculum Information evening. Tuesday 11th June we will host a Year 8 parent information evening. This will focus on students transitioning into Senior College. With opportunities to visit classrooms, meet with teachers and Senior College students. On 19th June we will host our Year 6 parent information evening for current Year 6 students transitioning to College in January 2020. I wish everyone an enjoyable extended weekend. Ngā mihi, Chris Wiggin and Kieran Verryt Principals of College Young Entrepreneurs Pitch their IdeasTwo teams of Year 11 students have been developing their business and entrepreneurial skills this year by participating in the Young Enterprise Scheme. On Monday 20th May they travelled to AUT to pitch their ideas to four judges for a chance to win a share of the prize money. The teams this year are: Chi Ko – Sharing Chinese and Korean culture through food and drinks. William Xu, Ellie Kang, Selena Wang, Iris Lu. Study Buddy – An app that helps students combat procrastination when studying. Katherine Ouyang, Eric Chen, Amy Han, Ivan Li. We look forward to seeing their business ideas come to market! Blake Environmental TrustThe team from Blake Environmental Leadership visited last week to run workshops for Year 7 and 8. Through virtual reality, students experienced the rich biodiversity that exists below the surface of the Hauraki Gulf and other popular sites around NZ, as well as the damage that's been done to the ecosystem. If we can't take every child to the ocean, let's bring the ocean to every child. Students went ‘diving’ with the sharks, rays, dolphins and an array of colourful fish and sea life whilst managing to stay dry! They learnt what a healthy sea environment looks like and what an unhealthy marine environment looks like. Many were inspired to make a difference to their environment and to keep our waterways clean: Ted Rua: It was good! It was really realistic. Danielle Austin: It was a cool experience as we learnt about how important the ocean is and how rubbish can harm the sea life. Thomas Moseby: I think it was a good experience – it was definitely good to see the condition the water is in. Nikkita Adding: It was so cool, I liked the stingrays. I wanted to see more. Natalie Raphael: It was good to see the environmental impact of humans and the difference between the different types of sea environments. Junior College Chinese First LanguageStudents have been writing about their most memorable holidays in Mandarin. They are also enjoying reading each other’s essays at break time. AKSS Diving ChampionshipsWell done to Zoe Atkinson (Year 7) who represented Pinehurst at the AKSS Diving competition last Thursday, scoring 103 points overall. Auckland Secondary Schools Golf Stroke Play (Round 1)Earlier this week, three of our golfers, Towa Usui, Jaewoo Son & Yeonsoo Son, attended the first round of the AKSS Golf Stroke Play event held at Howick Golf Club. This is an individual event of 36 holes played over two separate days. While at times the weather didn’t play ball with frequent bursts of rain, our students managed to hang in there and finish their round. Congratulations to Yeonsoo, who placed 1st /23 in the women’s event and 2nd/85 overall with a gross score of 66. Hockey 1st XIThe players in white strode purposefully towards their positions and the game commenced. Within minutes Pinehurst where dominating the field. They used their size and skills effectively and as a result Nathan and Toby put Pinehurst 2 goals in front of Westlake. The team worked hard, and all hands made a determined effort. By half-time it was 2 apiece and the game was there for the taking. After the re-start one team started to play slick, well-rehearsed hockey. They kept their heads down and their options open as the passes were on target and the full extent of the pitch was realized. This team looked strong and provided ample chances for their strikers. The other team literally fell to pieces and reverted to an almost Neanderthal approach. Panic was rife and ball skills were positively prehistoric. Pinehurst lost this game by a wide margin and the challengers were aptly rewarded. Did Pinehurst learn from this? Well, we hope so. This match was easily there for them to win. They made a huge effort cardio-physically, but the true strength of a team is the mental resilience and the ability to work well together under pressure. We await the comeback with eager anticipation. In Music this WeekSenior Primary Formal Music Concert On Tuesday we were treated to a wonderfully diverse display of musical talent in the annual Senior Primary Music Concert. The Senior Primary Choir performed the well-known song, The Colours of the Wind, from the Disney classic Pocahontas animated movie. Amongst the talented pianists we also had saxophone, flute, drums, harp, guitar and singers this year as well as the Hulusi (Chinese Gourd Flute). Click here to see Ariel Liu (Yr 6) work her magic on the largest (and therefore lowest sounding) version of this instrument. A big thank you to Ms Du Toit and Ms Watters for organising this wonderful event. Just two weeks left before the opening night of ‘Much Ado About Shakespeare’Mrs Mann and her costume team have been ploughing their way through the massive task of costuming the cast who have at least two costumes each. We have sailors, soldiers, lovers, queens, kings, fairies, waves and… is that a ghost lurking in there too? Make sure you book your tickets through the Pumphouse Theatre to see this fabulous blend of Shakespeare’s comedies, tragedies, histories and poetry. https://pumphouse.co.nz/whats-on/show/much-ado-about-shakespeare/ See you there on one of the following dates: Thursday 13th at 7pm, Friday 14th at 7pm, Saturday 15th at 2pm or 7pm. Speed Cubing CompetitionTim Xie in Year 9 did very well in a speed cubing competition in Melbourne last weekend. It was a crowded competition with about 200 competitors and about 200+ spectators, Tim's main event is 2x2x2, he is currently ranked #1 in NZ currently with average 1.78 seconds. |