News and events for the week ending 10th May 2019 Friday 10th May 2019 Opening words from the Executive PrincipalKia ora tatou, good afternoon, 你好, 안녕하세요 I’ve spent as much time as I can this week walking around school, popping into lessons and chatting to children. The best part of my job is to see our staff and students working together, learning and enjoying themselves. The lessons I’ve seen this week have included a great Year 10 PE lesson, with students developing collaboration and teamwork skills, self-assessing and challenging themselves; a Year 11 Biology lesson about genotypes and phenotypes (I learned some new things!); Year 8 Maths and Social Science lessons; Year 1 and 2 literacy lessons, the children proud to show me their work and explain what was going on. A great deal of really interesting learning, in other words, and what has most impressed me has been the way the students are able to articulate what they are doing, why they are doing it, and what they need to do to take it further. We have been doing some work on our achievement data this week, and I thought I’d share some of it with you. Later this term, the Ministry publishes its “school leavers data”, and an Auckland magazine publishes its own tables of data. I’m not a big fan of league tables, as I don’t think they reflect a school properly, but the data is still important to the school: we are always looking to improve, for example. So: of the 56 regular students in Year 13 last year, 98% achieved the “Level 2/Year 12” qualification, 91% achieved the “Level 3/Year 13 qualification” and 84% achieved University Entrance. Those are good scores, and we’re committed to continuing to improve them. We looked at students who had been with us a long time, and that was interesting too: all but one of the students who had been with us in Primary achieved University Entrance, and all but 3 students who had joined us between Year 7 and the start of Year 10 achieved University Entrance. We heard this morning, as it happens, that one of last year’s Year 13 student has just been accepted to read Medicine at Queen Mary University in London, which is a wonderful achievement, and we’re very proud of her. On that: we are an inclusive school, and are proud of the progress all of our students make, including those who take different pathways into the future. A final word from me on sports: we’re in full swing now, and I was delighted to see a little Year 1 / 2 basketball on Monday. They’ve made so much progress since the start of term! Our teams have started at a gallop, and performed very impressively in the first week of term. Kidzplay netball begins on Saturday: around 3000 parents and players enjoy our facilities every Saturday until the end of Term 3. Good luck to all those students representing the school, and thank you to all the staff and parents who make it all possible. I’ll hopefully bump into some of you as I get around the teams over the coming weeks. Have a lovely weekend. WEEK 3 Monday 13th May
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WEEK 4 Monday 20th May
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Friday 24th May
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, A number of Pinehurst staff were involved in a professional development seminar this week where one of the discussion topics was the values that we hold today and where most of those values came from. No surprises to hear that our parents were very influential in shaping the kinds of people we are today. It is a great responsibility to be a parent, there is no manual for success and in the end we all do the best we can and hope that we instill the kinds of values that will help our children to live a happy life. We worry if we are getting it right and often think that we could be doing a better job but as long as we have the basics sorted we are on the right track. Having worked with young children for so many years there are traits that are important to encourage after we give them shelter, warmth, food and love. Be role models for kindness, talk about others in front of them in respectful ways, teach them to be independent, resilient and have empathy for others. Foster their love of learning, allow them opportunities to be creative, give them time to play and be a kid, they learn so much through play and imagination. Let them care for animals and their environment, and be passionate about their interests even when they are not the interests that you would necessarily choose for them. Give them opportunities to enjoy the outdoors, to exercise and to eat well, no junk food for lunch! Just show them how to be great humans. Eventually it will be time to let them go and make their own way in the world and that comes around very, very fast. The values you instill in them will be gifts that they take with them for many years, so keep going you are doing a wonderful job! Ngā mihi Sian Coxon, Principal of Primary Senior Primary Music ConcertA reminder that registrations close this evening for the Senior Primary Music Concert, which is being held in the Arena on Tuesday 28 May 3.30-4.30pm. Please click here to register your child. Auditions will be held in JC8 next week at lunchtimes Monday 13th – Thursday 17th May. All successful candidates will be notified the following week. Please email me kate.dutoit@pinehurst.school.nz if you have any further questions. ESOLWelcome to our new ESOL families. It has been lovely meeting you all recently. If you do have any queries about your child’s ESOL programme, please do feel free to visit Tanya Playfair Mon to Thurs in the Primary English Support room, between the Science and GATE rooms. In ESOL this week, some groups have been learning how to identify different tenses and group verbs accordingly. Some groups have been looking at different occupations and the ‘er’ suffix. Other groups have been talking about feelings and actions with a focus on using the present continuous tense correctly. P4 have been busyWe welcomed 10 new kids to P4 this term and we have been busy adjusting to school life. We participated in a Pōwhiri to welcome us into the Pinehurst family. On the first day of school we all ate lunch together in P4. It was so much fun to get to know all the students in the class. We also had a visit from our Year 3 buddies! We exchanged a little gift and ran around on the playground with them. It so nice to have someone older to look up to. We started off right away learning Phonics with Ms. Lew and Mrs. Aston. We have already learned the sounds M, A, S, T. We love working on the activities with Ms. Aston and learning all our sounds. We also had a surprise in our room and we found an egg in the reading corner. Someone must have dropped it off while we were at home one night! We have been trying to figure out where it came from and who put it there. We think it is a penguin egg. So far, we have been looking after it to make sure that it stays safe and warm! We have been very busy getting to know one another in P4. We love reading books, playing in dramatic play in the afternoons, and having art class on Friday. We are looking forward to starting our Big write next week and talking about Farm Animals. Terrific Teamwork in Year 2!In Year Two we have been learning what makes a good team and why working in groups is important to people. In class we have been working in our ‘Home Teams’ to complete lots of different challenges. Along the way we are developing some of our social skills such as, taking turns, listening to others, equal participation and encouraging others. We have found out that although we are all different, we all also have things in common. Using our commonalities, we have created our Home Team names, to strengthen our identity. When completing challenges, we also have special jobs to do, which means the team can function successfully. On Thursday, we designed and created a front cover for a shared book, that we have been writing in literacy lessons. Our Materials Manager collected the resources, Time Keeper kept us on track, Quality Checker made sure we were producing great work and our Focus Keeper ensured everyone remained on task. Once we had finished we had a team feedback session, where we identified what we did well and what we need to do differently next time. We love being part of a team! In P10 we have been getting bossy!In writing, we are learning about instructional writing and we have discovered instructional writing uses imperative (or bossy) verbs and adverbs to begin each step. We also learnt that when giving instructions to an ‘alien’ on how to make a sandwich, we must use detailed descriptions. Otherwise, our ‘alien’ was going to have an entire block of cheese or a whole tomato inside their sandwich! To practice our instructional writing, we made a popcorn making recipe. To see if our recipe would be a success, we used a popcorn machine to follow our instructions. When we wrote our draft, we noticed that if we missed out a step or our instructions were not detailed, then our popcorn making may have been disastrous. Thankfully, after lots of discussion and editing we were able to write a popcorn making recipe that used bossy verbs and was detailed. We were then able to eat the finished product, which I think the student thought was the best part. Year 4 Motat TripLast week, the Year 4 students became coders at Mind Lab in Motat. Mind Lab is a purpose built environment that allows students to explore the world of robotics and coding. The Year 4’s took turns in participating in two engaging activities during the morning. Students had great fun coding their mBot to move forward, backwards, turn and stop. After programming their mBot, they were challenged to put their mBot through a maze. This required children to control their mBots remotely and see their coding in action. The second activity was using Scratch to create sound effects and design a musical instrument. We were also shown how to use the the Makey Makey electronic circuit to bring our musical instruments to life. The students displayed wonderful skills of perseverance and teamwork whilst they collaborated through creative challenges. It was a fun morning filled with discovery! A big thank you to the parent helpers who came along on the trip with us! Over the next two terms we will be learning coding in our IT sessions in class. So much fun! Year 5-6 Interhouse Cross Country 2019Last Friday our Year 5-6 students headed across to Rosedale Park after lunch for their annual Interhouse Cross Country event. It was a stunning Autumn day, the sun was shining and there were lots of lovely leaves showering the runners as they went down the finish shoot and lots of crunchy leaves to run through ! Well done to MATAI who were the overall winning house in 2019 once again! Congratulations to all students who took part, and a special mention to the students who finished in the top 3 for their age group in 2019. Our thanks to the parents who assisted with walking students to and from the course. For additional photos from the Cross Country, please see our Pinehurst Facebook Sports Page Pinehurst Buddies Meet for the First TimeLast week we had 20 new entrant children join Pinehurst which now completes the two classes for P2 and P4. Our Year 3 buddies for Term 2 went down to meet and greet their new entrant buddies for the first-time last Friday. Each Year 3 buddy presented their new friend with a small fluffy gift to take home. P2 new entrants had lunch with their buddy outside on the picnic benches on a beautiful warm autumn afternoon. There was not a lot of talking over lunch, but lots of eating and it was great to see some of our Year 3s helping their new entrant buddies open wrappers, take off lids and put away containers. P4 met their Year 3 buddies later in the afternoon when they had Golden Time. This meant that after their meet and greet they were able to have a nice play in the playground without any other children around. It was nice seeing them playing hide ‘n’ seek, digging in the sandpit, swinging on the bars. We were also lucky enough to be able to pair a set of twin boys together to become a buddy family – so Damon and Derek Lu were welcomed to Pinehurst by Dominic and Lachlan Baird. Year 3 Buddies have all been given badges to identify themselves in the junior playground. They are encouraged to visit their new entrant buddy during intervals from time to time. Year 4 Dance SportsThe Year 4 students are excited about taking part in Dance Sports as a part of physical education during this term. We are lucky to have Harry and Marie from the Ucan2 Dance Studio to help teach us the moves. The students will be having fun while learning Ballroom and Latin dances such as the Foxtrot, Cha Cha Cha, Samba, and Jive. “I never thought that dance sports would be something I would be good at but surprisingly I did so well, I even got to demonstrate some moves for the class!” Harry Ellin P14 "Embarrassingly the teacher made us choose girls to dance with, luckily my partner was good at dancing and helped me with the moves” Otto Neumann P14 “I was nervous in the start, I mean it’s not every day you have to dance with a boy, what if they didn’t know all the steps and stood on my foot! Fortunately, that didn’t happen! Now I am curious about the steps for all the other dances.” Millie Wang P14 I Spy in the PrimaryI Spy....Year 5 warming up with some P.E on a cold Wednesday morning! I Spy....Year 3 measuring the strength of magnets! I Spy...happy kids having fun and hanging out at lunchtime! I Spy …. popcorn popping in P11 so they can describe in their writing how they made it...and how it tasted! Kia Ora, As I write we have our termly POD / Primary buddy class session. As such there are currently over 700 students from 5 – 18 years old charging around the school engaged in fun activities. This is all helped by the fact that it is a beautiful sunny autumn afternoon. These termly activities are greatly enjoyed by students and staff. They are great for building our community and is a visual reminder of the journey that our students make as they grow up at Pinehurst. Walking around school during lunchtime today it was great to see the range of activities available and how many students are involved in them. From tutorials, to craft, to music groups, House sport, Amnesty International meetings, there are an amazing range of activities for students to be engaged in. We will continue to push students to make the most of their opportunities at school and would encourage parents to promote that same message. On Wednesday we had our annual class photos. The students looked great in their winter uniforms. Uniform and appearance standards are important to us as a school and we will work with students to ensure that they are meeting the standards. If you have any questions around uniform, please do get in contact. This week is our first full week of winter sport. We have had some great results with big wins for our boys and girls 1st XI Hockey teams. The Lacrosse and Badminton teams have also started with good wins. We wish the Basketball, Football and Netball teams well for their first games this weekend. Pinehurst teams are always well supported by parents and we look forward to catching up with you on the side-line throughout the season. Ngā mihi, Chris Wiggin and Kieran Verryt Principals of College 2019 Computational and Algorithmic Thinking (CAT) CompetitionWell done to all the students who entered the "Computational and Algorithmic Thinking" Competition. A special congratulations to Logan Cho who gained High Distinction (top 3%) and Tim Xie and Michael Ma who gained Distinction (top 10%). Tim in Year 9 actually put himself down for the wrong year level by accident and therefore had the incorrect resource sheet and competed against Year 10s, but still got Distinction! Young Leaders DayLilly, Sam, Thomas and Oscar were wonderful ambassadors for Pinehurst at the recent World Vision Leaders Day. Our students were actively engaged, along with 120 other schools throughout Auckland, in a range of thought provoking activities .The aim of the day was to educate, equip and empower our students to identify injustice and to act, resulting in lasting, meaningful change for those who need it. This year the 40 Hour famine is on 7-9 June. We encourage our students to set their goals,challenge themselves, start fundraising and make a real difference in the lives of thousands of children in South Sudan affected by conflict, drought and famine. Your support with this would be greatly appreciated. Year 7-13 Interhouse Cross Country 2019On a stunning Autumn day last week, Year 7-13 students made their way to Rosedale park in the morning for the annual Interhouse Cross Country events. The Senior College enjoyed a lovely sunny but brisk morning run, with just a hint of a breeze, and the Junior College came across after morning tea to run the course in slightly warmer conditions. Well done to MATAI who were the overall winning house for SC and to TOTARA who were the top house in the JC in 2019! Congratulations to all students who took part, with a special mention to the students who finished in the top 3 for their age group. Our sincere thanks also to all the students who helped marshall the course on the day. For additional photos of the day, please see our Pinehurst Facebook Sports Page NH Zone Day OrienteeringCongratulations to our seven Year 7-8 NH Zone Day Orienteering Teams (a record 38 students from Pinehurst) who competed last week at Onepoto Domain. Many students were giving Orienteering a go for the first time, and it was great to see their enthusiasm and effort on the day. This year, we also had some outstanding team results and we wish to acknowledge our Year 8 Boys (Ted, Benen, Dylan & Ethan) who as a top 4 finished 2nd overall out of 29 teams and our Year 7 Girls (Nadia, Charlotte S, Bailey, Victoria & Ione) who also finished 2nd overall out of 16 Year 7 Girls teams. Ione was also the top finisher for her course in the Year 7 girls. These students will now go on to represent Pinehurst and the North Harbour Zone at the Auckland Champs event in Week 3. Hockey 1st XIOnce again, our Pinehurst boys made an impact early in the match against Takapuna Grammar. Nathan, leading from the front scored a cracking opener and Pinehurst confidently strode back for the re-start. Having played like a seasoned team in the previous week we were waiting to see more of the same hockey magic. A disappearance trick was the only magic we witnessed. The coherent and cohesive Pinehurst pattern of play vanished like the dazzling orb in the cobalt blue western horizon. Pinehurst initially were all over the opposition like a cheap suit. Dong, Will, Hamish, Harry and the rest of the team were running around the field like crazy things, but unfortunately the connections were not being made. As Pinehurst began to drain of energy and morale they conceded a goal. At one goal apiece, the game started to open up. Pinehurst maintained the lions share of possession, but they were slow on the defence and were often vulnerable. Thank you to Mrs Griffiths for coaching and supporting the team, and to our parents who supported the students on the day. Gradually the ‘old men’ rallied the squad and the second goal was bashed in by CJ. After half time and a shot of self-belief the team spirit returned. There was scrambles and shambles in the box, but Toby worked a deceptive flick into the net. Benson missed a fine chance but soon afterwards he slotted in a very acceptable and well-placed volley. The final score of 4:1 was a fair reflection of the events. The team worked hard and enjoyed the match. Darius provided some solid goal keeping and should be commended for some prodigious kicks and scoops.As far as next week goes will we see any new magic? Well, as Harry Houdini said, “An old trick well done is far better than a new trick with no effect.” So, the team will need to hunker down and play articulately throughout the match, without trying anything novel. In Music this WeekExam prep with the help of technology Year 10 and 11 have begun preparing for their Mid Year exams with the help of Musition. Musition is a drill based software Complete with 43 topics and it is the ultimate music theory tuition tool. With an amazing breadth and depth of content, this software is great for beginners through to advanced students. It is capable of student assessment and tracking so that students can get a clearer picture of where their weaknesses lie and therefore focus on to improve. If your child is taking Music at IGCSE level, ask them to run you through some of the exercises this week. Sequencing compositions for Year 8 If you found your child sneakily creating music using the award winning interface Incredibox during the holidays, perhaps in the wee hours of the night, it might have been due to its highly addictive nature. This week we have listened to and peer assessed most of the compositions created by the two classes in this rotation and as always, there was some impressive compositional craftsmanship on display. To hear a sample from these projects, click here. Dads' Fun JumpWhere: Jump Trampoline Park This is an event for all the Dad’s and their children to enjoy some fun time together. Price includes jump time, pizza and bottled water. Socks for jumping will need to be purchased at the venue. These are $1.00. Bookings are essential. Spaces are limited. To book your place please email judy.wallace@pinehurst.school.nz Homestay FamiliesWe are looking for more bi-lingual families to host International Students. If you are interested in applying and would like more information please contact our Homestay Coordinator vicky.kenny@pinehurst.school.nz U18 North Harbour Hockey Representative PlayerCongratulations to Danielle Wheeler who was selected to play in the North Harbour Hockey Under 18 Representative team. Defensive Driving CourseShore2Pass are running a Defensive Driving course here at Pinehurst later this term. The course is four sessions - 3:30-5:30 on 11,13,18, 20 June. Information and bookings on https://shore2pass.co.nz/https://shore2pass.co.nz/ Book your place by using the "Book a Course" Tab. Dance, Musical Theatre & Drama Classes |