News and events for the week ending 19th October 2018 Friday 19th October 2018 Opening words from the Executive PrincipalGood afternoon, Kia ora tatou, 你好 Exams are in the air this week… We welcomed back our Year 6, Year 9 and Year 12 and 13 students with a few examinations, and I’ve been delighted to see happy, cautiously positive faces around school. I think they’ve gone pretty well on the whole. The whole school seems to be happy to be back, actually, helped by some glorious sun, a touch of cherry blossom and honeysuckle, and the smell of spring in the air. It’s been lovely to see the children back in school: it never feels right when they’re on holiday! And it’s been great, too, to welcome back Linda Goss to the College English Department from parental leave. Welcome too, to Jo Benson, who joins our “new” New Entrants class as our second teacher four mornings a week. Our biggest welcome, though, is for the new students who started with us on Monday: we had ten five year olds and a sprinkling of students in other years joining us for our powhiri. It was all a little overwhelming for our youngest children, of course, but when I wandered around yesterday, I saw them playing and learning happily with their new friends. Welcome too to our new parents! I hope everybody has had a good break over the holidays. As you may have heard, they began with our Year 6 Chess team winning the North Island and National titles. After that, the emails slowed to a crawl, and it felt as if people were enjoying the time away from school. While people were away, we did a little maintenance around the grounds, and built a temporary road behind the Arena in preparation for work on our new Library to begin. We’re nearly there, and should be able to break ground in the next few weeks. To those of you ordering on Ezlunch, you may notice that the Kami Sushi option has changed: there’s a new menu, especially developed for our children, but produced by the same people to the same high quality. Other than that, the holidays saw a number of exams take place as the Cambridge examination season began in earnest. Towards the end of the holiday, we heard that our Production of Return to the Forbidden Planet has been nominated for seven awards at the “Showdown” awards Auckland Schools’ Productions: congratulations to the whole team for their work on the show. This week, we were delighted to hear that Shuan Liu, in Year 11, was awarded Second Place in the Auckland Secondary Schools Piano Competition for the third year in succession. As she is competing against 18 year olds, this is another fantastic performance from Shuan. And to Bella Zhong in Year 2 who was awarded first place in the prestigious Asia Pacific Musicians Association 4th Auckland Music Festival, also out-performing students many years older. We are very proud of these talented young students. Last Friday, a few of us attended our annual Cambridge Conference. It was a really interesting day, attended by teachers from Cambridge schools around New Zealand. It was great to hear about the continuing, structured developments in the Cambridge curriculum, and about how the number of schools using the Cambridge curriculum continues to grow internationally. Among the information we received, we learned that:
I was also fortunate enough to be invited to join the Board of the Association of Cambridge Schools of New Zealand (ACSNZ), and am looking forward to continuing to develop our Cambridge curriculum in the years to come. Have a lovely long weekend (no school on Monday for Labour Day). WEEK 2: Monday 22 October
Tuesday 23 October
Wednesday 24 October
Friday 26 October
WEEK 3: Monday 29 October
Wednesday 31 October
Thursday 1 November
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, Welcome back to our final term of the year. Yesterday in assembly we reminded the students of a few important protocols and expectations. Of significance to parents is the signing out policy for students during the school day. If your son or daughter needs to leave school during the day, please write a note in their diary or send an email to their POD/Homeroom teacher. Their teacher will then either sign the note or forward the email to reception so that the receptionist is aware of what is happening. If this protocol is not followed the reception staff have been asked to send the student to find their Dean to gain permission to sign out. This is an important safety protocol that the school has in place. Students in Year 7 and Year 8 have also been reminded that they must wear a hat when outside during breaks this term. Finally, students have been reminded that they are not allowed to use their phones during the school day or be on their laptops during breaks. It is important to us that students use their break times to engage with other students and get some time outside. We are now well underway with CAIE external examinations. Senior students are three weeks in to the examination schedule and many of them will have a busy next four weeks. They are well prepared with regard to what to expect and we are confident that they are continuing to do everything in their power to perform well. Teachers are running tutorials to support students so please check with your son or daughter to see if they are attending these. We have been very impressed with our Year 9 students and their approach to their checkpoint examinations this week. They have been settled and cooperative and again we are confident that their results will reflect their excellent effort. Have a fantastic long weekend. Ngā mihi, Chris Wiggin and Kieran Verryt Principals of College PwC ScholarshipOur Head Boy Louie Holgate-Simpson recently attended the PricewaterhouseCoopers Awards Evening where he received his scholarship award. The PwC Scholarship includes money towards his university fees, a paid internship and access to business networks across NZ. Duke of EdinburghThis term the Year 10’s will be tramping up to the Pinnacles Hut (in the Coromandel) on Thursday 22nd to Friday 23rd November. This will be for their ‘Bronze Qualifying Adventurous Journey’. The next week, Mr Rossin and Miss Murray will be taking a minibus of Gold trampers to Lake Waikaremoana to hopefully complete their Gold Adventurous Journey. During the assembly this week 2 Silver and 6 Bronze certificates were handed out. Congratulations to Rodger Liu, Isabella Abbott-Wheeler, Odette Miller-Hard, Jordan Botha, Harry Townsend, Yijie Ren for their Bronze. Finally congratulations to the Waddel twins – Cenedra and Paige (see picture). They have both completed their Silver Award – quite a rare feat before the end of Year 11. Well done all, and if you are on a tramp this Term enjoy and come back safely. Table Tennis Team Win Intermediate Cup 2018Our very talented Boys Table Tennis (Tim Xie, Daniel Van Heerde, Yumin Kim and Harry Common (not pictured)) are the WINNERS of the 2018 Intermediate Table Tennis Cup. Competing against schools from all over North Harbour during Term 3, the boys last night played the final against Northcote. This talented group of boys were also 4th overall at AIMS Games in Term 3, showing they are a real force to be reckoned with in the world of Intermediate Table Tennis! A special mention to Sharon Liu, our Parent Manager, for your outstanding support of the Pinehurst Table Tennis programme this year! Congratulations boys – we look forward to hearing how you get on again in Term 4! Year 8 Robotics - Robo SoccerThe changing face of education... Who would have thought that Pinehurst students would be building and programming their own robots to play competitive soccer? Our Y8 students are incredibly fortunate to get the opportunity to learn and engage with Robotics from such a young age. They have been busy working out how their infrared sensors can be used on their robot to locate the infrared ball, whilst a compass sensor measures directional angles to find the right goal. Here is the end result.... Pink Ribbon Street AppealA number of Junior College students volunteered to do their bit to help raise money for this year’s Pink Ribbon Street Appeal. They were stationed outside Cotton On in Albany last Saturday 13th October from 11am – 5pm evoking members of the public to donate a few coins to raise funds for the NZ Breast Cancer Foundation. The Foundation has an ambitious goal of ‘Zero deaths from Breast Cancer’. Getting there means pushing for new frontiers in early detection, treatment and support. Our students did a sterling job, dressed in pink, serving such a worthwhile cause. CASE Junior Space School December 2019 ExpeditionOur first Space Camp group has been established. If you are interested in attending there is an opportunity to join a waiting list. Please see Mr Johansen for more information. Kia Ora, As we come to the end of our first week I would like to congratulate our Year 6 students for the way they have handled their first official set of Cambridge Checkpoint tests. With six papers across three subjects they were admittedly a little apprehensive on Monday. What will the papers ask? Will I know what to write? What if I don’t know the answer to a question? These were some of the questions running through their minds before the first paper began but everyone soon settled down and took each paper in their stride. They were very well prepared by their teachers and knew how to go about answering questions under timed conditions. Now that Checkpoint is over for Y6 they are looking forward to the many activities we have planned towards the end of the year. We are hoping to get out on the water to sail again during the Waterwise programme, we are now in the final stages of planning Athletics competitions for all Primary students which will be held in Syndicates this year. Year 0-2 and Year 3-4 will compete at school and Year 5-6 will travel to the Millennium Stadium, information will be sent out in the coming weeks. All Primary students will engage in learning basic economics and financial literacy through the Primary Enterprise Programme (PrEP). I was lucky enough to be among the first educators in New Zealand to trial and run the programme which has been in existence for around 20 years. Although there have been many additions to the programme, the essential skills are the same and give a context for learning about money, profit and loss, resources, decisions at the margin as well as the design technology processes of planning a concept, preparing a brief, making prototypes and developing a final product to sell at our PrEP market in November. Students will earn 'Pinehurst Pines' as wages which they will be able to exchange for goods. I am always impressed by the inventiveness and quality of the products on sale and the successes and failures that make for such valuable lessons along the way. I can’t wait! Just a reminder regarding providing your child with sunscreen. All students should come to school in the summer terms with sunscreen applied and bring with them a roll on applicator so that they can reapply before going out at lunch. All students must have a Pinehurst hat to wear outside too: no hat, no play, no fun today! Nga Mihi, enjoy the long weekend. Sian Coxon, Principal of Primary Junior Primary Music ConcertOur annual Junior Primary Music Concert will be take place on Tuesday the 13 November 2018 at 3.30 pm in the Arena. This is a wonderful opportunity to showcase our musically talented students from Years 1-3. This event will also feature the Petite Elite choir. To ensure that our concert runs to a maximum of one hour, we will be holding auditions for this event beginning Monday 29 October. Please make sure that your son/daughter has their music and instrument at school. We will hold the auditions in JC8 at lunchtimes during that week. If you would like to nominate your child to perform at this concert, please email Kate Du Toit at kate.dutoit@pinehurst.school.nz by Friday 26 October with your child’s name and performance details. (Instrument, name of piece and composer) We look forward to this exciting musical event. P1 have hit the ground running in Term 4!In Science, we are studying plants and growing, thinking about how a seed becomes a plant, what they need to grow and survive. We went for a walk around the school to see what we could find. We had great fun! We listened to the story of Jack and the Beanstalk which inspired us to plant our own ‘beanstalks’ to see if the beans will grow like in the story! We are also going to be learning about some traditional Maori myths and legends. We heard the story ‘How the Kiwi Lost its Wings’, it was very interesting. We used our writing prompts to help us retell the story in sequence, using our own words and writing in full sentences with capital letters, finger spaces and full stops. Marvelous MarionettesLast term, Year 4 for technology, started their marionette bird puppets. We started by constructing the body and legs. We used one large polystyrene ball for the body and threaded string through the ball to create two long legs. The students then beaded the legs, as you can see the students got very creative with their beading combinations. Next we added felt feet to the bottom of the legs using a hot glue gun. The students then repeated this process for adding the head and the neck. We added features to our birds to make them more life like, we used googly eyes, feathers and a beak. Our next step is to construct the marionette part of our puppet. We will be experimenting with string length and weights to achieve the best possible movements for our puppets. Once all the marionettes are finished we will celebrate by performing a play using the puppets. Roman NumeralsYear 4 have been learning how to read, write and do basic calculations with Roman numerals. The ancient Roman counting system based on letters has been fun to learn! There are seven basic symbols: I, V, X, L, C, D and M. Numbers are formed by combining various letters and finding the sum of those values. The numerals are placed from left to right, and the order of the numerals determines whether you add or subtract the values. If one or more letters are placed after a letter of greater value, you add. If a letter is placed before a letter of greater value, you subtract. For example, VI = 6 because V is higher than I. But IV = 4 because I is lower than V. “When you use Roman numerals, you can’t use the same symbol more than three times in a row. They also don’t have place value” Youngmin Kim.
Can you guess what the Roman numerals in the pictures say? Year 6 Rocket ScientistsIn this activity, students made an effervescent canister rocket using baking soda and vinegar. They developed their understanding of rocket propulsion and investigated the amount of vinegar that would make the rocket go the highest. By the end of this activity, students should be able to:
We all had great fun and reached dizzying heights with the simple rockets and our learning. I Spy in the PrimaryI Spy....New Entrants in P4 learning sounds. I Spy....Making words in P9. I Spy...Multiplication and Division in P8. I Spy......P10 doing multiplication in the expanded method. Parent Consultation Meetings with AlexThursday 1st November 2pm and 5pm. Topic for discussion will be events and community engagement. Please RSVP to: judy.wallace@pinehurst.school.nz Uniform 2019Students who are outside the standard size range will need to be measured for their uniform. We will have a representative from the supplier of our blazers, blouses, shirts, skirts and shorts on site Thursday 25 October from 12:30pm-1:30pm. If you want your student to be measured, you must contact the uniform shop via email before Wednesday: uniform@pinehurst.school.nz Alternatively, there are staff at Elizabeth Michael to measure between Monday and Friday. Please see below for Shop Hours. You need to arrive at least 45 minutes prior to closure or you can call EM on (09) 358 1680, Extension 1 to advise when you are coming. The cut-off date for this is Nov 9. Monday 9am-5pm & Friday 9am-4pm Sports Team Photos – Year 1-10A friendly reminder that Year 1-10 Sports Team Photos for Term 3 and Term 4 Sports Teams are being held in Week 2, on Thursday 25th October 2018 in the Gym. All coaches and managers are very welcome to attend. If you have any queries or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact kelly.lindsay@pinehurst.school.nz SNAP Device OrdersThe deadline for any SNAP device orders is Friday 26th October. All orders made before this date guarantee delivery in time for our Orientation Day for 2019 New Students to the Junior College, held next term on November 19th. Students will receive their device on this date, test login details and learn how to access Office 365, Schoolbox and other useful applications in preparation for the 2019 school year. Term 4 begins with a pōwhiriOn Monday morning, the final pōwhiri for 2018 was held in the Arena. Pōwhiri is a traditional Māori welcome ceremony and our pōwhiri, which are held at the beginning of each term, are designed to formally welcome our students, staff and visitors to our school and to symbolise the journey we will then continue together. Our pōwhiri began with Mrs Thomson performing a karanga (call) to welcome our manuhiri (guests). Senior students Holly Kewene, Aria Rhodes and Bella Abbot-Wheeler returned the karanga. Mr Reed spoke on behalf of the tangata whenua and the students in attendance supported his speech with a waiata (song). This was followed by a reply from Ms Perrin who is a relatively new staff member but was there with her son who is also joining the Pinehurst community and has started in P4. The formal part of the pōwhiri concluded with a hongi between representatives of the two groups to enable manuhiri to become tangata whenua. After the ceremony they gathered in the staffroom for refreshments. It was a wonderful, meaningful welcome. In Music this weekCreating Songs using Incredibox software Year 8 and 9 have started this term presenting their compositions, created using the software Incredibox. Incredibox is a user-friendly interface that presents the different element of music, such as a beats, rhythm, melody as different “outfits” one could wear. Students get to dress up to seven people in different outfits and layer up the different elements to create music. The samples can be phased in and out or muted to create contrast. If your child is currently doing music in the above mentioned levels, ask them to demonstrate their song to you and show you how the programme works. Want to give Incredibox a go? Click here.
Meet Christine Mori – our flute itinerant teacher Christine won a scholarship to study at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (now part of Sydney University) and graduated with a Degree in Music Performance. She then joined the Australian Broadcasting National Training Orchestra on a scholarship for two years. Ms Mori worked in Sydney as a freelance musician, mainly with the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, but also in private practice, teaching. On returning to New Zealand, Ms Mori took up the position of Principal Flute with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, a position she held for 20 years. Christine mentors the Flute Choir that meets on Tuesday lunchtimes in C2 and is responsible for mentoring our Flute Trio Chamber group that competed in the Chamber Music Contest in Term 2 this year. If you would like to enrol your child into flute lessons with Christine, complete the form at the bottom of this page. Shuan Liu wins Second Place at the Prestigious Auckland Secondary School’s Piano Competition On the 14th of October, the top pianists from secondary schools in Auckland competed in the Finals of the Auckland Secondary School’s Piano competition held at Massey High School. Shuan has entered this competition three years in a row and this year, her performance showcased incredible musicianship and technical skills. She was an excellent representative for Pinehurst School. Congratulations for this incredible achievement! Pinehurst Christmas HampersIt is traditional for Pinehurst to donate Christmas Hampers to those in need. This year we have chosen the charity organisation, Grandparents Raising Grandchildren. This organisation supports grandparents who are struggling financially to provide a normal life for their grandchildren, many who have been traumatized, neglected, abused and end up living with them. We would greatly appreciate donations of non - perishable food, Xmas treats, gift vouchers, new toiletries, toys and games. Your contributions may be given to your child’s homeroom teacher from Monday, 29 October on-wards so that we can make beautiful hampers to present at our Christmas Service. Your generosity is greatly appreciated. Sushimi in support of Kiwis for KiwiFrom next week, for every Sushimi lunch order placed with Ezlunch, Sushimi will donate 5 cents to Kiwis for Kiwi a charitable organisation dedicated to the conservation, protection and breeding programmes for this endangered bird. First place in piano at Music FestivalBella Zhong, in Year 2, recently won first place for her piano duet in the prestigious APMA (Asia Pacific Musicians Association) 4th Auckland Music Festival. The festival was held on the 2nd and 3rd of October in St. Heliers. Bella, together with her partner Tobias Lu, were awarded the Melody Cup for their performance for 20 years of age and under. The competition winners also performed at the Town Hall on October 9th. Congratulations Bella. We are so proud of you! Ariel Wins Gold at NZ NationalsCongratulations to Ariel Chen (Year 8) who recently competed at the NZ Schools Championships for Synchronised Swimming. Ariel won Gold in the NZ Schools Championship in the Intermediate Solo Category, together with a Silver medal in the Duet and 3 x Bronze medals in U12 Solo, U12 Team and Open Combo A Team. Ariel has been selected to represent NZ at the Singapore and Malaysian Open competitions which will be held in November and December. We'd like to wish her the best of luck! Showcase International Dance Championships 2018Congratulations to Pinehurst students Amelie Wells (Year 7) and Charliee Hawkings (Year 5), who recently competed at the 2018 Showcase International Dance Championships. Charliee (1st and 2nd in her two dance titles, awarded top tapper and was placed as a top ten solo dancer) has also qualified to attend the Showcase Championships in January 2019. Amelie had an outstanding day all around at this event, and is one of a handful of students who have been selected to represent New Zealand in Portugal next year at the World Cup of Dance. All the very best to both Charliee & Amelie for their future competitions! Swimming SensationIn the first week of the recent holidays, Mack Hong competed in the 2018 National Swimming Meet. Over 1,000 swimmers from New Zealand, Australia, the USA and Switzerland attended this meet. Mack finished third in the 100m breast stroke and second in the 200m breast stroke. In both these competitions, Mack achieved great personal bests; he was able to reduce his 100m breast stroke time by 5 seconds and his 200m breast stroke time by 7 seconds. Well done Mack! Yeonsoo Son shares with us her recent successDuring the holidays, I participated in the Junior Girls Inter Provincials, which is a district representative golfing event. 6 of the top players in the district compete against around 6 other districts in a match-play format, over a total of 108 holes. I was the only one in the field to be undefeated for 2 years in a row and our team was in the finals with Wellington. However with one of our players losing the last hole, we were playing in an another playoff. North Harbour had never won this tournament before and had in the past, been in 5 playoff events, but never had won a single playoff. The team nominated me to represent North Harbour in the playoff as I won every single match and played the most consistent golf during the week. I was going to go against a NZ junior representative: Darae Chung. Darae had been in 5 playoff games in her career already and had won every single one of them. I had never been part of a playoff, therefore was extremely nervous. Our team won this tournament for the first time in history and had won a playoff as well. We were all extremely happy and excited with this. I had also won MVP of the tournament which was an amazing feeling. NZ National Surf Pool ChampionLast weekend Jack Potier (Year 7) represented Orewa Surf Club at the NZ National Surf Pool Champs, winning 2 Gold Medals (4 x 50m Medley Relay, 4 x 50m Obstacle Relay) and a Bronze Medal (4 x 25m Brick Relay). Private Tennis Coaching - Term 4
For futher information, please contact Liz Daly. Play Cricket This Summer!Kumeu Cricket is offering cricket for all ages this summer.
*All the gear and match shirt and caps provided by the club. *Please register online www.kumeucricket.com For more information please contact Kumeu Cricket Club on 022 0434 614. |