News and events for the week ending 28th February 2020 No images? Click here Friday 28th February 2020Opening Words from the Executive PrincipalKia ora tatou, good afternoon, 你好, 안녕하세요 I’ve been lucky enough to see a great deal of teaching around the school this week. We’ve had a number of activities taking place as always, but most students have been in their regular lessons all week, so it’s been a good opportunity to see some classroom learning. As it happens, I’ve seen more Maths lessons than anything else, and I’ve been impressed by the range of work taking place. From a Year 13 lesson involving advanced algebra (that I had no chance of following!) to Year 8 lessons covering advanced problem solving, targeted core work on equations, and geometric principles, to Year 1 lessons on place values! It’s also been great to see so many different teaching and learning styles in the classroom, as this is central to the way we see learning: it’s about adapting what we do to the needs of the individual student at the same time as ensuring that we have high standards for all students. Not an easy balance, of course, but our teachers do a great job maintaining it. On the other side of the curriculum, Year 10 saw Romeo and Juliet at the Pop-Up Globe on Wednesday, returning with a fair sprinkling of fake blood on their shirts. I hope it washes out. We’ve taken all of Years 7 to 10 to this production now, and most students in College will now have seen 2 or 3 shows there during their College years. I’d like to thank the Languages department for their ongoing commitment to giving students the chance to experience Shakespeare in performance. My own experiences of seeing Shakespeare on stage as a teenager – Hamlet and Richard III stick particularly strongly in my mind – helped develop my understanding of the richness and the possibilities (and ambiguities) of language. It’s probably not the wisest admission, as the two plays I’ve mentioned feature a madman and a sociopath in the leading roles, but Shakespeare also helped me understand people better. There are still some shows at the Pop-Up Globe before it heads off on a tour of the world, so if you have a chance, I’d recommend a visit. Our Year 6 students have enjoyed a pretty much perfect week on the water in our annual Waterwise programme. Thank you to Kelly Clark for all her work on this: I know how much the children enjoy it. And I’d also like to say a big thank you to Kelly Lindsay and Cyndie Augustin, our Sports Co-ordinators for their efforts in setting up the year’s sports programmes. We’ve been delighted by the registrations this year: big increases in nearly all sports, and frighteningly fast registrations too. We do our best to ensure that everyone can take part in their chosen sport, so thank you for your patience when things get very busy. A couple of quick additional notes. Firstly: we have our Annual General Meeting at 7.30 pm in the Library on Wednesday 25th March. This is open to all parents, and I’d encourage anyone interested to come along. Essentially, we present the Annual Report, which we also send out to you a week before the meeting, and we elect two members of the Board. One member of the current Board is standing for re-election, and one member of the current Board is standing down, which means that there will be at least one new member of the Board next year. And secondly, we are continuing to monitor our position with the coronavirus (COVID-19). As I said earlier in the week, we are in touch with all our Korean parents, who have been asked to self-isolate their students if they have contact with someone recently arrived from Korea, which is exactly the same as our policy with regards to Mainland China. For all of our families, I would also ask that you are vigilant with any visitors or family from overseas. If you welcome into your home someone who has come from an area where there is a significant outbreak – at the time of writing, this would include Iran and parts of northern Italy, but this will inevitably change as time goes on – please let me know directly, and we may well ask you to self-isolate your students. If you are uncertain in any way: just let me know and we can talk it through. We will be informed by advice we receive from our Ministry of Health, but we will take the precautions we need to take to keep our children and families safe. And, as always, we rely on our wonderful parents to act in the best interests of everyone in the community. Enjoy your weekend. Tina Lindsay, Primary TeacherTina originally comes from Copenhagen, Denmark and lived in Indonesia and Zambia before emigrating to New Zealand with her family at age 9. Speaking fluent Danish, Indonesian and learning English, has given her a personal insight into how it feels to be a second language learner. She began her teaching career in South Auckland, teaching at various levels before embarking on the traditional Kiwi 'OE' to England. She became the ICT specialist at a school in London and enjoyed many travel opportunities continuing to develop her love for travelling and experiencing new cultures. Returning to New Zealand she continued to teach at various schools and held different positions including Teacher Librarian, ICT Coordinator and relieving at a Gifted one day school. Her husband’s job took her and the family to Brisbane for six years where she taught NE to Year 6. Another move to Tasmania for three years saw her teach at various levels and then joined the ESOL team to develop a programme within the primary school that could cater to the 60 Iranian refugee children being settled into the school and local community. Teaching English to the children, meeting their amazing families and hearing their stories of survival has been a source of inspiration to her. It was then time to move back to Auckland where she joined the Pinehurst community teaching Year 4. Five years later and she’s still enjoying running the Chess Club and being part of the Primary SENCO team. Kia Ora, It is hard to believe that we are at the end of week 5. Our students are well settled into routine and the college is hitting a steady groove of productivity, with students working well in classes and teachers setting and marking work. Looking ahead, the next two weeks of school are without significant interruption from any field trips or camps and this provides the entire college a chance to knuckle down and enjoy lessons. This week we have had Year 10 out at the Pop-up Globe for the final time. They returned to school on Wednesday afternoon splattered in fake blood, chattering and wanting to share their experience of the show. They loved the performance and next year we face the challenge of finding something to bring the characters they study to life in some form. I am writing this on Thursday evening before our annual Athletics Day. The day is very well-planned providing opportunities for our best athletes to excel, while bringing our college community together in a way that no other event during the year does. No doubt, there will be many tired students and staff at the end of the day, having spent the day competing or officiating in the sun. Many staff look on in envy at the PE teachers enjoying lessons outside during the summer, but perhaps after a full day in the sun, they will appreciate being in the cool of their classrooms a bit more on Monday. Nga Mihi, Kieran Verryt, Principal of College Year 7-8 Interhouse SwimmingLast week our Year 7-8 students made their way to the Northern Arena Pool for the annual Junior College Interhouse Swimming Event. There was some outstanding house spirit on display once again this year – we even had a T-Rex make an appearance! Well done to Rimu who were the overall winning house for JC Swimming in 2020 – only the second time they have won the Swimming shield in over 15 years! Congratulations to all students who took part, and a special mention to the students who were the overall medal winners this year. We also had some very special record results in 2020. Eleanor Saunders set a new record in the Year 8 girls 50M Fly, Elsa Shu set 3 new records in the Year 7 girls 25M Back, 50M Fly and 100M Medley and every single Year 7 Boys record was broken last week by Osbert Gu (8 records) & Riley Hurbuns (1 record)! Last, but certainly not least, our sincere thanks to all the parents who assisted us on the day, with a very special mention to Vanita & Emily (Judges) for your time and expert knowledge. Storyathon‘Sorcery’ and ‘The Death of Mr Wilson’ are two 100 word stories that Year 7 students, Zoe Lloyd and Gloria Li wrote for Storyathon. The stories were so good that the organisers of the website decided to showcase them. If you would like to listen to the Podcast of their stories you can go to www.storyathon.com Storyathon is an idea that started in Australia and was set up to encourage students in years 7-9 to have fun with writing. At the moment there are over 3000 schools from Australia and New Zealand signed up to take part. One of our Year 7 classes signed up for the competition and have been submitting stories and having fun with the idea of using 100 words exactly to create an exciting story. The founder of the idea Shane Hill was in Auckland recently and visited the Year 7 class in the library. The students had an array of questions about the competition and Shane said: “It’s more about students writing stories but we do have a trophy and certificates for the winners in different categories.” He also had a lot of information about the types of plots, characters, vocabulary, sentences, that the successful stories had. One interesting fact was that the successful stories had an average word length of 4.2 characters, whereby the less successful characters had an average word length of 3.8 characters. To bring this into perspective the average word length of J.K Rowling is 4.8 characters. Another fun fact was that 85% of the boys who wrote stories had a male as the main character. In contrast 50% of girls stories had a male as the main character. In addition, the class have been chosen to be Beta Testers for a new writing idea called ‘Writing Legends.’ Shane Hill contacted Ms Daly and asked if the class would be interested in testing the new idea and giving feedback at the end of it. He offered the class 30 free writing licences at a value of $495 as a thank you for their work. The year 7 class has offered to give the licences to a school that may not be able to take part in the event because of the cost. On April 6th the best 100 word stories throughout Australia and New Zealand will be judged and the top 10 announced on the website. Year 8 Social Science VR Headset ExperienceLast Friday, the Year 8 Social Science students experienced the wonders of the Oceans through a virtual reality experience, put on by Sir Peter Blake Trust. They were able to gain an appreciation for life in the Ocean and see how Overfishing and Pollution are impacting New Zealand & International waters. The students compared Goat Island Reserve and an area within the Hauraki Gulf, and the differences between the two were drastic. This experience was organised to compliment our current Social Science unit on Oceanography. The students really enjoyed the presentation and we hope it has encouraged everyone to take action in their own communities. A2 GeographyLast week our Year 13 A2 Geography class carried out their fieldwork at Muriwai Beach. The students studied the processes at play in the sediment cell and gathered data to see if Muriwai presents as a dissipative beach. It was a beautiful day in the field and it was fantastic to see our students so engaged with the content. DramaLast Friday staff and students traveled to the first Drama outing of the year. Students were treated to an amazing show featuring some prominent theater practitioners around New Zealand - Michael Hurst and Jonothan Hendry. They thoroughly enjoyed the collective dinner together, reveling in the social aspect of the trip. The show, The Iliad, was an interesting one man performance that highlighted the prominence of war within our society and its history. The show was an excellent opportunity for students to see how one actor can command the space. This being important due to their upcoming Monologue assessment. A2 Physical EducationOn Monday the A2 Physical Education class went to AUT Millennium to complete some fitness testing in their laboratories. They had a go at administering and participating in the VO2 max test and the Wingate cycle test. This knowledge will help them as they study Exercise Physiology this term and look at how athletes design and take part in training programmes to increase their fitness levels. Musical Heritage Projects from Year 9We have started examining the heritage of our students, through musical lenses this week. So far we have enjoyed presentations based on music from Columbia, Thailand, Russia, North Korea, Sweden, Holland, England and Wales (just to name a few). Our Pinehurst students have had to dig deep, in some instances, to find out their background and the quality of their presentations has been impressive. In the IGCSE Music course, which begins from Year 10, students examine the music of seven different cultures. One of the most unusual discoveries is to see how similar most of the instruments are, no matter their culture. However, there can only be one hurdy-gurdy. Kia Ora, I can’t keep away from our beautiful new Year 1 and Year 2 playground, it works so well at break times and is often in use during lessons as teachers use movement to consolidate learning and find different ways to build connections in young brains. Small groups of students use the balance beams, tunnel and stepping stones to develop their gross motor skills, build muscles and develop pathways in their brain that will help them learn. The trees look spectacular and the butterflies seem to like their new home but most of all I love the smiles the playground generates. Our staff have embarked on some training around resilience in the workplace and how we can develop ways to manage ourselves and respond to the day to day challenges of working together to achieve our common purpose. Naturally, those of us who have already completed the course have thought about how we can continue to help our students develop their ‘resilience muscles.’ As parents it can be easier and quicker, especially when we are so busy, to do things for our child rather than letting them do things for themselves. Most of us are not too happy with failure and really don’t like to see our children fail either. An article I read recently by the Skill Collective on developing resilience in primary school children suggests three things will help:
Basically this means giving children opportunities to problem solve and modelling the process step by step. Teaching your child to label emotions and manage their expectations, it’s OK when things don’t go as we plan. We can also listen to their opinions and encourage decision making. We need to give children opportunities to fail, feel sad or disappointed so that we can teach them the strategies to deal successfully with problems when they arise and not feel bad about themselves if things go wrong. Helping children to calm themselves and take some deep breaths also helps them to cope when things don’t go to plan. Teaching your young child to be resilient will also help them when they deal with the challenges of becoming a teenager or young adult and give them some strategies to use as they grow. Ngā mihi, Sian Coxon, Principal of Primary Year 3 at Camp MaynardAfter much excitement and wonderment, the day had finally come. The Year 3 cohort were off to Camp Maynard. Thursday was jammed packed with fun, challenging activities. The confidence course created lots of apprehension before camp. However, every student that came gave it a go and did the absolute best they could do. Water archery was a hit, literally! The kite making, and the bush art were also a success. The kites were guaranteed to fly, and they all did. Students created some creative pieces of art from foliage found on the bush floor. On Friday, the students and parents were all eager to get the day started and arrived ready to go. Some even arrived early enough to see the massive rock climbing wall be erected. All the Year 3 students were brave and faced the challenge of climbing the wall. Some even managed to do their second climb blindfolded. There was totem pole making, which was a yummy activity that involved fruit and marshmallows, team games and a treasure hunt. To finish off the day, we had a water balloon fight. The adults dropped the ‘water bombs’ from the top of the deck, if the students caught the water balloon, they received a treat…. If they did not, they got wet! Some of the students successfully aimed their water gun at an adult and got them back. It was a great way to end two hot days of challenging adventures, fun activities and spending time with friends. Primary PEThe term has started off well in PE with our students working on skills within Hockey that include controlling not only themselves but the ball and stick to dribble, pass and shoot in competitive environments. For those students that are excelling or new to the sports and enjoy them, all our sports in PE can be played for the school and hockey registrations for winter hockey and pre-season training are now open HERE. We are also focusing this term on interpersonal skills and how each student can better themselves through positive interaction with their teammates and opposition. Primary ScienceYear 3 have been investigating the materials that were used to build parts of the junior primary playground. It was great fun to explore the new playground but with our clipboards in hand and a purpose which wasn’t play. The children were asked to identify the materials that different items were made from and write the properties of that material that made it suitable for purpose. The new seats made from rubber chips were soft, bouncy and waterproof and some children suggested indestructible. Year 4 are learning about the properties of the states of matter. Students were given lots of simple equipment and a basin of water. We explored the properties of liquids and students were asked to demonstrate these properties. Can you compress water? Using plastic syringes, they tried to squeeze the water. Does water flow? Tubes, funnels and jugs were used to demonstrate liquids flow down. Liquids stay level in their container. By using different containers students explored how liquids remain level when they tilted or turned the container upside down. No lid! Liquids are wet! Year 6 have creatively shown how a food-chain works. Desert food chains are on display in our classroom and look fabulous. Take care of the prickly cactus when you come in to have a look. Busy start to the term for P20After settling down from camp and adjusting to the classroom systems and routines the students have been immersing themselves into learning in and outside the classroom. Yesterday, they spent the day at sailing out in the ocean and jumping off the Murrays Bay Wharf (a first for many). Hockey has been the focus in PE where they have been learning to dribble, control and shoot the ball into the goal. In Social Studies, the class have been learning about migration and in groups discussing ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors around people migrating to other countries. The collaboration and discussions in these groups generated lots of valuable ideas. The students are also loving their Friday visits to the new Library. So much excitement in the air! Year 6 WaterwiseYear 6 have once again been busy in the outdoors. Following two weeks back in the classroom after a 5-day camp, the students were once again challenged to develop their skills in EOTC (Education Outside the Classroom), this time out on the water at Murrays Bay Beach. Each class spent a day at Waterwise learning how to rig and sail an optimist boat. Students discovered how to tie a bowline knot, steer a boat using a tiller and most importantly to duck their head when the boom swings across when the boat tacks. Waterwise is a voluntary organisation which aims to promote water safety and build children’s confidence on the water. Pinehurst School is one of three schools who are part of the Murrays Bay’s Schools Waterwise programme and we are extremely grateful to our parent instructors, Craig Williams and Asbjorn Aakjaer who run these 3 days of sailing for our Year 6 students. To support our trained instructors, we also had an awesome team of parent helpers who took days off work and gave up their time to ensure we were able to run this programme for our Year 6 students. Thank you to all of you who came along to support us. We look forward to a second day of sailing in Term 4 and welcome any new parents who would like to train to become an instructor. Contact Kelly.clark@pinehurst.school.nz if you are interested. I Spy in the PrimaryI Spy... using wonderful descriptive words in Year 3! I Spy...lots of little hard working people in Year 2! I Spy... P5 making superhero hideouts! I Spy...Rainbow Readers! The Addams FamilyRehearsals are well underway for the upcoming Addams Family show. Our students have been doing an amazing job at finding each characters physicality as well as their voice. The amount of focus and passion within these sessions would have everyone impressed. So far we've learnt the blocking and choreography for our Act One finale and have been working on numerous little scenes and dances throughout the show. One of the main qualities that has been emerging is the comedy each actor is bringing to the rehearsal space. We cannot wait to see how rehearsals progress in the coming weeks! Sports Registration ReminderAfter school winter sport registrations are now open for Year 1-13 on our Pinehurst School website. Winter sports still available:
Road PatrolPinehurst is situated on one of the busiest roads in Albany. Our fantastic Year 10 and Year 6 children are out on the crossing every morning and afternoon, no matter what the weather, to ensure that pedestrians can cross this road safely. These students are all trained by a Police Officer, as are all schools in Auckland, before they are allowed to take on this responsibility. Our wonderful property staff Terry Shepherd monitors these students each session. When arriving or leaving the school grounds, please be aware of this crossing and prepare to stop if students put their signs out. We try very hard to let traffic flow as much as possible though our main concern is for our students who are manning the crossing and those who may be crossing the road. Shore to Shore Fun RunIt’s that time of year again! The Shore to Shore Fun Run is on Sunday 5th April 2020 and Pinehurst will be sending a team to participate in it. Last year we entered close to 400 students and family members, winning the most improved school as well as having the most class entries for one class. We are aiming to top that this year so need your help, entries are now open on the www.shoretoshore.co.nz website, once you’re on the website go to registrations and enter under our school. Each entry earns money to go towards new sports equipment and the winning class will once again get a special reward. So please enter yourself, your family members and friends to be into win! Any questions please don’t hesitate to message on seesaw Jack Taylor or email jack.taylor@pinehurst.school.nz. NZ Golf - South Island Stroke Play ChampionYeonsoo Son had another incredible weekend winning the Open Grade Women’s National Tour at the South Island Stroke Play Champs in Dunedin. Yeonsoo played three rounds of golf winning by 11 under overall. Congratulations and well done Yeonsoo! Mairangi Bay SharksLast weekend the Mairangi Bay Sharks attended the 2020 Northern Region Surf Lifesaving Champs up at Omaha. They competed for the first time in the 4-man canoes in the U19 group. This team have only been rowing together for the last 2 months and are all 16 years or younger. The members are Cenedra Waddel, Paige Waddel, Charlotte Toumadj from Pinehurst School and Zoe Ries from Kristen. The first day they rowed the short course in less than ideal conditions with many competitors getting thrown out of the canoes. In the three races they got 2 thirds and a fourth. This gave them the Bronze medal. The next day the sea was not as rough but was very windy. They raced in the long course with gusty southerly winds to contend with. They did their three races coming third, then second and lastly third. They were awarded a second Bronze medal having narrowly missed out on the silver. Well done girls. A great effort for your first time racing. |