Friday 18 September 2020Opening Words from the Executive PrincipalNga mihi nui ki a koutou katoa As you will know, this week is Māori language week, and I’ve been heartened to hear so much te reo Māori used around us. It’s led to some serious reflection in our senior team over the last few days, and has crystallised some of our thinking about the use of te reo Māori at Pinehurst. Language, identity and community are indivisible. Our identity is in the words we use and the ideas, practices and values they represent, whether we are Māori, European, Asian, Pasifika, African or from any other part of the world. And we form communities and connect with other communities through our languages too, often finding ways to understand others through the similarities and differences in the ways we communicate. Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini. My strength is not mine alone, it comes from all of us. This year has, I hope, taught all of us some lessons about community, and about collective strength. We talk a great deal about our identity as a school. We talk about our multicultural community and international curriculum, but we also talk about the fact that we are a New Zealand school. We are very proud of this part of our identity, and we think our school embodies many of the best parts of a Kiwi education. From next year, then, we will be gradually integrating more te reo Māori into our community, emphasising the bicultural foundations of Aotearoa New Zealand. And our tumuaki (Principal), kaiako (teachers) and all our other staff are going to be developing their language skills too. Around school this week, our tamariki (children) have again been an absolute joy. The Library has been a festival of jungle colour and strange furry animals, with wide-eyed Primary students having great fun choosing books, and I’d like to thank all the students and staff for their enthusiasm and creativity in making this work. Thank you too to all the parents and whanau for their attendance at the Parent-teacher conferences this week: we had excellent attendance, and I hope you enjoyed the opportunity to talk to the teachers about your children. I’ve just had a walk around the school, actually, with a prospective family, seeing so much fantastic teaching and learning taking place that I felt, once again, very proud to be part of our community. The range of learning taking place, and the commitment from our staff and students, is outstanding. I saw Year 8s composing in Music; two teachers drying papier maché for the Production next week; high-level, focused exam prep in Year 12 and 13 English, Maths, Physics, Biology, Maths and Business Studies; and enthusiastic bursts of Spanish in a Year 7 lesson. I spoke with a couple of Primary parents earlier this week, both concerned that our disjointed year has had an impact on the progress of their tamariki. We are constantly checking this, making sure that we are not letting children slip through the net. Our data shows us that most children are making the progress we expected them to make at the start of the year – from Year 1 to Year 13. It also, though, shows that a few children, especially the younger ones in Years 1 to 3, have made slightly slower progress than we would have wanted. I know that some parents have observed this too. Please don’t worry! We are onto it, and we also know that the children have time to catch up. But if you have any questions or concerns, please do talk to your child’s teacher. Finally: the College reports should be with you by the middle of next week. Enjoy! And – of course – talk to us straight away if you have any concerns. The more we talk, the quicker we can make a difference. Kia pai tō rā whakatā. Ka kite anō au i a koutou. 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 Shaune BlackwellWhen I left my Nanoscience research to become a Physics teacher, I had doubts. I was worried I would miss my research. I do miss it, but that is more than compensated for by my interactions with students. I love the questions they ask, the laughter they prompt, and the satisfaction felt when someone understands a difficult concept or can solve a difficult problem. I don’t teach Physics to create physicists, although I hope that happens. I want to help students become scientifically literate critical thinkers. I work hard to teach them not just theory, but how to make justifiable connections between ideas and evaluate the legitimacy of their conclusions. I also want them to appreciate the beauty of the world around us and I believe that understanding how things work only increases one’s appreciation of that beauty. I hope that my passion for Physics is infectious and that students gain an appreciation of both the content and the methods of Physics. My family has been at Pinehurst since 2015; I chose Pinehurst for my three girls because of its values, the individualised attention, and opportunities for learning inside and outside of the classroom. As a parent, I saw how my very different girls were thriving and how they were being supported as individuals. So, I made the jump from Kristin to Pinehurst nearly two years ago. It has been a pleasure to teach here and I strive to give the same kind of care and attention that my daughters have received over the years to my physics students. Kia Ora, This week we have celebrated Te Wiki o te Reo Maori and it has been good to hear additional Maori language being used around the school. Yesterday in the Senior College, Isabella and James, our Head Girl and Head Boy, hosted our first online assembly. With the support of Mr Johansen, they put together an excellent event to celebrate some of our community successes over the past couple of weeks, with te reo used throughout. On community, yesterday afternoon our Year 7 and Year 8 students had House events that they got really involved in. It was great to see them in their House colours enjoying the activities. This type of event is one of the things that we have really missed doing much of this year. Hopefully we will be able to have a full programme of events running for students in Years 7 – 10 next term. Today 32 students, 4 groups of 8, have departed on their silver practice expedition for their Duke of Edinburgh Hilary Award. This is our first camp since our Year 7 students enjoyed their trip to Narrows Park in March. The intrepid group of Year 11 and Year 12 students will spend the next 3 days hiking and kayaking around the Wenderholm Regional Park. This trip is in preparation for the Tongariro Crossing which the students will embark on in late November. Next week we look forward to the staging of the school production, The Addams Family. Initially planned for late June, I am sure that the cast and crew are looking forward to performing after all of the hours spent preparing and practicing. Very few tickets are left available for any of the performances and so if you have not got your tickets, you will need to get on to it quickly! Nga mihi, Kieran Verryt, Principal of College. Year 9-13 Sport Uniform & Equipment to be ReturnedIf you have been issued any badminton, football, golf, hockey, lacrosse, netball, sport uniform or equipment please return to the Year 9-13 Sport Office (Downstairs of Library behind Dance Studio) to Mrs Augustin or to Chrissy in Reception. Junior College ScienceYear 7 students are making their own earth to explore the structure of the earth. Year 8 Students have been testing the strength of magnets this week. Year 8 begin their Incredibox journeyYear 8 students have began working on developing their compositional skills by working in an award winning compositional software interface, which allows them to arrange and layer pre-recorded melody, beat, special effects and percussive sounds into a song. The focus of this unit is not so much about finding samples that work well with together (although that is a definite perk) but its about their ability to create a structure. The human brain seeks for recognisable patters in music, which is why most people find the standard pop song’s structure easy to follow – the alteration between verse and chorus, with a few new elements in between, is an age-old , very simple yet effective formula still used today to create a 'hit'. To try your hand at Incredibox by clicking here. Year 10 Design Technology - New Zealand inspired metal giftYear 10 Design Technology students have just completed their first big design project after spending the first term learning some foundational materials and processing knowledge. Their project design brief was to: “Design an inexpensive functional metal product suitable for sale in a craft/art gallery". The product will reflect something of New Zealand. The product will be manufactured using re-forming/de-forming metal manufacturing techniques and may incorporate other materials”. The students followed the design process exploring potential themes, researching and analysing existing products, drawing a series of ideas which they developed and then making their solution and finally evaluating the result and proposing refinements. This has been an exciting experience for all of us as the groups have all come up with so many different products, used a wide range of materials and shared their experience of different manufacturing processes from engineering machining to casting, welding to silversmithing. The results are incredible, the standard of design and research has been outstanding, and the finished products have left their teacher in awe at the talent of these young people. Year 10 Mock ElectionMrs O'Driscoll's Year 10 Global Perspectives class is hosting an election to raise awareness and give the students a taste of how real life voting works. The class have worked for many lessons and have prepared a morning tea and lunchtime voting plan that will take place on Monday 21st September, in C31 (located in the Village). Kia Ora, What an exciting week with so much going on. We celebrated Maori Language week and Book Week in the Primary and although we were not able to hold our speech competition due to being in Level 2.5 for a while longer, we have been able to host activities for these other two important events. Maori Language week has been an opportunity for our students to spend daily focused time learning about the rich heritage and culture of New Zealand. Our culture ties us to a place through customs, celebrations, values and language and helps us to know who we are. We take regular opportunities to explore the bi cultural heritage of Aotearoa as well as to celebrate the multicultural nation that New Zealand has become. Daily waiata or songs in Maori have been played, new vocabulary and pronunciation has been learned by children and adults along with games, history, quizzes and activities in te reo. I learned that my name in te reo Maori is Hiana. Alongside Maori language week we have been celebrating the wonderful world of books. The class competitions have been fiercely contended and prizes will be awarded on Friday. All students have visited the Scholastic Book Fair and many books have been purchased to be treasured for years to come. There was so much choice! A jungle theme in the Library and librarians dressed as jungle animals, reading wonderful animal themed books like, 'Giraffes Can’t Dance', added to the fun. There was a lot of discussion between teachers as to what to wear on Friday when everyone could come as a character in a book. Mrs Jones Hill sent me a picture of her outfit on Thursday night, she was so excited to be Mrs Wishy Washy! We were all looking forward to Mrs Thomson arriving as Curious George too. I have seen 5 year olds writing in paragraphs this week and some outstanding use of vocabulary. Year 3 writers sequencing information texts, using hyphens and commas to remove ambiguity in Year 6 along with problem solving, decimals, algebra, science revision, beep tests in P.E., Lion King songs sung in the playground and overwhelmingly very focused children. As we plan for our final term of the year we will continue to include as many events as possible whilst ensuring that we provide high quality learning experiences and opportunities for our children to get the most out of their time in the Primary. It was lovely to see so many families at conferences this week to share the successes we see every day in the classroom. Thanks as always for your support. Kia pai tō rā whakatā! Sian Coxon, Principal of Primary Super Cluster Sport UpdateSadly, with the news Auckland is almost certainly to remain in Level 2 for the remainder of Term 3, Super Cluster Netball & Super Cluster Hockey have been cancelled for 2020. Unfortunately we do not have the ability to move these events again into Term 4, as many of the schools (including Pinehurst) have already moved many other key school fixtures and events (including productions, speeches, camps, etc) into next term. We do have Super Cluster Touch & Super Cluster Athletics events to look forward to in Term 4 – further information for these events (trials/selection) will be available next term. Finally - well done and thank you to all students who trialled for the Super Cluster teams for Term 3, and a big thank you to all the staff involved in planning for these events. Primary MandarinWe started our celebration for Mid-Autumn festival early in Year 3. We spent our lesson learning the traditions and the design of making moon cakes, a quintessential dish for this special festival. We have managed to incorporate elements of New Zealand and ourselves in our designs. Year 5 and 6, MFL students learned how to describe the flavour of the sweets and drinks by mixing and matching all the words we covered in the Food and Drinks topic this term. We also played a game called Fruit Salad to help us remember the names of the fruits. The CFL students have been working hard on character writing and getting themselves ready for a quiz in Week 10. Primary MusicIt is great to be back in the music room singing, dancing, playing our instruments and having fun making music. We created some great musical instruments at home, but it is always more enjoyable when we are performing together in the classroom! Learning an instrument is not without challenges. Forming notes and chords on the ukulele requires persistence and self- discipline. Fingers hurt a little and it takes time to produce pleasant sounding chords, but I am so proud of our Year 5 and 6 students and the progress they have made in a relatively short period. Our Year 3 and 4 students put their recorders aside for a while and instead played on the chime bars and glockenspiels creating beautiful melodies and two-part harmonies. Our Senior Primary students have been working hard at learning all the songs for Disney’s “The Lion King Junior” and we’re are really looking forward to performing this amazing show later in Term 4. A Day in the Life of P23!Pinehurst’s newest students in P23 have been working on a farm theme this term. The children have been expressing themselves creatively during art, making paper plate pigs, a herd of cows and little cut out chickens. This week we are studying the book, 'The Three Little Pigs'. The children were delighted during the unveiling of our very own pig pen, complete with balloon piglets to help study farm animals. This week’s writing has the children busily engaged, writing lists of the materials the little pigs need to build their houses. They are retelling the story using a story map, cutting, and gluing pictures in sequence. Cross-curricula activities include oral language as they work in small groups to collaboratively act out the story using character face masks. Already fabulous mathematicians, we are mastering the skill of subtracting objects from a group, using blocks, teddy bears, counters and number lines, along with practicing writing number sentences. In science we are learning all about mothers and their babies, playing games matching the adult and offspring, and more scissor skills practice cutting out and gluing pictures with the correct mother. After a little over 5 weeks in school, we are making sensational progress with our reading. Able to decode many words now after finishing learning the whole of the alphabet sounds this week, and already moving on to learn about two letters with one sound. Friday afternoons are spent demonstrating creative thinking and resourcefulness with our topic work. Learning from one another working in groups of several children or independently, the children’s faces show either concentration or determination as they build their box lid ‘farms’. They can be heard engaging in rich conversations about rainbow coloured unicorns, and be seen using their creative abilities to imagine, dream and make various sized paper animals! Book Week in P10!Year 3 students in P10 were lucky to be the first class to go to the library this week and see the librarians dressed up as jungle animals. Excited students could not wait to look at all the books that were available for their wish-list. There were so many different books everyone was a bit awe struck at first. Mrs Walsh read 'The Giraffe That Can’t Dance' and some students were chosen to transform into the characters of the story. To end the fabulous book week, students were able to come to school dressed as their favourite character. There were some very enthusiastic characters that were eager to share character traits, sayings, spells or magic wand moves. Maori Language Week – Music focusThe largest musical instrument in New Zealand is the Auckland Town Hall Organ, originally built in 1907 by an English organ-building firm Normal and Beard. This protected object, by law, was transported in pieces on a ship and then assembled for its first performance at the Auckland Town Hall official opening in 1911. What makes this instrument unique is its inclusion of two unique pipes which are based on two traditional Maori instruments – the kōauau (a bone flute, traditionally used to accompany waiata singing) and pūkāea (long wooden trumpet, often used for announcements of special occasions or as a war trumpet). I Spy... Book Week in the Primary!I Spy... P17 in the library looking for books at the Book Fair. I Spy... Junior Primary princesses! I Spy... Year 3 students doing their daily Book Week Quiz before submitting final answers to the library! I Spy...Mrs Wishy Washy! I Spy...Jungle animal librarians! I Spy...Storytime in the library! I Spy...a Junior Primary parade of storybook characters! 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. Head Held HighStarting in Term 4, Head Held High will be teaching speech and drama lessons for children from Yr1–13. Each class is limited to a maximum of 5 members and teaches children confidence building skills. They teach ‘communication skills’ as well as acting and performance. Their focus is on giving your child techniques in speech, oral presentations, and confidence to speak in front of other people. This will benefit them as they will learn skills on how to: gain confidence in school speech competitions, possess a good leadership skill – as well as later in life they can be confident in chairing meetings, delivering successful presentations and being self-assured adults. If you are interested in your child attending these smaller, personalised classes, Head Held High are offering a free 30min trial lesson to all Pinehurst students. To enrol for Head Held High classes at Pinehurst School, simply visit here. Sessions are taught in year groups and times and classes will be confirmed once all interest has been registered. If you have any questions? We’re happy to answer them! Simply email, kateimlach@headheldhigh.co.nz |