Friday 19th June 2020Opening Words from the Executive PrincipalKia ora tatou, good afternoon, 你好, 안녕하세요 I was hoping not to have to mention Covid-19 before the end of term, but I thought I should talk quickly about this today, as events this week are understandably a hot topic of conversation. At the time of writing, there are just three cases in New Zealand. There may well be a few more connected with the first two cases, but it seems as though our tracing procedures will make contact quickly with all potential infections, and that we will be able to move quickly back to a Covid-free status. I actually think that the actions the Government has now taken will mean that another incident is much less likely. For the school (and for New Zealand), it is a reminder that we cannot be complacent. I have reminded staff again about handwashing, sanitising and hygiene procedures in place, and I would appreciate it if you could remind your children as well. We are also continuing to ensure that all visitors except for parents must register. We have the QR code clearly visible too, and our registration procedures include a Covid statement, and ask for sufficient contact details for us to be able to trace all visitors. We will continue with these processes. We are also – reluctantly – making ‘just in case’ plans should we have to tighten up our rules again. In the meantime, of course, there is no risk to students, and no community transmission, so let’s make sure that our children are enjoying school life and making brilliant progress! Onto other hot topics: we are continuing to talk with our students about social issues and controversial subjects both as part of the curriculum and when the need arises. Our Global Citizenship and Social Sciences courses in both Primary and College give students the chance to discuss complex local and global issues, and our aim is always to develop students’ critical thinking skills, opening minds and giving them the tools to make up their own minds. I have recently been asked a few times what we do to help students develop their awareness of the world, and this is our approach. We discuss evidence, talk about ideas, and make it clear that there are different views on just about every subject. And we do this in the context of our school values: we respect each other, we are kind to each other, we believe that diversity is a wonderful part of our lives, we care about people and the environment, and we want to support young people to have the confidence and skills to make the world a better place. I’ve had the pleasure of watching an outstanding Year 10 Drama lesson with Ms Forrester this morning, and I’m pleased to say that we are reintroducing Drama lessons for Years 7 and 8 next year. I’ve also just seen Mr Taylor deliver a great Year 1 PE lesson. Both teachers are young, enthusiastic and highly-skilled, and I love seeing such great people enter the teaching profession. We have employed a number of teachers who are early in their careers over the past couple of years, and I’m very proud of their hard work, commitment to the school, and outstanding teaching. I also, of course, love seeing the ways our fantastic students respond so openly and enthusiastically to their teachers, and the great relationships they have with each other. A few quick things to finish. Firstly: a warm welcome to Sheina Dong, who was elected to the Board this week. Sheina has boys in Years 1 and 4, and I’m really looking forward to working with her. On the other hand, we say goodbye at the end of next week to Claire Pirini and Konrad Konlechner, who teach Spanish and Digital Technology in the College. They have made a huge contribution in their times at the school, and we wish them well in their future careers. I will introduce their replacements at the start of next term. We also say goodbye to Pam Harrison, who has worked at the school for 27 years, and is currently the PA to the Principal of Primary and who also looks after Reception after 2.30 pm. Pam has been one of the people who have helped build Pinehurst into the school it has become, and we will all miss her. Enjoy this week’s newsletter and have a lovely weekend. 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 Kia Ora, Assemblies are back and it is wonderful to be together again! We have missed our Tuesday afternoon tradition and so this week we asked our Year 6 student leaders to organise our first assembly for a very long time. They really didn’t disappoint us and put together a great display of Hundertwasser artwork, iMovies of Year 6 life after Lockdown, singing, certificates, chess trophies and upcoming events. The singing of the national anthem was fantastic and very rousing and we knew that we were going to be part of a great assembly. Thank you parents for attending too, you are always welcome to join us. Next week will be the turn of our New Entrant to Year 3 students. One of my favourite events of the year is taking place next week, it's Lego Day! I love Lego, have done since being very young and actually have my eye on one of the very expensive Lego Creator sets where you can build huge buildings, shops and villas to make a town. I had hoped that my son would love Lego as much as me but alas that was not to be, although I did get to finish his buildings when he got bored. I remember spending six hours building the Lego Police Station, a great challenge and I was really proud of myself when I finished. A friend visited with his twins one day and unfortunately his son sneaked upstairs and completely destroyed the whole thing, I was pretty disappointed as its not so easy to follow the instructions once all the pieces are scattered. I think in the end we added them to the pile for free play. I loved watching Lego Masters and the cool documentary on building a Lego House which is on Netflix. We will use Lego to spark creativity in lots of different ways next week, writing, drawing, maths, technology, P.E., art… the list is endless. We are also running sessions with some year groups to create an amusement park with the people from Bricks4Kids who run after-school programmes at Pinehurst. It is going to be a day of great learning as well as great excitement and we are all looking forward to it. Something that is also creating excitement is our Year 5 and 6 production of Disney’s Lion King which will be held in Term 4. Mrs Clark has sent all the information out on Seesaw so that parents can help their child to prepare for an audition if they are interested in a main part. We had planned to produce Lion King since last year but with Lockdown it was looking like we wouldn’t be able to do it and so we were looking at something more basic. We knew though that our students had their hearts set on the show and we are going to make it work, we can’t wait! Have a lovely weekend, keep warm! Nga Mihi, Sian Coxon, Principal of Primary Primary Sport Term 3 RegistrationsRegistrations are now open for Badminton (Lunchtime Year 5-6), Football (Lunchtime Year 5-6), Golf Lessons (Year 3-6), Gymnastics (Year 1 & 2 – now on wait-list), Snow Sports (Year 1-6), Sprint Training (Year 5-6) and Table Tennis (Year 5-6). Registrations close 9am Monday 22nd June, or when programmes reach capacity. Please register here https://www.pinehurst.school.nz/co-curricular/sport-at-pinehurst/sports-registration/ Please note - confirmation of registration will be sent after the closing date, and no later than the end of Term 3. Primary Chess ClubPrimary Chess Club is back on Thursdays at lunchtime. There was certainly a buzz with nearly 40 keen students ready to play. Everyone is welcome and we even have a coach for the advanced players to pick up some new tips and tricks. If you are a parent with chess skills who would be interested in coming and helping to coach beginners on Thursday lunchtimes please email tina.lindsay@pinehurst.school.nz New Entrant - Year 2 SyndicateNew to 2 returned after isolation excited, happy and as though they had never been away. The amazing learning has continued throughout Term 2; from visits to Antarctica, the Desert and Life Education, and the joy of Harold the giraffe who finally came out of isolation! In Health, New to 2 were identifying and managing emotions so we can help ourselves and others. We looked at developing our emotional vocabulary and discussed situations where we might be sad/upset, angry/frustrated, happy/excited. We were learning to express emotions in a healthy and positive way and developing empathy to understand how others might feel. All of the classes were able to visit the Life Education caravan and learnt a lot from Charlie Pollard and her friend Harold the Giraffe. The classes discovered how important the brain is and all about the functions. They discussed a variety of ways to express emotions and which part of the brain they would use. The newer students of the school were practicing writing the number 3 as it sometimes gets confusing and is written facing the wrong way. They used chalk and filled the playground with spectacular formed 3’s! Unfortunately the well needed rain has washed them away but I am sure they will have plenty of opportunities to perfect their numerals. When students arrive at Pinehurst they learn a series of phonic sounds which support both reading and writing. You may have noticed students using their “Fred Fingers” to sound out words. This is a well researched strategy that is taught from New Entrance through to Year 2. Year 2 were excited that their Read Write Inc Spelling Practice Book’s arrived and have already started learning spelling rules. Once the students complete the phonic sounds they move on spelling rules. The content is delivered by aliens from outer space! P4 and P5 have been learning about Alan and his Antarctic adventures. Alan had a problem with his hot chocolate. As temperatures in Antarctica are so low, his hot chocolate kept going cold. He has asked his Big Writing Agents to try and find a way to keep his hot chocolate hot. We used different materials as insulation and repeatedly took the temperature of the water to see what was best. Most of us predicted that the cotton wool will be the best insulator! What a hive of activity and learning going on in Year 3 and 4!When the students in P9 came back to school after Lockdown, they had so much to say about how they were feeling and what they experienced, that they thought it was a good idea to write about these feelings and describe what they saw. In Big Write this week, students in P10 focused on using their VCOP (vocabulary, connectives, sentence openers, punctuation) to write an exciting narrative set on an island. When they had finished their extended silent writing session, they were able to work with their writing buddy to up-level their writing. P11 students are becoming very reflective learners! Isabella has shared her reflection on her week's learning. (see video) Here are some more of our letters to Mr Reed, sharing thoughts about the Lockdown period. Feedback is a big focus at the moment and P11 are using meta-cognitive thinking to identify what is going well and what we need to work on and get better at by setting goals. There has been measurement learning in Maths - adding and subtracting lengths and finding the difference. Some students even challenged themselves to work these out to the nearest millimetre! Check out Jasper's measurement skills... Making inferences: Looking for clues and cues in the text to help identify what the author is trying to tell us without directly stating it is something P11 are becoming experts at. Martin and Oliver were inference detectives this week. Year 4 students have been getting creative in art while constructing their Picasso inspired portrait prints. At the moment they are working on their raised cardboard block, using a variety of shapes and textures. Some have begun printing which requires rolling their block with ink. Keep an eye out for more finished prints! They have also been learning about angles, acute and obtuse. We found and named all the angles in our name. As you can see, the Year 3 and 4 students continue to be engaged, curious, motivated learners! What will happen in the next chapter of our learning journey....watch this space for next term's Middle Syndicate update! Year 5/6 SyndicateYear 5 and 6 have been hard at work since returning from Lockdown. It has been extremely rewarding to see how motivated our students have been. Here is a snapshot of what we have been up to in a very short space of time. Year Six English have just written their first chapter story! During Lockdown, they started their latest Big Writing Mission where they were asked by Agents Cat and Tiger to write a short story to be read at the Greenville Festival of Stories. They have just finished polishing and editing their tales. They are currently writing their promotional precis to encourage visitors to the writer’s festival to come and listen to their stories. They are learning to use ambiguous words to ensure they don’t give too much away. Last week saw the first meeting of the Senior Primary Choir. A keen group of 25 Year 4,5 and 6 students met their new choir teacher – Mrs Spicer. Currently, they are running through a number of choral exercises, developing correct breathing techniques and selecting which pieces they would like to bring up to performance standard. It isn't too late to join the choir! Mrs Spicer would welcome anyone at the Tuesday rehearsals in the Music room. For more information please contact karen.spicer@pinehurst.school.nz Year Six Maths students are demonstrating a greater understanding of simplifying and ordering fractions as well as converting different units of length. They are in the process of learning to identify equivalences between fractions, decimals and percentages. The students calculate the decimal equivalents for key fractions using number lines. They find decimal equivalents to fractions by dividing the numerator by the denominator. We are now applying our knowledge to solve word problems. In Reading, Year 5 are focusing on inference skills, learning how to 'read between the lines' and make everyday inferences using the clues around them. In Writing, the focus has been to develop the necessary skills to create a book review. What structure and language features can we use to compose the best book review ever? Angles have been one of the highlights in Year 5 Maths over the past few weeks. Year 5 students have been naming, measuring, drawing and identifying angles. They have enjoyed some fun activities to learn about angles including using their bodies to show angles, carrying out angle treasure hunts, listening to songs about angles and much more. The students have also learnt to use a protractor and ruler to draw their own angles. Kia Ora, It is great to see the sun shining today after a very grey Thursday, lit up by the colour of students completing the cross country in their House colours. We ran the cross country on the school site for the first time in a number of years which enabled a few more spectators to be involved. The event is compulsory for students in Year 7-10, and I was very pleased to see how many students ran so well. It is an optional event for our senior students, and again it was great to see over a third of this cohort choosing to get involved, particularly on such a cold and wet afternoon. A huge well done to all of those that ran. We are currently in the process of finalising reports for all students in the college and parents will receive these at the end of next week. It is important for parents to note that we have made some changes to how we grade effort on the reports. The descriptors for effort are written on the report and should give you a clear understanding of how you son or daughter is engaging in lessons. You will also notice that there is not a pastoral comment on this set of reports. This is due to students having spent a very short amount of time in PODs or Homerooms since our last reports at the end of Term 1. The pastoral comments will return for the next set of reports. We look forward to being able to host parents for conferences with teachers at the beginning of next term. When you receive your child’s report you will also get a short letter from me explaining how to log in and book appointments for the conferences. As always if you have any questions or need any support with this please get in contact. Nga Mihi, Kieran Verryt Year 7-8 Term 3 Sports RegistrationsYear 7-8 Term 3 Registrations are now open for Badminton (Afterschool League), Golf Lessons, Snow Sports (8 week) & Snow Sports ‘Ready for Ski Camp’ (4 weeks), Sprint Training and Table Tennis. Registrations close 9am Monday 22nd June, or when programmes reach capacity. Please register here https://www.pinehurst.school.nz/co-curricular/sport-at-pinehurst/sports-registration/ Please note - confirmation of registration will be sent after the closing date, and no later than the end of Term 3. Cross Country 2020Photos will be on our Pinehurst Sports Facebook page next week! College Sport ScarvesToday in our Year 9-13 assembly, 24 students received their Sport Scarf having earned it through their commitment to sport. To qualify, students need to meet a certain criteria over a minimum of three years and be in Year 12 or 13. Economic Model ChallengeEconomists often use models to represent the real-world phenomenon. This week, Year 12 & 13 Economists are learning about macroeconomic models. Students were challenged to create a 3 dimensional model of the economy using only a few basic materials, with a 30 minute time limit. Here are some of their creations. End of Semester for Year 8 and 9 Music classesHalf of Year 8 and Year 9 will complete their semester in Music next week, before they head off to their other Arts subject rotation. The students have completed a research and investigation report, delved into music history, explored the Orchestra, composed and performed over the last two terms. Student feedback surveys always highlight the enjoyment they get out of the practical topics. It has been fantastic to observe their performing skills develop – even if it is their first time to pick up an instrument. All students are welcome to join one of the many free co-curricular music groups on offer at Pinehurst, to continue their musical involvement regardless of which path they choose to take. To see the list of groups on offer and to enrol visit our website here. I Spy in the School....I Spy in the Primary...budding artists in P1! I Spy in the Primary...happy children in the playground! I Spy in the Primary...Year 3 students working hard on their Maths. I Spy in the College...Year 7 students colour sorting with Robotics. I Spy in the College...Year 11 Chemistry students. I Spy in the Primary...Year 9 Digital Technology students. Year 5/6 Primary Production 2020We are pleased to announce that the Year 5/6 Syndicate will be performing the Lion King Jr on Tuesday 24 and Thursday 26 November 2020. Disney's The Lion King has captivated the imagination of audiences around the world and now, every student in Year 5 and 6, will have the opportunity to be a part of this one-of-a-kind musical in Week 7, Term 4. The African Savannah will come to life in our Arena with Simba, Rafiki and an unforgettable cast of characters and animals as they journey from Pride Rock to the jungle... and back again, in this inspiring, coming-of-age tale. Auditions will take place this coming Monday 22 June during school time. The audition information was posted on SeeSaw earlier this week with a digital form attached for those who are interested in auditioning for one of the lead roles; Young Simba & Young Nala, Adult Simba, Adult Nala, Scar, Mufasa, Timon, Pumbaa, Zazu, Rafiki, Banzai, Shenzi and Ed. These students need to be confident singers and actors with some basic dancing skills. Every student will be a part of the cast, whether as a lead role or as a member of the ensemble. The ensemble will play the part of the various inhabitants of the Pridelands, such as giraffes, elephants, antelopes and wildebeest. There will also be a troupe of dancers who will be known as Lionesses. And of course, there will be a hungry pack of hyenas! If you have any questions, please email Kelly.clark@pinehurst.school.nz Second Informal Music ConcertAt the end of this term on Wednesday 24th June, from 4pm in C2, the Music Department offers all Pinehurst music students, regardless of age and ability to perform at an informal concert held in the cosy environment of C2. You are warmly invited to come along and be part of the supportive audience for our performers. Changes to Bus RoutesThe school has completed its review of its northern bus routes. The reason for our review is that the journey has been taking, what we consider, too long. The main changes in the routes are as follows: PH7 – Warkworth/Matakana – will no longer divert through Orewa but will now travel directly up the motorway to Warkworth. Please see the new route here PH5 – Millwater/Dairy Flat - this bus will no longer divert through Paremoremo, but will now travel along Dairy Flat highway directly to Millwater, it will then continue through Orewa and return to Warkworth along the Hibiscus Coast H/way. Please see the new route here PH9 – New Route this will be a new route which will travel do the Paremoremo loop, travelling through Albany along the Avenue, through Paremoremo back to Albany via Ridge, Glenmore and Coatesville Riverhead H/way. Please see the new route here PH6 –Gulf Harbour/Manly bus will now travel from the school up Bush Road past Westfield Albany to Oteha Valley and along East Coast Road to Silverdale shops and mall through Red Beach and on to Gulf Harbour. Please see the new route here There are no changes to the following routes PH1 – Devonport, PH2 – Northcote PH3 – Greenhithe/West Harbour, PH4 – East Cast Bays or PH5 – Waimauku/Kumeu/Coatesville The changes will take effect from Term 3 on Tuesday 21st July and will run for all of Term 3. We will be reviewing during this time but we hope that this will provide a better service to all our students. If you have any questions please contact Jon Horne at jon.horne@pinehurst.school.nz Uniform ShopThe Uniform shop will be open during the holidays on the following dates between 10am and 2pm:
Lake House Arts July School Holiday ProgrammeWe have a variety of classes to offer including painting, drawing, craft and Virtual Reality: https://www.lakehousearts.org.nz/class/school-holiday-classes/ A new programme has also been created for working parents of 5-6 year olds who are in need of longer supervision hours during the school holidays: https://www.lakehousearts.org.nz/class/school-holiday-classes/creative-kids-programme-5-6-yrs/ |