News and events for the week ending 15th February 2019 Friday 15th February 2019 Opening words from the Executive PrincipalKia ora tatou, good afternoon, 你好 We’ve had a full five days this week: a bit of a shock to some, perhaps, but I’ve enjoyed feeling the natural rhythms of school life reassert themselves. Through one window I can now hear the ever-present thump-roar of diggers and other large yellow machines as they chew up the ground in preparation for the new Library’s foundations; and through the other – or so it seems – the happy chatter of children waltzes through at all hours. It’s almost as if the children are subconsciously willing on the builders to finish the Library more quickly. On Wednesday and Thursday this week, the sound of excited Primary School children taking part in our netball fun days took over the other sounds. We have also had excited Year 4s heading off to swimming lessons at the Northern Arena, and even more excited (and, in a few cases, a little nervous) Year 10s embarking on their Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award tramp on Waiheke Island. They’re due back this afternoon, so I’m expecting some very weary young people to stumble from hot buses very shortly. The Young Enterprise trip yesterday also went very well. Next week, Year 4 and Year 5 have swimming lessons; Year 6 have Waterwise, the other half of Year 10 are on the Waiheke Island tramp and we have the Year 3 camp. It’s busy! In the classroom, I have been delighted by what I have seen in lessons this term. The new students feel a fully-integrated, happy part of our community; there is a fantastic sense of purpose and focus around the place; and some of the work I have seen across the school has been outstanding. Teachers are currently completing their analyses of the students’ results from last year, and I’ve been impressed (as I always am) by the reflective, challenging approach they have adopted. They are setting themselves targets for the coming year, focusing generally on addressing the individual needs of the full range of students they teach, looking for ways of continuing to develop. I have also been delighted by the approach of our new staff, who have made a great first impression. We welcomed new parents for our annual Wine and Cheese event on Wednesday: we held this in Reception for the last time, as we will be using our new Library for social engagements and some meetings when it opens later in the year. We also ran a well-attended Year 9 Information Evening and an extremely well-attended Year 7 and 8 Information Evening: thank you to all of the parents who came along to hear about the curriculum, co-curricular opportunities, Schoolbox and camps. We really enjoy these evenings, and we hope you find them useful. As ever, please keep asking questions, as these sharpen us up and mean that we are continually improving what we do. At these evenings, I talked briefly about the principles we have applied to our development of Schoolbox, and these are worth repeating here, I think. Schoolbox is a very powerful, comprehensive online tool. It contains a huge amount of material, and is also used extensively within College and with parents as a communication tool. In the classroom, it is also used as a collaboration tool. Students have access to just about everything they need to have access to, and we have given parents access to a wide range of information about their child’s courses, timetable and individual work. But we haven’t given parents access to everything, and we are not going to do things like automatically switch on parental notifications when a student misses a piece of homework. Parents can do that themselves through the “settings” tool if they wish. We have also given parents access to overviews of the courses their children are taking, and to a limited range of additional resources, though this can vary a little between subjects and courses. We believe strongly at Pinehurst that a child is happier, more settled and more successful at school if the parents and the school work together to support the child. Schoolbox is part of our ongoing strategy to communicate more consistently with parents, and to give you easier access to fuller details of school life, in and out of the classroom. At the same time, though, we are always cautious with technology, because it can raise complications as well as offer opportunities. It’s important, we feel, that young people retain some space, managing relationships with teachers in their own ways, and able to maintain a balance between home and school life. We want parents to be involved and informed; and we would like parents to be cautious with the access you now have to students’ courses and school life. Please intervene when it’s right to intervene, and also make sure that students still feel that they have space for making mistakes. School is, after all, a safe place for children to get things wrong sometimes. Please forgive me if it feels like I’m lecturing you on how to be a parent: that’s not my intention at all! It’s just important that we all take a step back with technology and consider carefully how we should use it. Any questions about Schoolbox, or our policy on access: please contact me. And if you cannot remember your login details, please email Pam Harrison pamela.harrison@pinehurst.school.nz Have a lovely weekend in the bright February sunlight. WEEK 4 Monday 18th February
Tuesday 19th February
Wednesday 20th February
Thursday 21st February
Friday 22nd February
WEEK 5 Wednesday 27th February
Friday 1st March College Year 7-13 Interhouse Athletics, AUT Millennium, Rosedale (All day) 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, This has been the first full week of school. Students are now familiar with their timetables and settled into the normal routine of being back at school. It is always a pleasure to see and experience the energy, activity and excitement around the place. Thank you to the parents who attended our two information evening’s this week. Year 9 on Tuesday and Year’s 7 and 8 on Wednesday. Year 10 students are taking their first steps on their Duke of Edinburgh Hilary Award journey. Currently, Year 10 students from Matai and Kauri houses are completing their two day training camp on Waiheke Island. What a fantastic couple of days they have had to enjoy the outdoors. On Monday, the other half of Year 10 (Totara and Rimu) will set off for Waiheke to begin their training and tramp. Throughout, the year students will aim to achieve the full award by completing their community, service and leadership elements. On Wednesday 20 keen and enthusiastic basketball players took part in a Breakers training session and our Young Enterprise group had their first activity. The range of activities and experiences available to students grows every year and I would encourage every single student from Year 7 to 13 to take full advantage of the opportunities that will enrich their overall school experience. A good place to start is by signing up to join a winter sport. Be aware that although we are currently enjoying hot summer weather it is the time of year when we begin promoting and advertising winter sports. Ngā mihi, Chris Wiggin and Kieran Verryt Principals of College Breakers Basketball Experience DayEarlier this week 20 of our senior students were selected to attend the Fuji Xerox/SKYCITY Breakers Basketball Experience Day. The first hour and a half was spent watching how the Breakers train, followed by obtaining signatures from their favourite players. It was then time for our boys to be trained by some of the Breakers’ players. The day was finished off with lunch provided by Fuji Xerox. Frank Deng was awarded a signed Breakers basketball for using his initiative and leading others in a training session, and Dong Ook Kim received a singlet for beating an NBA player at his own shooting game! Our boys really enjoyed there time at the event, which was over way too soon! A huge thanks to Fuji Xerox and SKYCITY Breakers for providing this fantastic opportunity for our players. Young Enterprise SchemeOur Young Enterprise students participated in the Young Enterprise KickStart Day at AUT yesterday. The KickStart Day allows the students to develop ideas for products and services that they would like to use to run their own business. They have the opportunity to receive feedback from local business people and create action plans about how to get their business ideas up and running. The students involved in the KickStart Day are Eric Chen, Ivan Li, Iris Lu, Katherine Ouyang, Selena Wang, William Xu, Amy Han, Luke Ho, Eujin Kang, Monica Quach and Ellie Kang. Year 10 Technology - Egg DropsYear 10 Technology students started their year with a quick problem-solving exercise “The Egg Drop Challenge”. The groups were asked to design and make a solution to a brief, working within clear constraints, these were: The transportation system should be reusable, use minimum and cheap resources. All materials available were given a price. The design problem was: "to develop a method of protecting delicate eggs as they are transported to a kitchen at the bottom of a 10 meter wall by dropping them from a special egg dispensing balcony". Marking on the success of the design was based on: Lightweight, Quality of product, Simplicity, Teamwork, Safe delivery, Cost, Originality.
Winners were Pheonix Williams and Jack Munt who designed a parachute and cage that used a minimum of materials which allowed their egg to float down to the concrete, landing gently and ready for the solution to be reused.
Sen Spence and Hermosa Wong worked effectively together to produce an original solution that challenged the rules but was successful, scoring highly in most of the specification categories.
Sophia Burglund and Jodie Williams were the only team to try using a lightweight structure with shock absorbing elements. This should have worked in theory and only time constraints prevented them from making their intended solution, both found out the importance of good research, testing and quality control. The most energetic team was Ben Smith and Ella Cotteral who lowered an expensive solution to the ground, then tore the egg out of a ball of scrunched up paper, cracking the shell and leaving a pile of non-reusable waste. Their egg survived the drop although the success of their design did not take into account the design brief or specification criteria.
Issy Gerrits produced a parachute solution with a creative storage unit for the egg. This made the most of the qualities of the materials used. After researching ideas and testing many variations she and Alyssa Williams ended up with a cheap, lightweight design and successful drop.
Chess Club 2019It was standing room only for our first Chess Club session this term! Junior and Senior College students meet in JC2 each Tuesday to play and are all vying to make the teams for competitions later in the year. Students are encouraged to join chess.com to play regularly and sharpen their skills; a Pinehurst group will be set up which they can join. School ProductionRehearsals are well underway for this year’s production of ‘Much Ado About Shakespeare’. This rollicking adventure with the bard contains scenes from his most celebrated plays and characters. The cast is a whopping 72 students with even more wonderful helpers behind the scenes. In the scene from ‘As You Like It’, Silvius (David Lupu) is in love with Phoebe (Alanna Addison), she falls in love with ‘Ganymede’ who is actually Rosalind (Annie Ediker) who is in love with Orlando (Jack Potier) who is in love with Rosalind but doesn’t recognise her dressed up as Ganymede. Confused? You should be! Find out all at the Pumphouse Theatre from 13th – 15th June. Year 8 Physical EducationWe have started the year with team-building activities, ensuring all students knew the importance of working together and expressing ideas in order to achieve success. Following this, we’ve been participating in Athletics. The aim of this unit is for students to improve their skills and gather ideas about how we might throw further, jump longer, and run faster. It’s also about getting students feeling confident in the event, so that they feel comfortable to participate in it at Athletics Day in Week 5. It’s been extremely pleasing to see the effort and enthusiasm the students have shown during this unit which should lead to some fine performances on Athletics Day. Year 10 – Bronze DoE TrampOn Thursday and Friday students from Matai and Kauri (Year 10) embarked on their ‘practice’ Bronze level adventurous journey. They traveled to Waiheke Island and tramped for 2 days with a 1 night stay over at campsite Whakanewha. There was plenty of opportunity to swim as the campsite is next to a beach in a beautiful setting overlooking Motatapu island. The other students from Rimu and Totara will be completing the same tramp on Monday and Tuesday next week. We wish them all good luck in their practice tramp. A Level SpanishAs part of the A Level Spanish course, students are required to study three different Spanish texts. Attached is a Facebook page that students created for one of our esteemed authors Laura Esquivel. We are currently studying her novel Like water for Chocolate. A2 Biology ClassThe A2 biology class have been honing practical skills using simple respirometers to investigate effects of temperature on rates of absorption or evolution of gases of small organisms. In all honesty our results have been a little off(!) but we understand the processes and possible applications, as well as refining our technique and investigative practice. Junior College NetballPre-season sessions start next Wednesday 20th February in the Gym, and run for 3 weeks from 7:15am-8:15am. All welcome, boys & girls – a great chance to start getting ‘Netball fit’ for the season, or if you are not sure if Netball is for you come along and give it a go! Year 7-8 Netball registrations will be open next week. Please watch your email next week for an information sheet with all the details for the 2019 season, including training and game times. On receipt of the information sheet, you will be able to register online. Kia Ora, Another wonderful week of weather has seen us out and about and enjoying the beautiful environment we get to learn in. Having worked in a school in England in the middle of a housing estate right next to a motorway, I often take time to appreciate the greenery and the many trees we have around our site. Learning doesn’t just take place in the classroom, our Year 5 and 6 campers returned safely having worked on their climbing, confidence, kayaking, archery and horse riding to name a few of the wonderful activities they have enjoyed. In Year 4 this week our students started their two week swimming programme, Year 5 will join them next week and Year 6 will be out on the water at Murrays Bay learning to sail an Optimist. We still have camps taking place for Year 3 next week and Year 4 in a few weeks’ time plus we are looking at some play based outdoor opportunities for our Y0-2 syndicate in the near future. Mrs Herbert our Science specialist teacher has organised Science in a Van, a visit to the Science Roadshow and a Y6 family Science programme so that we can all learn a lot more about the world around us and how it works. We will have a visit next term from Harold and the Life Education Van where each class will have two to three sessions learning about aspects of health and wellbeing. We are busy organising a visit from the Tread Lightly caravan to learn more about sustainability and how to protect and conserve our environment so it is a place where future generations will be happy to live. Interhouse sports events will take place onsite in the grounds and also at appropriate sporting venues on the North Shore and we are looking forward to the swimming gala in Term 1, Cross Country in Term 2 and Athletics in Term 4. Each year group will have a class visit to a place that is connected to their learning during the year. The New Entrants are off to Stardome later this term and all Primary students will enjoy visits to exciting places as the year progresses. There will be author visits, musical groups and storytellers plus the wonderful, ‘Butterfly Lady’ to add to the breadth, depth and richness of our programmes and give our students opportunities to explore their world. Thanks for really supporting us with the Sunsmart message and for making it safer for us all to enjoy education outside of the classroom. Nga Mihi, Sian Coxon, Principal of Primary Year 5 CampLast week Year 5 headed off on a 4 day, 3 night camp at Carey Park in Henderson. School camp is a fantastic opportunity for students to develop new skills, friendships and interests as well as growing in confidence while becoming more independent. Carey Park offered a range of indoor and outdoor activities which were all specifically designed with educational outcomes in mind, as well as incorporating physical and mental growth. Some of the activities students experienced were rock climbing, kayaking, outdoor cooking, archery, air rifles and flying down the thrilling 200m long, 9m high flying fox. The food was outstanding with some comments that the chicken was the 'best chicken ever' and the staff at Carey Park really made our experience at camp the best it could be. The students all pushed themselves beyond their comfort zone and can be very proud of the way they conducted themselves at camp. Feedback from the camp staff was our group of students were very respectful and had amazing manners. A massive thank you to all our amazing parent helpers for your help and efforts at camp, you were all absolutely fabulous. Year 6 CampYear 6 had a fabulous time at camp, spending 5 days and 4 nights at Lakewood Lodge just outside of Huntly. Many students overcame fears and all persevered through challenging activities or situations. The students were split in to 6 activity groups. They supported each other through thick and thin, cheering on their peers and working together to get through team building tasks. Every activity, from kayaking to the flying fox, was somebody's first time. Although they were designed to push the students out of their comfort zone, the year 6’s approached each experience with a chorus of positivity and smiles. A highlight for many was the survivor night, where we hiked up to a secluded part of the property and completed various challenges. This included starting a fire with flint and stone, then ensuring it burned continuously to enable each group to cook their lunch and dinner over the flames. Despite the hot weather, the students reveled in the opportunity to embrace the great outdoors and try something a little different. They soon cooled off by completing the infamous mud run! It was a week of excitement and adventure. What a great way to start the year! New Friends and Fun in P4!In P4 we welcomed 10 new students to our room. We have been very busy adjusting to school life and making new friends. We have been learning lots of phonics, Maths and even Spanish! We also love going to the library and picking out a new book each week and P.E is our favourite class. During this week, we had Netball Fun Day with Mrs. Jones-Hill. We got to work on some of our netball skills with real Pinehurst netball players! We had to throw balls into a bucket, do some ladder feet work and even try to get the ball in the hoop. We put on a coloured jersey and got to play a “mini” netball game. We loved getting involved in some activities that Pinehurst does and watching the players in their uniforms! We are also bucket fillers in P4! We have been learning what we should do to fill each other’s buckets in P4 and throughout Pinehurst. We got to design our own buckets and show everyone what we are going to do to fill buckets. Being a bucket filler means saying kind things, helping our friends, or even just a smile. We’ve had such a busy start to school and we are so excited to be at Pinehurst! Year 2 ScienceIn Year 2 for Science we are learning about Habitats. We have started our Habitat topic by looking at what an environment is and discussing the differences between natural and built environments. We explored our local environment at Pinehurst school. P9 found lots of different plants, birds and insects. The students worked in groups and took photographs using our iPads of the different elements of nature they found. After exploring, we discussed what we photographed and the different animals and insects that are found at Pinehurst school. Here is a selection of images captured by the students. Primary NetballRegistrations will open next week. Please watch your email next week for an information sheet with all the details for the 2019 season, including training and game day times. On receipt of the information sheet, you will be able to register online. In Music this WeekYear 9 Music in the classroom Year 9 are in their final stages of completing their Powerpoint research project looking into their Musical Heritage. Their task was to explore their cultural backgrounds and if coming from more than one, explore the ones that excites them the most. Next week they will begin presenting their research to their peers in class. This aspect of Music is a step to the World Music topic which is explored at a greater length in the IGCSE courses. The College Choir The College Choir began rehearsing on Friday lunchtimes in C2 last week. They are preparing for an upcoming performance with a US based Filipino Tenor Sal Malaki at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell on Saturday the 23rd of March from 7pm. The College Choir is always looking for new members and students can apply to join by completing the form found here. Farewell to a fabulous Art TeacherLinda Gair's final assembly is on Thursday 28th February. Any parents who had a special rapport are invited to come along and say farewell. Senior students are also invited to attend. Guests to be seated by 2.20pm in the Arena. Following the assembly there will be refreshments in the staffroom and an opportunity to personally say goodbye. Please RSVP to nicole.webb@pinehurst.school.nz by 15th February. |