No images? Click here 7 May 2021Pinehurst School NewsletterOpening Words from the Executive Principal...Kia ora tatou, good afternoon, 你好, 안녕하세요Welcome back! It’s been a glorious, fresh week, the leaves have turned russet and orange, and I’ve enjoyed the clean air so much that I’ve chosen to walk to school most days. The students have returned with a spring in their step, looking very smart in their winter uniforms, and I’ve been delighted to see how happy and focused they are. It’s also been great to see so many students gearing up for the winter sports season. I was lucky enough to see some netball and basketball earlier this week, and the early morning practices seem to be going well too. Welcome to our new Pinehurst families: twenty excited new entrants started their educational journey on Tuesday, and I’ve been impressed by how quickly they’ve settled. A handful of older students joined us too: I hope that they have found their feet by now and are managing the new environment, new friends and different work. It’s always a big transition, and my advice is to take it one day at a time: small bumps in the road often disappear in the rear view mirror. On transition: we will be running our Year 6 to 7 transition evening on May 25th: more detail out soon. I will also be writing to Year 6 and Year 8 parents, as I always do, to ask if you have plans to leave next year. This is just to check if you’ve got firm plans: we have received a very large number of applications for Year 7 in particular this year, and we want to make sure that we offer the right number of places. It’s the second day of the Year 3 Camp today, always an exciting moment for our little ones. The first day went very well, so I’m hoping that you have some tired and happy children back home with you this evening. Many thanks to the Year 3 team and to all the parent-helpers for making this a success. We also have – right at the other end of the scale! – ten students tramping and kayaking as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award. Good luck to them all, and to Ms Toerien and Mr Prince, who are accompanying them. Finally, I have some sad news this week. Mrs Cairns, who has been the Head of the Languages department at Pinehurst, retired this week and won’t be returning to the school. She has been a wonderful English teacher and Head of Department for over a decade, and she will be missed. I know you will join with me in sending her our very best wishes. We are currently advertising for her replacement as Head of Languages. 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 Dates for your Diary Week 2 Kia Ora, A great first week back in the Primary, everyone was ready to go and seemed very happy to be back at school. There were lots of smiles and very settled children, even our newest New Entrants were focussed and ready to go and no one fell asleep! It is always an adjustment from holiday mode but our students are really very good at adapting and engaging in their learning. Our last camp of the year has taken place with Year 3 going out to Paremoremo and Camp Maynard for two days, a little later than planned but we are very pleased to have been able to hold the camp in the autumn when the conditions are usually favourable. All of our Year 3’s were very excited to go and try out new challenges like the confidence course and climbing wall. I still have pictures of my son dangling from the top of the wall with a huge smile on his face, the camp is a great opportunity to push children out of their comfort zones within a safe environment. It was exciting to see all of our Primary leaders receive their badges on Tuesday at our Leadership assembly. Many of them have been fulfilling their commitments already but were really waiting for the badge. It doesn’t take a badge to be a leader and all of our students were reminded that they can be leaders of their own lives and develop their leadership skills over time by displaying some of the qualities of leadership; doing the right thing without being asked or when no one is watching, helping others, setting a good example for others and being a good role model for your peers and younger students, being kind, being a good friend and standing up for others even when it may be the hard thing to do. Leadership qualities change as children get older but working on the ones above at a young age is a good place to start. In Year 6 we give all students leadership opportunities, some are House Captains, Library Monitors, Peer Mediators, ILeads, Councillors, Arts and Cultural Leaders and Head Councillors. These students will work for the whole year to support everyone in the Primary to have the best experience they can. Congratulations to all of our 2021 leaders and to our Head Councillors Harry Liu, Jade Lyles, Zachery Solomon and Isabel Ramdhari. I sent a Seesaw message to all parents yesterday asking for support at home to complete Maths Whizz homework each week and encourage their child to get a green tick for three or more progressions. Maths Whizz was chosen as a homework programme as it supports the Cambridge Primary curriculum closely. We know that when our students are engaging regularly in the programme it supports their Maths learning and overall achievement. Teachers will be checking that children are getting their green tick each week and their overall achievement in Maths Whizz for the term. At the end of the year medals and prizes are awarded by iLearn which is the company running the Maths Whizz platform. I am pleased to tell you that the gold medal for most improvement for 2020 was won by Chris Shan in Year 2, the silver medal by Ivy Li in Year 4 and the bronze medal by Nina Hou in Year 5; the headphones competition was won by Xingni Lu in Year 4 and Yuhai Yang in Year 5. Congratulations to those students, we will present awards to them in their next assembly. Ngā mihi, Sian Coxon, Principal of Primary Year 6 Pre-Season Netball On Sunday, 2nd May our Year 6 Falcons netball team played in a preseason tournament at Netball North Harbour. It was a great opportunity for the team to play together before the winter season begins. The girls went from strength to strength and demonstrated some excellent defending skills in their final match against Waiheke. The players had a lot of fun together both on and off the court and were supported by some very enthusiastic parents on the side-line. Thank you to coach Debbie Stanaway, and warm up trainer Charlie Peacock, for such a successful day. Primary Leadership for 2021 It was with great pleasure that we were able to present our Primary Council for 2021 with their leadership badges on Tuesday, 4th May. Our Year Six students and Year 3 – 5 council representatives play an integral part in the running of the Primary School and develop a range of leadership skills. Through the organisation of lunchtime activities and delegated roles connected to their position, we aim to develop leadership by promoting the following:
We look forward to a busy, exciting 2021 where our Primary Council tackle their leadership positions with enthusiasm, self-belief and a positive attitude.
New Friends in P1 This week in P1 we have welcomed 10 new friends to our class. We were lucky enough to meet them all last term for two morning visits before having a lovely first week. The 10 New Entrant students quickly slotted into the busy school day with ease. On day one they were working on Phonics activities, drawing, and labelling their favourite part of a story and by day two they were able to use actions to retell and describe the character Superworm from our story. In Maths, the New Entrants can already recognise most of the numerals 1-10, they can put them into the correct order, and they are learning how to form all the numbers correctly. Combined with singing, counting, and jumping, they are also working on fun table activities to reinforce their learning. What a Start to Term 2 for P11! The children in P11 are delighted to be back at school. We are ready for the challenges that Term 2 will bring! We have thoroughly enjoyed our first week back and what a week it has been! The Year 3s set off to Camp Maynard this week. This was their first experience of camp at school and we are thrilled to report that it was a roaring success! At Year 3 camp, the children partake in a range of skill building, teamwork and personal development activities. In preparation for camp, the children spent time getting into groups and learning skills of collaboration and co-operation. With their group, they came up with a team name, designed a poster and even brainstormed ideas for a team mascot! On Thursday, the children embarked on their camp adventure! Thursday’s activities consisted of a confidence course, bush art, water archery and kite making. On Friday, the children participated in team building games, a scavenger hunt and making a pouwhenua. They also took on the challenge of the rock wall! The children of P11 thoroughly enjoyed their first camp experience. Each child brings home fond memories and mementoes from their adventure. Well done to all the children for their participation and newly acquired skills. No doubt, there will be some sleepy heads tonight! P12's Busy Week Packed with Learning Year 4 students in P12 were eager to learn and have been engaged in meaningful conversations with the class and their learning partners. In Maths, we started by recapping on our prior knowledge of fractions, and transferring that knowledge with our new topic of decimals. We looked closely at our place value of numbers and labelled where whole numbers went on the number line, followed by the decimal point and tenth, hundredth etc... We are also working on mastering how to count in tenth for 5 numbers starting from a decimal i.e 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9. In Writing, we started our new mission called Superheroes. What an exciting topic for the first 5 weeks of this term. The class is working on writing effective character descriptions, creating their own superhero; focusing on using expanded noun phrases and prepositions to build interesting descriptions. It is fantastic to listen to our learning partners share and reflect on their learning. Here are some of the exciting writing from P12. ‘The speedy, minuscule micro-buggy camouflages between the long wavy green grass, you can drive extremely rapid as fast as cheetah to get to places.’ - By Sabine ‘The shiny glistening power mitt has an aura diamond blue in the centre that creates strength for the person using it. It is unbreakable when used as its always worn on your right hand; it is useful when you need it in a battle or lifting up things.’ - By Wilson It's Great to be Back in P18! Warm winter uniforms, a cosy classroom and autumn colours surround us in P18. Everyone has settled into the new term well and had a great first week back. In Maths, we have been converting between units of length to solve problems. We have also been learning the importance of estimating and checking when calculating large numbers. In Writing, we are completing our Big Write mission and will be writing a detailed and engaging Biography to finish off. We have just started some testing in P.E to assess large ball and small ball skills and next week we will be testing long distance and short distance fitness. P18 are looking forward to competing in the Interhouse Cross Country in Week 3! Kia Ora, Welcome back for Term 2. I hope that you enjoyed a good break with your children and that many of you managed to attend one of the ANZAC Services around Auckland. I enjoyed an early morning service in Coatesville where our Deputy Head Girl, Petra Damianovich, spoke brilliantly while doing the scripture readings for the ceremony and Kyuwon Park, Deputy Head Boy, laid a wreathe on behalf of the Pinehurst Community. Charlotte Toumadj, Head Girl, did an excellent address at the Albany Service while Head Boy Jaewoo Son laid a wreathe. All of our Prefects attended one of these services, an important acknowledgement of those that have sacrificed so much for our country. Yesterday we had our first senior assembly of the term. A number of things impressed me during the assembly. The students that presented, addressing 400 of their peers and all of their teachers, did an excellent job. We had students across the year group range presenting, from Year 9 students up front for the first time, to our senior student leaders who are getting to be old hands at this now. Presentation skills are so important to learn, and it is something that the students yesterday did a great job of. Also noteworthy was the content of the assembly. Our student councils are doing a great job at creating opportunities for others to get involved in. Yuzhang’s performance on the piano was outstanding, and placing second in the North Island Orienteering Championships was only just outdone to win our Sportsperson of the Fortnight Award by National Javelin Champion, Brianna Tirado. Our summer sports activities and programme are now wrapped up. We have witnessed a growing number of outstandingly talented individuals in the college in recent years. As we move into the winter programme the focus tends to be more on team sports and activities, with our winter sports programme underway, the orchestra, jazz band, debating teams, and School Production crew all hitting their stride. The best way to develop key skills like teamwork, cooperation and communication is to practice them as often as possible. This is why it is so important for our students to engage in the range of team-based activities that are available to them this term and beyond. We have senior midyear examinations in Week 5 of this term. This will be upon students before they know it, so please encourage them to be preparing for these from early in the term. A great place to start is by getting their folders organised and drawing up a plan for how they will revise in the coming weeks. For Year 11 students, the Scholars Academy has set up a lunchtime tutorial programme with all of the subjects being covered through the work of different students. As always, if you have any questions about any aspect of your child’s progress at school please do not hesitate to get in contact with the relevant staff member. Nga Mihi, Kieran Verryt, Principal of College POD Challenge and House BBQ Our POD Mentors & Year 13 Student Leaders provided a fabulous last day of Term 1, hosting our inaugural POD Challenge, followed by a House BBQ. The POD Challenge was completely run by our POD mentors who worked collaboratively to create, coordinate and deliver a competitive and engaging activity that required full participation from each POD. Each POD went head to head over the afternoon working together with their POD teachers to complete each activity, collecting points as they went. This event was followed by our House BBQ with a free sausage sizzle, free ice creams, an inflatable obstacle course & zorb football run by the Junior College Council. What a superb way to end the term! Congratulations to Mr Le Lievre’s POD KPL for winning the POD Challenge. Special thanks to all POD Mentors, JC Council and those Year 13 Student Leaders who organised the House BBQ. JC House Event This week saw our first house event of the term. Students in Year 7 and 8 took part in a fun afternoon of “Castles”. It was great to see so much house spirit shown by all. Congratulations to Matai house for the closely fought victory. North Island Secondary Schools Orienteering Championships During the school holidays Charlotte in Year 9 attended the NISS Orienteering Champs held in Palmerston North. Charlotte placed 2nd in the Junior Girls Sprint and 7th in the Junior Girls Long Distance events. A fantastic effort! NH Zone Day Orienteering On Thursday, our largest ever Zone Day group (50 students) headed to Long Bay Regional Reserve to take part in the NH Zone Day Orienteering event. For most of the students, this was their first time doing Orienteering! The Zone Day format allows students to compete as part of a team of up to 6 students, each following a different course map, with the best 4 times on the day counting towards the overall team results. All 50 students successfully completed their course map, with the fastest course times amongst the Pinehurst teams: Course 1 – Lucas (12:40), Course 2 – Isabella (12:05), Course 3 – Austin (9:56, also the fastest Pinehurst individual time) Course 4 – George (11.14), Course 5 – Finlay (12:19) and Course 6 – Ben (13.28). Thank you to Mrs Griffiths our TIC of Orienteering for her knowledge and support leading up to and during the event, and to Noor, Tarnya, Georgia, Pam, Peili, Cherise and all the other parents who came along to support the students on the day. Spanish Cooking İFeliz Cinco de Mayo! Our Year 8 students celebrated ‘Cinco de Mayo’ by making guacamole during Spanish class on their first day back at school. Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of Mexican heritage which commemorates the date of the Mexican army’s victory over France at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. It is also known as Battle of Puebla Day. It was clear some students have never cut open an avocado before as Señora Bell and Señora Cataloni witnessed rather interesting methods of removing the stone. Some added jalepeño peppers and some left out the coriander but the end result was a healthy, simple dish enjoyed by our young chefs. The amazing, creamy avocados were supplied by Belle's Avos and we highly recommend them! IGCSE Physical Education Year 10 IGCSE Physical Education have begun a unit of work investigating the respiratory system. Throughout this unit, students will analyse the structures involved in breathing as well as the mechanics of breathing and the effects exercise has on the respiratory system. We will also look at some case studies around asthma and other respiratory illnesses and the impacts these have on our respiratory system. It has been great to see the student’s response and enthusiasm towards the content thus far. Attached are images of students’ creations of the structures that make up the respiratory system. The aim of this activity was for students to play an active role in their own learning and help them to better identify the important structures of this system through practical activities. Year 10 Geography Students are making Stop Motion Videos for our current unit on Coasts. The students can use drawings, playdough or lego to build their feature of erosion or deposition. The task involves taking many photos of the steps involved in the formation of their chosen feature and then stitching these together using the software available. We have had some wonderful contributions so far. Maisie Mendonca completed the Bays and Headlands. Sophia Zhou & Jessie He worked together to create their video on Cliffs & Wave Cut Platforms. We look forward to using the rest of these to assist us in our lessons next week. Confident CommunicationOn Thursday afternoon our Year 13 Leaders took a Confident Communication Workshop with Kate from Head Held High to practice public speaking confidently, learn conversation skills, positive body language, respecting ourselves and others, and relating positively to peers and adults.College Art & Design The Art & Design students are busy putting their coursework portfolios together this term. Here are a few samples of the work IGCSE and A Level students are producing for their portfolios. I Spy... Our Year 7, 8 and 9 netball teams participating in a pre-season tournament hosted by Netball North Harbour on Sunday 18th April... I Spy...P2 settled back in for Term 2 and learning their letters... School Production Rehearsals are well underway for this year's production. The casts of Peter Pan and Wendy have been working diligently to create magic on stage. Click here to get a glimpse into some of our rehearsals so far. Theatre Sports Theatre sports is now being offered as a lunchtime activity at school. It is open to all Year 7-13's. Theatre sports is a great way to improve your improvisational and character-building skills. Suzuki String Primary Group The Suzuki String group has been meeting on Friday lunchtimes in JC8 on a regular basis and have been learning a number of pieces. Under the skilful guidance of Ms Rout, the students learn using the Suzuki method. Through the use of songs and nursery rhymes, they cover many aspects of music - pitch, rhythm, beat, dynamics (loud/soft), tempo (speed) - as well as other valuable skills including literacy, counting, listening, taking turns, Te Reo maori and more! College Choir The College Choir is lucky to be run by Ms Verity Burgess this term, Pinehurst’s newest vocal tutor. The Choir meets on Tuesday lunchtimes and is open to any Year 7-13 students. The Choir is relatively new to Pinehurst and aims to perform at some Assemblies as well as the Christmas concert at the end of the year. If you would like to sign up your child for this free co-curricular activity, or for vocal lessons with Ms Burgess please complete the enrolment form, found at the bottom of this page. Parent Consultation Breakfast Meetings with Alex Reed College Parent Consultation Breakfast, 3rd June 7.30am - Discussing Extension in College Primary Parent Consultation Breakfast, 10th June 9.00am - Discussing Extension in Primary *New Venue* Fields Cafe, 4 Appian Way, Albany Sibling Photos Pinehurst Connection have organised Sibling Photos for any families who would like photos of their children. These will be held in the Primary Meeting Room, located across from Sian Coxon’s Office. There are two sessions available:
Parents of Primary children will need to pick their children up from 3.15pm to take them to the Photo session. Students who need to catch a bus or attend after-school curricular activities, may have their photo taken from 2.45pm. Please could you remind your children in the morning of the session, to go before school finishes. It will be the student’s responsibility to ensure they get to the Primary Meeting Room. If you need a reminder sent to your class teacher on Wednesday or Thursday, please email sylvia.lum@pinehurst.school.nz If you are interested in getting a sibling photo, please email Sylvia Lum (above) for a booking form. Dad’s F&T – Thursday 10th June We’ve had a busy Term 1 with mini-lockdowns, school events and 30th Birthday Celebrations. But we’re back by popular demand for 2021! Thursday 10th June from 6pm at Fantail & Turtle - Smales Farm, 72 Taharoto Rd, Takapuna. It’s a great casual way to meet other Pinehurst Dad’s, have a relaxing drink and bite to eat. RSVP now and book it into your calendar! Future F&T have been confirmed for:
If you have any questions, please email sylvia.lum@pinehurst.school.nz Tennis Coaching - Term 2 If you would like to enrol your child for tennis coaching lessons, please see the information below and send an email to confirm enrolment.
Harp Weekend During the school holiday Year 10 student Seina, attended a Harp 3-Day workshop, with over 20 harp players from Auckland. At the end of three days, parents, family and friends were treated to a mini-concert. The event was organized by Anna Dunwoodie and guest tutor Carolyn Mills who is a member of New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. To celebrate May Music Month Seina will be participating in a series of Library concerts organized in Waitakere over the coming weekend. Badminton Superstar Over the school holidays, Year 7 student Shuyu (Elsa) attended two badminton tournaments and achieved very good results: Elsa currently ranks first for U13 Girls' Singles in New Zealand. Congratulations Elsa. NH Hockey U18 Premier Regional Representative Congratulations to Danielle in Year 13 who recently made the North Harbour Hockey U18 Premier Regional Representative Team. She will compete over the next couple of months in a few tri-series against upper North Island Teams and then head off to the National Tournament to be held in Wellington in July this year. Head Girl's Interview with AUT Millennium Our Head Girl, Charlie Toumadj was recently interviewed by AUT Millennium Swim School where she works. She talks about her leadership inspirations, balancing a busy lifestyle and her goals for the future. You can read her article here. |