Year 7-8 Interhouse Swimming 2021

Last Friday our Year 7-8 students made their way to the Northern Arena Pool for the annual Interhouse Swimming Event. Well done to Totara who were the overall winning house for Year 7-8 Swimming in 2021 – an extremely close result this year, with just 28 points between first and second place (Matai)! Congratulations to all students who took part, and a special mention to the students who were our overall medal winners this year. We also had some incredible times posted this year – and a total of 19 out of 36 school records broken! Arissa Liu broke all but one of the Year 7 Girls records, Julie Xiao broke 2 of the Year 8 Girls records, and Osbert Gu broke EVERY one of the Year 8 Boys records! 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 (Judge) for her time and expert knowledge. For additional photos from the day, please see our Pinehurst Facebook Sports Page

Basketball – Year 1 Rockets –          1 space available

We have 1 space available in our Year 1 ‘Rockets’ Basketball team for Semester 1 (Term 1 & Term 2). Games are played on a Monday afterschool at the NZ Breakers Gym (in Mairangi Bay). Boys & Girls very welcome & no experience necessary – a great opportunity to join a team and play sport with your classmates.
We will fill the place on a first come basis – please email TIC of Primary Basketball to secure a place! stacey.mcintosh@pinehurst.school.nz

Or for additional information, please click here.

What’s been happening in P8...

We have had a few busy weeks in P8. We even managed to squeeze in a lockdown.

Before lockdown we celebrated Chinese New Year, and the children thoroughly enjoyed making their Chinese dragons.

We read the story of Splat the Cat – back to school. We did retelling and sequencing of Splat and ended off the week by doing our very own Splat the Cats.

During lockdown we attempted to draw our Hei Tiki’s online which worked out to be a little tricky – so we managed to perfect them in class.

The hei-tiki is an ornamental pendant of the Māori of New Zealand. They are commonly called tiki by New Zealanders, a term that actually refers to large human figures carved in wood and to the small wooden carvings used to mark sacred places. (The word hei in Māori can mean "to wear around the neck".)

Week 2 Adventures in P9

Last week, P9 students became 2-D and 3-D shape models, botanists, and authors, just to name a few things!

In Science, they are learning about the parts and functions of plants local to their community, so set off one fine afternoon to explore the tree-covered hills behind their classroom. Soon, questions began flying:

• "Is this a seed or is it a fruit? Or is it both?" 
• "What would happen if trees had no roots?" 
• "Why do some trees have flowers and others don't?"
• "Does grass have seeds?"
• "Why does this lime tree have such long thorns?"

There were some fascinating discoveries made during their expedition, which were photographed or taken back to the classroom for further observation.

Our current Maths focus is Geometry; identifying the properties of 2-D and 3-D shapes, and what better way to understand vertices, edges and faces than making the shapes themselves, using our bodies? (Doubling as a great brain-break!) Can you spot the octagons, cubes, diamonds, and triangular prisms?

The Aliens are Coming! P9's Big Writing mission is to prove that aliens have really landed in Agent Max's garden, by writing such a detailed description that everyone must believe them. Collaboration of ideas and lots of planning talk makes for great writing, so this is exactly what P9 students did. They came up with some powerful adjectives and verbs, exciting openers and high-level connectives; I bet you can't wait to read their independent Big Writing...stay tuned!

Year 5 Camp at Carey Park

Last week the Year 5 cohort spent the week out in Henderson at Carey Park camp. The days were action packed and fun-filled. Students participated in whole group activities such as Rainbow Tag where the ‘good’ adults painted colours on your arm and the ‘baddies’ tried to catch you and wipe the colours off, sideline soccer with a jumbo ball, a camp wide relay which involved group challenges such as helping students up the climbing wall with a blindfold on, and a wipeout water challenge.

Students also participated in small group activities that included zipping down the flying fox, braving the confidence course, careful aiming in archery, firing air rifles, rock climbing, building and racing trolley carts, outdoor cooking, and kayaking. Any free time was spent racing down the hill on the slip’n’slide and enjoying the waterhole. It was awesome! 

Lakewood Lodge Year 6 Camp

Last week the Year 6 students headed off on a 5 day, 4 night camp, at Lakewood Lodge in Cambridge. 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. I’m sure it will be a memorable part of their school life.

Lakewood Lodge offered us 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 that the students experienced were rock climbing, kayaking, archery, flying down over a lake and surviving the night in a tent.  

A highlight of the camp was celebrating Waitangi Day, where the students participated in a Waka making challenge and then at the end of the week celebrating Chinese New Year with a delicious feast of fish, spring rolls, fried rice and dumplings.

The students all pushed themselves beyond their comfort zone and can be very proud of the way they conducted themselves at camp. It was lovely to get feedback from the camp staff who said our group of students were very respectful and had amazing manners. A massive thank you to all our fantastic parent helpers for your help and efforts at camp, you were all absolutely fabulous.

Music Itinerant Lessons Online

During the brief lockdown period of this week, our itinerant music teachers continued to offer their instrumental tuition skills through an online platform. Although some of the instruments are easier to learn than others remotely, the continuity of the process and the ability to maintain the rituals within the lesson is greatly beneficial to our students, some of which are preparing for their upcoming performance portfolios for their IGCSE, AS and A Level Music course.

To read about the itinerant lesson system and meet our fantastic team of itinerant teachers please click here. If you wish to enrol your child in either a music itinerant lesson or a music or dance co-curricular group, please complete the enrolment form at the bottom of this page.

Music and Its Wider-reaching Benefits

An article about a Chilean wine maker  - who played Mozart’s music to half of his fermenting grapes, in the process of making wine, and leaving the other half in silence, then bling testing the results with 9/10 tasters picking the “musically entertained” wine as the better tasting one  - is the reason why the year 8s are currently concluding their own research assignments into the various benefits of Music.  Some of them have been researching the benefits of Music on mental health, some have looked into which genre their pets prefer, have conducted their own experiments and compared their findings to other relevant research. Others have followed their passion for Gaming and experimented the impact of different music genres on their ability to improve their scores. The students will then present their findings to their peers with the goal to expand each other’s understanding of the benefits of Music.

*Photos were taken before Lockdown.

Tennis - Regional Representatives

Siblings, Hannah and Roger Lin, have both recently qualified to represent Tennis Northern Region at the National Team events to be held in Christchurch and Wellington in April. Best wishes for your upcoming games!