Friday 22nd May 2020Opening Words from the Executive PrincipalKia ora tatou, good afternoon, 你好, 안녕하세요 I’ve had moments this week when I’ve forgotten that these are unusual times. The school has been full of life and laughter; the students have been working hard and enjoying seeing their friends again; staff have settled quickly into our adapted routines. It feels a little quieter than usual, perhaps, as students stay in their designated areas, reducing movement around the school; and the flashes of red, black and yellow tape around the place are a visual reminder that things are a little different. But I think we’ve managed what we set out to achieve when we opened up early last week: we wanted our students to feel that school was ‘close to normal’, and that’s how it feels. We also started sports again this week, and we’ve had great turnouts for hockey, gymnastics, basketball, netball, hip hop, sprint training, badminton and weight training. Our production rehearsals have started up again too, and we have a plan for a shortened production at the end of Term 3. As you will hopefully have seen in my email on Wednesday, we are loosening our restrictions a little next week, and dissolving our year group bubbles the week after. This will enable our co-curricular activities to have a more recognisable shape, and we expect competitive sports to resume either later this term or (for most sports) at the start of Term 3. The document I sent out on Wednesday is available here on our website – please make sure you have a look at the changes we’re making over the next two weeks. All of the changes we are making are in line with current Level 2 rules: we decided to continue our policy of taking extra precautions at every stage, and this gives us the flexibility to loosen our restrictions as the situation nationally continues to improve. Our planning also gives us the ability to tighten them again if the situation worsens: if we needed to, we could shift up a gear within 24 hours because we have our measures in place. I hope our approach makes sense: it’s fundamentally about keeping children and families safe at the same time as ensuring that our precautions offer students a full, rewarding Pinehurst education. Please let me know if any of our changes need more explanation or clarifying. I want to mention some highlights of life at school this week. The cheerful greetings and farewells from hundreds of students and parents every day; the chalk artwork that seems to be on every inch of concrete around Primary; literacy and numeracy lessons in Year 1 and 2 classes, students managing their own learning; experiments in just about every Science lab I’ve walked past; Senior College students happily complaining about upcoming tests (yes, there is such a thing as complaining happily – it’s a default mode for some teenagers); and 20 five year olds settling into P1 and P2 as if they’ve been at the school for years, completely oblivious to the fact that they haven’t had the usual settling-in routines. They’re part of the Pinehurst community and they behave, as they should (!), as if they own the place. It’s wonderful. As we move quickly back to normal, our Admissions Office heads into its busiest time of the year. We will be running a “virtual open day” in a couple of weeks – more details to follow next week – and we are of course very happy to take prospective parents on private tours. We are interviewing 2021 Year 9 students in June, and 2021 applicants for Year 7 in July, and welcome applications at all years. We have waiting lists in Years 1 to 9 at the moment, but if you know someone who is thinking of sending their child to our school, now is a good time to get in touch. I’m off to look around some classes and enjoy the crisp air and late morning sun now. Kia Ora, What a beautiful week it has been, crisp in the mornings and warm sunshine by the afternoons. The playgrounds have been well used and it has been lovely to see so many smiling faces. In one my of lessons a student asked me if I preferred teaching online or in the classroom. There were some benefits of working online, I commented that it was quieter at times in our virtual classroom but that I missed the interaction. I asked them which they liked more, some liked the quiet and joked about the mute button but the favourite part was going to lessons in pyjamas. I didn’t risk it but I must admit it was tempting. One of the really positive aspects of our online journey was the opportunity to develop relationships with students and families. There was something about us all going through lockdown together that seemed to bring us closer, a shared experience undoubtedly but one that will have plenty of benefits to learning for the rest of the year. Teachers have commented on how well they feel they know their classes now we are back and how easy it has been to transition to the classroom. Young students especially, learn better when they feel connected and safe. They want to know that their teacher knows them, cares about them and likes them. Happy children make the best learners and we will continue to build on the relationships we have been able to build in order to get the best from our children. We are looking forward to a visit from Harold and the Life Education programme in the coming weeks, although it will be a little bit different with Harold visiting the classrooms rather than us going to see him in the van. The theme of the programme this year will be based on building resilience, how the brain works and managing emotions. A very timely topic considering what is going on in the wider world at the moment. We are expanding our bubbles next week into syndicates which will give us more options at break times and returning to full winter uniform. I will write home today with details. Have a great weekend. Nga Mihi, Sian Coxon, Principal of Primary P11 is Back!The P11 students were bubbling with excitement to be back last week. There was a lot of discussion about challenges they faced over the past two months, and how there will be more, but they have learned how to be strong and use strategies to overcome them. Students shared some of the things they found really challenging, (the ‘dip’), how they managed to overcome these challenges, and how it felt. They decided to share these feelings in a positive way to remind others how it feels to get through a challenging situation and come out the other side stronger. Sometimes when we are faced with a challenge, we learn more and grow more than we could ever imagine! “We want to come to school on Saturday and Sunday. Actually every Saturday and Sunday. If the teachers are doing stuff with their families then they could bring them along too and we could all be at school together. We just want to stay at school forever now” - Mimie and Isabella “I was so excited to go back to school. I couldn’t wait to see all my friends and learn new things! At school the teachers can work with us and give us feedback and help us, AND we can chat and play with our friends. I am so happy.“ - Ravenna P9 Writing about LockdownP9 has been talking about our feelings during lockdown and all the things they could and could not do. Most of the children agreed that they missed their friends and of course “Takeaways”. We also discussed how this was a once in a lifetime event and they would look back on this time and tell their children and grandchildren what it was like. Of course, it is difficult for them to see that far into the future. Some of the children will have bought home “flexitangles” that we have been making. This intrigued the children as to how they worked and took a bit of time putting together. We have also been talking about symmetry and have written our names in symmetry then decorated them to look like aliens!!! Emoji Pop ArtThe students in P14 were very excited to be back at school last week and they all had so much to share about their experiences during lockdown. To help us explore how we felt during this period, we used Andy Warhol’s pop art as inspiration to create our emoji pop art. We quickly discovered that different students had different interpretations of certain emojis, this led to some interesting discussions. There were a range of emoji faces used for our art and each one that was chosen had a personal emotion and story behind it. This was a great way for us to share our feelings and remember our lockdown memories. Cactus Art in P17Our Cactus Art is coming along well. We began last week with practicing sketching out the shapes, before moving on to different perspectives. Our work consists of multiple sizes of cactus to differentiate between those that are closer and those that are further away. After sketching our basic plan, we began our paint work. First, we started with mixing colours to make unique shades to block out our background. The aim was to use shades that we knew our green coloured cactus would stand out on, so most of us went bright and bold! Next we painted our cactus base colours. We used various shades of green or natural colours. From here, we started looking at where a light source was coming from, slowly adding yellows and whites to shade certain areas of our plants to illustrate this clearly. Our final step is going to be to add texture! We will use darker and lighter shades to show the spikes and additional details of our cactus collection. They’re going to look awesome once we’re done! P19 AssemblyTuesday saw P19 having a private class assembly. Sorry parents, we could not invite you into the assembly bubble! We finally got to present certificates and medals to the three P19 students who did so well at the Inter House Swimming Gala, last term. Sophia Wang and Celina Lee were third equal overall for Year 6 girls and Clarence Zhu was second overall for the Year 6 boys. Congratulations go to these amazing swimmers. The class were entertained beautifully by two students sharing their musical talents. Yicheng Wang played Sicilienne on his violin, and Sunny Chung played Poco Adagio, by Haydn and Minuetto by Bach on her viola. We were also entertained by Grace Clark, Celina Lee, Jessica Picard and Sunny Chung as they acted out their own skit, “The Covid Ducks”. This provoked much laughter in the classroom. There were also Merit certificates handed out to the class for achievements and effort made during their on-line learning and from their class work since they have been back in school. It was an entertaining “assembly” and a big thanks must go to the entertainers for performing with very little notice. Primary MusicIt has been wonderful to be back in the classroom playing musical instruments. The Year 1 have been playing percussion instruments, the Year 2 students are learning how to play simple B, A and G songs on the chime bars. The Year 3 and 4’s are learning the recorder and the Year 5 and 6 students are learning new chords and strumming techniques on the ukulele. I Spy in the PrimaryI Spy... leaf pom-poms! I Spy...Junior Primary children playing and exploring! I Spy...Year 6 writing about their lockdown experiences! I Spy... the Rainbow Reading children enjoying being back at school! I Spy...Year 1 creating Antartica! I Spy...Year 3 making marble art! Kia Ora, This year the college has moved to one uniform phasing out the old grey uniform of the junior college. Looking around the school this week it has been great to see how good the uniform looks as one college. I have had many conversations with our Year 7 boys about how they are coping with learning to fix their tie each morning. We have maintained flexibility with our uniform expectations for the past week and a bit to allow families the opportunity to buy new items as we have moved from our summer to our winter uniform. From Monday we will expect our students to be in the full winter uniform, with the one exception that some students do not yet have blazers as we wait on new supplies. Yesterday during our normal assembly period we had academic mentoring sessions with our senior students. This involves staff meeting one on one with students to discuss their academic progress, challenges, successes, and future plans. I always enjoy these sessions and I was once again very impressed with the four Year 13 students that I spoke to. They were all able to articulate the positives and negatives of their learning experience during lockdown and all of them had clear plans and targets for midyear tests that take place in two weeks. Our students are incredibly well supported by our careers programme. In the college, students engage in lessons on careers from Year 7 onward. The lessons are planned and taught by our Careers Counsellor, Mrs Griffiths. From Year 11 onward all of our students have 1:1 interviews with Mrs Griffiths to identify their strengths, their interests, aspirations, and potential pathways beyond school. My niece and nephew are Year 12 and Year 13 at an excellent state school and neither of them have yet to speak to a careers counsellor during their high school journey. In comparison our students are incredibly well placed and supported to transition into the next stage of their learning. I believe this is reflected in the range and quality of Universities that our students move onto after school, and also in the success that they have in the next stage of their education. A snapshot of were our alumni of the past five years have moved on to is captured below. Nga Mihi, Kieran Verryt Sprint TrainingSprint Training sessions have resumed for Term 2. “This programme teaches students correct techniques for development of Speed, Agility and Power, so students can apply these skills in their chosen sport(s). Personal Fitness development will be an integral part of the programme” As at next week we can offer this programme to both Year 7 & Year 8 students for the remainder of Term 2. We do have some places still available – please contact kelly.lindsay@pinehurst.school.nz to register or for additional information. Year 11 GPEYear 11 are relishing the chance to be active and play sport again – this term they are participating in a range of net games, starting with volleyball. Teams are competing in a mini tournament whilst developing the techniques and skills required to be part of an effective team. Interviews with Science StudentsAlex Dong, Year 11 Physics, on being back in school: “Its better than doing online classes, we can learn more stuff. I’ve enjoyed doing experiments and more interactions between teachers and students.” Danielle Wheeler, AS Biology, on the transition to coming back to school: “Its been a pretty smooth transition to be honest, we’ve caught up with the things we didn’t go over as thoroughly in online lessons and we’ve carried on with the syllabus. I’m definitely happy to be back in school, the class discussions are better, everyone chirps in and says their part” On practical work: “Practical work has been good, we’ve done experiments individually so we had to wait to use microscopes and collect chemicals while social distancing but we did it pretty well.” Anson Ji, Year 8 Science, on the first few lessons back: “Coming back to science the first lessons were a bit rough if you had to catch up a little but the teacher helped us catch up so we’re all fine” The best part about being in school for science: “Now I get to do practicals and work with my friends and I find that really helpful” What was good about online lessons? “Everything was online so if you left something at school you didn’t have to worry” Olympic Weightlifting Year 9-13This term we have received more funding for our weightlifting club which gives students the opportunity to be coached by Olympic and Commonwealth Games medal winning coaches. Olympic Weightlifting is a sport that requires coordination, strength, power, stability, flexibility, and mental fortitude. With quality coaching and supervision, Olympic Weightlifting is safe and can serve to benefit youth motor competency and long-term athletic development. It is a sport for everyone with a low incidence of injury and the ability to cater to a wide range of physical proportions and body compositions. If you are interested, please speak to Miss Murray to register your interest. We are offering taster sessions for those students who wish to try it out before committing to registration.
More information for parents can be found here. College Art & DesignIn IGCSE and A Level Art & Design, students are busy completing their coursework portfolios. Here are a few exceptional examples of the work being produced by our dedicated, and very talented students. In Music this WeekAPO Virtual Play-In During the lockdown period, the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra celebrated their 40 year anniversary with a virtual play-in. Congratulations to Matthew Verlaguet-Troncoso (clarinet) and Benen Sitarachiyanon (violin), both from Year 9, who took up the challenge, auditioned and were selected in the final mix. For this special event, over 250 participants from across the world appear in a video playing with APO counterparts to create a mass online community orchestra performing Radetsky March by J. Strauss Sr. The music was specially arranged so that everyone could join in. Click here to see them perform. Updates from Pinehurst ConnectionSibling Photos Rescheduled Sibling photos have been rescheduled for:
A reminder email will be sent out to parents closer to the date with further details. If you would like more information or have not completed a PhotoLife Sibling Form, please email sylvia.lum@pinehurst.school.nz. Dad’s Fantail & Turtle The next schedule event on Thursday 28th May has been cancelled. Hopefully we will be back to near-normal next term and the scheduled Term 3 event will take place. This has been booked for Thursday 20th August from 6pm – a reminder email will be sent out to Dad’s who have registered interest of this event. If you would like to receive emails and updates on Dad’s Fantail & Turtle evenings, please contact sylvia.lum@pinehurst.school.nz. After School CareAfter School Care for Primary children starts up again next week in syndicate year groups. If you would like to use this service please don't forget to book through enrolmy here. Year 7 Football (Soccer) players wantedDo you want to play Football (Soccer)? A group of mostly Pinehurst students who play for Albany United (Club) on a Saturday during the Winter Football season need a couple of extra players for 2020. The team play & train on a Saturday. If you are not already playing Saturday (Club) Football and you would like to join a team please email Mrs Lindsay kelly.lindsay@pinehurst.school.nz or (students) pop in to see Mrs Lindsay in the Arena Sports office. Your name will be passed on to the team manager, who will be in contact with further information. NZ Ocean Swim Series – North Shore 3km Open Water SwimJack Potier competed in a 3km Open Water Swim competition last weekend held at Long Bay. Well done Jack! |