Friday 16 October 2020Opening Words from the Executive PrincipalKia ora tatou, good afternoon, 你好, 안녕하세요 Welcome back! This is going to be the busiest Term 4 we have ever had, so I hope everyone is ready for the next seven weeks. I watched three of our Primary netball teams practise under the cherry blossoms yesterday morning, getting ready for the resumption of Kidzplay on Saturday – we’re cramming our entire winter season into six weeks of summer. Then I popped into see Mrs Coxon and Mrs Du Toit for a forehead-scratching discussion about how we could fit in our Primary music concerts around the rescheduled Primary production of The Lion King. A few moments later, I had a chat with Judy Wallace, our Events Manager, about the Ladies’ Lunch next week and preparation for the Valedictory Dinner, and then ran up to College to talk to Mr Jaques, our Head of Maths, about staffing in Digital Technology next year. After school, I popped down to see our Under 19 A Basketball team take on the Waitemata Police team: a close-fought contest! On the way there, I dropped by the dance studio to see that the class of very keen five-year old ballet dancers had grown over the last few weeks. No, I’m not boasting about my job – though I do love both the variety, and the number of outstanding professionals and amazing young people I get to talk to every day. It’s more that I wanted to highlight the number of different kinds of things going on around the school grounds. Sports, productions, dance, parents events, concerts… and that’s only the broader life of the school. At the same time as this, we have had Year 4 and 5 Progression tests this week, as well as Year 6 and Year 9 Checkpoint exams, and a large number of AS Level and A Level exams too. From talking to the teachers afterwards, it seems that we’ve had the full range of straightforward, slightly more complicated and very definitely more difficult exams this year. It happens every year, and it’s always good to listen to the teachers pick apart the details of the papers, thinking and reflecting as they talk. This is a time of year that students and parents sometimes find quite difficult to navigate. Every student from Year 4 to Year 13 has exams, and it’s natural to be nervous about these. At the same time, there are only 7 weeks of the school year to go, and so we are all planning for the start of 2021. This means that parents and students start thinking about new teachers, new classes and about handling the transition to the next stage of education. It also means that parents start thinking and talking about these things too. The thinking, reflecting and worrying is all part of the transition process: we need to think ahead and anticipate concerns before we either come up with a solution or work out how to cope with the year to come. Our job – as teachers, school leaders, parents and whanau – is to make the transition process for students as smooth as possible. To be calm, to adopt a clear problem-solving approach, to encourage our young people to express their ideas, and then to help them to get to the other side. And to all parents: if you have a question that you need answered, or if there’s something that needs to be clarified, please ask the question that’s in your head. I promise you that it is worth asking. I’d like to finish by congratulating Jack Potier and Jasmine Lyles, both of whom won in their events at the Swimming Nationals in the holidays and who are now, therefore, national champions in their events! Andrew Qin, too, who only just missed out on a medal. And I’d also like to congratulate Shuan Liu, who won 3rd prize overall, and also the prize for the best performance of a New Zealand work, also in the holidays, in the New Zealand Junior Piano Competition. Eun Seo (Nicole) Choi and Yeonsoo Son both represented North Harbour Golf Club at the Girls Junior Interprovincial and their team placed 4th overall. Eun Seo also took part in The Carrus Open on the Jennian Homes Charles Tour finishing 2nd for the Women's Championship. Well done everyone! Ka kite anō au i a koutou. 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 Chess Nationals 2020Battles were fought in Mt Maunganui these past school holidays for the 2020 New Zealand Interschool Chess Finals. Our Primary team consisted of Nicholas Xu, Jerry Yang, Shuntaro Nozaki, Ivan Wu and Richard Zheng. Our Intermediate team consisted of Anderson Chen, Allan Chen, Soraya Su, Eric Sun and Osbert Gu. After seven rounds of games against schools from all over New Zealand, some tears, some frustration and a lot of excitement, our Primary team came 3rd winning bronze medals and our Intermediate team came 11th. A huge thank you to the parents and our chess coach Alex Huang. Well done everyone! Kia Ora, An action packed term for the Primary is in store and we are really looking forward to completing everything we set out to do at the beginning of the year. It was lovely to welcome the last of our New Entrant intakes and their families at the pōwhiri on Monday. The children are really settled already and the Term 3 students have been helping them as much as they can. Testing was the theme this week for Years 4, 5 and 6 and our students coped brilliantly. Year 6 were a little nervous on Tuesday with their first test but very soon settled into the swing of Checkpoint tests in Maths, English and Science; we are really looking forward to seeing how well they have done. Year 6 have worked hard despite being at home for many weeks during the year and they were really well prepared. We are so proud of them and their teachers. Years 4 and 5 will continue with their Cambridge progression tests next week and teachers will begin the process of marking and moderation before sharing grades with parents. Reports will go home at the end of the year and include comments based on in-class observations as well as tests. Timed testing is a snapshot of achievement and provides children with opportunities to learn the skills of test taking and to be able to demonstrate what they know. It is a part of the whole picture of assessment that takes place throughout the year. Rehearsals for Lion King are coming along really well and it is going to be a fantastic show. Costumes have arrived and are being organised by Mrs McKewen and Mrs Playfair, we will need some extras and will be asking for some talented parents to help us on their sewing machines. We will keep you up to date on how the show is going and when you can buy tickets. Putting on a performance with nearly 140 children is very challenging but the memories and experiences created will last for years to come. We have been trialling Big Read this year and will be using the resource across the Primary from 2021. Big Write has been a phenomenal success in terms of the quality of writing being produced in the Primary and the understanding our students have of how to use language features to improve their work. Big Read is having the same effect with very young children being able to read and understand unseen text to a much greater degree than we have seen before. As one teacher commented, “It makes my heart sing,” to see children achieving at such detailed levels. Have a lovely weekend. Ngā mihi, Sian Coxon, Principal of Primary P2 have had a flying first week back!Year 1 students kick started Term 4 looking at Fairytale stories. Concentrating on Little Red Riding Hood and Three Little Pigs there was lots of excitement in our class. The children have created story maps to help them retell the story and are able to include story telling language as well as amazing adjectives. We decided we would not like to meet the Big Bad Wolf! Our role play has been transformed into a cottage and we have loved pretending to be the characters in the stories. There are masks too – Can you guess who is hiding behind? In Maths we have begun to look at Fractions and have started to learn about halves and quarters. We have found halves and quarters of shapes and amounts and have used jottings to help us solve the problems. Science has been super fun this week! We are looking at plants and what they need to grow. To investigate this we have planted our own seeds and have put them in different environments to observe. We all decided that we think the plant will need sunlight and water to grow. It is going to be exciting to watch the plants each day and record what is happening to them. This week we hosted two other classes in P2 for our assembly. We sang a Spring song that we have been practising in music and wore the beautiful floral crowns that we had made in Art last term. Our presenters did a fantastic job and everyone contributed. Well done on your first assembly P2! Spring has Sprung, with a Burst of Positivity in P11!Term 4 started off with a buzz of excitement from the ever-enthusiastic Year 3 learners in P11. This week has been busy with reflecting and goal-setting, reading, writing and acting out playscripts, finding fractions of measurements then converting between millilitres and litres, identifying how we can reduce, reuse, recycle, sharing silhouette art and looking at how shadow and light falls on 3D shapes ready to practise sketching techniques to show this. (Amongst many other exciting learning happening in different areas of course!). Here is a little snapshot of our first week back... Landscape Art in P13Last term Year 4 students in P13 looked at different examples of landscape art. They had a go at sketching different types and learnt all about perspective and the horizon line. To finish their landscapes they used watercolour pencils and learnt the special techniques used in watercolour painting. Come and see all these wonderful works of art for yourself on display in P13! Great start for P20It has been a great first week back at school with lots of hype and enthusiasm in P20. During the holidays, the students spent some time revising and preparing themselves for their Year 6 Checkpoint exams. The focus this week has been sitting these tests. Some students love sitting these tests; others not so much, some are very confident; others not so much. One thing is for sure, all the students have worked extremely hard and certainly did their very best. Everyone is looking forward to all the exciting things that Term 4 will bring. Pinehurst FalconsYesterday, the Year 6, Pinehurst Falcons netball team, invited Coastesville school to play in a friendly netball game at school. The girls did extremely well scoring 8 goals and only having 2 goals scored against them. The Pinehurst Falcons defended well, showed great teamwork and sportsmanship during the game. This was a great opportunity for the team to have practice before the competition starts this weekend. Well done girls! Kia Ora, Welcome back to our final term of the year. The school has been busy throughout the holiday with excellent attendance at the Year 11–13 tutorials in preparation for this term’s examinations. The holiday finished with the School Ball on Saturday night at the Hilton Hotel on Princes Wharf. It was a fantastic event where all of the students looked amazing and their excellent behaviour further enhanced our school’s reputation. The dance floor was full late into the night and we will definitely be using the same venue next year. The first week back has been a vibrant one. Year 7–8 have settled back into good routines and our Year 9 students have now completed their mock examinations. Today is the last day of school for our Year 12 and Year 13 students. For some it is the end of a journey they started as 5-year olds in the new entrant class at Pinehurst. Later this term we will celebrate our Valedictory Dinner with these students and their families and take time to look back over the amazing journey that they have enjoyed. We will have our end of year examination week for our Year 7–10 students in Week 5 of this term. The timetable for these examinations will be placed on SchoolBox on Monday. Year 7–8 students will also have study guides available for them to utilise, while in Year 10, students will receive guidance and advice from all of their subject teachers on what to expect and how to prepare. On Wednesday afternoon we hosted an Auckland Police basketball team who played against our senior basketball boys. This was a fantastic event that was set up to help our students to understand the positive relationships that the Police aim to build within the community. As well as a great game of basketball the afternoon tea carried on until after 6pm as the students chatted and engaged with officers from road policing, youth engagement, and community roles. This term will be a busy one as we do everything that normally happens during Term 4 as well as catching up with some of the events that have had to be postponed throughout the year. We hope that you enjoy it and as always, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to be in contact. Ngā mihi, Kieran Verryt, Principal of College Weightlifting NationalsTwo of our college students represented Pinehurst during the holidays at the 2020 Secondary School Championships. Kaius and Ryan both had to compete in the snatch and clean and jerk events, with their scores being the combined total of both lifts. This was their first major competition and showed real potential in the sport. Kaius managed to PB in his clean and jerk, successfully lifting 61kg and came third overall in his weight category, receiving the bronze medal. Both boys train at Functional Strength Olympic with our school weightlifting club and are coached by Cam McTaggart. 2020 Pinehurst BallAfter numerous date changes, the 2020 Pinehurst Ball finally happened. On Saturday the 10th October a glamorous group of ladies and gentlemen arrived at the Hilton on Princes Wharf in cars, busses and even a white limousine. The ball theme this year was Botanical Dreams and the ballroom, reception foyer and photo backdrops did not disappoint. The food was delicious. When the ball committee discussed the food choices for the ball, they chose ribs and beetroot lasagne. Two unusual and daring food choices for a ball! You could just imagine a red stain on a clean white shirt or a beautiful ball dress, but the students were adamant in their selection and with relief it can be reported that all lasagne and ribs successfully moved from plate to mouth and that these serving dishes were regularly refilled. On the night, the following students were acknowledged by their peers and received the most votes for: King of the Ball: James Corles; Queen of the Ball: Isabella Abbott-Wheeler; Prince: Kyuwon Park and Princess: Phoebe Rees-Williams. The cutest couple was Skylah Smallman and Paul Kopilevich and the Life of the Party went to Harry Carter. It was a lovely evening that will leave lasting memories. A big thanks to the Ball committee for the countless meetings and work behind the scene. Well done team. A special word of thanks to Judy Wallace and Lisa Parker, for all their organisation in making the event run smoothly. Medieval TrebuchetOver the past 4 years, three inventive Year 12 History and Classics students have been building working replicas of ancient weapons of war. This year it was a Medieval Trebuchet. A devesting weapon made to pound down the walls of castles. Congratulations to James, Daniel and Philipp for the building, testing and firing of rather heavy rocks across their paddocks! Police vs. Student BasketballOn Wednesday after school the U19 Boys Basketball team played an Auckland Police team in a friendly game. The game was close, with both sides unable to get the advantage over the other. Despite trailing most of the game, the Pinehurst team managed to make a push in the fourth quarter of the game where a jump shot by Jake Thornell levelled the game 51-51 with little time left on the shot clock. The game went into overtime, where the police team were able to close it out, winning the game 51 – 55. It was a great way for the Year 13 boys in the team to finish their Pinehurst basketball careers. It was also positive to be able to interact with local youth and community officers after the match and discuss their role in the community. The match was such a success that it will now become an annual event with a trophy up for grabs for the winning side. I Spy... in the school.I Spy during the holidays... holiday programme kids having fun! I Spy in the Primary... Year 6 Scientists! I Spy in the Primary...Year 3 coders! I Spy in the Primary...Year 1 Artists! I Spy...students at the College Ball! Sports Teams PhotosAll 2020 Year 1-8 Sports Team Photos and photos for Term 4 Year 8-10 teams (Orienteering, Tennis, Volleyball) are being held in Week 2, on Monday 19th October in the Arena. Photos are scheduled between 8:45am – 12:00pm on this day. Please see the below timetable for details. All Coaches and Managers are very welcome to attend. We ask that students make their way to the Arena at least 10 minutes prior to their scheduled time. It is the student’s responsibility to attend wearing correct uniform, as noted on the timetable, and to ensure they know when their team is due to be photographed. Parents and Caregivers will have the timetable and details regarding required uniform emailed to them. Itinerant Music Lessons in Term 4As the more senior students go on study leave to prepare for their external exams, a limited amount of itinerant lesson slots are available for those who wish to learn how to play a musical instrument this term. Lessons are half an hour, once a week and provided by highly experienced tutors who guide your child through their learning process through a highly tailored programme. For a comprehensive list and information of what instrumental tuition is on offer at Pinehurst school please visit this page. You will find an enrolment form at the bottom of the page. If you have any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to contact marija.naumovska@pinehurst.school.nz Mum’s Fantail & Turtle Wine ClubThe first Mum’s Wine Club was held during the holidays at Fantail & Turtle in Takapuna. After a few successful Dad’s F&T events some of the Mums asked when an evening event would be planned for them. Lockdown meant that this was the second attempt at the wine club, and though some of our attendees went on a well-deserved holiday, we had 10 Mums ready for a break of their own. Thanks to all who came and made this night superb and a night well needed after the months we have had. If you’re interested in attending our Mums Wine Club please email sylvia.lum@pinehurst.school.nz to be added to the mailing list. We’re hoping to organise a pre-Christmas Bubbles Tasting event in November, so watch this space! Ladies LunchDon't forget to book your spot for the Ladies Lunch - Friday 23rd October! There will be prizes, a raffle, a drink on arrival, a lovely lunch, splendid views and the company of lovely ladies! Get a group of friends together and enjoy a wonderful day out. Dad’s Fantail & TurtleThis will be the last one for the year, so hopefully third time lucky and we will be able to end 2020 with another great bunch of Dads, but don’t worry Dad’s F&T will be back again next year! If you would like to attend please click on the link to RSVP or email Sylvia Lum. Pinehurst Christmas HampersIt is tradition for Pinehurst to donate Christmas Hampers to those in need. This year we have chosen the charity organisation, Foster Hope. This charity organisation collects new, unwrapped Christmas presents for children in foster care throughout New Zealand. Sadly, the festive season is a peak time for child protection agencies that are faced daily with the reality and severity of child abuse, neglect and crisis in our local communities. Foster Hope Charity aim to bring a little bit of sunshine and hope to our most vulnerable children when often hope is lost and grief and depression invade their little lives. We would greatly appreciate donations of non-perishable food hamper items, Xmas treats, vouchers, new toiletries, toys and games. Your contributions may be given to your child’s homeroom teacher from Monday, 19 October onwards so that we can make beautiful hampers to present at our Christmas Concert. Your generosity is greatly appreciated. PhotoLifeYour child should have received their online photo access key this week. Free delivery orders expire Sunday 26th October. Congratulations to Shuan LiuShuan (Year 13) was awarded 3rd prize and the Best Performance of a New Zealand Composition for her exquisite interpretation of No. 1 from 'Tone Clock Pieces' by Jenny McLeod at the recently held NZ Junior Piano Competition. Established by the Lewis Eady Charitable Trust (“LECT”) in 2014, NZJPC is a premier platform for young, emerging pianists from across the country. The competition took place at Lewis Eady, the home of Steinway & Sons pianos in New Zealand. Fantastic Golfing over the Holidays!Eun Seo (Nicole) Choi and Yeonsoo Son both represented North Harbour Golf Club at the Girls Junior Interprovincial held in Rotorua over the school holidays. Their team placed 4th overall. Congratulations and well done to Eun Seo who was also named Player of the Tournament. Eun Seo also took part in The Carrus Open on the Jennian Homes Charles Tour. This is a major golf tournament as it includes professional golfers too. Eun Seo had 4 amazing rounds of 64, 74, 69 and 71. This allowed her to make the cut of the top 60 players in a field of 144 players. On the first day, Eun Seo shot a 6 under round with a score of 64! The amazing 6 birdies in round one allowed her to sit comfortably in the top positions. She finished an impressive 33rd position overall, 2nd for the women's Championship. A real feat and great experience for a 14 year old in a tournament filled with adult professionals. NZ Swimming NationalsHuge congratulations to Pinehurst students, Jack, Jasmine and Andrew who swim for their club, Phoenix Aquatics, and achieved outstanding results at the recent Swimming NZ National Short Course Championships in Hamilton. Jack Potier (13 yr old boys) |