News and events for the week ending 14th June 2019 Friday 14th June 2019 Opening words from the Executive PrincipalKia ora tatou, good afternoon, 你好, 안녕하세요 I’m going to begin with an apology: this week’s newsletter has again not been translated into Chinese. Translations will begin again next week when June Wang returns from her holiday. I would, though, like to start by mentioning Dragon Boat Festival: I know I’m a week late, but you will see pictures of some yummy looking 粽子 (zongzi, or rice dumpling) in the newsletter, and I was lucky enough to enjoy eating one of my own last Friday. The newsletter today is packed with a huge amount of activities and learning, but I think I’ll mention a few lessons I saw in Junior Primary and in College this week. On Tuesday, I wandered through most of the Year 1 and 2 classes: amongst other things, I saw children learning about time-telling in Mrs Watters’ lesson; Miss Dobbins’s class learning Spanish; Miss Lewandowski reading a book (about a polar bear with a name the children found very funny) to half her group, while Mrs Aston was working on developing fine motor skills with some of the other children; Mrs Nasir giving her class a spelling test; and Mrs Boniface and Mrs Lay had their class doing loads of different literacy activities. It was wonderful to see so much high quality learning taking place, and the children were all keen, happy and engaged. In College, I stopped off in an A Level (Year 13) Maths lesson to start with. I didn’t understand anything, of course: I’m much more comfortable with medieval poetry than with Year 13 mechanics… There were nine students in the class, and Mrs Perrin was teaching and working alongside them as they developed some of the most advanced maths skills you will find in a school classroom. It was a lovely place to be. I then popped into Mrs Koopen’s Year 11 Biology class to see the students dissecting sheep’s hearts, connecting the experience of working with real flesh and blood with the detailed diagrams they had constructed in their books. The students were so absorbed in what they were doing that they didn’t notice me suddenly appearing behind them to ask questions. And my last stop yesterday was Mrs Blackwell’s Year 8 class, who were learning about the differences between coronary and pulmonary circulation. It was a lovely class to be in, and I loved the way that the students were exploring their understanding with each other and with Mrs Blackwell: there was a real sense of exploration and of learning together. It was the first performance of Much Ado About Shakespeare at the Pumphouse Theatre last night, and I’ve been told how great it was, and how funny, by everyone who was there. If you haven’t got tickets yet, there are still some available for tonight, and both performances tomorrow, though the Saturday night tickets are selling out fast. If you’re there on Saturday evening, I’ll hopefully see you there. I want to end with more ‘thank yous’. To the teachers and parents who are making sure that our students are enjoying a really successful winter sports season: sometimes we win, sometimes we lose, and we are always positive, always learning, and always having fun. To the parents, too, who have attended or are about to attend our very busy open days and transition evening: your presence at these events has transformed them, and I’m hugely appreciative of your time and commitment in engaging with prospective parents, and explaining to them a little about our school. And a reminder that we have our Year 6-7 Transition and Information Evening on Wednesday June 19th: we look forward to seeing you there. Enjoy the newsletter (there are even more wonderful pictures this week than normal). Have a lovely weekend. Ngā mihi, Alex Reed Alex Reed WEEK 8 Tuesday 18 June
Wednesday 19 June
Thursday 20 June
Friday 21 June
Saturday 22 June
WEEK 9 Monday 24 June
Thursday 27 June
Friday 28 June TERM 2 ENDS Kia Ora, This week I have read over 400 reports which sounds like an onerous task but is actually very enjoyable and gives me a great overview of where we are as a Primary school in terms of learning and wellbeing. In my role I get to read a variety of reports from other schools when new students come to enrol and whilst there are pros and cons of different formats, what strikes me when I read ours is the depth of knowledge our teachers have when writing about core concepts and the grasp they have on each individual’s learning. One of the changes we have made this year has been in the homeroom teacher comment. This is an opportunity to write about each child as a learner and gives an essence of what they are like as a child in the context of school. It is also a place to focus on a child’s grasp of the key competencies from the New Zealand curriculum. These are; thinking which includes talking about learning, asking good questions and using thinking tools; understanding language symbols and text; managing self which is all about goal setting, staying on task and taking responsibility for learning; participating and contributing, where students take responsibility for their actions and the consequences they have and relating to others which is about listening, sharing and working in a team. One of the comments I have seen quite often is that a student should be ready to take responsible risks and be willing to make mistakes. This is really important for us all to remember at home and school even though for us as adults it can go against the grain. Perfection and getting things right the first time are very highly valued in today’s world; mistakes are to be rubbed out and hidden, glossed over and rarely spoken about. What if we flipped that thinking and celebrated our mistakes, threw a party and congratulated ourselves on our failures? Why should we do this or even think about teaching our young people to do this? Because this is the time that real learning takes place. When I make mistakes nowadays I might indulge in telling myself off for a while but then always remember to look for the lesson and make a plan to try something different. We have all heard the stories of how many novels J.K. Rowling submitted before she wrote Harry Potter and how many attempts Edison had at the lightbulb before he was successful. Mistakes are very much a part of the learning and if young children are afraid to make them they will not progress at the rate they could. Next time your child makes a mistake take a minute to stop and say, that’s ok, what have you learned? Please take the time to read through your child’s report with them and celebrate all the things they can do, use the next steps for learning to set goals with them to be even better and enjoy the progress they are making. If you haven’t made a conference time with your child’s teacher yet please go to the parent portal and choose a time. We look forward to seeing you there. Ngā mihi Sian Coxon, Principal of Primary FlippaballFlippaball players wanted, Year 4-6 Boys or Girls. Flippaball is a modified version of Waterpolo, students must be strong, confident swimmers. If you would like to find out more information please contact Kelly.lindsay@pinehurst.school.nz Year 3 & 4 Basketball TeamLast Friday the Pinehurst Firebirds played the Birkdale Breakers. It was a game where sportsmanship stood out. The Firebirds were expecting six players to turn up. However only four were there. The coach from the Birkdale Breakers asked if we would like players from their team to play for us; they had nine players. The offer was gratefully accepted. The four Pinehurst players played the whole time, they were racing end to end. When they finally got a break at half time the score was 4 -10 against us. The coach from the Birkdale team wanted to make the game fun for everyone so he started subbing all his players onto our team. By full time the score was 12 -14. The result was fantastic as the players all had an exciting game to play and the parents got a nail biter of a game to watch. Many thanks for the sportsmanship shown by all the players, to the coach from the Birkdale Breakers and to all the parent supporters from both teams. A special thanks to Marco, Stanley, Peter and Harry who never gave up and hung in there the entire game. Left to right - Nathan, Noah, Marco, Harry, Peter, Stanley and Jaden (absent Te Rangi). Primary BasketballWould your child like to play basketball? We have limited spaces available for Year 1-6 in Semester 2. If your child is interested or you would like more information please email Teacher in Charge of Basketball – Ms Stacey McIntosh at stacey.mcintosh@pinehurst.school.nz . Year 1 Antarctic InvestigationThis week in P5 our Antarctic Adventure mission was to investigate which material was the best at insulating our cup to keep our hot chocolate hot as we observe wildlife in Antarctica. We learnt how to write a method, conduct an experiment - making sure we kept it a fair test and record the results to finally write a conclusion. There were some very enthusiastic scientists in P5 who eagerly participated in the experiment and confidently wrote up their findings. Having completed our experiment we then could start the best part of the mission - making hot chocolate. We worked in pairs and orally rehearsed what we needed and what we had to do using ‘bossy verbs’ and drawing pictures to help us sequence the steps. Great work explorers! P7 HandwritingYear 2 are having a “Happy handwriting’ week. We are all trying to join our letters and make our handwriting neat. We are loving Happy handwriting! P14 Self PortraitsIn Art, Year 4 have been creating comic book style self-portraits inspired by American artist Roy Lichtenstein. We started off by tracing around the main features of ourselves on a photo using a sharpie. Once we were happy with how this looked, we traced our outline onto a blank piece of paper and used natural light to help us with transparency. Surprisingly, we found this task to be more challenging than we had initially thought it would be. We had to keep our hands steady and draw smooth lines, while remembering to draw what we were seeing and not what we thought we looked like. After a few attempts, we were ready for the next step, painting! We used cotton buds to help us create Lichtenstein's dots all over our faces. For the background, we used coloured pencil shavings and the blending technique. Come down to the Year 4 classes to see more creative self-portraits. That’s Life!This week, the Junior Primary students have enjoyed visiting the Life Education caravan to catch up with a favourite friend, Harold the Giraffe. For our youngest students, it was their first visit and it was such an exciting event, that they couldn’t sleep the night before! P1 and P4 learned all about their bodies, sharing ideas with Harold about how their body works. They learned new vocabulary such as, muscles, skeleton, brain, bones, heart and healthy. In Senior Year 1, the focus was learning about the concept of change and how it makes them feel. Students had the chance to discuss and develop strategies to cope with changing circumstances. They took part in resilience building activities and learned how a positive attitude helps them to deal with change, both at home and school.
Learning about the brain was an interesting lesson for the Year 2 classes. Harold was most impressed at how much prior knowledge they already had, and the students just loved interacting with the virtual brain.
And of course, no visit to the Life Education Caravan would be complete without the much-anticipated activity book! We can’t wait for visit number two next week! Year 6 Experience ShakespeareYear 6 were lucky enough to be invited to a sneak preview of Much Ado About Shakespeare at the Pump House Theatre to prepare the College students for their first real audience. Our Year 6 students watched the second act in awe and responded with the appropriate reactions at the appropriate times. Many were delighted by the thrills of murderous sword fighting scenes and giggled at the romantic moments and the narrating fairies. Thank you to our wonderful budding thespians for entertaining us and lots of us will be back to see Act 1. Science this week in P9We have been learning all about Day and Night. The students have learnt that the Sun is at the center of our solar system and all the planets orbit around it. Earth Obits around the Sun and rotates on its axis as it travels. One side of the Earth faces the Sun, while the other side faces away into space. The side facing towards the sun is bathed in light and heat - we call this daytime. The side facing away is cooler and darker and experiences night. A day on Earth lasts 24 hours - that is how long it takes for Earth to rotate around once. The students have been researching this concept using non-fiction books, websites, and videos. We have been using our new knowledge to present our learning in a variety of ways, including -acting the Earth's movements, creating models, writing explanations and creating reports using the Pages app. Super Cluster Cross CountryThis week 45 of our Year 4-6 students traveled to Westlake Boys to compete in the annual Super Cluster Cross Country event against 7 other local Primary Schools. This was our first time at this venue, and our runners did a great job on an unfamiliar course, against tough competition. Congratulations to all Pinehurst Runners, with special mention to Olga (Year 5 Girls) who finished 5th overall out of over 60 runners. Thank you to Mr Taylor for helping prepare students for this event, and to all our wonderful parent helpers who looked after the runners on the day. I Spy in the PrimaryI Spy …. Maths in the Junior Primary! I Spy...testing their senses in P11 - this week - taste! I Spy...Harold the Giraffe with a new friend! I Spy...creative construction! I Spy...some fun ball skills happening on the courts! I Spy...Gabrina and Emily in Dinosaur Land! Kia Ora, Last night I went to the College Production of Much Ado About Shakespeare, it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening. Thank you to all the parents and teachers who have supported the students enabling them to perform successfully on the night. Well done to Mrs Cannon who works tirelessly to ensure it all comes together successfully. Those of you attending tonight or tomorrow are in for a real treat. You’ll experience numerous tales of love, lots of sword fighting and much death. And for the first time in the history of Pinehurst productions a live animal on stage. Well done to everyone who was involved whether front of stage or back stage. On Wednesday morning all Year 7, 8 and 9 students attended a performance entitled “Poetry in action”. This was a 1 hour performance from one of Australasia’s premier touring theatre companies. The three performers were able to use performance to bring poetry to life in a fun, exciting and engaging way. At this time of year transition becomes a key focus for the school. In particular students transitioning from Year 6 to Year 7 and from Year 8 to Year 9. We also have a significant number of new students joining from neighbouring schools. Thank you to all the parents and students who attended Tuesday evening’s Year 8 transition to Senior College evening. On this coming Wednesday evening we will be hosting current Year 6 parents and students. Providing opportunity to experience our Junior College. During the day on Wednesday we also host our College Experience Day. This is an opportunity for students from outside Pinehurst to spend the morning at school with us. Currently we will be welcoming 24 students to the Pinehurst Experience Day. Ngā mihi, Chris Wiggin and Kieran Verryt Principals of College Y8 Students raise just over $3,000 for Starship HospitalAs part of their Service Award, Year 8 students Jack Potier, Jasmine Rose Lyles, Kris Lu and Ethan Ying swam 10km last Sunday morning at the Millennium pool to raise funds for Starship Hospital. What an incredible effort! They would like to thank all those that supported them financially and those that also came to the pool to cheer them on. Shadowtech Day 2019Last Friday Charlotte Toumadj, Pranuja Tahal, Ashleigh Bernacchi and Hannah Lin took up the opportunity to participate in the 2019 Shadowtech Day. Shadowtech provides girls in Year 9 -11 with an opportunity to experience what working in the technology sector is like, encouraging them onto education pathways that lead into tech sector roles. The programme connects secondary school students with people working in the tech sector, who act as mentors, allowing them to experience a day in the life of a technology professional. It educates girls about the wide range of careers and opportunities available to them. A record 250 girls gathered at Diocesan School for Girls and began the day listening to short presentations from a number of young women who are working or studying the tech sector. Following this, representatives from 50 different Tech companies collected the small group of students who were going to spend several hours visiting their workplace. The Pinehurst girls were fortunate to visit Microsoft and all returned excited and inspired by the people they had met and what they had seen and experienced. “We got to try HoloLens.” “Meet new people with similar interests and have the chance to network.” “It was interesting going to Microsoft because it is such a big tech company. It is a laid back but a very productive workplace – everyone is encouraged to try something new.” “It was interesting to hear how people have got to where they are now – their back stories.” The Pinehurst Rotary Interact ClubThe Rotary Interact Club at Pinehurst meets every Friday to discuss the best ways to fundraise for charity collections. As part of the Rotary organisation, our group tries to educate their fellow students and collect for one international and one local charity. In Term 1, our students helped organise a Quiz night at Pinehurst school raising over $2600. Now they are embarking on a collection for Women's Refuge. This was from their own consensus of opinion and it is an absolute pleasure to view how these students gather together to demonstrate “selfless good” for others. The College collection starts in Week 7 and concludes end of Week 9 of Term 2. Every POD class have been asked to bring in any items useful for mothers and their children who have been forced from their homes by domestic violence. Year 9 Chinese First LanguageTo celebrate the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival. Year 9 Chinese First Language class students made “Zong zi” decorations in class. “Zong zi” is a traditional Chinese food that is made of sticky rice stuffed with a meaty filling or red bean paste filling wrapped in bamboo leaves. Many Chinese people eat zongzi during the Dragon Boat Festival to commemorate Qu Yuan, a famous poet. Enviro GroupThe Enviro Council are currently working on a community garden in the primary area. We have made a brief start by planting coriander, rosemary and thyme in one of the wooden planters and we plan to extend the garden across the 6 planters available. Our aim for this project is to raise awareness amongst our younger students about the benefit of growing our own food and help them to understand the value of maintaining these gardens. Year 7-8 Rippa and Tackle RugbyThis Wednesday, some of our Year 7 and 8 students took on other North Shore Intermediate schools in the North Harbour Zone Day for Rippa and tackle rugby. We are extremely proud of our rugby players. They never gave up, improved game after game, and strung some nice phases of play together to score four outstanding tries over the morning. We look forward to continuing their progress next term. Auckland Secondary Schools Golf Stroke Play – Round 2The second round of the Auckland Secondary Schools Golf Stroke Play was held out at Muriwai Golf Club. The conditions were superb with the sun shining and no wind, making it a great day to be out on the golf course. Our students, Yeonsoo Son, Jaewoo Son and Towa Usui had amazing rounds. Congratulations and well done to Yeonsoo, who place second overall in the Women’s competition narrowly missing out on first place by one stroke. JC Netball UpdateOur JC Netball season is now well underway. This season we have 3 teams in the Junior College. With grading games now complete, our Year 8/1 team is competing in Grade 1 for the first time in a number of years. Their first game against Northcross 8/2 was outstanding, with Pinehurst winning by 10 goals. Our Year 7/1 team are playing in Grade 2, and also had a great start to the competition rounds with a nail-biting win over Belmont 21-18. The Year 8/2 combined team had their first win of the season in their first competition game, 15-8 over Belmont. Well done to all players, coaches & managers involved. Fuji Xerox Netball Experience DayEarlier this week, 10 lucky Year 9 students were invited to attend a morning training session with some of the Northern Mystic Netball Players. The first hour and a half involved being put into groups with other schools to complete a training rotation. They then played games of Fast Five Netball. Before they left, each player received a gift bag of goodies and were able to obtain signatures from the Northern Mystic players. A huge thank you to Fuji Xerox for organising this event. NH Zone Day HockeyOver the past week, both our Boys & Girls JC Hockey teams competed in the annual NH Zone Day events at North Harbour Hockey. The girls had a very tough pool, but after a win in pool play they qualified for the cross over games, winning their final game of the day to finish in 11th place. Our boys team won 2 of their pool games, and played off for 7th / 8th. In a very evenly matched final game against Orewa they narrowly went down 0-1, to finish in 8th place. Thank you to Mr Elliot, Mrs Heslop, Emily & Jan for supporting the students at these events and to Senior College students Danielle (Girls Coach) William and Emily (Umpires). Hockey 1st XIWith the starlings in the winter boughs, announcing the arrival of the gently enveloping evening with their frenetic dusk chorus, we were reminded of the poem by Mary Oliver (Starlings in Winter) “…I feel my boots I want to think again of dangerous and noble things. Then the shrill whistle chirped into action and Rosmini and Pinehurst carved their weary paths relentlessly from one end of our blue plastic pitch to the other. Once again Pinehurst fired the opening volley. Young Mr Benson drilled a fine shot dead on target from almost the half way mark and CJ with hands quicker than a brown fox jabbed his stick into the path of the speeding ball. Half a second later the elevated projectile hit the top of the back net behind the Rosmini keeper. The move was a classic and an ‘absolute stonker’ as one of the Pinehurst supporters called it. The opponents were not going to be shaken by this goal. Soon Pinehurst were playing their ‘not to lose’ game but the possession was at least 80 percent Rosmini. There were flashes of brilliance from Pinehurst and all of the team, with no reserves to call upon, worked hard but they were out skilled and out manoeuvred. The final score was a fair and just reflection. Three goals to one was still relatively close. The game was played in good nature and with fine spirit. As the starlings fell silent and the teams wistfully dispersed I wondered next week will the team want to think again of dangerous and noble things, or were they going to be light and frolicsome? We await the next match to see if either of these will come to pass. In Music this WeekOver the past week five Pinehurst students, ranging from Year 9-13 competed at the regional Chamber Music Contest. The Contest is an iconic secondary school musical event held annually throughout the country in June. It celebrated its 54th anniversary this year, and it features inspiring youth music-making in action. Well done to Chang Liu who competed with students from other schools in a chamber group and Shawn Yang, Kelly Zeng, Petra Damianovich and Alena Androsova for representing Pinehurst as a Flute Quartet. Click here to see the Pinehurst Flute Quartet in action on the day. Dads' Fun JumpThanks to all the dads who came with their children to the Fun Jump event last Friday. It was a fun night of jumping for all the kids and many of the dads, with spot prizes and pizza to finish.
Uniform ShopHoliday hours:
10am - 2pm each day Young EntrepreneurPinehurst Year 8 student, Amelie Wells was recently mentioned in the Harbour Hospice newsletter for raising over $600 for Harbour Hospice services in the North Shore community by selling hair scrunchies. Five years ago, when Amelie was six and her To read the full article in the Hospice Newsletter see here and scroll down to page 5. Synchro SuccessSiena Schiltknecht (Year 7) recently competed at the North Island Synchro Champs in Tauranga. Siena's team won gold in the U12 team event - Siena's first North Islands experience! Congratulations Siena! |