No images? Click here 10 September 2021Pinehurst School NewsletterOpening Words from the Executive Principal...Kia ora tatou, good afternoon, 你好, 안녕하세요 We’ve had one day of sun this week, so Thursday was Washing Day. The smells and textures of the cool spring winds came into the house with towels, t-shirts and jeans. I might be stretching things a little, but bringing the outside inside like this seemed to bring the end of our current lockdown a little closer. The wind heralds change, perhaps. Or maybe I’m getting rather too Mary Poppins about the weather! I want to start by thanking all of the Years 11-13 students and teachers for the way they’ve approached the assessments this week. The teachers have pivoted brilliantly and the students, supported by their parents, have shown their adaptability and resilience yet again. I’m confident that the process will have been worth it, and that our young people will benefit from going through these assessments. They will be finished by next Tuesday, and we will have marks on their reports out during the first week of the holiday, as planned. And a huge thank you to the Primary teachers for managing the delicate balance between the core curriculum and planning home-based activities as well as getting in some, well, fun! Lego challenges went well this week, and I hope your children have taken advantage of the Communications team obstacle course and cooking competitions. Some great entries so far… Thank you to the College teachers who are doing the same imaginative adapting of their lessons. I heard today that Dr Waddell was sending her Year 10s around their houses testing acidity, for example. There are so many activities going on that it’s impossible to keep track, and I’m immensely grateful to the teachers and to the students who are making it all work so well by responding with such enthusiasm. That’s not to say, though, that these weeks aren’t challenging, and I’d like again to ask you to get in touch with any of us if you have any concerns at all. We’re talking to our young people all of the time, and making sure we are connecting to our more vulnerable students as well. Just let us know if you need support. We’re all obviously waiting for next Monday, when we will learn whether we are going to be moving to Level 3 next week. As you know, we have a teacher-only day on Wednesday 15th, which could be the first day at Level 3, so we will use that to prepare to open the school to the children of essential workers on Thursday 16th if the move happens. Just to clarify, though: we will be continuing to teach a full online programme at Level 3. When we move to Level 2, we will be back in school and teaching a live programme, but with the full range of measures we need to put in place. There will be no online programme at that point. As you would expect, we are also continuing to reschedule events for next term. One date we have just managed to lock in is the 30th Anniversary Dinner. If we are at Level 1 at the time, this will now be held on Saturday November 13th at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Wynyard Quarter. It’s a change of venue, but we think a good one to make, and we’ll be able to run a lovely celebratory evening there. That’s just one of many things to look forward to next term! Enjoy the weekend, get outside as much as you can, and see you very soon!
Kia kaha, 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 DiaryKia ora koutou & good afternoon. Well, we are on the verge of a shift in alert levels. I’m sure many of our students, staff & parents are quietly optimistic about our impending return to life outside our family bubbles. A welcome return to normality for some, whilst others have become accustomed to such disruption. Whatever your ‘status of being’, dichotomous, or like me rolling in & out of multiple states, I’m sure we’ve all grown stronger, more agile & ready to flex & adapt when the time calls. While we strive to remain steadfast & positive in our changing places of work - whether it be bouts of inspiration or humour from our screens, or just playful banter between loved ones; the single greatest impetus for me during this lockdown has been the kindness shown from others. Despite the virtual barrier, our Pinehurst community has been just that…. a community. The willingness of others to reach out, support & offer help; to exercise patience & understanding has been nothing short of outstanding. As we approach the penultimate week of term, we continue our accelerated adoption of learning from home. We know it’s a complex affair. It is clear from our recent Lockdown wellbeing survey that there are pleasing numbers of students who are coping exceptionally well learning from home. Just over 70% of our students stated they have people they live with who can help them with their learning, while 90% say their ‘bubble’ is doing well. We also know there are students who are not. The survey helped us identify & reach out to those students, while also soliciting useful information to help us adapt our online practice. We’re nearly there. From Thursday next week, post senior assessments, all Y9 – 13 college students & staff will get the opportunity to vote for our Y13 Student Leaders for 2022. We have received & read just over 30 letters of application & 70 words of self-promotion. Towards the end of Term 4, post external examinations, the application process culminates with an interview with senior staff. The leadership calibre of this Y12 cohort is incredibly strong & one that we are excited about working with next year. And finally, we have a unique school holiday opportunity for those students in Years 5 to 8 who are interested in space & STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths). CASE Space Academy are offering a week long online field trip in each of the two weeks over the September/October holidays. We have considered the amount of screen time our students have experienced recently, but due to the uniqueness of this opportunity, we felt this would be an exciting prospect some families would be interested in. All Y5 to 8 families have been emailed the relevant information. Nga mihi, Joseph Johansen, Deputy Principal of College
Digital TechnologyYear 9 Digital Technology students have been learning how to create their own image filters like Photoshop. This involves some comprehensive programming where students manipulate their chosen images by playing with each pixel address within each image. As you can see from their examples of work, there is a healthy balance of Mathematics & Computer Science involved. Calling every pixel into play in their coding requires a strong understanding of algebra, before they cut loose creatively with the tint of colours they desire.
By Raymond Zhang By Churui Zhang By Yeenok Zhang College ChemistryStudents in Dr Waddel’s Year 10 class have been researching acids and bases in their current topic. They have been looking at indicators and using the pH scale. Each student was given the task of finding some information on a substance that had a particular pH and putting the information onto a shared slide on Power Point. The next lesson they got to make an indicator at home from various plant materials such as blueberries, beetroot and red cabbage etc. Once they made the indicator, they went around their house looking for substance to test the acidity level. Using common materials from their kitchen, bathroom and laundry they placed a small amount of their indicator into each sample to see what colour the indicator went. From here they could determine if the substance was an acid or alkali. They took photos of themselves making and testing the indicator which they added to the same shared Power point. The next lesson when they came to class, they were able to present their findings on their indicator and the substance they have researched. It was lovely to hear the students talk more in class.
Year 7- Year 8 Touch Rugby Registrations
‘Touch’ is a non-contact sport derived from rugby, in which players do not tackle each other but instead touch their opponents using their hands on any part of the body, clothing, or the ball. It is a great sport for students to learn fundamental ball skills (catch/pass) and teamwork in a safe and fun outdoor setting.
Kia ora tatou, There was great excitement on Tuesday morning in the classes that I teach and I know the same was true across the Primary, because it was the first of our Lego afternoons this week. Normally the full day, we took the opportunity to split into two afternoons to break the week up for our Primary students. There were lots of activities to choose from and a fair amount of right brained creativity mixed with the left brained logic needed to construct Lego structures. If you have time as a family there are Lego documentaries to watch, from memory a good one on Netflix about the house that Lego built, and a fascinating insight into the world of Lego builders and competitors in the many competitions held around the world. Then of course there is Lego Masters which is in a league of its own. I have vowed one day to build the Parisian restaurant, cinema and maybe carousel from the Lego Creator range, that would be bliss! Lots of Lego builders are free range but some of us like the challenge of following the instructions, a bit like following a recipe I suppose, to create something impressive. I can’t wait to see what has been produced by the end of this afternoon’s session. We can tell that some students are getting a bit tired now, it has been a long stretch of being at home and not being able to play on the playgrounds and interact with friends. It will be good for everyone to have some downtime on Wednesday next week. We are still though, really impressed with attendance rates and engagement online, we imagine we have seen everyone’s cat, bird or dog by now but sometimes they appear again for a chat and that’s ok. Just a reminder if you could, especially with older Primary children to check they are keeping their cameras on. If we get a message from you that they aren’t attending the lesson we know not to call them in but we need to see them to engage and keep them on track especially if you are busy and you think they are working. We are all working together to make sure we continue to provide opportunities to learn and to the follow the programme we had planned for the term. When we are eventually back at school we do expect to do all of the activities we had planned for Term 4 as well as slot some in that we have missed. We will have the Y4-6 Speech competition, parent conferences and in some format hopefully the Y3-4 production. It will be busy and involve lots of communication but we will make it work so that students don’t miss out on the events they are looking forward to. I am sure everyone will just be excited to be back. Huge thanks to the Primary teachers who are continuing to think of ways to connect, engage and facilitate learning. They are superstars, passionate about their classes and constantly looking for the positives. I admire their patience and kindness with our young children as I know many of you have commented. Have a fun afternoon and a great weekend. Ngā mihi, Sian Coxon, Principal of Primary This week in P2P2 has successfully settled into Online Learning. Their teachers are incredibly proud of them and very impressed with their developing computer skills as they navigate Teams. Last Friday, P2 had fun learning a new skill, we had students learning different dances and making origami dogs! Some students became mini chefs and learnt to make lemonade and delicious cupcakes. P2 is thrilled that it is Lego Week! We watched the inspirational, true story behind the Lego creator and were inspired by his perseverance. The students have then been exploring the different Lego activities. A popular choice was making a Lego boat and testing whether it would float in the bath. P2 is a very talented class so we decided to hold a talent show to share our talents. We had students doing gymnastic tricks, playing musical instruments, and sharing complicated Lego creations. In Literacy, we have been reading about two little aliens – Billy and Splodge, who go on an adventure to discover animals on Earth. Our focus for literacy this week was to identify problems and solutions within stories. The students identified that the problem in our story was that the aliens got trapped up a tree while a tiger circled below. The students then suggested ways the aliens could solve their problem. We read the rest of the story to discover the aliens distracted the tiger with tasty pies while they escaped. The students created their own story maps for this story and practised retelling the story aloud. We practised up levelling boring sentences by adding incredible openers, wow words and connectives – check out some of our improved sentences! On Thursday we had our Big Write – check out our amazing writing! In Mathematics, our Year 1 children have been busy writing addition sentences for arrays and our new entrant children have been learning and making 2D and 3D shapes. In Science, the students have been learning about the forces – push, pull and twist and identifying how different toys need different forces to work. Well done P2- keep up the amazing learning and the great enthusiasm. What’s been happening in P8We have been busy online learning really hard and have also had fun in between the learning, here are a few pictures of our ‘new normal’. We’ve celebrated Wacky Wednesday and we dressed up anyway we wanted. We also had a Lego Fun day where we were given some ideas and then we began creating! And lastly we had some crazy, wacky superheroes – can you guess who? Lockdown Learning In P12!P12 started the lockdown journey by amazing me once again with their determination and dedication to learning. Thank you P12 for taking risks, and sharing on the spot, I know it is not easy for some of you, but you again persevered. Bravo, again you made me proud! In cross group maths, we are learning to solve two-step word problems. In our class we read the problem carefully, visualise, underline the keywords, circle the numbers and decide on the operations. We usually do a couple of examples together before we start the assignment. Here is an example: “The Snack Stall starts the day with 5870 hot dogs to sell. After an hour, it has 3276 left and after 2hours, it has 1085 left. How many hotdogs were sold?” Again a huge thank you P12 for creating learning opportunities not only for yourself but also for others by sharing your working out Live! In homeroom maths our class is working on statistics, data gathering, drawing graphs and interpreting data. Here are some examples from our online Live lesson.
In Writing, we are working on poetry, recognising the structure for different types of poems. In addition, as we learn a new poem, we learn new language and skills. On Friday, for Fathers Day, our class started learning all about Cinquain poems. Take a look at our poetry! Our Fridays are usually creative writing, where our class still has creative/ powerful Success Criteria to meet. P12, you are becoming fabulous writers, you are using strong language to engage the reader…
By Issac Fathers day card, by Edward Niu. By Justin By Laura By Catrina In Reading, we have started reading a book called Charlottes Web. We are enjoying listening and taking part in the journey along side Fern, a young girl, and her loyalty and love towards a runt, she called Wilbur. We are learning to expand our own vocabulary by picking out unknown words in the story. At the end of each chapter, P12 has learnt to summarise the chapter in three short sentences.
In Art, we are learning to draw a puppy by following step by step instructions and then adding our own artistic touch. Art by the artists in P12! By Joyce By Sabine By Catrina By Eugenie By Laura Primary MandarinThe topic for Year 5 and Year 6 MFL students this term is Family Members. We are very good at saying and writing sentences about when each of our family member’s birthday is. Currently we are learning different adjectives to describe people. Can you guess which word is our favourite? We enjoyed the Astronaut word game a lot and one person scored 1066 points on this. How impressive was that! Chinese first language students of Year 5 read some passages and poems about goose and insects. Whereas the Year 6 students read passages 《山羊长大了》 and 《双手和大脑》. They learned how to build some complicated sentences using given words. Both year levels practiced typing Chinese characters with the help of Pinyin. Primary PE
During lockdown we are more sedentary, spending hours on our devices sitting on the couch or staying in the house, therefore it is important that we are trying to exercise at least once a day. PE for our Year 4 – 6 has been a mix of specific sporting skills, using equipment found around the house to exercise with their families for an extended period of time. Getting up and moving our bodies is important not only for our physical wellbeing but also our mental wellbeing as well. Our Year 4-6 have also been participating in sport challenges that require them to use their fundamental movement skills utilizing different component of fitness seeing who can achieve the highest scores in their classes and year groups. The pictures and videos of our community getting outside and enjoying physical exercise has been a pleasure to see and is an important part of our lockdown lives. Keep making time for PE and physical exercise and I can’t wait to see the different sports your able to do with your families at home. Primary Touch Rugby RegistrationsRegistrations are NOW OPEN for Year 1-6 Touch (Term 4). NB – the proposed Monday night Primary Term 4 Touch module will only go ahead in Alert Level 1.
Teacher Trainee Mr Swindells signs off next weekMr Swindells has been with us since the start of the term and he has taught the Year 7-11 music classes over the past few weeks. The students have benefited from his extensive performing experience as a guitarist, singer, composer, session musician as well as his interest and ability to use music technology in crafty ways. After 7 weeks at Pinehurst, he will be teaching one final week with us, next week, before completing his Teaching Diploma. A very big thank you to Mr Swindells for making online learning fun this term! JC Music Concert featuring Jennie on the PianoA number of very talented Year 7 and Year 8 students auditioned and were selected to perform in the annual Junior College Music Concert, which was to be held in on the day we went into a lockdown. Those students will be featured in the newsletter over the next few weeks, to celebrate their talent and effort. Year 9-13 Sports PrizegivingUnfortunately this event, which was scheduled to occur the last week of Term 3, has been cancelled. Even if we are back at school for Week 9, we will still sadly not be able to host our annual Sports Prizegiving. For Year 9 & 10 students we will try to present some of the awards in assemblies throughout Term 4. The other awards will be presented at the main End of Year Prizegiving. PhotolifePhotolife have extended their free photo deliveries to school offer until the 19th September 2021. If you have not yet received your Keycode to enable you to order your child's photos online then please contact dawn.edmonds@pinehurst.school.nz Orders will be processed once we reach Level 3.
Pinehurst School Leavers MementoAs Pinehurst celebrates 30 years of memories and milestones, we are celebrating by launching a new range of NZ made jewellery that has been exclusively designed and handcrafted for Pinehurst by Meghan Balmer from 58 Facets Limited. Each item is made in NZ of sterling silver with a handcrafted pinecone pendant to represent our school and the seeds that come from ‘our Pinehurst’ – which is the name for a grove of pine trees. The necklace includes a 50cm cable chain and a solid pinecone pendant – both in sterling silver. A silver sterling pinecone lapel pin is also available, which arrived the week before lockdown. This has yet to be photographed but we will get this image to you as soon as we can. We are offering pre-orders for these items to our School Leavers as an initial launch to this exclusive range.
If you are interested in putting through an order, or have any queries, please contact sylvia.lum@pinehurst.school.nz Get into outer space these school holidaysCASE Space Academy Term 3 Holiday Programme for Y5 - 8 students Harbour Hawkes LacrosseSo exciting to see so many have registered to play club this season! First open training will happen when we are at the appropriate COVID levels. |