No images? Click here 21 May 2021Pinehurst School NewsletterOpening Words from the Executive Principal...Kia ora tatou, good afternoon, 你好, 안녕하세요 Hundreds of young people have been running around the school grounds over the last couple of days. Yes, it’s been time for our annual cross country experience. All students from Years 3 to 10 have to complete the course (it’s obviously a bit longer for the older ones), and there’s also the chance for Year 11 to 13 students to compete. We’ve seen red faces and fierce commitment; last-minute sprints to finish with a flourish; and, with rather less of a flourish, a small group of students who preferred to walk rather than run. It’s an autumnal ritual, marking the movement from one season to another: congratulations to all those who took part and gave it everything they had. We had a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) day in the Primary School on Wednesday: many thanks to Mrs Jones-Hill and to all of the Primary teachers for their imaginative approaches to STEM classes. We teach all of the STEM subjects as part of our curriculum, of course, but it’s also good to set a day aside to take a more investigative, enquiry-led approach. We often talk about this: we aim to blend the Cambridge curriculum, with its emphasis on literacy, numeracy and science, with an inquiry-approach that develops students’ independent learning skills. As with everything we do, the emphasis is on balance, and there was some wonderful thinking on display on Wednesday. Balance is also the key with our senior students at this time of year. The Mid-Year Exams are the week after next, and I know that there’s a lot of hard work (and, occasionally, a little worry) taking place. At this stage of the students’ courses, it’s important for everyone to keep a sense of proportion: our teachers will set exams that have the right expectations for this stage of the year, and our parents can help us by encouraging our students to have good study habits, as well as by making sure that their children stay calm, sleep and eat well, and do plenty of exercise. There are a few events next week to note: the Year 6 to 7 Transition Evening is on Tuesday 25th, and we look forward to welcoming current Year 6 students and their parents to a tour around College and a brief presentation from 6pm. On Wednesday 26th, the Parent Yum Cha event is on at the Grand Harbour Restaurant: over 100 parents are going already, so please see the notice later in the newsletter for more details about how to book. And a week later, of course, on June 1st, we have the Senior Primary Music Concert! I saw the Orchestra in rehearsal yesterday; stumbled across an audition for the Primary production on Wednesday, and was sent a great link to one of our younger students singing his heart out in a recording studio. Pinehurst music is pretty wonderful, and I can’t wait. 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 Diary Week 4 Kia Ora, There has been a lot happening in the Primary this week that is for sure. Our Year 3 and 4 syndicate will get their turn for production this year and will be delighting us with their performances of Pirates at Noon which is a Magic School Bus story and very appropriate to their age group. Many students volunteered to audition for main parts and we were thrilled with their singing and acting abilities. Every child in Year 3 and Year 4 will have a part in the show as we like all children to experience the theatre and develop their confidence in front of an audience. Memories will be made and bonds forged through the sharing of a common experience. STEM day was an exciting highlight this week as was Cross Country. The theme of flight on STEM day, STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths lent itself brilliantly to a whole range of learning experiences in and out of the classroom. Science experiments were taking place in many classrooms including one particularly fascinating one on the Y6 playground which involved getting a balloon to fly across a piece of string. There were lots of discussions about the height of the string, where it was attached on the climbing frame, adding wings to the balloon to make it go further (this actually worked) and how much air to put into the balloon. There were paper planes galore and questions about how to fold the paper, the angle to throw the plane and how pointy the end should be. There were stories, poems, art, singing, coding, problem solving and the exploration of flight through P.E. It was a wonderful day to learn new information or apply existing knowledge and has inspired many students to develop their interests in flight more deeply. Today has been a typical cross country day, wet and drizzly and great for running around the fields. I was chatting to my teenage son last night about his experiences of cross country and remembering how at five years old he started the race facing the wrong way and lost his shoe on the course. He and another friend ended up dancing and laughing around the rest of the course but he did complete it and as was always his goal he said I didn’t come last mum! Some students have been training for months and absolutely love longer distance running, others don’t relish the idea of running so far but hopefully they will all enjoy the atmosphere, getting some points for their house and most importantly some physical exercise in the fresh air. Being able to run the event on site is a huge plus for us as is the opportunity for families to spend some time watching their children. I was very pleased to read some Year 4 writing this week that demonstrated the value of the resources and teaching methods we use to help young children to become proficient writers. We use VCOP extensively in classrooms to craft quality writing. V stands for vocabulary choices, aiming for increasing levels of sophistication; C is connectives and how we connect sentences and bring writing together; O is openers and how we begin writing to draw the reader in and P is for punctuation and how that helps the reader to engage with writing. VCOP has led to student agency as they look at their own writing to ensure they have the important ingredients for good writing, and has led to increasingly sophisticated sentences where children are showing the reader what is happening rather than telling. It is very exciting for us to see the progress and achievement levels of our students in writing. Kia pai to ra whakata, have a good weekend. Ngā mihi, Sian Coxon, Principal of Primary Year 6 Spanish Our Year 6 students enjoyed assembling a traditional South American cookie called an ‘alfahor’ in Spanish class. The students had been learning all about food and how to say what food they like and dislike. To finish the topic, we tasted these scrumptious alfahores which everyone really enjoyed! Me gustan mucho los alfahores! The best part is the dulce de leche inside – a typical south American caramel spread – It’s delicious! An alfahor consists of two biscuits that taste similar to shortbread with a caramel spread in the middle, coconut around the edges and a sprinkling of icing sugar on top. The kids had a great time getting to try traditional Hispanic food, so much so, that it was requested that Mexican burritos be prepared for the next class. STEM Day in the Primary It was with great excitement that STEM day took place in the Primary. The Primary council have been hard at work researching suitable activities, videos and even songs connected to our theme of FLIGHT. Budding scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians could be seen at work. Classroom teachers started the day with an immersion experiment using a balloon, straw and a piece of string. Students were challenged with the following question: ‘Rocket Balloon’ ‘Does increasing or decreasing the number of breaths into the balloon affect the speed and distance travelled?’ It was fascinating watching our students recreate that experiment and decide on a number of variables they could add to alter the outcome. Archie in Year 3 decided to add an extra balloon to see if that would increase acceleration. Next time you see Archie ask him what he discovered. Senior Year 1 students were fascinated with the hair dryer and ping pong ball trick. It seemed magical to see the ping pong ball hover on the hot air of the dryer. Students had great fun trying to see if they could also get the ball to seemingly float. Paper planes could be seen whizzing through the Primary whilst challenges were set to see who could throw the farthest and which design of plane could give the longest hang time. Many budding engineers were seen making changes to initial designs in the quest for flight supremacy. During lunchtime, the librarians had a giant screen ready, and the students were invited in to have a brand-new book read to them by an astronaut on the International Space station. This was a live broadcast simultaneously shown throughout New Zealand and Australia. We are now getting excited about the up and coming LEGO Day in Term 3. Animal Safari This term in P1 and P2 our theme for learning is Animal Safari. On Monday, a very special package arrived in P2. The P2 children were very excited to find out what was inside. There was a small note attached to the box that said - "Please help, my daddy can’t look after me". We opened the box and found a large, white egg inside laying on a bed of soft snow. Next, the class tried to guess who the egg belonged to. We gathered all the clues we had – the egg was on snow, it was large, and the package was from a dad. We decided to do some research into what animals lay eggs, we discovered that many animals lay eggs – turtles, chickens, crocodiles, and Penguins! Through our research, we discovered that Emperor Penguins only lay a single egg. They live in Antarctica and the daddy looks after the egg while the mummy hunts for fish. We then predicted that we had an Emperor Penguin’s egg, and we were right! In Science, we continued with our egg theme learning and investigated how strong eggshells are. We conducted a science experiment to test the strength of eggs which involved staking books on top of eggshell. First, we predicted how many books an egg could hold before breaking. When we tested the eggshells, we discovered that they could hold three hard covered books before cracking. Following on from this, we watched baby chickens hatching from their shell and used our observational skills to notice how the baby chicks break open their shell. In writing, the Year 1 children wrote fact files about penguins. Their focus was to write facts in full sentences and attempt to use a simple connective to add more detail. The New Entrant children labelled the parts of a penguin. All the children used their phonics knowledge and ‘Fred Fingers’ to help them spell new words. Next week, our animal safari learning will continue, and the children are going to read the book Monkey Puzzle and discover all about animals and their babies. STEM Day in P4 This past Wednesday was STEM Day for Primary. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths. We had a day filled with fun activities. Our favourite experiment we did was with a hair dryer, ping pong ball, and a paper cylinder. First, we held the hairdryer straight up, with the air on. Next, we put a ping pong ball in the middle of the hairdryer and watched it float in the air. While the ball was floating, we used a paper cylinder and placed it over the ball. We watched and cheered as the ball shot through the cylinder up in the air! Our next activity was folding a paper dart. We had our best listening ears and watching eyes as we watched a video and folded our paper darts together as a class. After we finished decorating, we went outside and had a class paper dart race. Harry ended up winning both races! Well done Harry. Finally, our last activity for the day was making paper pinwheels. We got to pick what colour we wanted them, colour and decorate, cut them out and then put them on a stick. We watched them fly in the wind. We had such a fun STEM Day in P4! We can’t wait to do it again next year. Busy couple days in P8 On Wednesday this week we had our very successful S.T.E.M Day - S = Science T = Technology E = Engineering M = Mathematics Our theme was - FLIGHT We attempted to follow instructions for making different paper aeroplanes. We all then had a competition to see whose planes could fly the furthest. We focussed on S = Science and our experiment we did was on Air Resistance Can you use a hair dryer to float a ping pong ball and then get it to shoot through a cylinder? We each had a turn to attempt this experiment and this was heaps of fun (please attach video) In Art we are learning how to use observation to draw a realistic object. We chose sunflowers this week: The children had to
Here are a few pictures of our completed sunflowers... STEM Day in P10 “Ms McIntosh, what does S.T.E.M mean?” This was a question many of the students in P10 curiously asked. Iona confidently explained that it was Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. Eyes grew wide with interest and the classroom was instantly filled with excited voices. This year’s theme was FLIGHT. To build our excitement we watched the video clip - Paper Airplane World Championship. Students created a Wonder Wall so they could investigate their questions when they made their own paper plane. We learnt about gravity and force, too much force makes the tennis ball go too far and you miss the hoop and making paper planes was not always easy. We discovered when we release air from a balloon rocket, the force pushes the ‘rocket’ and weight at the end of a ‘paper seed’ makes a difference to how the ‘seed’ falls. P10’s day was filled with discovery, planning, designing, sharing, problem solving and fun. Fun-filled and exciting learning opportunities in P14 Global Perspectives and Health This term we are exploring a variety of ‘Relationships’ focusing on friendship and how humour keeps us healthy. The Big Write Our mission this term is all about “Superheroes”. WALHT uses powerful verbs and adverbs that add detail and impact to our sentences. Here are some examples of our expanded sentences… He found himself flying over the thundering sky, high above the nesting gulls, he had no idea where in the world he was… Ravenna I was hovering high above the lovely silk clouds (which were not white but a forever changing colour of the rainbow). Leo Slowly I descended down the rickety stairs, a terrified frown on my face… Ryan Li Suddenly he leaned left and the book ripped, the scary words faded…He cried but the tears glued all the pages together… Oliver Reading During Reading we have been focusing on finding contextual clues that help us to work out the main messages and ideas in the text. Maths The focus at the beginning of this term has been on decimal fractions and decimal equivalents, developing our understanding of how to convert between these and develop our understanding of the place value of whole numbers and decimals. Computer Science We are currently exploring the concept of coding and have begun to do this unplugged (without using a device). We are surprising ourselves with what we are discovering. STEM Day We all decided it was a wonderful way to extend our understanding and knowledge of flight through the lenses of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. We followed procedures on how to make a rocket balloon, explored air resistance through a variety of paper plane designs (including our own) and watched a hair dryer display air resistance holding ping pong balls in the air… this is just a taste of what we experienced throughout the day. Lego-Dacta In the Year 2 Lego Dacta programme, the students are learning about simple mechanisms and how they help make life easier. Last term we explored gears. We learnt how to mesh the teeth of two gears to make them turn together forming a gear train, about how the size of the gears effects speed and how to gear up and gear down a simple machine. The students discovered that gearing up produces speed and gearing down produces power. Popcorn carts were built with spinning signs to attract customers and merry-go-rounds were built for our figurines to enjoy. This term we have been learning about wheels and axles. We discovered that single axles allow machines to travel in a straight line but are difficult when sharp corners are present. Separate axles allow for smooth turns around sharp corners. The students had fun building wheel-barrows and race cars and exploring their purpose and needs. In Year 3, the Lego-Dacta students are continuing their exploration of simple mechanisms and how they work in machines. They have been exploring levers. They have learnt about the components of levers: fulcrum, load and effort and how the class of the levers is defined by which component is in the middle. A first-class lever has the fulcrum in the middle of the load and effort, a second-class lever has the load in the middle of the effort and fulcrum and the third- class lever has the effort in the middle of the fulcrum and the load. We have been identifying simple machines that would fall into these three classes. The students have been building catapults, deckchairs, drawbridges and drumming machines as real examples of first-class levers. Winter Netball Last Saturday saw our youngest netball players took to the court for their first ever game of netball. Luckily for us Year 1’s play their games in the Arena, so we do not need to worry about a spot of rain or wind making us chilly. We were so proud of all of our players who not only took to the court but demonstrated their passing and catching skills. We even had a goal scored in one of our games. We know that our teams will grow in their knowledge of the game and development of skills from week to week. Our side-line supporters were very encouraging, and we thank them for making it such an enjoyable experience for all. Kia Ora, On Tuesday this week I enjoyed being a panel member as our four Young Enterprise Teams practiced their pitches in the Library Boardroom in preparation for their presentations at AUT on Thursday. The teams are marked on four categories: Business Idea, Marketing & Sales, Production and Finance. All four teams demonstrated confidence and did a fantastic job of promoting their unique product and the ethos behind it. We look forward to the feedback that they receive from the judges at AUT and the launch of their products. Alongside this, our five teams in the Business Case Competition are making progress and it is great to see our Year 11-13 students engaging in their commerce subjects beyond the classroom. College is now well into the positive groove of Term 2, which is a busy one for students. With Production rehearsals, band practices, debating, councils, and sports in full swing our students are kept very busy. For our senior students approaching midyear examinations it is important that they maintain their balance. Life does not go on hold during midyear examinations, and it is important that students continue with all of the commitments that they have made. All practices and fixtures will continue to take place. Not only is it right that students maintain their commitment, particularly when others are depending upon them, but it is also good for them to continue to do the things that they enjoy as they put in a bit of extra study for examinations. There is a lot of support for students at school and if they are struggling with their commitments or balance, they should speak to their teachers or other support staff at school. We look forward to another busy week next week with the addition of our transition evening for Year 6 families as they visit the college. Lots of our students will be in classes for the evening on Tuesday to ensure that the primary students enjoy their first look at the college. If you are picking up your children late because of this, thank you very much for your support. Nga Mihi, Kieran Verryt, Principal of College Year 7 Mathematics Year 7 students have been learning about equivalent fractions using Numicon. Students made many connections and saw relevance to real life, in particular fractions always relate to pizza! Young Enterprise Scheme On Thursday 16 passionate young entrepreneurs headed off to AUT North campus to present a pitch for their start-up businesses. Their challenge was to give a 5 minute pitch to judges who are local business people about their business ideas. They have worked extremely hard to prepare thoroughly for their pitch. Sarah Chung from Botanical Boxes, explained “We presented our prototype and business plan, and got valuable feedback on how to use a cohesive market strategy and promote our values throughout the business activity. Today was a brilliant experience for each of our team members as we gained practical knowledge and we cannot wait to launch our amazing self-care boxes!" Sneha Balia from Cara Jewellery “We have had an exciting day networking with participants from other schools and sharing our business ideas. Working as a team, has provided us with an opportunity to expand our learning, gain speaking confidence, and also the ability to improve our business acumen”. Well done to all four of our groups. They represented Pinehurst extremely well and we are very proud of each of their efforts. Student Council The Student Council has been working hard to organise and host a Cultural Market Day. It will be held in the gym at lunchtime and will be filled with cultural bites, drinks, and music to celebrate the diverse range of cultures we have at Pinehurst School. Students are encouraged to host a stall or to come to experience our Cultural Market Day. To hold a stall, sign up forms are on schoolbox. On the 18th June, the Student Council will also be hosting a new event, the Cultural Night. This is a night lush with performances by students for other students and their parents. The entry fee is $2 and proceeds will go to the World Vision Charity. If you want to play an instrument, dance, sing or anything in-between, sign up using the form on Schoolbox. Kia Ora, Danke, θανκς, ありがとう, thank you, 谢谢你. Zone Day Cross Country On Tuesday 18th May Mr Dawson took a small group of five dedicated runners to the North Western Zone Cross Country Competition. Although the weather looked rough earlier in the morning, it was fine for the races making conditions good. Juniors competing were Ivy (Year 8), Amelie (Year 10), Jasmine Rose (Year 10) and Jack (Year 10). Bridget (Year 13) competed in the seniors. Although there were a few nerves all five students gave it their best against some tough competition from several schools. Well done to Ivy who got an excellent 16th place out of 65 students who were a year or two older. Girls First XI Football Another cracker of a game by the girls first XI football team this week. Our ever increasing support crew shouted raptures of joy as we scored first. Our defence was put through its paces as Mahurangi put the pressure on, scoring to equalise. It was all on in the second half, a battle between two well matched teams. Fabulous saved goals from our goal keeper, fast breaks though the middle, physically contested encounters for ball possession but unfortunately it went Mahu's way by the final whistle after an expertly placed free kick in the final stages of the game. Thanks to Mr Quirk for reffing the game and to the amazing parents, friends and teachers who came down to support us on our home turf. Next week we have another home game, so look forward to seeing more Pinehurst Blue on the sideline. Wednesday 26th May 4.00pm vs Orewa. College Production C1 has been a busy hot spot with production poster photos, set and rehearsals all taking place. Our set workers have been priming our drama blocks in preparation to paint small scenes on each side of the cubes. Poster photos were taken last Thursday and was an excellent chance to catch some of our cast in full costume. Running a production definitely takes a village to get it to its final product, and we’re incredibly grateful for all the student and teacher help.
This term we are focusing on Basel/Larval Masks. These are full face masks that originated from the carnival scene in Switzerland. These masks will utilise improvisation skills learnt last term and push the use of physicality. Basel masks can be very challenging as they are a silent tool, requiring students to progress and tell a story through their use of mime. Pinehurst enters the Annual Chamber Music Competition Both the Beethoven Trio and the Flute Trio have entered the Chamber Music Competition this year, held 11-12 June at the Raye Freedman Centre at Epsom Girls’ Grammar school. The Beethoven Trio will perform Beethoven’s legendary third movement from the Op 11, No 89 series with Winston (Yr 11) on the piano, Yu Zhang (Yr 10) on the violoncello and Matthew (Yr 10) on the clarinet. The have been coached by Marika Balzat, our violin itinerant teacher for a year on the material, some of which is quite virtuosic, and will compete at the competition on Friday the 11th of June from 11.30am-1pm. The Flute trio comprising of Petra (Yr 13) on the flute, Kelly (Yr 13) on the flute and Emma (Yr 9) on the piano will perform The Two Rivers by Rozman - a 20th composer from Slovenia whose instrumental writing in the piece has passages that could make even the most experienced performers a bit nervous. Coached by Christine Mori, our itinerant flute teacher, the group will perform on Saturday the 12th of June in the 12.30-2pm session. Audience members are welcome to attend free of charge. If you would like to enrol your child into violin or flute lessons, you can read through the information found on this page and complete the enrolment form found at the bottom. Christine Mori – Flute and Chamber Music Itinerant Teacher After studying and teaching in Australia, Ms Mori returned to NZ and took up the position of Principal Flute with the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra, a position she held for 20 years, appearing as a soloist, tutoring at the Orchestra's summer music school and the NZ Secondary Schools' Orchestra, and acting as a mentor for secondary school students. Marika Balzat - Violin and Chamber Music Itinerant Teacher Marika has been a violin teacher since 2015, working with a range of students. She gained her Bachelor of Music degree majoring in violin performance in 2018 and has been a professional performer and teacher since. She has been part of many overseas performance opportunities, including touring with her family band to the USA, Europe, Australia and Fiji. I Spy... Year 2 Kiwis winning their first match of the season ... I Spy...Road Patrol in their wet weather gear... Auckland Stroke Play Championships Congratulations to Eun Seo (Nicole) Choi who won the Auckland Strokeplay Championships by two shots last weekend. NZ Division 2 Swimming Championships Well done to Eleanor and Kenneth in Year 9 who recently attended the New Zealand Division 2 Swimming Championships that were held in Dunedin. Eleanor is holding the Swim New Zealand Regional Award for Auckland and Kenneth with his bronze medal for 100m Back. The official results have yet to come through but it was an awesome effort by the team. Eleanor has also qualified for the New Zealand Short Course Championships to be held in August for her 100m Fly. |