No images? Click here Newsletter - 17 June 2022Message from the Executive Principal
Kia ora koutou, good afternoon, 你好, 안녕하세요 It was a festival of posh frocks and shiny shoes last Friday evening. Thank you so much to all the parents who joined the Board of Governors, senior staff and the Founders of the School last week for our much-delayed 30th Anniversary Dinner. We all had a wonderful time, and I found myself becoming increasingly emotional as the evening passed: our community is a special one, and the evening showed once more how strong we are when we are together. So the weekend began well, and it ended with a flourish too. I had the pleasure of watching Hyun Jae Lee, Winston Hu and Reynold Yang perform in the Auckland finals of the NZCT Chamber Music Contest: they were one of the youngest groups there (Hyun Jae and Reynold are both in Year 10) and were simply magnificent. Congratulations, too, to Yu Zhang Wu, whose trio received the Adjudicator’s Award, and to Sissi Yang, Cynthia Zhang and Amy Wang, who competed earlier in the week. Sissi and Cynthia are in Year 10, and Amy is in Year 11, so I’m really looking forward to hearing about their achievements in years to come. Our music programme continues to develop this year, and I’m keen for more chamber groups to develop in school – it’s a great way for musicians to develop their skills as part of a group, supporting their musicianship in a number of different ways. On Wednesday, we enjoyed a glorious Cultural Market. Always a wonderful celebration of food from around the world, I think this year’s event was the best yet. I have to admit that I headed to the British counter, drawn by the sight of home-made bakery from Emily and Katie Long’s family. I know British food is, well, generally less-than-exciting, but the Cornish Pasty I ate was an explosion of butter, meat, a little potato and veg, and perfect pastry. Just amazing. The sausage rolls looked brilliant too. As did the Bakewell Tart. (And I had dinner with a friend at a Korean restaurant later that evening for a bit of balance.) Thank you to Mrs Hawthorn and her wonderful students for pulling the event together, and to all the staff, parents and students who made the event work so well. I’ve also had the chance to visit many classes this week: possibly my favourite moment was being pulled into P4 at the end of the day to witness beans/seeds lined up against the window, and told by very excited Year 1 students that they were waiting to see if there was going to be some germination. Very impressive. And a slight contrast with the serious students conducting practice Chemistry practical's, dressed in white coats and managing test tubes, Bunsen burners and an array of different chemicals. But, of course, there’s a direct connection between the 5 and 6 year old's in P1, and the 16 and 17 year old's in lab coats: the enthusiasm I see generated in our Primary classrooms is carried through to A Level lessons. It’s simply wonderful to see. Have a lovely weekend! Ngā mihi Alex 如需阅读校长的中文留言和重要事件日期,请点击此处 Tuesday June 21st
Wednesday June 22nd
Thursday June 23rd
Friday June 24th
Message from the Principal of PrimaryKia ora, There is no sign of slowing down in the Primary this week, we will be loving our learning until the end of term and making the most of what's on offer inside of the classroom and out. Plans are in place for a very exciting Matariki week next week starting with a themed day on Monday. Students will still be learning their usual subjects, but through the theme of Matariki stars. There will be art, singing, technology and lots of creativity too as they explore the Māori celebration of Matariki. On Tuesday there will be a special assembly for , students, where they will share what they have learned with everyone in the Primary. National celebrations help children to feel a sense of belonging and identity in New Zealand and to explore and feel part of our unique culture. Today you will receive your child's report for semester one, it will be available in the afternoon after school has finished. We hope you enjoy reading about what your child can do and what their next steps in learning are. Talking to them about what they are good at helps to develop confidence and the willingness to take responsible risks in their learning which leads to better academic outcomes. As part of the assessment cycle, on Tuesday and Thursday of next week there is an opportunity to meet with your child's teacher to celebrate progress and receive more specific information on the areas we will be working on for the rest of the term and into next term. It is important to attend these conferences so that we can work together to get the best outcomes for each child, there is still time to book if you haven't already. Some of our Year 2's love football so much that they spend every break time kicking the ball around together. We decided to give them the opportunity to play on a pitch with real grass and every Thursday lunchtime they can meet Mr Taylor and Mrs Jones Hill. Yesterday they had a ball, excuse the pun, and spent a blissful lunchtime in their own area on the field. Running shoes were a little muddy but they had a great time. Our Primary Arts Council are busily thinking of other ways to make breaktimes even more interesting for younger students and refining their leadership skills along the way. Noho ora mai, Sian Year 5 Camp!From kayaking and confidence courses, to archery and air rifles (and just about everything in between!), the Year 5 Camp in Carey Park was a roaring success! The Year 5 students spent four days and three nights doing a wide variety of adventurous activities, including flying fox, trolley carts and rock climbing, to name a few! Each student was challenged to complete challenging tasks by pushing themselves out of their comfort zone and testing their physical skills. The sense of accomplishment was evident on their faces upon completing an activity that initially appeared to be difficult or daunting. Their teachers are incredibly proud of the perseverance they witnessed from the students and the encouragement they gave to one another as their fellow campers completed an activity. We would like to thank the fabulous parent helpers who came along to camp with us this year. Your help and support is much appreciated and made our camp the success that is was! A picture paints a thousand words, so here are some photos of our fantastic week at camp! P14 NewsP14 are working hard to grow many new skills as we learn about Matariki (the Māori New Year). We have been busy thinking about what the new year signifies to us. Matariki is a star cluster that appears in the early morning sky in New Zealand during the mid-winter months. To find them, look to the northeast horizon before sunrise. It is a time to acknowledge the year past, celebrate the present and plan and prepare for the year ahead. With this in mind, P14 thought about and wrote their own Matariki Goal setting stars which include things they would like to get better at this term and this year. They also had an amazing lesson in patience and perseverance as they constructed their own uniquely stunning 3D Matariki stars. It was fiddly but rewarding, the room was quiet with concentration and determination! In our reading lessons, we are learning how to make connections as we read in a variety of ways. We work together in pairs with our Big Reading Friends to practice reading out loud with expression, paying attention to punctuation and changing our voice. We also sound out any unknown words, think about the meaning of new words, make pictures in our heads to help make meaning, and re-read any challenging sections. Next we write our answers on whiteboards, giving examples of implicit and explicit questions we have about the text. In maths we have been busy deciding if different polygons are regular or irregular. For writing we are working on constructing a newspaper article about a secret superhero who we have invented. We have learned how and where to add images and captions, how to write attention-grabbing headings and we are moving on to revise, edit and polish our work. As usual we will be ensuring just the right amount of WOW Words have been used, Power Punctuation, Power Openers and that along with neatly presented, accurate work only relevant information will be included. We are very proud of the progress we have made in writing in P14, the clip boards on the WOW Work wall illustrate the individual advancement. A week in P17In Global Perspectives, Year 5 have been learning about resources; where they come from, what resources make things, and where resources go when they are finished being used. Jamie, a guest speaker, from Junk2Go came in and spoke with the students this week. Jamie came to talk to the students all about waste and recycling to help them as they develop their understanding of our Global Perspectives unit. We were at camp last week and used this experience to write descriptive recounts. We were focusing on using our senses, simile and metaphor to describe a specific event. We also focused on uplevelling our work to make it even better. Here is some of our uplevelled writing: Year 2 STEMThe students have been learning about simple machines and how they make our lives easier. We have explored gears, wheels, and axles and currently our focus is on the lever. The students have discovered levers have three parts: a fulcrum, an effort, and a load. By changing the part in the middle, you can change the class that the lever belongs to. There are first class, second class and third-class levers. The students got the opportunity to build a catapult. After identifying the different parts of the lever, fun was had launching rubber tires through the air, seeing how far they could be thrown. We talked about performance and how by moving the load closer towards the fulcrum or further away from the fulcrum the amount of effort required and performance will vary. P2 Safari Adventures!P2 has been on a Safari Adventure this term. Last week we took an imaginary flight to Africa and saw many exotic animals. This week we read the book The Ugly Five by Julia Donaldson. In this story, we were introduced to Africa's less glamorous animals, the warthog, hyena, marabou stork, vulture, and the wildebeest, also, unfortunately, known as The Ugly Five. Although these animals aren't eye-catching, they all have something unique and fascinating to offer. For writing, we choose our favourite animal and wrote a character description. The children were focusing on using their ‘Fred Fingers’ to help them spell words and making sure each sentence had a full stop and capital letter. In maths, we have been learning how to solve subtraction problems. We have learnt many different strategies and are becoming very confident at writing number sentences and stories. For Global Perspectives, we have been learning about the effects littering has on our environment. The students have brainstormed ways of caring our planet and thinking of ways we can make a difference. We have created a huge Whale using recyclable plastic to symbolise the affects of throwing rubbish into the Ocean. Next week P2 is going to visit the Meerkats! Keep up the fantastic work P2. Year 6 Trip – Estuary Arts Centre & Centre StageThe Trip Up North We arrived at the Orewa Estuary Art Centre to sculpt our clay animals. The ride was pretty long and loud but we were glad to finally arrive. We all surrounded some benches around the park, after eating, we started exploring the park, after we began to form lines, one group went to the art centre, and one group went to Centre Stage theatre. Animal Sculpturing We put our art shirts on we began to start, we all got a big chunk of clay! Students were sculpting cats, dogs, lions, penguins and much much more! After around 30 minutes lots of our animals began to take shape. But we had to hollow our animals so when they went to kiln they won’t EXPLODE! They first let the clay dry, then they put the clay models into a kiln and turn the temperature to 1000 degrees, after the models have been cooked they would dry for a while, then the exciting part was the glaze step, because our models would be dipped carefully in to a shiny see- through glaze then into the kiln again and they turn the temperature to 1220 degrees. By: Jack Van der Eijk Orewa Arts Centre It was an amazing experience. It all started with a tutorial about clay sculptures, Kim, the teacher came along with a few experienced workers who taught and helped us to sculpt sculptures. We were making animals out of clay. Among the students, everyone made an animal of their own choice, there were many cats, dogs, big cats, penguins, birds and a dead pig (RIP Pig). Kim taught us what will happen next with the sculptures. Firstly, they would wait for them to dry. Next they put them into a oven called the kiln which will be set to 1000 degrees Celsius. After they have been fired, they are now in a stage called bisque. After they cool down, the sculptures will be dipped into a glaze, then re-fired at 1220 degrees Celsius. We are hopping that all of them survived the process and didn’t explode. Centre Stage The night time manager took us on a tour through out the building. She showed us the prop, there was an old type writer, a throne, a rifle and more other fascinating objects. Then she she showed us around the centre stage. We had a chance to go on the stage to see the set up for the show that night. We also did a bit of the production of Mary Poppins for fun. We learnt that you cannot whistle while in the theatre, because that is a sign to drop to scene and it might destroy the show. It was a day full with learning and fun. By: Cathy Situ Beautiful Artworks and Spelling in P7!Although the weather has turned grey and wintery, P7 decided to brighten up the classroom with beautiful flowers. After careful observation of sunflowers the students drew the flower looking at what shapes they could see, and cautious composition. Dye was applied to add the colour of what they saw. The sunflowers are so bright which helps make us feel happy when we look at them! Year 2 have started the Read Write Inc Spelling programme. Each week the students learn a new spelling rule, and words that follow that rule. In P7 the day starts with a fun way to learn and practice the spelling rule. It is introduced by some aliens who explain the rule and help us practice the words. We draw in sound buttons under the words (which we learnt in year 1 phonics), practice using the word in a sentence and write the word in a sentence, practicing dictation. Spelling is such a fun way to start our day and we are so proud of the tricky words we are learning to spell! Senior Year 1 – Adventures in space!Last Friday P4 and P5 were lucky enough to go to Stardome to support our Science topic Earth and Space. After an early morning tea, we were excited to travel to Cornwall Park by bus. For many of us, this was our first school trip. On arrival we had our lunch and then had our first session with John in the classroom. Three children we lucky enough to be chosen to help John with his presentation. Mikel had to hold the Sun, and Irene had to hold the Earth and walk, (orbit) around the Sun. It became a bit tricky when Xixi had to hold the Moon and orbit the Earth as it moved around the Sun. We also had fun learning about the planets. After our classroom session we explored the Stardome by using ipads to do a scavenger hunt looking for clues. Then, we went into the Planetarium to watch the movie, The Accidental Astronauts. This followed the adventures of Cy and Annie and their dog Armstrong as they embarked on an unexpected journey into space! They explored the Earth, Sun and Moon system with a wise-cracking starship computer. Finally, we saw an amazing display of the night sky and constellations on the inside of the dome. Many thanks to our six parent helpers who accompanied us on our trip. It was a fabulous day with respectful and engaged children. 24 Pizzas in 2 days!On Wednesday and Thursday afternoon, the P1 and P2 New Entrants who started this term, met up again with their Y2 Buddy for their Buddy Pizza Party. This has always been an exciting event for all our buddies, and they all look forward to the afternoon where they sit together and eat pizza – followed of course, by a healthy fruit platter! Over 2 lunchtimes we saw 36 children go through 24 large pizzas, 15 apples, 4kgs of grapes and 12 bananas! The excitement continues as the Term 1 New Entrants from P1 and P2 enjoy their Pizza Party next Wednesday 22nd and Thursday 23rd June. Message from the Principal of College
Kia ora e te whānau o Pinehurst School The 30th Anniversary Dinner at the Park Hyatt last Friday evening was a fantastic event. It was delightful to be able to spend time with parents and colleagues at a beautiful venue with lovely food and wine, to share stories and memories and to spend some time thinking about how far Pinehurst School has come. From its original 34 students on a leased site with leased buildings to the full classes and incredible site and facilities we have today is phenomenal. At school, a huge highlight of this week was our wonderful Cultural Market Day at which staff and students were treated to culinary delights from around the world. I was lucky enough to be asked to judge the Masterchef Challenge at this event and, although the spicy noodles were a bit too spicy even for my taste, the food was exquisite. Interestingly, all six judges picked a different top three winners of the challenge which shows the calibre of the food produced by our students. Ms Perrin tells me that she looks forward to the event every year and she was certainly quieter than usual during the judging! Another highlight was our huge success at Mathex yesterday morning. One of our Year 7 students and all of our Year 8 students gained 100%; a statistic which no other school could match. I had witnessed one team practising at school and so I did think that I would hear some good news. Nevertheless, Ms West, Ms Bayliss and the Mathex Team surpassed even my high expectations and they can be very proud of their achievements. Last Thursday our very successful Mooting Teams had more good news. Our second team acted as prosecution for a case involving the manslaughter of a groom on his stag night. They competed against a very convincing and professional Diocesan team, but walked away once again triumphant. Unfortunately, Team 1’s opposition withdrew due to illness and so they were awarded a default win. They were understandably disappointed to not compete but they showed true Pinehurst spirit by supporting their peers and celebrating their win. Ms Neeves is doing a wonderful job in encouraging and facilitating our mooting teams. We postponed our POD Challenge last Friday due to inclement weather and as I write we are hoping for a sunny afternoon today. Our students will be kitted out in their House colours as they compete for the POD Challenge trophy and the event should be great fun. Rehearsals are ramping up and tickets for our school production of Annie are now on sale from the Centre Stage Box Office. Get your tickets early, this promises to be a superb production. Have a wonderful weekend. Ngā mihi nui Dawn Cultural Market DayThe annual Cultural Market was hosted by the Student Council was such a delight to see. The students all enjoyed the market, trying various dishes but also an electric atmosphere. It was a huge success with many students sharing delicious food from their culture. The MasterChef judges had a very tough time deciding who won the competition. This will be announced in assembly in the coming weeks. “We can’t thank the stallholders and parents enough, you were incredible. Sarah and I are both so grateful for the council members we are leading this year. We couldn’t have asked for a more hardworking, committed group of students,” Brie Cooper – Student Council Leader. The Student Council will donate all proceeds to Unicef from the Cultural Market and raffle sales. The raffle tickets will still be on sale until close of day Friday. AS PsychologistsPsychology is an experimental science which attempts to explain the behaviour of individuals based on the workings of the mind. AS Psychologists have been investigating the Canli et. al. experiment which tested the connection between emotional experience and long-term recall. In the hope that collaborative group learning would be more memorable, students participated in a shared learning activity while completing summary notes of the Canli et al study. No students were harmed in the making of these photographs. Mathex, Year 7/8Today Mrs Bayliss and Mrs West took four year 7 and four year 8 teams to the North Shore Mathex competition. A lot of fun was had by all. One of our year 7 teams got 100% and all four of our year 8 teams got 100%. (I believe we were the only school to be able to say that!) Aayoung, Annie, Chloe and Sophia's team came third overall! It is so lovely to see an all girl team doing so well. Smokefree Rockquest!Last week, Kauri student Alex Lindsay performed with his band Mind Overdrive at Smokefree Rockquest – Aotearoa’s only nationwide, live, original music, youth event. The band have made it through the heats and move onto the Regional Finals. Well done Alex! World Vision, Year 7/8This week, ten Year 7 and 8 students took part in a planning workshop to discuss and help raise awareness of this year's World Vision 40hr Famine. The workshop challenged students to consider the plight of other children their age and provided an opportunity to consider the small actions they can take to help others. All students in Years 7 and 8 are encouraged to participate in the 40hr Famine this year, which will help bring lifesaving water to children living in the world’s most challenging places. Students and Whanau can create their own fundraising page by clicking on the following link. Pinehurst Korean Kitchen안녕하세요. On Cultural Market Day, Mrs Cataloni and some members from our Japanese Korean Club sold “bibimbap” at the Pinehurst Korean Kitchen stall. One of the most well-known and beloved Korean dishes of all time, many people had already tried it before. “Bibimbap 비빔밥” simply translates to “mixed rice with meat and assorted vegetables”. You can make endless variations to this dish depending on your preference and dietary requirements. It features in most Korean menus so give it a try next time if you have not already! Mrs Cataloni is very grateful for all her amazing helpers: Mrs.Farquharson, Dan Cradwick, Charles Shen, Guy Williams, Ella Ahn, Amber Chen, Inyoung Joung, Aayoung Joung, Bella Liang, Erica Xu, Ellie Yang, Sophia Wang, Cecilia Shi, Emily Prasetyo and Candy Shen. Thanks to such an organised, proactive team, the event was a huge success for all and we sold out of all the bowls. We truly appreciate all your support. 감사합니다. Year 8 Physical EducationYear 8s have been busy participating in a collaborative learning unit for Physical Education. The focus has been on developing our skills in net games like volleyball and tennis, but also integrating skills we believe are important both in PE, but also outside of the classroom. These skills include working in small groups effectively, how to be inclusive when participating in games, strategies to resolve conflict peacefully and demonstrating empathy towards others. The aim is for students to utilize this knowledge in everyday life. We’ve been impressed with how students have applied their learning with individuals now enhancing their relationships with a wider variety of students in their classes. AKSS Orienteering Relay ChampionshipsFor the first time, Pinehurst had enough orienteers across multiple year groups to be able to select 4 relay teams who competed yesterday in the Riverhead Forest. Well done to all the competitors – relays bring a whole other level of pressure and your ability to navigate reasonably cleanly throughout was impressive. Congratulations to our Y7/8 boys team (Nicholas Xu, Finlay Thomson and Jerry Lu) who placed first in their grade and to the Y7/8 girls team (Celina, Sophie and Amber) who placed 4th in their grade! Chamber Music CompetitionLast week, two chamber groups - Medailles Triumph and Gassenhauer trio from Pinehurst have competed in the NZCT Chamber Contest NZ, a national chamber music competition. 53 groups from Auckland have competed in the Auckland District Round, and only 12 groups go through to the district finals. Gassenhauer trio were one of the 12 groups that were chosen to play in the finals. Congratulations to all of the groups that have competed and a big thank you to Mr Ronayne, Performing Arts Manager Hae Jean Byun and Conroy Hu for coaching the groups and making the magic happen! College ProductionTickets for Annie are now on sale!! Please follow this link to book your tickets. Centre Stage Theatre, Orewa 27-29 July 7pm Tickets $25 Adult, Booking via Centrestage Box Office 09 4267282 or www.centrestagetheatre.co.nz or in person 60 Centreway Road, Orewa Credit Card Charges Apply Brain Play is running a science & technology based holiday programme at Pinehurst School! Monday July 4th - Friday July 8th, 9:00am - 3:00pm. Years 1 - 6 welcome. Topics include Minecraft, coding, animation, STEM experiments & more. Visit https://www.brainplay.co.nz/holidays to view our timetable and follow the prompts to book in - you'll need to make an account with us first then choose 'Pinehurst Centre' to get started. |