Message from the Executive Principal
Kia ora koutou, good afternoon, 下午好, 안녕하세요 As Pinehurst spring heads into summer, it can feel as though time is whistling through the trees. The deciduous European trees that fringe our school and guide us from one season to the next, are suddenly full of leaves. In recent years, we’ve planted almost exclusively native trees – the pohutukawas, for example, that guard Junior College, are at the adolescent stage (without the mood swings) – and I like the way the evergreen consistency of our natives contrasts with the seasonal moods of our oaks, maples and liquid ambers. I’ll avoid the temptation to construct grand metaphors about
the cyclical nature of change, or the way our integrated foliage reflects the diverse community of our school… but you can see where my thinking has been this week. Our environment is beautiful, especially when the sun shines; and our school has been purring like a superyacht on calm summer waters. Or something like that anyway. The Cambridge exams are shooting past: yesterday saw our largest ever single session. AS Level Mathematics and IGCSE English Literature were scheduled together, and I enjoyed watching our very smooth operation spring into gear. Our examinations team have everything immaculately organised, and I was impressed by the way our students understood exactly what to do and where to go. It’s a compliment to our wonderful student body, of course, but it’s also a reflection on the structures we have at our school. Our young people know what to do in exams
because they’ve had a great deal of practice! It means that they’re in a calm place when they open their papers (well, relatively calm); the systems are familiar and trusted; they’ve generally prepared well and worked hard; and their ultimate results reflect all of the preparation they, and the school, have done. As I write, a Year 6 class is sailing and kayaking at Murrays Bay. Waterwise is a special part of our Senior Primary curriculum, and it’s great to see our oldest Primary students, as they start to make the emotional transition to College, having an exciting, challenging day in the sun. Our Year 7 students head down to Raglan on their camp on Monday; and a week later, it’s the turn of the Year 9 students to take to the waves. An exciting time! We ran two
well-attended Open Days this week: it was lovely to continue to see so much interest in our school, and we already have quite a number of applications for 2024, 2025 and 2026. It was also, as you can understand, quite difficult to give some parents bad news about our waiting lists, but we did also have the chance to correct some myths that have emerged. Please do encourage any of your friends who have questions either to look at the Admissions part of our website, or to contact our Admissions Office directly – they are always very happy to help. We have had a few questions about transition recently, so I thought I’d give you a flavour of the preparations we are making for the arrival of our new Executive Principal. I meet with Mr Waller every two weeks – I spoke with him on Wednesday, actually: a good conversation about
staffing, enrolments, our ICT provision, our outstanding Career Education, our counselling support and much more besides – and he is also meeting regularly with other senior leaders. At the same time, he has an introductory programme of meetings with leaders across the school; and I am also giving him access to a range of materials that will support his transition. He has plenty of reading material! One of the things that we talk about every time is our wonderful community and the way we work and play together. He is already planning events and get-togethers to meet as many families as he can in the new year. In other words, Mr Waller is already very well-prepared to take up the reins at Pinehurst School and, when he arrives, he will be as ready as anyone taking up a job could possibly
be! He has made a great impression with everyone, too, and I know he will swiftly get to know and love our students and parents next year. Have a lovely weekend and see you on Monday. Ngā mihi Alex 如需阅读校长的中文留言和重要事件日期,请点击
Monday 31 October - Year 7 Raglan Adventure Camp
- Year 6 Waterwise SAVER Day
- New Family Meet and Greet
Tuesday 1 November - Year 7-8 NH Zone Day Touch (selected students)
- Year 5-6 - North Shore Primary Schools Swimming Championships
(selected students)
- Theatre Progress Evening for Donors
Wednesday 2 November - Primary Athletics Sports Day (Year 1-4)
- Year 3-6 Link-Up (selected students)
- St Johns Injury Prevention Talk (P9)
- New Entrant Buddy Meet 'n Play (P23)
Thursday 3 November - Year 5-6 Badminton Competition (selected students)
- Year 8 Inspiring the Future Careers Event
Message from the Principal of CollegeKia ora e te Whānau o Pinehurst School After a beautiful, sunny three-day weekend we got straight back into busy College life on Tuesday. Students have attended their Cambridge examinations seamlessly and the processes have continued to run like clockwork. Our senior students are persisting in demonstrating maturity and determination, living our school values as they work through the examinations. It is lovely to see them supporting each other and taking time to work together as they aim for excellence. As part of their Science curriculum, Year 10 students visited the Stardome Observatory at the start of the week. Our students will have various opportunities to learn outside of the classroom over the coming weeks which will help to enrich the curriculum and increase student engagement and understanding. Educational shows at the Stardome Observatory encourage a love of and an understanding of space; it is a great place to visit if you are ever looking for something to do on a rainy weekend. POD House activities were great fun yesterday for Year 9 and 10 students. The sun was shining as Houses competed at games of Dodgeball and Castles. Meanwhile, our students in Year 7 took part in a leadership challenge. The leadership activities were organised and run by the Year 8 leaders who did a fantastic
job. Year 7, 8 and 10 students are currently busy preparing for their end of year examinations which will be held in week 4 of this term. These examinations are a chance for students to demonstrate their learning for the year and, whilst students may feel nervous, they should view the examinations as an opportunity. During this time, all students are expected to be at school at normal times and they should ensure that they get enough sleep and look after themselves well during revision and examination weeks. We will be reminding them about this as we go through the term. Since it was not possible for the Year 7 camp to run at the start of the year, Mr Elliot did some research and organisation and has rescheduled the camp for this term. Next week Year 7 students will be surfing, canyoning,
climbing, swimming and generally having fun in Raglan as they participate in their adventure camp. I will be attending the camp with Year 7 and their teachers, and I am really looking forward to spending time with them. Mr Wiggin and Mr Johansen will be available at school during the week and, reception dependent, I will be checking my emails each day. Have a wonderful weekend, I can recommend the Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera exhibition at Auckland Art Gallery if you have the time. Ngā mihi nui Dawn
Y7 traditional Chinese shadow puppet show Chinese shadow puppetry passes on information such as cultural history, social beliefs, oral traditions and local customs. It spreads knowledge, promotes cultural values and entertains the community. Last week, our Year 7 Mandarin students had their first-hand experience of this traditional folk-art dating back to the Western Han Dynasty. Chinese First Language students designed and made the puppets. The puppeteers created the illusion of moving images on a translucent cloth screen which was illuminated from behind. From the shadow puppet show, Mandarin Foreign Language
students learned the legends and stories from ancient China relating to the Mid-Autumn Festival. They were fascinated and amazed by the delicate puppets and puppetry skills of the fellow classmates.
Y7-10 ChineseX Language Challenge At the end of Term 3, forty-four Year 5 to Year 10 students attended the first ever ChineseX Language Challenge at Massey University. We won four trophies and a golden dragon! During the event, students worked in teams of four to solve questions on Chinese culture and language. Students came across some difficult Chinese riddles, but it was not the first time they tackled the challenge. We had already solved many of the riddles during Lantern Festival earlier this year at school! Apart from answering questions, students also earned bonus point by participating in traditional games such as shuttlecock kicking and tangram puzzle. We finished the event on a high note, with many students receiving cool prizes like Erhu and cucurbit flutes. We are proud of our students’ achievement, and we thank all the parent helpers for their time and effort on the night.
North Harbour Table Tennis League After a hard-fought semi-final and the final against two TNIS teams, Pinehurst Blue (Keitaro, Matthew and Youngmin) team has won the North Harbour Intermediate/Primary Boys Cup. The team has been so successful this season, winning the Term 2 and Term 3 competition. The school cup is an addition to these achievements. Congratulations to the whole team!
Intermediate and Secondary School Diving Championships - 8th and 9th of October Pinehurst placed first overall in the Intermediate Schools competition with a score of 110.5 points and a team consisting of Zara Roodt and Noah Atkinson. Pinehurst also did well in the Secondary Schools competition with a team consisting of Zoe Atkinson. It was an awesome event with lots of fantastic young divers competing!
Diwali Creativity in Year 7! The year 7's have been revising this week and we took the opportunity to make Rangoli patterns for Diwali. We were able to practise using line and rotational symmetry plus some construction work.
Message from the Principal of Primary Kia ora, A shorter week had me almost wondering what day it was by Thursday, the time has flown by, and I can't believe it is the weekend again already. Our students have been so settled and ready to learn, their levels of engagement are outstanding, and this comes partly from school and very much from home too. High expectations of learning and behaviour have a self-fulfilling prophecy and are key to high levels of success. Cambridge Checkpoint testing is complete and papers on their way to be marked, this week saw the start of progression testing in Year 4 and Year 5 too.
There is much debate in the world of education around the use of timed tests for primary aged children, some of the arguments against them are valid and were carefully considered when we made the decision to use Cambridge assessments. The management of timed tests at the Primary level is what makes the difference, not putting too much pressure on the results, having a positive experience and learning ways of doing well is part of the preparation for college years. Our Year 4 and 5 students have been brilliant this week and deserve a big pat on the back for their efforts so far. P19 had a wonderful day on the water at Murray's Bay on Thursday, there was enough wind to sail, and the sunshine kept the chill off. Mrs Clark and Mrs Heighton were very impressed with them, and everyone had a great time. Some of our young musicians got to enjoy a
trip to the Aotea Centre for live musical performances and will next week go along to Manukau to the Link Up concert. The APO are visiting today in what has been a musical week. Later in the term we will host a ukulele jam with the very famous Suzy Cato. Suzy has been a huge star in the world of children's entertainment, and it will be a musical treat to host the jam. We held an open day for prospective new entrant parents this week and spent time in Year 1-3 classes. Each class has two greeters who welcome visitors to the class and explain what they are learning. My group were struck by the confidence of our speakers and how well they can articulate their learning. Each class of children were focused and either learning about phonetic sounds in Chinese, foods in Spanish, sound and vibration in Science or reading
strategies. Our community Police officer Louise will continue her road safety sessions next week. Please talk to your child about what they have learnt and help them with good road sense when you are out and about. Thanks for your support too with the crossing in school and making sure that your child uses them correctly. Have a wonderful weekend. Nga mihi Sian
‘St John in Schools’ visit to P10On Wednesday this week Mellissa Marchant, an educator from the ‘St John in School programme’, visited P10. She worked with us on aspects of safety, complementing our Health topic focusing on hazard identification and injury prevention. We were all reminded that many injuries are preventable with the appropriate use of safety equipment (for bikes/scooters), and also regularly checking that brakes and tyres/wheels are in good condition. She encouraged the students to take responsibility for not just themselves but also others around them, and to always
make safe choices. It is a fact that even if all care has been taken, sometimes accidents do just happen. So, the students learnt how to manage injuries resulting in blood loss – ‘plug’ with some form of fabric and apply pressure. And for injuries resulting in a sprain – apply ice for 20 minutes and then apply pressure or a bandage. The students had fun practising this in the classroom, with a partner. Mellissa also reminded us of the process of calling 111 in an emergency, and how important it is that the children can confidently and clearly recite their address and telephone number. It was pleasing to see that many children could do this. Please do take the time to check whether your child knows this information and revise it regularly with them. This can empower
them to act in an emergency. We are grateful that ‘St John in Schools’ educators are so willing to visit schools, and provide young people with the skills and knowledge to take responsibility for their own health and well-being and the well-being of others.
!Bienvenidos a la clase de español de Term 4! Our last topic for Year 4 Spanish is... Animales y sus hábitats! We have started the topic by looking at animal vocabulary and its pronunciation. By the end of this term, our goal is to be able to describe the animal in detail; its habitat, colour, food, type, etc.
Also, we will be enjoying learning about some different cultures of Spanish Speaking countries throughout the term (‘el día de los muertos’, and ‘la navidad’).
Year 5s will finish the year with the topic; "Time".
After revising the days of the week and the months of the year, we have started leaning how to say "hoy es (today is)...", "ayer fue (tomorrow was...)", and "mañana será (tomorrow will be)...". We are then going to move on to telling the time in Spanish! By the end of this term, our goal is to be able to ask questions '¿Qué hora es?' and answer them fluently. For the first half of the term, Year 6 classes will be learning about professions. We will be able to say what we'd like to be when we grow up and why. Then for the second half of the term, we will be looking at how Christmas is celebrated in different Spanish speaking countries.
Kindness Note to start Term 4 in P8 We have had a very strong focus on kindness in term 3 and we have continued this into term 4. Each child picked a name and had to write a kind message inside, it was then placed on their desk and the children so enjoyed reading their kindness letters. In Art we have been looking at using a range of media, materials, tools, technologies and processes with increasing skill, independence and confidence. Here are some fish we made using paper construction. They are so clever and are even able to move. In Science we have been looking at electricity and what electricity is
used for and where? We had a walk around school looking for all things that used electricity.
Y5-6 ChineseX Language Challenge At the end of Term 3, forty-four Year 5 to Year 10 students attended the first ever ChineseX Language Challenge at Massey University. We won four trophies and a golden dragon! During the event, students worked in teams of four to solve questions on Chinese culture and language. Students came across some difficult Chinese riddles, but it was not the first time they tackled the challenge. We had already solved many of the riddles during Lantern Festival earlier this year at school! Apart from answering questions, students also earned bonus point by participating in traditional games such as shuttlecock kicking and tangram puzzle. We finished the event on a high note, with many students receiving cool prizes like Erhu and cucurbit flutes. We are proud of our students’ achievement, and we thank all the parent helpers for their time and effort on the night.
Kiwi Kapers The Primary Woodwind and Orchestra groups had a fabulous time at the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra's 'Kiwi Kapers' concert on Wednesday. We were treated to a wide variety of music ranging from the 'The Pirates of the Caribbean' soundtrack, 'The Marriage of Figaro' by Mozart and some incredible Cook Island Drumming, woven into a creation story. Students felt very inspired at the end of the concert to continue their involvement in our extra-curricular programme.
Bonnie Yu, New Zealand Open Dance Championship 2022 Last weekend Bonnie Yu travelled to Wellington for the 2022 New Zealand Open Dance Championship. Bonnie, who is 10 years old along with her partner participated in 6 events and were placed 2nd in 3 events and 3rd, 4th and 5th in the other events. Bonnie and her partner won 2nd place in New Zealand for Juvenile A grade Latin. Well done Bonnie!
2022 Snow Planet Indoor Slalom Championship Richie Liu has crowned the champion of the Under 8 Boys Ski Indoor Slalom at the Snow Planet event Indoor Slalom Championship, which was held last Saturday. A huge congratulations to Richie who has been training hard all year and has achieved amazing results on the snow this year.
Interhouse Swimming Results Year 5-6 On the last week of Term 3, we held the Year 5-6 Swimming Sports at Northern Arena. It was an awesome day out and it was great to see the students giving everything a go. There were some amazing results, in fact multiple records were broken which were held for many years. We look forward to seeing the selected students compete at the North Shore Swimming Championships on Tuesday 1st November.
House Points Totara 418 Matai 316 Rimu 315 Kauri 182
Pinehurst Sewing ClassesPinehurst have arranged for our students to have the opportunity to experience sewing lessons using a machine. ‘Threadroom’ is holding sewing classes on a Tuesday afternoon for Years 4-6 and Years 7-9 students. Further information and registration can be found on their website.
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