Message from the Executive Principal

Kia ora koutou, good afternoon, 下午好, 안녕하세요  

Best wishes, 

Mike Waller 

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Message from the Principal of Primary

Surf to School

Year 2 and 3 students took part in the Surf to School programme run by Life Saving New Zealand. The programme was delivered by a fully trained surf lifeguard. It was a fun, interactive learning experience that gave our students the opportunity to gain awareness of surf safety.

An important message for our parents
When your child is in the water, be at arm’s length from us (not standing on the water’s edge).

Important messages we have learnt.
We learnt that it is important to choose a lifeguarded beach where possible and always swim between the flags. The surf lifeguards are constantly monitoring the conditions and won’t put flags out where a rip is present.
If you do get caught in a rip, remember the 3 R’s.

• Relax and float to conserve energy. Stay calm, relax, and float.
• Raise your hand to signal for help.
• Ride the rip until it stops, and you can swim back to shore or float until help arrives.

If you need help dial 111 and ask for the police. The police will contact and co-ordinate the search and rescue team.

We are looking forward to visiting the beach this summer and keeping ourselves safe in the water.

Water Sampling Year 5

Year 5’s Global Perspectives unit inquired into water. As part of this unit, students investigated their own water footprints, and access to and use of water around the world. To connect to water in a local context the Year 5 teachers invited in an educator from Watercare, who conducted both an in-class lesson and a stream sampling lesson. Students participated in a scientific investigation analysing the water quality and life with the stream that runs alongside our schoolgrounds. Working collaboratively, students examined the streams surroundings, tested nitrate levels, pH level, water turbidity, checked the temperature, and then looked for bugs. Students then took those results and analysed their results to determine stream water quality and health.  

P2 Science

In this Science lesson, P2 students learnt about the concept of buoyancy and how it determines whether an object floats or sinks in water. We explored the factors that affect buoyancy, such as the weight, volume, and density of an object.

Students were asked to discuss and predict whether each object would float or sink in water. They placed each object in the container and observed what happened. They explained why each object floated or sank and had time to think about how they could change the properties of an object to make it float or sink.

This activity helped them understand the concept of buoyancy and how it relates to the features of an object. It also encouraged them to think critically and creatively about how they could manipulate these properties to achieve a desired outcome.

Year 2 Trip to Kelly Tarlton’s

We as a year group had a fantastic opportunity to visit Kelly Tarlton’s for our EOTC (Education Out The Classroom).
In the science curriculum this term we have been covering:

Polar Explorer and looking at ways to:

• Identify similarities and differences between local environments in terms of hot, cold, dry, wet, many plants, few plants, many animals and few animals
• Know that an environment in which a plant or animal naturally lives is its habitat
• Compare how animals, including humans, are similar and different in their external body parts and skin covering
• Know that humans need to manage diet, maintain hygiene and move regularly to be healthy.

This trip allowed students to have the opportunity to build up a good understanding of what carrying out scientific investigations in the Antarctic would be like and how it would differ from their own everyday lives. It also allowed students to create an imaginary journey to the South Pole, assisting students to be able to apply their science learning in a motivating ‘real life’ context.

Students will also learn to:

• Know that everyone uses science and identify people who use science professionally. 
• Understand exploration provides many opportunities to think about scientists who carry out research in harsh environments and/or those who develop technologies associated with exploration e.g. insulated clothing designers, tent/shelter designers. 
• Find out more about investigations that are currently being carried out in the Antarctic and the scientists involved.

There was so much to be explored and just so much to do. The children all had a wonderful day out and thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity. 
Thank you to all the parent helpers that came along with us.

I have always enjoyed Spanish. I learnt a lot of wonderful things, such as how to answer different questions. It’s amazing that everyone gets to enjoy the experience of learning different languages. Oh, the joy of experiencing a language that not everybody knows!  - By: Miranda L. 
 
My favourite memory in Spanish was learning about the body parts. I enjoyed these sessions because of the interesting pronunciation. And they made me even more curious about the Spanish language and biology.  - By: Martin H. 
 
In Spanish, we have been learning a variety of things. It has been very fun learning new words. I really enjoyed the buddy work and talking to my friends about Spanish. I would LOVE to continue Spanish in College. - By: April Q. 
 
I have learnt various things in Spanish this year. The best bit was the Spanish speech! And we play fun Spanish games to make us happy in no time. This way of learning helped us all to have the words hammered right into our heads. Experience this only at Pinehurst! - By: Jasmine Z.  
 
In Spanish, we like working on translating sentences. We can even translate in third person!! And we really like learning about feelings and numbers. This term we have been preparing for our presentation all about our family, we had to talk about where we live and introduce our family members. ¡Adiós! - By: Chantelle C. and Lauren Y. 
 
We think Spanish is really useful because it’s a new language. We like Spanish because we have fun with activities, songs and lots more. When we first started school, we didn’t even know a single Spanish word and look at us now. Our favourite topic in Spanish is emotions. If someone asks you ¿Cómo estás? We can now answer with many different choices and not just one answer. - By: Jayden W., Lucas Z. and Vincent M. 

P19 Art to Raise Awareness

We have been finishing our unit on printing inspired by Andy Warhol’s Endangered Species series. We started the unit by learning about Andy Warhol’s work and his passion to create change. We learnt that he painted this series to bring attention to the world’s endangered animals. 

Having researched endangered animals we chose one that interested us and drew it. We then traced it onto foam board and carved out the lines using a blunt pencil. We created a series of prints using different coloured ink and paper and highlighted our finished pieces with oil pastels. We are now in the process of compiling a concertina style book from our designs, which will also include a short biography of Andy Warhol.

“I choose to make a print of the Iberian lynx. It is endangered as their homes have been destroyed by humans, and there isn't enough food for them to eat.” - Lexi

“I choose the Philippine Eagle. There aren’t many places left for it to nest because of deforestation, they can attack harm animals so farmers also  hunt them illegally.” - Peter

“I enjoyed experimenting with different ink colours.” - Olivia

“Making the foamboard print was difficult, you had to carve out enough to make a print, but not press to hard, otherwise the foamboard might break.” - Owen

“Learning about Andy Warhol's endangered animal series was interesting it made us realise that art can carry an important message. Andy Warhol used his art to bring attention to animals that need our help to survive. It's a creative way to raise awareness about the environment and the animals that share our planet.” - Martin

P11 Learning

This week we have reached a very exciting part in our class novel “The Iron Man”.

The text is very rich and full of wonderful writing techniques such as repetition, alliteration, and similes.

We have used this rich text to visualise scenes from the book. We also wrote our own menus designed perfectly for the Iron Man.

Wouldn’t you just love metal-filled cannelloni and oil shake?

We have focused on using some of these techniques in our writing about our Halloween experiences.

Click here to view the students work. 

Message from the Principal of College

Year 9 Mathematics

Year 9 students are learning how Trigonometry can be used outside of the classroom. They are calculating the height of the building by using a measuring tape to measure 4 metres away from the building, and a clinometer to measure the angle to the top of the building. Once this was complete, they went back inside to calculate. They decided that they should not have the same answers as the roof is sloped. 

Once every group had finished, they used Pythagoras to calculate the hypotenuse of the right angled triangle. 

Year 10 Geography Trip

This week, our Year 10 Geography students had the opportunity to experience coursework at Orewa. During this trip, they have learnt about techniques to measure and understand coastal processes such as erosion and long shore drift. As well as understand the human side of geography looking at public surveys and land use. Its a fantastic day that takes geography concepts and applies them outside of the classroom!

Australian Mathematics Competition

In the Australian Mathematics Competition, we participated with only Year 12 and 13 students. Out of the total 172,000 students who took part in the competition, we achieved remarkable results. Three of our students, Junyang (Michael) Ma, Kevin Xu, and Yunyao (Bobby) Zhang, received High Distinction awards, placing them in the top 5% of all participants. Additionally, our team secured seven Distinction awards (top 20%) and six Credit awards.

This outstanding performance reflects the dedication and talent of our students in mathematics.

Junior Volleyball Season comes to an end!

It has been a busy season but a positive one for all teams.  The students have improved their individual skills and they are playing so much better all-round.  The Boys 1^st  team won their division without losing a game – what champions.  The Girls 1^st team also won their division only conceding 1 game and can be really proud of their achievement.  The Girls 3^rd team won their first match this week – well done girls! 

Thank you to coach Terina and all the managers (Mr Jaques, Mr Fickling, Ms Jackson and Mrs Edson) for their support, positivity and driving skills. Keep on peppering and see you all   next season. 

8RA/LC

Year 8's in 8RA/LC are working hard at the moment. They have been honing their geography skills each morning by trying to guess the mystery country. In Global, they are planning a lesson for their Year 4 buddy class, which they are very much looking forward to. 

Pinehurst Christmas Hampers

It is traditional for Pinehurst to present Christmas Hampers to those in need.

This year we have chosen to donate to residents of some of our local aged care centres. These Care Centres are homes to the elderly as they move through their most vulnerable stage of life. Only some of the residents will have regular family visits, and some may not be able to leave the care facility, so we’d love to help as many of the residents enjoy Christmas this year.

We would appreciate contributions such as edible Christmas treats, vouchers for local supermarkets/shopping centres, as well as personal gifts of toiletry items (e.g.: soaps, handwash, diffusers, hand/body creams, aromatherapy…).

Your contributions may be given to your child’s homeroom teacher from Monday 30 October onwards. We will take your generous contributions and make them up into beautiful hampers to present at our Pinehurst Christmas Concert. This will be held on Thursday 7 December and parents are warmly invited to attend this traditional Pinehurst event, so book it into your diary!

Pinehurst Christmas Hamper Helpers Needed!

Once we have all our lovely, donated gifts we will need some Parent Christmas Helpers to generously donate some of their time to wrap these into amazing hampers. We will provide all the necessary materials to make these beautiful but will need your help to put them together. These will be presented to the various Aged Care facilities at our special Christmas Concert at the end of the term.

Our Christmas wrapping day will be held on Thursday 23rd November, in the Dance Studio and we would require help for a few hours to get everything together.

Your help would be greatly appreciated, and this will kick-start the Pinehurst Christmas festivities. If you can help with this, please email sylvia.lum@pinehurst.school.nz 

2023 Swimming NZ Junior Festival

Over the previous weekend, April L took part in the 2023 Swimming NZ Junior Festival. Her remarkable performance led her to secure ten first-place ribbons, one second-place ribbon, and two third-place ribbons. We are incredibly proud of her accomplishments.

Furthermore, April will be representing the 10&U Auckland Swimming team in the upcoming Caro Cup competition held in Hamilton next weekend.

Congratulations April!

If you have any news or submissions you’d like considered for our newsletter, please contact news@pinehurst.school.nz