No images? Click here Newsletter - 27 May 2022Message from the Executive Principal
Kia ora koutou, good afternoon, 你好, 안녕하세요 It wasn’t too muddy in the end. Our College students ran over the grass, through the leaves and into the sunlit uplands (well, the tent next to the finishing line). I love cross country races – I used to compete, not very successfully, for my school when I was younger – and I’m so pleased we managed to run the event yesterday. Congratulations to the winners and to every one who took part. Even if damp morning runs aren’t a particular treat, they’re something you can look back on with a sense of achievement. Continuing on the theme of sport, today is Kelly Lindsay’s last day: Kelly has built sport in Years 1-8 over the last eight years in a quite extraordinary way, and has also built the foundations we need for further developments in the Primary school. Nearly all of you will have come into contact with Kelly and her fearsome organisation, and we will miss her. Her replacement, Melanie Puckett, joins us on June 21st, and Jack Taylor, our Primary PE teacher, will be the main point of contact in the interim. Jack will also continue to have an enhanced role within sports at Pinehurst. Our best wishes to Kelly as she takes on her next challenge! Still on sports, by the way: we’re ready, after two years of disruption, for some developments in sport, so expect to hear more about engaging a few more professional coaches, and some changes with tennis across the year groups. We also say goodbye to Tina Lindsay this afternoon. Tina has been with us for 6 years as an excellent, caring classroom teacher, and more recently as our Year 4-6 Learner Support teacher, working with Catherine Jones-Hill and Sue Connolly. Grace Osborne is taking over as the P13 teacher on Monday, and has impressed all of us over the last two weeks as she’s got to know the children. Tina’s Learner Support role will be filled by Stacey McIntosh, who currently teaches a Year 3 class (and will still be!), and whom many of you will know as a caring, responsive classroom teacher. She’s really looking forward to working with the students. Good luck Tina! And – without over-egging the pudding – we also say goodbye to Nicki Williams today. Nicki is our Marketing and Communications Manager, and was the first person I appointed to our school five years ago. She has been at the centre of our communications for the last five years, and has helped the school articulate its identity too. It’s her work you see in Panorama, the weekly newsletter, the Annual Report, the Prospectus, the Yearbook… in fact, just about every publication has her stamp on it. We don’t have huge backroom teams at Pinehurst, making sure that your money is channeled into teaching and learning, and Nicki has done an amazing, wide-ranging job here. We’ll all miss her. I should add that she’s also our main photographer and a committed Year 2 netball coach. She finishes today but will be here tomorrow for Kidzplay! I’m not sure how she’s going to cope without my texts at the weekend, asking her if she minds sending out a message to all parents… Sylvia Lum, whom many of you know well, is our new Marketing Relationships Manager, overseeing both communications and marketing. She will do a great job, and she’s joined by Paige Robertson, who will be our Marketing and Communications Co-ordinator. Her role includes publications, communications and many of the other jobs Nicki does. She will also be our photographer! And Paige is a very keen netballer as well. You may be able to see a bit of a pattern here. A final word on exams. Well done to the Year 11 students who have already started their Mid Years, and good luck to all of the Year 11, 12 and 13 students who will spend this weekend studying and next week enjoying their exams in school. Thank you to our College team as well, who have developed an efficient system for managing the exams for those students who have to self-isolate. I’ve written separately about the current Covid situation, but just to repeat that we will continue to have mandatory masks next week, to be reviewed next Friday. Cases have slowed down this week – especially in Primary – but the picture in the community is still that the outbreak is fairly widespread 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,请点击此处 Monday 30 May
Tuesday 31 May
Wednesday 1 June
Thursday 2 June
Message from the Principal of PrimaryKia ora, Wheels week has been fun as always and the weather was very kind. There were lots of scooters at the beginning of the week, favoured by our youngest students but as the week went on there was a mix of roller skates, skateboards, scooters and of course bikes. Riding down the bank on a bike is fantastic fun and requires a fair amount of confidence but you can start from halfway up before committing to the top of the bank. We have loved watching how helpful our children have been to each other. Each day the Primary Council have been helping younger students by set up a circuit for them and manning the stop and go sign, an important job. On Thursday we had a few mechanical issues with bikes and scooters that were threatening to spoil the fun, but the combined skills of Emily Smith, Sophie Hanoush and Alex Fitz-Gerald meant that the problems were fixed, and the fun could continue, we were really impressed! Mr Taylor set up a special circuit in Sport too so that everyone could challenge themselves. Being outside and playing on bikes, climbing trees, and being engaged in sports is so important to a child's development, clearly our children take every opportunity they can to get involved and enjoy the outdoors. I am very pleased to report that our anti-litter message and strategies are having a positive effect on our environment. There have been many examples of students thinking more carefully about how they dispose of their rubbish. At home you can help too by limiting the amount of packaging in children's lunches if you are providing it yourself. Bento style boxes are great for fruit, crackers, pasta, sandwiches, and rice as is reusable food wrap like beeswax sheets. Well done eco warriors we admire your efforts! We are always proud of our Primary school when we host Open Days. This week was no exception as we toured Y1-3 classes with prospective parents. In P4, Albert told our visitors about the learning taking place in phonics that day. They were learning about words that end in igh like sigh and high and digraphs which Albert told the visitors is two letters one sound, and he was right! The visitors were so impressed they clapped! Well done P4 and Mrs McCulloch. In Year 3, P11 were learning reading skills through a story called the White Lion and pointing out sophisticated vocabulary like pigment and albino. They had been learning about imperative verbs too when they had their writing lesson. In Year 6 our students have just finished a unit on the artist Warren Pohatu, his work is stunning and created with line and vivid colours. Take a look at the fantastic creations when you go past the Year 6 classrooms. This week they will begin a new unit using clay to sculpt in 3D and later visit The Estuary Arts Centre in Orewa to look at sculptures produced by local artists. Next week our Primary orchestra will enjoy visits from the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra and later in the term, Year 5 will attend camp in Henderson at Carey Park and Year 1 are going to the Stardome. Other year groups won't miss out as we are planning for each cohort to take a trip. Today we will say farewell to some special members of our Primary team, the two Mrs Lindsays. Kelly Lindsay has been Y1-8 Sports Administrator at Pinehurst for over seven years and Tina Lindsay has been a homeroom teacher for over 6 years. They have both contributed so much to the life of the school and to the children they have worked with, and we are extremely grateful. They are both heading off to exciting new opportunities, we will miss them, and we wish them the very best of success. Noho ora mai. Sian 6KC Works of Art!Students investigated the patterns used by illustrator Warren Pohatu in “Maori Myths and Legends” to create a composition incorporating Maori design elements. Colour and patterning was used to create a movement that shows an understanding of shadow and light on a shape. Using pencil first, then thick and thin black markers, the patterns were then overlaid with dye in warm and cold colours. We are very proud of our work. Picasso Art in P4.For art this week, we have been learning about Picasso. We were really interested in all the unique paintings he had done. We loved looking at all the different types of shapes, lines, and colours he used in his Art. We learned that his style of art is called Cubism. In P4 we really enjoyed creating our own unique cubism face. We all had very different, unique faces that we got to fill in with lots of different colours! For Global perspectives, we have been talking a lot about looking after our world. We have been particularly interested in litter. During one of our lessons, we looked up the most beautiful places in the world. Then, we looked up places that were filled with litter and we couldn’t believe our eyes! There were lots of poor animals who were caught in litter and even died as a result of the pollution humans have put in their environment. As a class we decided that we need to make a change and help people understand the horrible effects of litter. We made posters to hang outside our classroom to remind others to always pick up their litter! Together, we can help keep our school, our community, country, and world clean! PE Year 0-3This term in PE our year 0-3 have worked on their hand eye coordination and fundamental movement skills with a focus on netball and basketball. They have looked at the different skills involved in the sports while also competing in small games to work on their interpersonal skills. We are now moving onto our next focus of gymnastics. Within gymnastics we look at the way our body moves utilising different equipment and environments to improve our students balance and body control. Whilst improving their basic fundamental movement skills gymnastics allows our students to work in teams to complete goals and challenge themselves to improve their coordination and competency when moving, jumping and rolling. Picasso art in P4.P10 rock scientists began this term fully dedicated to conducting investigations about different types of rocks. We collected a range of rocks with almost uncontainable excitement and used observations and simple tests to distinguish between rocks on the basis of colour, texture, weight, hardness and permeability (whether they absorb water). Now our scientists have moved on to inquiring about the classification and formation of fossils. Yes, big words and lots of learning! In Global Perspective, we are discovering the relationship we have with other living creatures on this blue planet. We asked big questions: Who do we share our planet with? What do we share with them? How do we share with them? At this stage, we are learning about the habitats of different animals and why they choose there to be their home. We found out that Pinehurst is a habitat for many animals including some crawly ones. Isn’t that exciting? Claude Monet is our favourite artist this term. To become a great artist like him, we are taking one step at a time. From distinguishing cold colours from warm colours to blending watercolour and paint without borders, we are one step closer each time. We have started contemplating linking our art with our Big Read novel, The Butterfly Lion. Would you agree the warm colour blend looks like the sunset at Timbavati in South Africa? Growing Learning in P12Our class continues to enjoy reading ‘The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane’. We have Expi the Explorer helping us explore the text together through his rich skills. Now, if you haven’t read this book, we suggest you do! Our mission this week is to think about ‘how does Edward feel when he is found again?’. We inferred into the past chapters and made connections with our own world and experiences. We used the SPECS (S-share, P-point, E-evidence from the text) to help us give a detailed answer. Another awesome learning for this week in Reading, we found that we are getting better at summarizing the chapter using 10 words only; we couldn’t have done it without our BRF (Best Reading Friend). In Maths this week we are working on ordering numbers from smallest to largest and rounding numbers to the nearest 10 and 100. The rule of rounding was vital during this activity. We have also just started counting back through 0 to include negative numbers. We also especially focused on reading the instructions carefully, thinking carefully about what the task is about, as this will lead to the correct answer. We will be doing a lot more work with negative numbers next week. In Homeroom Maths, we started learning about acute and obtuse angles. We learnt that an acute angle is less than a right angle. An obtuse angle is greater than a right angle and less than 180 degrees. In writing this week we are learning how to write an interesting recount in the form of a diary entry. We were revising and learning the importance of personal pronouns when writing a diary. We also carefully learnt how to identify and use present perfect tense verbs instead of past simple tense. P8 LearningIn Reading: Our book for the week has been ‘Tiddler the story telling fish’ By Julia Donaldson. Some activities linked to this book were answering comprehension questions, looking at new vocabulary and one idea was to describe a character. The students had to: • Make a wanted poster for Tiddler • Describe what he looks like • Write about his personality Here are a few examples. P8 – Artwork Paul Klee (1879-1940) Paul Klee made a cat in his famous “Cat and Bird” painting. The simple shapes are easy for young students to put down on paper and leave lots of room for creative interpretation. First, the students had to divide their page into 4 Then, follow the instructions step by step using a pencil Next the students went over their drawing in Vivid Lastly, the students then painted their pictures with his Paul Klee’s picture as a guideline. The students have used paint for their masterpieces. Year 5 & 6 Cross CountryLast Friday, our Year 5 & 6 students competed in their annual Cross Country event at Pinehurst School. It was a lovely start to the morning, with a just a breeze and clear skies, and we managed to get our first few races in - and then the rain came down! Despite the rain, the students were amazing and we saw some exceptional efforts on the course! It was fantastic to see so many students ‘THINK PINK’, and congratulations to Elizabeth & Henry who were awarded ‘best dressed’. We also gave out (some slightly soggy) spot prizes to students giving their very best when finishing their race! A special congratulations to students who finished in the Top 3 at this event, and a big thank you to our teachers and our Year 8 leaders who helped us on the day. Unfortunately, we had to cancel the Year 1-4 events last week due to the change in weather – these events will be rescheduled for later in the Term. Message from the Principal of CollegeKia ora Pinehurst Whānau Wellbeing week culminated with a rainy but fun Pink Shirt Day last Friday. Many of our students participated and we raised over $1400 for the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand. The sausage sizzle on the day was a great hit and the Councils and Student Leadership did a wonderful job of organising the week. Many of our sports teams are continuing the theme into this week by wearing pink bandanas during their sports matches. There is a definite determination amongst our students to stand up to unkind behaviour and to challenge unpleasantness, and this has given me hope at a time when there has been terrible news from overseas. Our students most definitely look out for each other and show care and kindness in their actions. On Tuesday we hosted a College Open Day at which we were able to showcase our school to parents and children interested in joining the Pinehurst community. This was a successful and popular day for which we received some very positive feedback. Our student leaders once again made us proud by answering questions in a polite, respectful manner and generally being helpful and courteous as they showed prospective families around our school. Our Girls’ Football Team played at home on Wednesday against Kristin School. It was a well-supported and well fought match which ended in a 2-2 draw. Our girls did a great job and showed perseverance and resilience right up until the final whistle. Their coach, Ms Murray, was on hand to give helpful advice which kept the girls positive and happy throughout the game. We have watched the weather forecast closely from the beginning of the week, anxiously hoping for a fine day yesterday. The weather delivered and we were able to go ahead with House Cross Country which was a fabulous event. Being once again able to run cross country at Rosedale Park gave the event an added air of excitement and there was lots of fun and laughter along with some very serious running. All of our cross-country runners can be pleased with their efforts. Yesterday saw the start of midyear examinations for our Year 11-13 students and these will continue into next week. The first examination was Year 11 English Language, we continue today with Year 11 Mathematics followed by Year 11 English Literature and then next week the Year 12 and 13 students will also be taking examinations. These examinations will give our students the opportunity to experience the examination setting and to practice being ready for assessments. I have talked to the students about looking after themselves at this time; getting enough sleep, eating well, taking breaks and getting some fresh air during their study schedules. It is important that we all support and encourage our students through this time, please remind them that we are here for them if they need help. Have a wonderful weekend. Ngā mihi nui Dawn Pinehurst College Cross CountryAfter postponing the event due to weather in Week 3, this week our College students had the opportunity to compete in the annual Interhouse Cross Country event. Returning to Rosedale Park for the first time in a few years, the stunning autumn weather was a great backdrop for a fantastic, colourful event. This year, students had the choice of entering either the individual (3km) or relay (3 x 1km) – or both ! It was fabulous to see the creative outfits sported by many of our students, in their house colours, and a great display of sportsmanship and enthusiasm from all competitors on the day. A special mention to our top place finishers (below), including our inaugural relay winners! Mooting CompetitionOn Thursday 12th May, Pinehurst sent eight speakers from the College Mooting club to Diocesan School for Girls. This first moot was important. It was Pinehurst’s mooting debut and would set the standard for future moots to come. Unfortunately, it didn’t help that they were at a legal disadvantage with the case. It was up to both teams of four speakers to defend a guilty woman. After a stressful 30-minute drive into the heart of Auckland City both Pinehurst 1 and Pinehurst 2 were certain they would bring their A-game. Then, the moot began. Both teams had sound arguments and were incredibly confident, not giving any ground. Finally, with finesse and intuition, both teams returned to Pinehurst victorious. The Mooting Club is one of the newest extracurricular activities offered at Pinehurst, where students can develop legal thinking and argument building skills by stepping into the shoes of barristers in a simulated courtroom. Year 9 Commerce "Doing Good, Like a Boss!"Year 9 Commerce students have embarked on their Social Enterprise this week! Using the Like A Boss programme, they will be creating their own social enterprises that attempt to address one of the UN’s Social Development Goals. Additionally, all the money they earn will go to a local charity. In Term 3, students will put their ideas into practice with a market-day at school. Each class have decided on the SDG and charities that they are passionate about. Below, some student have explained their reasoning for choosing the SDG and charities that they did. ”Good health and wellbeing in a society is mandatory to help our growing population thrive, even during these harsh times. When someone has good health, they will be able to successfully overcome sickness and mental illnesses easier than one who does not. It’s as though good health is the central key to the joy and wellbeing within. This key provides support to wealth and economic progress, as having a larger population with positive health and wellbeing, we will be more productive, have control over our spending and live much longer. Our health is important to us as human beings. When we care for ourselves, we will care for our environment.” - Julia Linde and Grace Kim “We chose good health and well-being to our SDG, because Feelings for wellbeing are fun fundamental to the overall health of an individual, making them to successfully overcome their difficulties and things what they want out of life. Good health and wellbeing can also affect your emotional and physical attitude. Well-being is a feeling of satisfaction with our life and well-being changes your feeling too. Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all and all ages.” - Kathy Feng and Abby Li “9SCA has chosen Kids Can because Kids Can is an allrounder great charity, they donate to low decile school all around the country, they give kids food, clothes and all the essentials. KidsCan is Aotearoa's leading charity dedicated to helping Kiwi kids affected by poverty. They help families and children experiencing hardship by supplying food, jackets, shoes and health essentials to schools and early childhood centers across New Zealand. KidsCan supplies the essentials to Kiwi kids affected by poverty so they can take part in learning and have an opportunity for a better future just like us!” - Hamish Jones AKSS Orienteering ChampionshipsOn Wednesday a team of 18 Pinehurst Orienteers travelled to Waiuku forest for the Auckland Secondary Schools Orienteering Championships. For many of the group this was their first competition event and they should all feel proud of what they have achieved during the coaching programme and on the day. While the results are still pending, we do have on-the-day results. From these, congratulations to the following: Int Girls Championship – Charlie 7th (to be confirmed) Auckland Secondary Schools Boulder ClimbingPinehurst student, Taine, participated in the AKSS Boulder Climbing competition at the weekend. He did really well by reaching his goal and made it to the Junior Boys Finals. He managed a 6th place under stiff competition from the other climbers. Well done Taine!! Girls' FootballDecked out in Pink to support our Pink Shirt Day initiative - ‘Speak Up and Stand Together’ - the Pine Trees were ready to continue on the winning path. The teams' loyal supporters were in strong voice and it was fabulous to hear encouraging cheers of support from the teachers who stopped by to watch. It was an even battle with moments of brilliance from both teams, Kristin scored first, however it did not take us long to equalize and then pull ahead. Kristin scored again in the second half tying up the game. We held off a flurry of attacks from Kristin’s attacking line and The Pine Trees kept the pressure on for the closing minutes but couldn't quite find the back of the net to seal the win. Final Score - Kristin 2 - Pinehurst 2 Pink Shirt Day - Pinehurst SportThis week our sports teams took to the fields and courts wearing pink as part of their games or practices to ‘Speak Up & Stand Together to Stop Bullying’. By standing together, the teams showed a united front and also looked great sporting ribbons, bows and even bright pink socks! He kōtuinga mahi iti. He hua pai ā rau. - Small ripples create big waves Auckland Secondary Schools Golf - Stroke Play Individual Champs – Round 1This year we had a record number of golfers that qualified for the AKSS Golf Stroke Play Individual champs. This is played over 36 holes on two separate days. Round 1 was played at Formosa Golf Resort. Our students played well, with Yeonsoo and Towa currently in the top 10. Our players are now preparing themselves for the next round at Redwood Park which will be held in a couple of weeks time. Enviro WeekIn week 2 of this term, the Enviro Council wanted to raise awareness about the planet we live on and for students and teachers to develop a better understanding of the environment around us. This led to the very first ever enviro week which successfully went ahead. All PODs completed a quiz every morning based on four of the Earth’s elements: earth, fire, air, and water– the total score came down to being out of 43. The Enviro Council totalled up scores across all PODs and our top 3 PODs were: 1st place: TED (31/43) 2nd place: three-way tie between KOB, KPL & TMB (28/43) 3rd place: RTM (23/43) A huge congratulations to TED for winning this year's Enviro Week quiz challenge for 2022! Lastly a huge thank you to Ms Rea, Annie, and the Enviro Council for organising and planning the whole event. Hopefully, this will go on as a yearly event and all year groups can enjoy the fun learning it brings. -Lily McCabe & Anaheta Entezary, Year 9 Chamber MusicPinehurst School has had three Chamber Groups set up this year. Two of these, including “Medaille’s Triumph” and “Gassenhauer Trio” are competing at the NZCT Chamber Music Contest being held in St Heliers from the 9th to 11th of June. These groups have been practising hard under the guidance of our Performing Arts Manager Hae Jean Byun who has guided each group every week during their rehearsals. Recently, the groups were also privileged to be part of a masterclass run by professional Chamber Music pianist, Conroy Hu. Conroy refined the playing of both groups and aided students in their ensemble awareness skills and timings. Pinehurst very much look forward to showcasing these ensembles at future performance events in the school. College ProductionAnnie continues to progress through rehearsals, preparing to hit Centerstage, Orewa for a 27th to the 29th July show season. Catch a look at some photos from our latest dance and orchestra rehearsals. Tickets for Annie will be available from Monday 20 June. Year 2 writing.. Buddy day for our new entrants... Wheels week.. The Student Council will be hosting the Cultural Market on the 15th June, celebrating the many wonderful cultures that make Pinehurst. Students from years 7 to 13 are able to hold a stall, selling their favourite foods from their culture. Each stall will be charged $20 which will go towards the fundraiser for Unicef Fair Go (Fair Go | UNICEF Aotearoa) along with any other money raised from the raffle and on the day. Each stall gets to keep their profits but are of course welcome to donate some of this to the charity if they wish to do so. If students are in years 7 – 8, they must have an adult helper with them. Come and get involved by completing this form by 5pm on Friday 27th May. We will also be running a MasterChef style competition for stallholders. We are so excited to see you at the Cultural Market |