No images? Click here 26 November 2021Pinehurst School NewsletterOpening Words from the Executive Principal...Kia ora tatou, good afternoon, 你好, 안녕하세요 This has been a week of announcements about traffic lights and haircuts, with some added excitement for all of us at the prospect of future travel. I’ve been thinking about places I want to visit and family I want to see, colour starting to seep into my daydreams. It’s been like one of those terrible “before and after” adverts you see on daytime television: before, when there was no firm prospect of travel, a washed-out tint flooded the pictures behind my eyes; now, there’s a 1950s Technicolor glow, warm oranges and sharp blues in vivid relief. Yes, I want to travel again… Conversely, this has been a really settled week for our students. The in-school classes have gone well, and there has been a slow, steady increase in numbers of young people in school. We’ve managed our bubbles well, and the weather has helped us keep the students moving in and out of classrooms freely. Best of all, our children have clearly been enjoying the chance to learn together, to benefit from the experience of other teachers, and to socialise too. The online programme has been continuing pretty much as planned as well, and I’ve been pleased to see how well the students have adapted to new teachers and new courses. Our teachers continue to work hard to support our young people, adapting their practice with a great deal of imagination. Thank you to all parents for continuing to support us so positively as well. Our resources are stretched, of course, and we know that we wouldn’t be able to sustain our current programme forever, but it feels like the right approach for these three weeks. So let’s talk about the last two weeks of term. The Ministry of Education has decided that, when the rest of Auckland moves in the traffic lights system, schools will keep their current working conditions until the end of the year. Schools will instead move into the new system from January 2022. I have no idea why they’ve made this decision, but it isn’t going to stop us finishing the year with a flourish. This is what it means to us: · Our in-school and online programmes will continue as they currently are until the end of term, which is Thursday 9th December for students. · We are running a Year 6-7 and a Year 8-9 Transition Day online on December 1st. And we will be running an in-school Transition Half-Day for Year 6-7 and Year 8-9 on January 28th, which is before students return to school. · We are running Year 5/6 and Year 7/8 Sports Prizegivings in school, for prizewinners only, outside, physically distanced and masked, on December 3rd. These events will be streamed online and recorded for parents. · We are running separate Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6 Prizegivings, for prizewinners only and other children who are in-school, outside, physically distanced and masked, on December 7th. These events will be streamed online and recorded for parents. · We are running separate Year 7/8, Year 9/10 and Year 11-13 Prizegivings, for prizewinners only, outside, physically distanced and masked, on December 8th. These events will be streamed online and recorded for parents. All of these events are possible under the current arrangements, and we know that we can ensure that they happen safely and with no additional risk to students or staff. They will look a little different to the way they usually look, but I’m really looking forward to them! We are also planning some additional events for early next year – the Garden Party will return, for example, and we’re aiming for an Easter Picnic to replace the Christmas Picnic – but we are very keen to ensure that we end the year with a celebration of the achievements of our wonderful young people. I’ve been signing certificates all week, which is always a huge pleasure for me. As we are two weeks out from the end of term, I thought I should let you know of three teachers who will be leaving Pinehurst. Mrs Bell, who has been with us for one year, is heading overseas with her husband; Mrs Roberts, who has been a teacher in our Primary School for four years, is heading to the winterless north with her family; and Mrs Donald, who has been a Pinehurst Primary teacher for 18 years, retires at the end of term. We will miss all of them greatly, and they take with us our very best wishes. I’ll introduce the wonderful new teachers who will be replacing them in the next couple of weeks. Kia kaha, enjoy the weekend, and dream of far-flung cities and family reunions. 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 DiaryKia ora, This week has gone so fast it has been hard to keep up with the days. Having students back on site has been wonderful, so many smiling faces and the laughter heard from the playgrounds has been good for all of us. I can see that many have taken advantage of the chance to have a haircut yesterday too. Walking into classrooms where teachers are with their online classes has been fun and we are so impressed with student engagement and interaction even after all of this time at home. Well done students and families, we know it has not been easy. In school we are offline as much as we possibly can, with a focus on the core subjects of Maths, English and Science in the mornings and lots of sport, art, music and creativity in the afternoons. Mr Taylor, our P.E specialist can’t stop smiling because he can be out on the field teaching sport. Once again it has been good to see the resilience of our young people as they adjust to being back in school. They tell me the food is not as good as at home but other than that they are enjoying being in school. We have a number of events planned that we would normally do at this time of the year, starting with Year 5 and 6 Sports Prizegiving on Friday 3rd December. This event is for prize winners and will be streamed for parents. On Tuesday 7th December we will hold separate prizegiving events for Year 4 at 9:15am, Year 5 at 10:15am and Year 6 at 11:15am. The Year 6 event will also incorporate a celebration of graduation and the end of their Primary years. Our final event of the year will be an online Christmas celebration on Thursday 9th December at 2:20pm with some Christmas performances, jokes and good times to end the year. All of the communications for each event will be sent to you shortly and everything will be recorded too. I am hoping to have some more of this beautiful weather this weekend or maybe catch up with some reading or British drama shows on demand, if that is not the case. I hope you get to enjoy doing some of the things you love this weekend too. Kia kaha, stay safe. Ngā mihi, Sian Coxon, Principal of Primary
Primary MusicIt’s been a magical week in music with the sounds of Christmas beginning to emerge. Students and whanau have been hard at work sending in their Christmas performances for our end of year celebrations. These will be spread across the newsletter, assemblies and the Primary end-of-year Virtual Christmas Concert. Year 1 & 2 Most students in Year 1 have finished making their DIY instruments for a character in The Three Little Pigs. They considered how to use pitch and timbre to represent a character from the story. Students enjoyed coming up with actions for the song Must Be Santa. You can watch 1SB here. Year 3 & 4 Students have been learning Christmas songs in preparation for our end of year virtual Christmas sing-along. They have explored the difference between call and response and singing in unison. Some students have been searching for Christmas jokes for the concert. Here is a sneak preview of what is to come. On-site students had a go at playing Christmas songs on the boomwhackers and exploring the relationship between the size of the boomwhacker and the pitch it produced. A virtual version of the boomwhackers is also available here for children to create their own melodies. Jingle Bells Boomwhackers: Christmas joke preview: Year 5 & 6 I was blown away by the on-site students’ enthusiasm this week at playing the instruments. Check out their first attempt at Jingle Bells here. Students online have also been working on the Christmas Melody Hunt using virtual instruments. Virtual students have been busy using instruments at home or virtual instruments to solve the Christmas Melody Hunt. P6's exciting week!We have had an exciting week online learning in P6. In science, P6 has been learning about the correct way to behave around electricity. They have learnt to not use electricity near water, if the toaster is plugged in and the toast gets stuck never use a metal knife to get it out, if you use electrical equipment outside make sure it is waterproof, and never touch a light switch with wet hands as any of these things can give you an electric shock. We watched an animated movie called Dexter Ducks electrical safety movie. There was lots of laughter as the duck did everything, he should not do around electricity completely by accident. We then went into break out rooms and had a discussion on what hazards that we could see in a picture that we had been given. In our literacy programme we have been focusing on identifying keywords that help us to visualize. We read a chapter of our class story the Wild Robot by Peter Brown and we then collected words from the story that the author used to paint a picture. We then drew a picture based on the chapter and labelled using the wow words. In Art we continued with our robot theme, and we followed instructions to create a robot. We then had the pleasure of attempting the robot again but adding our own imagination and creating our own impression of a robot and her robot friends. P6 have really put their thinking caps on this week and completed word and number problems relating to equal shares, multiplication, and division. In Health our focus has been on healthy eating. We have investigated the food groups and the food pyramid. This week we looked at the effects of too much sugar and what it could do to our teeth. We then looked at how to correctly brush our teeth and we wrote instructions on how to correctly brush our teeth. I wonder what is instore for P6 next week with our online learning? P10 and P9 online classesIt is so lovely to be back at school and in the classroom. The first morning was strange as P10 was far too quiet. However, it wasn’t long before I could hear laughter in the playground and see students playing in their bubble outside. Although inside the actual classroom remains quiet, at 8.45am I am greeted with smiling, eager faces, and stories about the previous evening and how their morning has gone so far. Since being back at school, P10 has had 9 students from P9 join our online classroom. I am delighted to see how resilient and adaptable our students are. The transition has been smooth, and all students are respectful and engaging. Here is a snippet of what we have been up to this week… P19 at SchoolIt is so lovely to have the sound of students back in the classroom. Tuesday the students were very excited to be baking. They made Southern Cheese Rolls. a South Island classic snack. The two teams shared out the tasks of: mixing the ingredients, buttering the bread, and spreading the mixture and rolling the bread. Check the photos, as you can see the rolls turned out well. Sofia –“ They were really good and I loved the experience of baking.” Noah – “Absolutely delicious” Samuel- “Yummy” There were no rolls left over, that is always a good sign. Several of the students wanted the recipe so they could make them at home. We finished the day with a virtual assembly. We joined the online students for a Year 6 gathering and we shared some of the poetry we had written this week. Cheese rolls Ingredients
Method 1. Mix 1 can of reduced cream and onion soup in a bowl. Add grated cheese and mix through. 2. If you don't like crusts on bread, cut them off now- this is optional. Spread each slice with butter or margarine. 3. Spread two-thirds of the unbuttered side with one heaped dessert spoonful of cheese mix. Roll up tightly so filling doesn’t spill out. 4. Place on a baking tray and bake at 180°C oven for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. 5. Allow to cool for 5 to 10 minutes before serving. Tip: You can assemble ahead of time and keep covered with a damp tea towel or in a large plastic container in fridge ready for cooking as required. Cheese rolls can be served with a chutney. An alternative version of this recipe is to change the reduced cream to evaporated milk. Put the evaporated milk into a pot, stir in onion soup mix and simmer while continuously stirring. When the mix thickens slightly, add in the grated cheese and continue to mix until melted. Take this off the heat and chill mix. When chilled, wrap into bread as usual.
Congratulations 2021 Year 1-4 Sport Award Winners !!!Although we are sadly unable to present to you in person in 2021, we will arrange to get your certificates to you before the end of the Term. Most Valuable Contribution - awarded to the person who, through-out the season, has made the greatest contribution to the playing success of the team. MVP (Competition Team) - awarded to a student who gave 100% effort, demonstrated excellence, had an amazing attitude and showed outstanding sportsmanship in all areas of participation. A full list of the Year 5/6 Sport Award winners will be published in the next newsletter, following the presentation to award winners. Kia Ora, This time of year is about reflecting upon the year and celebrating our student’s success. Earlier this week the College Sport Young Sportsperson of the Year Awards were decided upon. We had two finalist this year, Towa Usui in the boys’ golf category and Nicole Choi in the girl’s golf. Only three students are selected as finalists in each category, so with 104 secondary schools in Auckland, just making it to the finals is an amazing achievement and is normally celebrated with a formal dinner at Eden Park. Unfortunately neither Towa nor Nicole won their categories, but they will both continue in our team next year and I am sure will be in an even stronger position. We have now had finalists in the Golf category for the past four years but have not had a Pinehurst student win the award since Lydia Ko who won it in 2011 and 2012. Yesterday we hosted our last online assembly of the year. I was again impressed by all our young people that had a role in the assembly. Chloe and Sissi delivered excellent speeches to inform us of the great work that they have done within the service aspect of the Service and Leadership Award. I know that a few other Year 9 students have nearly finished the platinum level of the award and are just waiting for an opportunity to deliver their speeches to the College. Many of you will have received an invite for your son or daughter to attend one of the end of year prizegiving’s to celebrate their success during the year. It is pleasing that we are able to celebrate the success of so many students this year, an example of this is that we have 108 different award winners due to attend the Year 11 – 13 Prize Giving. It is disappointing that we are unable to have our full audience at such important events, however all of the prizegiving’s will be live streamed allowing parents and family members to join us. The link for the various prizegiving’s will be emailed out closer to the time. Nga mihi, Kieran Verryt, Principal of College
Year 7 BubbleThe Year 7 bubble groups, both online and at school, have been working on developing their skills in enlargement by a scale factor. They created a ‘giant hand’ in which they enlarged their own hands by a scale factor of either two or three. Here are some of the hands. Lockdown tessellations: This Year 7 class looked at how tessellations were used in different cultures. What were they used for? What did the colours mean? Then they were tasked to create one of their own that they liked. College ScienceAfter a long time away, the College Science department was very happy to welcome back students into the labs this week. In our year group bubbles we have focused on practical work, making up for some of the experiments we have missed over the last few months and helping the students to rediscover their skills. The range of experiments is extremely varied: Year 7 have been learning to be CSI investigators, Year 8 have experienced experiments and demonstrations on static electricity and Year 9 have been working on their experimental design and practical skills; while Year 10 have had specific experiments in each of the different sciences. While the activities in each bubble have been varied, the overall theme of fun, hands on, engaging work has been clear throughout and we will continue with this until the end of term. It’s great to be back! Year 10 HistoryThis term in History the students have been learning about events in the USSR in the 20th century. This week in school students were able to demonstrate their knowledge of different events by recreating them with Lego. Each group did a fantastic job and were able to teach the rest of the class about the event they chose. By recreating each event with Lego and teaching it to the rest of the class the students are now more confident in their own knowledge and will remember these events in more detail. Year 7 - 10 Online AssemblyYear 7 – 10 students attended their final online assembly of the year yesterday, led confidently by our MCs Sissi Yang & Daniel ALSammak. Themes of reflection, striving for excellence, servant leadership, & Hauora – the Māori philosophy of health & wellbeing were a fitting way to round off what has been a challenging year. The address from Mr Verryt, our Principal of College, challenged the students to both reflect on 2021 & consider how they could make the most of the opportunities they missed this year by getting involved next. Robbie Baker, our guest speaker from ATTITUDE, delivered an energetic, informative & timely presentation showing our students how they can adopt the Hauora principles to attend to their own health & wellbeing. Robbie made some strong points, one of which was the call for gratitude, for being happy with what we have & what we can do, rather than dwelling on what we don’t have or what restrictions are placed on us. He demonstrated this point by sharing his experience playing football with young children in Zimbabwe, content with using rolled up duct tape as a ball, even when the ball he later purchased for them was popped when Robbie kicked into a thorn bush. A valuable reflection for all of us. Thomas Graham’s funky rendition of a James Brown song had us all bopping our heads & it was pleasing to see so many Year 7, 8 & 9 students achieving their service badges. Congratulations to Danielle Austin & Luis Huang for taking out the academic awards of the Fortnight, & a special mention to both Sissi Yang & Chloe Birkenstock for their Year 9 Platinum Service speeches – they both encapsulated the benefits of pursuing service opportunities, clearly demonstrating an embedded understanding of the connection between service & leadership. Bush walks in PEStudents are lucky enough to have PE every day in the College now most of us are back at school. One day a week, all of the classes have had the opportunity to explore the local bush walks. This week, classes had a hikoi through the Fernhill Escarpment over the road from school. Students enjoyed the shade of the tall totara trees, the song of the plentiful tūi and the chance to escape the school grounds. College PoetryFriend She seemed to have a sweet smell about her, Her pale skin was set against her pale blue dress. Bright eyes seemed to speak. Lashes reflected the light from her eyes. Lips as pink as a rose petal, Bushy eyebrows rebel slightly upwards. Her brown hair clung to her collarbone. She was rebellious and gentle, Running barefoot on the grass. The hedgehog followed her. The romantic night was full of wind, Her eyes were brighter than the stars. I wish I could have a sweet dream, Hope she appear in my dream, Miss you my bestie. By Iris Lu College Sport Auckland Young Sportperson of the Year AwardsThe Young Sportperson of the Year Awards is a prestigious event run by College Sport Auckland for all sporting codes. It recognises students in their chosen sport who have excelled throughout the year. Congratulations to Nicole and Towa who were finalists in this year’s Awards for Golf! Young Sportsperson of the Year Awards 2021 – College Sport Auckland Year 9-13 Sport Prize GivingYou will be aware that our College Sport Prize Giving for Year 9-13 did not proceed at the end of Term 3, and without our Senior students here, it was not possible to reschedule the full awards ceremony for this term. Our six main sport awards will be presented at Academic Prize Giving to be held in December. While we are unable to present certificates and trophies in person, here are the final results (excluding the six main awards) from our students’ sporting achievements in 2021. Certificates will be handed out to those students currently in school, otherwise they will be kept here until the start of next year. Congratulations to all our award winners! This weeks Maths problemThe solutions to last weeks problemSenior Year 1’s making gingerbread houses and puppets.... Annie 2022Pinehurst College is excited to announce we will be presenting Annie as our musical production next year. Information on how to audition as well as rehearsal and production dates, synopsis and character briefs is currently available on the Schoolbox’s Annie page, all eligible students, and their parents, will have already received an information pack via an email. Next year’s musical will run from the 29 - 31st July, with three 7.00pm shows and one matinee. Cast auditions will be conducted via online video submissions and the deadline to submit is the 30th of November. Pinehurst Family Quiz NightPlease do advise if you would like to join us by submitting your details here. If there are any questions regarding the online event, please contact michelle.alves@pinehurst.school.nz Sports uniform returnA friendly reminder that all Year 1-8 Sports Uniform issued in 2021 is now due for return. Please return to the marked box in Reception, or Year 7/8 students learning at school may also drop this off to the box in the Arena Sports foyer. We would be grateful if all uniform could be returned no later than Tuesday 30th November *** Year 3-6 Basketball, Year 7-8 Hockey, Year 1-8 Netball, Year 5-8 Table Tennis *** CASE Space Academy |