No images? Click here Newsletter - 1 April 2022Message from the Executive PrincipalKia ora koutou, good afternoon, 你好, 안녕하세요 Life has moved outdoors this week. The late summer heat has warmed the school, pulling Drama, Art, Science and Languages lessons onto the lawns, overlapping enthusiastic PE classes in brief, sudden waves, House colours blending with Pinehurst blue. The whole of Year 8 has spent the last two days in and around Muriwai, falling asleep in their tents to the sound of the Tasman Sea crashing onto the black sand. And nearly half of our Year 13 group, determined to make indelible final school camp memories, have been climbing high ropes, canyoning, tramping and camping under the shadow of Tongariro and Ruapehu. In school, it’s been wonderful to have the whole of the Primary School back in their classes for the first time in a month. Thank you especially to those parents who were a little nervous about sending back your children this week: our case numbers, as we have all been able to see, have fallen significantly, and we have reached a steady pattern now: we have the occasional case – three children have tested positive so far (I’m writing on Thursday afternoon) this week across the whole school, one of whom will have been infectious in school – and we are testing in a reasonably targeted way, but with a wider focus for younger students. This is likely to be our pattern for some time now: we will continue to be careful, and we will sustain our protective measures, but we will also move as close as we can to ‘normal’ life. We will also, of course, keep up our transparent approach so you can be confident that you always know exactly what’s happening in the school. The car park is a little busier now as well, of course. Just a quick reminder about courtesy and safety: please drive slowly, and please also, at the end of the day, remember not to block the entrance by stopping at the bottom end of the school, as this blocks others and causes dangerous queues on the road. I do understand that you are trying to time your slow drive through the car park so that children can hop in without the need for you to park, but it's quite dangerous, so please don’t do this. We are now two weeks away from the end of term, and we have a few teachers leaving us on April 13th, so I thought you might like the chance to say good bye to them before they disappear. Mr Hoang leaves us after 3 wonderful years, inspiring students with Maths (with a little edge of madness). He’s off to Vietnam with his growing family. Mrs Blackwell leaves us too, after four years of fabulous Physics teaching, though she will remain a committed member of the Pinehurst community as a mother to two of our children. Mrs O’Driscoll, our Head of Social Sciences, currently on maternity leave, is leaving us as well: she is heading to Ireland. And Mr Verryt is – unsurprisingly – also bound for Cork with Mrs O’Driscoll and their young child. Mr Verryt has led the College for many years, and has imprinted something of himself on the school and on all of us who work here. His unwavering commitment to an holistic educational experience has given hundreds of students over the years the chance to extend themselves further than they would have thought possible; and he will, quite simply, be greatly missed. Mr Verryt will be replaced by Mrs Sullivan, whom I will introduce properly at the start of next term with our other new staff. 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
Monday 4th April
Tuesday 5th April
Wednesday 6th April
Thursday 7th April
Friday 8th April
Message from the Principal of PrimaryKia ora, What a beautiful sunny week we have had, it has been just perfect for hut building. Every morning excited children have hauled big bags of blankets, pegs, soft toys and cushions into class with them ready to build a hut at morning tea. We began with Year 6, and I must say a very impressive three room mansion in the bushes complete with a hallway, lounge and bedroom constructed by a group of boys. They even had a branch swing in there for exercise and entertainment. The rest of the year groups had the advantage of watching the Year 6 huts go up and borrowed any great ideas to add to their own. I wondered whether we would see less ingenuity as the week went on and the builders were younger but no! Year 2 were very interesting as they created some of the most complex structures of any year group. As we watched them, Mrs Kenny wondered if it was their recent experience with Conscious Kids, our day camp held earlier in the year, that had refined their skills in construction. Every group of children created a hut that stayed upright for the whole day because they had thought about how to make them strong and the importance of attaching materials to each other so that they wouldn’t fall down. One of our favourite huts became known as the Gucci Hut due to blankets being attached with a Gucci ribbon, we like designer! It was also amusing that some of the boys moved their whole hut because there were just too many leaves. The most rewarding part of the hut building week was the excitement and happiness on little faces and all of the learning that came from having to negotiate, mediate, cooperate, construct and use science, language and maths to create a hut with each other. We all loved it so much we are going to make hut building week a part of our lunchtime events from now on. I have been privileged to spend time with students really engaging in their learning this week to a level that is not the norm in a Primary school. The way we teach writing for example relies on building vocabulary, knowing about openers for sentences and connectives to link ideas as well as building an understanding of how punctuation can be used to add meaning to a piece of writing. Watching a Year 3 class discussing opening a sentence with onomatopoeia and then being able to define it and use it to add interest to their work was astonishing. Students were able to identify adverbs, verbs and adjectives with ease and use exclamation marks in the right places. Having the building blocks of good writing at such an early age will last them a lifetime allowing them to enjoy written communications in many contexts.. I also spent time with Year 6 who were beginning rehearsals for Madagascar Jr our Year 5 - 6 show this year. They were fantastic even at this early stage. There was singing and rehearsing lines for potential parts as well as getting to grips with the plot of the play and really getting to know the characters. For the next two weeks we are holding workshops on Fridays for all of our students before we begin to make casting decisions at the beginning of next term. Don’t forget to get those audition clips in. We can’t wait to see the show! Kia pai to rā whakata, have a good weekend. Ngā mihi, Sian Coxon. P7 are artists!P7 created a fish picture but only capturing part of the fish. The students were experimenting with crayon and dye to create such colourful art pieces. In Maths P7 have been exploring 2D polygons. Students have been creating a variety of shapes using sticks, geoboards and drawing polygons using a ruler. They have learnt that polygons have straight sides and are closed shapes. The students also learnt different quadrilaterals. P9 Super StarsIt is so good to be back in school, in a classroom teaching students that are engaging, curious and happy. It amazes me how resilient children can be, and how they remain positive. This week P9 have continued with the Big Write writing curriculum, and are preparing to write an exciting, gripping fantasy story. The aliens from planet Varnan have finally arrived and it is very exciting. The focus this week has been on linking words and sequencing, using a clear story structure that has an opening, build-up, peak and a conclusion, and adding detail to descriptions and information. We have been up-levelling an opening to make it more exciting and hook the reader in In Reading, Detective Dood has been helping us to use our ‘deducing detective skills’ to find clues, look for evidence about what the author might be suggesting and make connections to our own experiences and the world around us. We have been learning how to predict what is going to happen next and making inferences using clues that have been identified to back up our thoughts and opinions. We have been practicing and extending our subtraction skills by subtracting ones, tens, and hundreds from a three-digit number. Using the inverse calculation helps us to check our answer. When we are solving word problems, the acronym RUCSAC helps to remind us to read, understand, chose, solve, answer, and check our work. On Wednesday, we had our Hut Building Day and students used their perseverance, creativity, collaboration, and problems solving skills to build their hut using different materials. he photos in this week’s newsletter show just how much work students put into their huts; it was fabulous to observe these skills being utilised. It has been a lovely week back at school. P16 this weekIt has been fantastic to welcome back all the children to school this week! Everyone has been so excited to see each other in person. In Art, we have been exploring cubism and this week we created artworks that showcased different animals. In our art the children needed to use dark bold lines, geometric shapes, and bright colours. Can you identify the animals hiding in our cubist work? In Reading, we have thought very carefully about the characters, setting, plot and dialogue in Treasure Hunters Secrets of the Forbidden City, we used this information to play a game of Two Truths and a Lie. It was tricky to create lies about the story that were believable based on the information we already knew about the book. We had a lot of fun and some great discussions about the book whilst sharing our truths and a lie. In Global Perspectives, we are working on making connections between different countries. This week we played a fun game of Top Trumps. Before we could play though, we had to create our own cards featuring a different country that included facts that we could then compare with other students. We found some countries were constantly coming out on top! In Maths, we have been exploring decimals. To do this we have been working on our place value knowledge as we look at numbers to two places; we have converted decimals to fractions, rounded decimals to whole numbers and tenths, and worked out sequences of numbers. Primary Year 4 - 6 MusicYear 4 have been continuing to develop their understanding of rhythm and timbre while learning bucket drumming. We have looked at how we can recreate the sounds of standard drum kit by hitting different parts of our bucket drums. E.g. the middle of the drum produces a deeper timbre like the kick drum and the rim produces a higher and sharper sound, like the snare drum. Students are also learning to read music notation and exploring a range of genres through the selection of pieces. Year 5 and 6 students have also begun to look at the music for our upcoming production of Madagascar. Students have been added to the Madagascar ‘Team’ and are encouraged to upload their audition videos into the Drop Space before the 10th of April. Year 5 have been focusing on reading single string tablature while playing the ukulele. They have delved into the different moods created by minor and major keys and understand how a lowered or raised third degree of a scale can completely change the feel of a song. Year 6 are exploring chords on the ukulele. As a class we have learned a range of strumming patterns to suit different genres of music including reggae, ballads, pop and rock. Many students are now at the stage where they can play any song of their choice by reading the chord charts and using a strumming pattern to suit the piece. Hooray for Hut Building!Hut building in the Primary was met with great excitement, planning and anticipation. Our younger year groups benefitted from visiting the Years 3 - 6 huts built earlier in the week. They were able to look closely at the huts, discuss the design techniques and suitable equipment choices that were made for successful constructions. As the sessions took place, we were able to observe our students engaging in the process of planning, trialing construction techniques and adjusting their designs. Creative thinking, negotiation and collaboration were evident as groups problem solved, and managed to work as a team. Great fun was had by all. We have already had many requests for the next hut building experience. Year 1-3 Basketball Skills and Drills.What a fabulous turn out for our skills and drills session this week. Coach Christ is great with the students, and shows patience and enthusiasm as he teaches the fundamental skills of basketball in a fun and engaging session. SPCA Animal Photography CompetitionSPCA's Animal Photography Competition for kids is open now! Do you have a young person in your life who loves photography, animals, or both? Why not encourage them to enter? It's free, super simple and sets a fun creative challenge for young minds. Their photo can be of a companion, farmed, or wild animal. Simply email their best shot to education@spca.nz before April 25th. One junior and one senior winner will be selected, entrants just need to provide their name, age, school, contact details, and description of their photo! Check out the February SPCA Kids Kind Matters newsletter for tips on taking great photos. Please note: by entering SPCA competitions, you’re agreeing for SPCA New Zealand to share your work on all SPCA webpages and within social media postings. Players needed for Primary SportsTable Tennis player for Term 2 To complete our 3rd team, we require 1 additional Year 5 - 8 Table Tennis player to join us in Term 2 – beginners are very welcome ! If you had always wanted to try Table Tennis, this is a perfect opportunity. To register (1 place available only) please click here: Sports Registration | Pinehurst School Year 2 Netball We have space for 3 additional Year 2 players to join our 2022 Winter Netball Programme. If your Year 2 son/daughter has not already registered, and would like to play Winter Netball for Pinehurst, please register here Sports Registration | Pinehurst School (no later than Tuesday 5th April 2022). Please note - all other Year levels are full. For more information on our Netball Programme, please click here: primary-winter-netball-years1-6-2022.pdf (pinehurst.school.nz) or if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Anina (Primary Netball Coordinator) anina.botes@pinehurst.school.nz Message from the Principal of CollegeKia ora, An absolutely stunning week of weather has been very welcome, with two year groups enjoying camps this week. A group of our Year 13 students have been based at the Hillary Outdoors Camp in Tongariro National Park since Sunday. This was a last-minute change of venue from their Great Barrier Island Camp, which is where our Year 12 will go in November. While I am sure that some students may have been disappointed by the late change, looking at the photos it is obvious that they have had a brilliant trip. Our Year 8 students have enjoyed their trip out west, taking on a hike and some surfing lessons. I am confident that this trip will only make them more excited about their winter camp in Term 3. As we look back on the term, I am delighted that we have managed to get our Year 8, Year 10, and Year 13 Camps away as scheduled. We have had to postpone Years 7, 9 and 11, but with new dates locked into the calendar I am confident that these students will be enjoying their trips later in the year. Having the opportunity to take part in a camp every year is not common amongst schools anymore and it is something that takes a lot of planning and energy. However, we see what our students gain from these experiences and know that these are opportunities that are difficult to come by later in life. Next week we look forward to our Year 9 students enjoying a day out at Woodhill Forrest where they will be challenging themselves on the high ropes course and mountain biking. This is an opportunity for these students to enjoy a challenge in place of their camp that we have moved to Term 4. This is similar notion to the day that our Year 7 students enjoyed earlier in the term. Next Thursday we also host our annual football game vs Richmond Special School. This is always a great event that gives the students from Richmond a rare opportunity to play a sports fixture against another school. It is also an opportunity for our students to engage with the Richmond students and support them to have a fun afternoon. The score is definitely not a factor in this game and the smiles and laughter throughout make it worthwhile. On the sports front, we have enjoyed a brilliant term of sports with participation even better than normal. We have seen increased student numbers in Volleyball, Orienteering, Tennis and Golf. Sign up for winter sports has also been very good, particularly in Hockey where we have 70 students ready to represent the school. Our winter sports season culminates with National Tournament week in Term 3. We are sending more teams to tournament than ever before. This is in part because our students have not had the opportunity to enjoy the Aims Games experience for the last two years. Our current plan is to send Netball, Hockey Boys, Hockey Girls, Golf and potentially Table Tennis away to the various tournaments around the North Island. On the Golf Team, you will see from the article below that they won their Auckland Championship semi-final against Kings College on Monday. The other semi-final saw an upset win by Rosmini over Auckland Boys Grammar. As such we will be playing Rosmini in the final on Monday, a team that we have already beaten once this term. Good luck to our Golf Team as they seek to retain their Auckland title, before they set their sights on their real goal for 2022, which is to be National Champions. Nga mihi, Kieran Verryt. Year 13 Senior Leadership CampA group of our Year 13 students have been based at the Hillary Outdoors Camp in Tongariro National Park since Sunday. Here are some of the highlights. Orienteering Rogaine ChallengeThe Orienteering Rogaine involves a combination of strategy and fitness as participants must plan their own course to try and get maximum points in the 2 hours. Points are lost for each minute you arrive back after the 2 hours! The Top 3 teams from Pinehurst were:
Well done to all participants! Year 7 RoboticsThis week teams have been pitting their programming skills against each other by racing down a course, crossing the line and doing a 180-degree turn, then racing back. The teams have learned a lot about the challenges of programming and the variation between what you hope for and what you can actually get! Pinehurst reaches Auckland Golf FinalsThe Pinehurst golf team won their semi-final of the Auckland secondary school golf championships on Monday against Kings College at Pupuke. Because Pinehurst finished top of the North Harbour competition, they were drawn to play the second placed team in the Auckland division of the competition. For the first time this term, the match was decided over 18 holes with the best three scores deciding the winner. Nicole C, Yeonsoo S, Towa U and Yicheng W accumulated a total of 213 points compared to Kings' 220. The finals will be played next Monday against either Auckland Grammar or Rosmini. College VolleyballThe Pinehurst internal volleyball league is heading towards the finals next week after a tense last round of games. Girls Grey found themselves up against a depleted staff team of only 5 players and showed some excellent improvements over the course of their two games. Unfortunately for them, the staff team put together a few good shots and after some close rallies, took the win. In the next game, the Boys 1 team's serving was relentless and proved too much for the Girls Grey team who were playing without subs. Boys 1 took out the match comfortably 2-0. The highlight of the evening was the long awaiting game between the two boys' teams. Both teams won a set, taking it to a tense third and final set. The atmosphere was electric, and the pressure was huge as the boys relied on some lucky escapes on both sides. With both teams having made vast improvements over the term, it was no surprise that it was 15-15 and came down to the wire. In the end, Boys 1 got the win they came for. Player needed for Table TennisTo complete our 3rd team, we require 1 additional Year 5 - 8 Table Tennis player to join us in Term 2 – beginners are very welcome ! If you had always wanted to try Table Tennis, this is a perfect opportunity. To register (1 place available only) please click here: Sports Registration | Pinehurst School Easter Art with Year 2... The decimals game with Year 4... Join us online for the Pinehurst School Family Easter Quiz on Wednesday 6th of April 2022 at 5.00pm. With questions for the whole family, get your team together and be in with a chance to win a lovely Easter chocolate gift box. 2022 NZ Open Water ChampsThe 2022 New Zealand Open Water Champs were held in Lake Taupo. This event was originally scheduled to be held in January but was postponed due to COVID. Jack P competed in the 5km and the 2.5km event, with the 5km being the main event for his age group. Wetsuits were optional as the water temperature was below 20 degrees Celsius and Jack wore a wetsuit for both events. Jack won the National Title, placing first in his age group (13-14) in both the 5 km, and 2.5km. Jack also placed second in the 2.5km overall, winning the Silver Open Age Group Medal. Jack swam the 5km in 1:00.17 and the 2.5km in 30.34. To qualify to represent NZ at the World Junior Open Water Champs, Jack was required to place in the top two for his age group in the 5km and needs achieve a 1500m time in the pool. Jack has met the first qualifying standard.
Waikato U15 OpenShuyu L (Elsa) attended the Waikato U15 Open 2022 Badminton Tournament this past weekend and achieved great results.
Badminton success for TonyYear 9 student Tony Y continues his winning streak in badminton winning the Waikato Under 15 badminton singles and doubles titles. Tony is a new student to Pinehurst this year and obviously a valuable addition to Totara House. Congratulations Tony and good luck for the rest of the season. Holiday Programmes |