No images? Click here Newsletter - 18 March 2022Message from the Executive PrincipalKia ora koutou, good afternoon, 你好, 안녕하세요 I know I talk about the weather a fair bit. I’m British: we’re generally pretty buttoned up, and the ever-changing skies, and ever-present threat of rain, have been an essential way to break the ice for ever in the UK. If in doubt, complain about the climate: we’ve been doing it for centuries. I can imagine Alfred the Great stepping out of his kitchen, followed by billowing grey smoke, carrying some burnt cakes in his hands. Slightly embarrassed, and not knowing how to cover his latest culinary disaster, he pretends to shiver: “uncommonly nippy for the time of year…”. So yes, we talk about the weather. But isn’t it wonderful right now? The humidity seems finally to be passing; the mornings are crisp, the sun piercing, the air fresh. We’ll soon start to see autumn leaves begin to tumble as well, russet, orange and yellow filling the air and carpeting the flower beds. Our children have been enjoying being outside too! As I write, I can see a drama class rehearsing on the front lawn, the large doors of the classroom swinging open. College students can also be found working in groups outside during lessons from time to time. At the moment, we have doors and windows open everywhere, of course, and so the movement between classrooms and our wonderful environment has been particularly fluent. In Primary, we see this a lot, especially in Years 4, 5 and 6, and it’s a feature of our school that is pretty special. We have an amazing environment and we like to make the most of it. I wanted to talk about a few small changes to our Covid arrangements, and to confirm a couple of things that will not change. Firstly, what will not change:
And what will change: 1. From Monday 21st March, parents and grandparents will be able to drop their Primary children at school in the usual way in the morning, taking them to their classrooms if they wish. They will be able to talk to teachers in the usual way too, and will be able to enter classrooms as well. They will be required to wear masks, of course. We are doing this because our experience has shown us that this is not a high risk activity provided we limit this to parents and grandparents, and everyone wears masks. Our decision is also because we are our school built on strong relationships, and we want these to become stronger again. This is one way we can do this. 2. From Monday 21st March, parents and grandparents of Primary children are welcome to talk to teachers or each other after school as well, provided (of course) that they wear masks. Again, this is not a risky activity if it is limited just to family members, and will help strengthen our sense of community. 3. Next week may be the last week of hybrid learning. We will review the position next week, and will assess the current risks, but if we continue to have very few cases in Primary and the situation in Auckland is continuing to improve, we are likely to end hybrid learning on Friday 25th March. If we do this, we will expect all Primary students to be in school from Monday 28th March. We are doing this because we firmly believe that it is better for children to be in school. It is better for the development of their essential social skills, which develop empathy, communication skills and the ability to connect with others they wouldn’t otherwise meet. These skills make a massive difference to their futures and to their enjoyment of life in general. Many Primary children are also now double-vaccinated, and so have added protection. Our hybrid programme also comes at a cost. Not a financial cost (though there is a cost here) so much as a cost on our staff and our ability to sustain a high quality programme for the longer term. It also has an impact on parents looking after their children at home, of course! We know that Covid cases will continue to appear every now and then for months to come, and we know that we have the systems in place to reduce infections. These two factors mean that it may be the right time to end hybrid learning in Primary. But we will decide next week! Let me know if you feel strongly either way. And we will continue to offer some online provision for students who have to isolate at home. 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 Message from the Principal of PrimaryKia ora, With more students in school this week, the Primary has been a lively, happy place to learn. I love how friendly and polite our children are and how they greet us at the beginning and end of the day is heart-warming. Good manners are important at any age and signal a willingness to engage positively with another person. Parents, you are doing an amazing job of teaching your children how to interact with others, an important life skill that will help them in their future. The arrival of Pop’s Games this week has caused much excitement. The games are a collection of wooden puzzles, mazes, point scoring games with bean bags and hoopla as well as snooker, noughts and crosses and a giant game of Connect 4. It has been fascinating to watch how each age group approaches the games, what they like the most and what they know the rules for. I knew by Wednesday and the turn of Year 3 and 4 that I wouldn’t be guaranteed a win at noughts and crosses or Connect 4 as the abilities of older children to strategize were more finely tuned. Being able to play outside with physical toys instead of just on a computer screen is essential to child development. I am actually a big fan of computer games as they can be educational and encourage logic and computational thinking but as with everything there should be a balance and the games on screen need to be appropriate. Next week we have another exciting event planned with hut building on the fields. Do you remember using the dining room chairs, some blankets and pegs to make huts with and then spending all day and sometimes the night in there eating picnics and reading books? Each day a year group will get the chance to create their own huts to hang out in at break times. They can bring blankets, tarps, cushions, battery lights and pegs to construct them; we will supply some chairs for a structure to make a den. We are going to start with Year 6 on Monday so they can inspire the rest of the Primary with their fabulous creations. Look for the message on Seesaw from Mrs Jones Hill which explains all the details. As teachers we are tasked with meeting the educational needs of a range of abilities in the classroom. I saw a wonderful example in Year 2 this week of groups of students working on the same concept of multiplication, but at a level appropriate to their needs. This is called differentiation and happens in all great lessons. Everyone is engaged in the lesson at a level that grows their knowledge and skill level, is challenging but not too much. This equals success for all learners and helps to build confidence, especially in Maths where there are right and wrong answers. Thanks for your kind words, support, and trust in us. Our staff are proving themselves to be flexible, resilient, and totally awesome yet again and all appreciate the feedback you give. Kia pai to rā whakata, have a good weekend. Ngā mihi, Sian Coxon. Superhero Senior Year 1 online learning!This week we had so much fun online with Miss. Watters and Mrs. McCulloch. We had a super exciting art project this week but before we got started, we practiced our superhero poses. We made flying poses, fighting poses, and running poses! We then drew our superhero making one of these poses. For the background, we overlapped our pieces to create a colourful and exciting background that stuck out behind our superhero. For Global Perspectives, we have been talking about growing up. For our project this week, we needed to bring a jar, three pieces of paper, string, and paper to our online lesson. With the paper, we traced our hand, with the string we measured how tall we were, and with the paper we wrote three things about ourselves; what our favourite book was, what our shoe size was, and who our best friend was. We then decorated the outside and added the date. In 9 months’ time, we will pull out our jar and look at how much our hands have grown, how much taller we’ve gotten, and if our favourite book is the same! The children at home had so much fun measuring themselves and they can’t wait to see how much they have grown! By Alsie By Kelvin By Emerson P1 and P2 Superheroes!The online P1 and P2 have been enjoying the story Super Daisy and Peril of Planet Pea this week. In this story, Super Daisy must stop Planet Pea from colliding with Earth, if she fails Planet Pea will explode covering everything in Peas!!! After reading this story the students thought about a vegetable they did not like and created their own vile planet – we had Planet Broccoli, Planet Onion, Planet Carrot to name a few. We then used our own Superhero from the previous week to save Earth from our rotten vegetable planets. In Maths we have been learning our number bonds within 10. The students discovered there are so many ways of making all the numbers up to 10, for example, we can make 8, using these pairs of numbers – 8 and 0, 7 and 1, 6 and 2, 5 and 3, 4 and 4. The students are now learning to use this knowledge to solve real problems involving uneven sharing and working out all the possibilities. The New Entrant children have been quickly learning their phonics and now know all the sounds of the alphabet! Next week we are very excited to start two-letter one sound letters such as ch and sh. What’s been happening online with P6, P7 and P8Our book for the week is called ‘The great Kapok tree’ by Lynn Cherry. We have been focusing on distinguishing between fiction and non-fiction texts, answering simple questions from reading the text and identifying possible meanings of unfamiliar words encountered in reading the book. Phonics the sound of the week has been ‘ow’ as in brown cow. Some words we have been looking at: how, brown, power, flower, owl, howl, growl. By Cynthia Gao By Chloe Ma In Science we are sorting and classifying animals, describe characteristics of animals and can compare body parts of different animals. By Jessica Kou By Chloe Zeng Lastly, in Art we have been looking at an Artist called Paul Klee, who is well known for this famous self-portrait. By Amelia Shen By Leo Chen P18 News!Over the past few weeks, the students in P18 have been working incredibly hard, either online with Mrs Heighton or in-school with Ms Baik or Mrs Donald. Wherever they are doing their lessons, they’re are adapting, engaging, and making the most of all the great learning experiences! In Writing, the students are exploring the structure and language of an autobiography and the key language features used to sequence events and vary pace. They are in the process of planning their own autobiography which they will be writing on Friday. For Health, the focus is all about emotions and recognising and identifying different feelings. The students have been learning how to use different strategies to either boost positive and enjoyable feelings or manage being nervous, worried and stressed. They can use the acronym SHINE to help them remember how boost happy feelings. Show kindness to a classmate Have a laugh with others Investigate and be curious Notice and be mindful Exercise and be active As part of our Global studies, the students have been using Microsoft Forms to create and conduct surveys of their peers, investigating all about others taking part in extra curricular activities – they are now working on what the data is telling them and summarising their findings. We are continuing with our sketching in Art and have been practising and applying our skills drawing a Zebra and also a cartoon portrait of our family. Fractions, factors and multiples is keeping everyone busy in Maths – the students have been busy learning to use common factors to simplify fractions and use common multiples to express fractions with the same denomination! Always so much fun! Pop’s GamesThe Primary have been challenging themselves this week with a series of outdoor life-sized lawn games. We had a special delivery of super-sized games set up on the field. Each year group received an invitation to spend their morning tea and lunchtime with Ms Coxon, Mrs Jones-Hill and their class teachers to extend their problem solving, spatial and hand-eye co-ordination and of course collaborative skills. Most importantly we all had a lot of fun. Year 1 and 2 NetballWe have started the netball season off with great excitement. Our New Entrant, Year 1 and Year 2 players get together each Friday lunchtime for a range of skills, drills and fun. We are very lucky to have a talented group of college netball players who have given up their time to coach our newest players. They are focusing on passing, catching, shooting and moving drills to get them court ready. We are looking forward to the winter netball season to put our skills into game situations. Pinehurst NetballWe are extremely excited to see our new netball dresses arriving just in time for the winter season. Here is a selection of netballers from New Entrant to Year Six showing our new dresses in action. We cannot wait for the new season to begin. Primary SportRegistrations are NOW OPEN for the following Primary Winter Sports (see the noted link for the relevant information sheet). Please note – if your son/daughter is already participating in the Term 1 Hockey or Netball programmes, they will need to register again if they wish to play in a team for the 2022 Winter Season. CLICK here to Register: Sports Registration | Pinehurst School It is important you carefully check the information sheet (at link’s posted below) BEFORE registering for a Sports Programme, to ensure you can meet all required game / training times / costs, equipment requirements, etc. Hockey Year 3/4 Winter North Harbour Hockey Primary School League winter-hockey-information-letter-year-3_4-2022.pdf (pinehurst.school.nz) Hockey Year 5/6 Winter North Harbour Hockey Primary School League winter-hockey-information-letter-year-5_6-2022.pdf (pinehurst.school.nz) Netball Year 0-6 Winter Kidzplay Primary League https://www.pinehurst.school.nz/media/2771/primary-winter-netball-years1-6-2022.pdf Registrations for both Primary Winter Hockey & Netball close at 9am on Tuesday 22nd March 2022. Late registrations will only be considered where team numbers allow.
Message from the Principal of CollegeKia ora, Yesterday we had an extra splash of green around the college as Rimu House students led St Patrick's Day celebrations and completed fundraising activities to go toward their House charity. Engaging in charity work, either through fundraising or engaging in activities is something that our students enjoy doing. It also helps to broaden their perspectives, and at times gives them a greater appreciation for what they have. At the moment we have nearly $9,000 in accounts for the various charity fundraising initiatives that our students have engaged with over he last couple of years. All of our College Councils are now up and running and are providing a range of lunchtimes activities for students to engage in. The Arts Council are about to launch an online talent quest, while the Sports Council have Interhouse sport running. This year we have a new group of students working with Trees for Survival, and the new greenhouse and planter boxes outside College 4 are starting to flourish. Please ask your child what they are engaged in with at school. If the answer is nothing, then do encourage them to seek out opportunities to challenge themselves and contribute to the college. On the sports front our teams competing in external competitions continue to achieve excellent results, while extra numbers of students are enjoying in-school competitions in tennis and volleyball. The in-school competitions will continue into next term as we provide opportunities for students to engage in more sports without being impacted by the need to travel, and the costs involved with more formal competitions. As you will see from the articles below, the college classrooms are busy. Attendance has been excellent, with our students and teachers are enjoying being at school. Next week we welcome back a small group of students into Years 9 and 10 that have been isolating for the week. As it stands at the moment we will have very few students absent to start the week which is excellent. Nga mihi, Kieran Verryt. Year 8 MathematicsAlgebra Puzzle - What is the value of 'x' ? Year 8 students work in teams to solve linear equations. Congratulations to Ellie and Saffie who were the 1st to solve the puzzle. Year 9 Social ScienceAs part of the Year 9 Social Science course they have been studying Ancient Egypt. Student’s have found out about life in Ancient Egypt, why people lived near and worshipped the river Nile, how society was structured and the mummifications process and journey to the afterlife. As part of the topic, they also researched a range of Ancient Egyptian Gods as shown in this collection of images. Rimu Forest and Birds FundraiserThe Rimu House Captains Hannah and Alana have continued the tradition of the St Patrick's Day fundraiser, but this year for our new house charity Forest and Bird voted by the Rimu students. More information about Forest and Birds can be found here. Ice creams, individually wrapped bake sales, badges and guess the amount of gold coins in the pot allowed us to start our fundraiser for the year of $287 supported by the wonderful Rimu POD mentors and members. There were good discussions about the charity, building awareness but also with a cold treat on a hot day! We are very happy to be able to have this opportunity where we can come together to give back to our chosen cause. We are looking forward to seeing what we can do through the year to continue to support this charity. The Busy BeanThe Busy Bean has continued to grow and provide exciting opportunity for the students. The trained barista’s have been running the coffee shop developing their business skills further which has seen them have a growth in their sales. Tim Xie and Reagan Bohan have designed and created an electronic ordering system to allow staff to order online. This went live this week and it was again a very Busy Bean café! Tim and Reagan are now working with the operations team to manage the inventory control system to manage, organise and keep on top of the stock required for all of the sales being made. In the weekly business meetings, CEO’s Zahra and Ryan each manage the different areas of the business and continue to look to improve the way in which the business is working and to problem solve with their team. They are looking forward to selecting their business logo and email signature designed by our junior college in a competition that ends this week. We are very proud of the steps that they are making as a team and continue to look forward to their success. Year 7 Physical Education & HealthYear 7 Physical Education have had an action-packed Term 1, with students experiencing a range of different striking & fielding activities. The focus is on fundamental movement skills which includes catching, throwing and striking. We’ve participated in activities such as tee-ball, long ball, cricket and many more. It has been pleasing to see students now becoming more confident in applying correct technique in these game settings. These are important skills that can be transferred to a range of different games activities. Students are now also thinking about strategies within games and understanding ways that we may gain an advantage. In Health Education, we’ve just finished investigating the concept of Hauora. This provides students with a holistic view of health & well-being. Physical, Mental, Social and Spiritual well-being make up the four walls and we use the image of a Marae/Whare to represent these four walls. Students have been identifying ways that they can make a positive influence on their own well-being and how they can look after their well-being during challenging times. It’s been outstanding to see students relate to these concepts and to come up with a large visual to represent Hauora. Pinehurst Internal Volleyball LeagueThis week was our third week of games and there were a few surprises, some consistently good volleyball and a new leader on the points table. The first game was between the Staff Dream Team and Boys 2; the Boys 2 got off to a roaring start and were unstoppable and won 2-0. The Dream Team do take a little while to warm up those old muscles but had some impressive action at the net. However , it was not good enough to claim a set from the boys. The Dream Team then beat the Girls White team 2-0 in a convincing win. The last game was played between Boys 2 and Girls Blue. The girls won the first set comfortably, but the boys came back to win the next two sets winning both their games of the day. The current point standings are: Pinehurst Golf teams winBoth the premier one and division two golf teams had wins on Monday night at the North Shore Golf Club. Our top team had a tough battle against Rosmini who also were undefeated in the competition up to this point. While it was unfortunate that Towa Usui was unable to play this week, it was a pleasure to have Grace Kim play her first match for Pinehurst. The final score was Pinehurst 116 - 110. Our second team also performed very well with a comfortable win over Takapuna. Well done to Sophia who had a 41 over 9 holes. Year 7/8 SportRegistrations are NOW OPEN for the following Year 7-8 Winter Sports League Teams (see the noted link for the relevant information sheet). CLICK here to Register: Sports Registration | Pinehurst School It is important you carefully check the information sheet (at link’s posted below) BEFORE registering for a Sports Programme, to ensure you can meet all required game / training times / costs, equipment requirements, etc. Please note – if your son/daughter is already participating in the Term 1 Hockey or Netball programmes, they will need to register again for the 2022 Winter Season. Hockey Intermediate Winter League (North Harbour Hockey) yr7_8-winter-hockey-information-letter-2022.pdf (pinehurst.school.nz) Netball Intermediate Winter League (Netball North Harbour) https://www.pinehurst.school.nz/media/2772/netball-information-letter-year-7_8-2022.pdf Registrations for Year 7/8 Winter Hockey & Netball close at 9am on Tuesday 22nd March 2022. Late registrations will only be considered where team numbers allow. Fun in the playground... 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. Badminton players triumphTony Yu (Year 9) and Jack Ji (Year 10) both won their respective divisions at the Waitakere Open last weekend. Jack won the division 1 singles title with an upset win in the final and Tony won the division 2 singles title. Both boys train four times a week and consistently play and win against opponents far older them. Well done boys and we will look forward to hearing about future successes. Bake it better for StarshipHi, I’m Annie Ediker and I am currently in Year 13. A couple of weeks ago I joined the ‘Bake it Better’ Fundraiser for Starship Hospital. Starship is a children’s hospital in central Auckland with New Zealand’s only Paediatric Intensive Care Unit. With just 22 beds but 1.25 million children nationwide, the hospital we NEED now NEEDS us. Every second of every day Starship gives protection, help, and hope to our young and their loved ones. It’s now our time to give back. ‘Bake it Better' is a fundraiser where people bake things in return for a donation that goes directly to Starship. To do my part to help, I have set up a fundraising page. On this, there is a list of baking that you can order. By buying my baking, or simply donating to my page you can help Starship to continue to change lives. One cake at a time. Thanks, Annie Brain Play is a future-focused and innovative technology company that aims to introduce students aged 5 - 15, of all abilities, to science and technology fields such as coding, robotics, electronics, 3D printing and other STEM topics. Open for ages 5 - 15, no previous learning is required! With such a variety of topics available, this is sure to inspire and engage your rangatahi, exposing them to the endless possibilities within STEM! Just get in touch at info@brainplay.co.nz for more details. |