Message from the Executive Principal
Kia ora koutou, good afternoon, 下午好, 안녕하세요 We’re yet to see our trees start to bud, and the mornings are cold, but there’s a taste of springtime in the air, a slight quickening in the blood. A rather noisy family of nesting birds have taken residence in the roof just above my desk, and we’ve had a couple of protective dive bombing birds near the staff car park: the rhythms of the season are asserting themselves. Many thanks to everyone for their continuing vigilance and care in and around our car parks this week. You will have noticed the heavy staff presence all week as we try to embed expectations: we will scale this back a little next
week, but will still be out in force from time to time. I do realise that it can be difficult sometimes to find spaces to park, but I also do want to point out that we are never going to have enough space for everyone, and the key is to understand that safety always comes first. There are plenty of spaces on local streets if you can walk for a few minutes, and we continue to encourage the use of school buses: we subsidise these heavily as part of our commitment both to safety and to reducing the number of cars on the road. Anyway: thank you! The changes you have made have been brilliant, and our children are safer as a result. Many thanks to the children, staff and parents who have been at AIMS this week. I have received a number of compliments from people connected with our school, and from people who have met our students for the very
first time in Tauranga. Our students have been supportive of each other, very well-behaved, and have also been really supportive of the efforts of students from other schools. In other words: they have been Pinehurst students. There have been some wonderful performances in all of the sports that we have competed in, but I’m proudest of the way we have conducted ourselves, and represented who we are and the values we share. Excellence, respect for ourselves and respect for others: these have been very much in display this week. Thank you to the staff and parents who have organized so much for AIMS this week; and thank you as well to the staff and parents who have taken Primary students on trips this week. The children have a fantastic time, and there’s also (of course!) a great deal of organization behind the scenes. I do realise
that we have run quite a few trips recently, and that we have had Lego Day as well this week – which was also superb – and that we have Book Week coming up next week – which is going to be the most exciting yet: authors coming in, reading dogs (!) and many activities – and it may seem as though we are always running additional activities. There are two reasons for this: the first is that we haven’t been on many trips for over a year now, so we’re just getting back into the swing of it. And the second is that, whilst there’s lots going on, the experience of individual children is a little different: their routines are pretty much the same each day, with an occasional special event. Finally from me this week: I wrote home yesterday to explain how we’re changing our Covid rules at school.
I’m aware that the Government will probably remove the ‘traffic lights’ next week, but it’s not actually connected with that. We still think it’s prudent to wear masks in enclosed settings or where physical distancing is difficult; but we also recognize that the current number of cases in New Zealand is likely to be close to our ‘baseline’ over the next couple of years, and that there will be times when it is more widespread than this. So we continue to ask all students, staff and visitors to have masks with them; we will continue to make them mandatory in large gatherings; and we will continue to make masks mandatory for some classes or year groups for short periods of time when the risk increases. But masks are now encouraged and are not mandatory in most circumstances. We will also continue to
test, but we will do this in a more targeted way. And, of course, we will continue to monitor and review our arrangements. Have a safe weekend and see you next week. 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 12 – Friday, 16th: Monday 12 September - Year 9-11 Yum Cha Experience (Mandarin Trip)
Tuesday 13 September - Primary Parent and Teacher Conferences
- Year 7-8 Interzone Cross Country
- Year 8 HPV (Second Dose)
- Primary Book Week Parade
Wednesday 14 September - Primary (Year 1-4) Cross Country
Thursday 15 September - DoE Silver Qualifier Tramp
- Primary Parent and Teacher Conferences
- Buddy Pizza Party (P23)
Friday 16 September - Practice Evacuation
- Cultural Evening
As the year has progressed, so has the construction of the Pinehurst Theatre and College 5. The walls are finally up, and the site is beginning to take real shape, looking less like a construction site and more like the theatre we have only been able to imagine through artist impressions. The state-of-the-art facility is still on track for completion in March 2023 and we can’t wait for the Theatre to offer regular musical and theatrical performances, whilst giving our students a unique opportunity to gain valuable skills – both on and off the stage. The site tours will take parents into the heart of the construction (yes - time for hard hats and hi-vis!), to see in real time how things are progressing; take a sneak
peek into the future of Pinehurst and of course learn about the ways in which you can support us We currently have the following tour dates and times available (spaces are limited):
Friday, 28th October at 4:00pm
Friday, 11th November at 2:30pm
Friday, 2nd December at 4:00pm
If you would like to attend, please RSVP to carmen.stella@pinehurst.school.nz for more information.
Message from the Principal of CollegeKia ora e te Whānau o Pinehurst School Last Saturday Pinehurst students participated in the annual KPMUN event. Model United Nations is a simulation in which students work as a representative of a country to debate some of the world's problems. Students learn about international relations as well as developing skills in public speaking, teamwork and critical thinking. The event was a wonderful opportunity for our students to meet with other students and to debate issues about which they feel strongly. The exchange of
views often led to some rigorous but respectful arguments which helped our students to deepen their thinking. There were also lots of opportunities for leadership and the organisers did a very good job of keeping the delegates in order. As our senior students arrived back from various sporting venues around the country at the end of tournament week, it became the turn of our Year 7 and 8 students to head off to AIMS games. AIMS is a sporting event held in Tauranga at which 11–13 year-old students from across New Zealand compete against each other in a number of different sports. Students are taken outside of their comfort zone and also given the opportunity to meet and interact with students from lots of different schools. This is the first time for three years that AIMS has been able to go ahead and our students were very excited to
be able to attend. Back at the College, our Careers Department held a Transition to Tertiary workshop for all of our 2022 school leavers. Our Year 13 students now have only 4 school weeks left before they finish school life for good. Yesterday, we were delighted to welcome back some ex-Pinehurst students who co-facilitated the transition workshop to help students plan and prepare for university life. It is inspiring for our students to hear about what our past students are now doing and the challenges they have faced since leaving Pinehurst. Year 7 have been spending time with their homeroom teachers learning about financial literacy. This is a life skill which New Zealand students often comment on when asked what they wish they could have spent more time on in school. Yesterday Year 7
started to make group videos as a culmination of their work in this area. Many Pinehurst students have a focus on the protection of our environment and a desire to ensure that people understand the dangers of over consumption and waste. This week, our Enviro Council have been collecting used items for a thrift market. They are encouraging students to think about donating items that they may otherwise throw away. The thrift market will be held during week 8. All of our Year 11-13 students should now have been given their full mock examination results. They should have spent some time going over the papers with their teachers and they should now be making plans to ensure they know how to improve on their achievement. We are providing revision classes during the coming break and this is an
opportunity for students to fine-tune their understanding. It is important that students taking Cambridge examinations next term plan their time very carefully and decide which tutorials would best supplement their own revision programs. Today’s interhouse event is the eagerly awaited dodgeball, I am sure our students will have lots of fun to finish off a busy week. Have a great weekend. Ngā mihi nui Dawn
Y13 Transition to Tertiary Workshop
On Thursday afternoon we held our Transition to Tertiary Workshop. Five ex-students helped facilitate this workshop for the current Y13 students to help them prepare for life after Pinehurst: - Sofia Cradwick
University of Auckland
B Eng (Structural Engineering) Year 2 - Petra Damianovich
University of Auckland
BSc (Biomedical Science) - James Harrison
University of Auckland
BA/LLB (Classics) - Kyuwon Park
University of Auckland
B Architecture - Jaewoo Son
University of Auckland
BSc (Biomedical Science)
The current Y13 students valued their voices of experience as they discussed how to settle into university, strategies for surviving the academic side, the differences to expect and, most importantly, what they wish they had known this time last year!
Year 7 MathematicsYear 7 mathematics classes have been learning about Statistics. They have undertaken a project to design the average Zinflandian alien. Their task was to go through data given to them by scientist who found these aliens when their ship crashed at Pinehurst. They must design costumes to enable the scientists to travel to the planet where the Zinflandians came from, so they remain undetected. The students have found mean, median, mode and range of the data. This data including age, weight, height, number of tentacles, number of eyes and number of spots. They have also displayed this information in a range of graphs. These
are some of the designs they have created. Do you think the scientists will remain undetected?
1st XI Hockey Boys Winter Tournament The 1st XI Hockey Boys went to Stratford for winter tournament week. This year's 1st XI has had a hugely successful year finishing 2nd overall in the North Harbour 2a grade. Tournament week was a big step up and the team improved out of site throughout the week. After a couple of tough losses on day one the boys showed grit and determination in their game against eventual finalists Kuranui College. With 10 minutes to go the game was drawn at 0-0. Unfortunately the much older and experienced Kuranui finished strong and scored a few quick goals to finish 3-0. The team took confidence though, knowing they'd played well against a really top team. The
next day they took that confidence and beat Stratford High School 6-0. Overall it was a fantastic week and it was extremely pleasing to see the way the team came together and improved in every game. A great way to send off their Y13s Ryan Connolly and Henry Fang. Well done boys, can't wait for next year! .
NZSS Table Tennis TournamentThis year’s NZSS table tennis tournament was held at the Waikato stadium in Hamilton. Pinehurst entered 3 teams of players to compete in both the individual and the team competitions. We had a relatively young group, with various levels of experience. Pinehurst 1 (Yumin Kim, Jack Zhao, Andrew Yousif and Sean Gonzur) came 5th. This was an excellent result as our U15 players battled teams with U19 players, many of whom were ranked well above them in the table tennis circuit. After 2 grueling days the tournament turned into the
individual competition, and all students experienced a range of wins of losses. Marcus Nakasha (Year 9) fought through the plate competition, narrowly missing out on a place in the final. Both Yumin Kim and Jack Zhao got to the quarter finals and should be very proud of their performance. A special mention has to be made of Emily Ye (year 9) who won all of her individual matches in the team competition. She out played many of the older, bigger opposition who underestimated her due to her diminutive status and age. However, she consistently managed win using both power, speed and creativity. She came 3rd in the NZSS individual U15 female tournament. The whole team represented Pinehurst well and had fun doing
it. A big thank you must go to the Pinehurst School team coach Adrian Soh who is currently in Australia representing New Zealand in the Oceania competition.
Pinehurst runners-up at NZ Golf NationalsCongratulations to the Pinehurst Golf team for their second-place finish in the NZ Secondary School Golf championships in Pukekohe last week. Eunseo Choi, Yeonsoo Son and Grace Kim came runners-up after two days of golf with the best two scores combined to find a winner. It was not without its dramas with Yeonsoo submitting a score card which was incorrectly filled in and which resulted in her disqualification. Grace Kim, however carded a very good score on the first day which allowed Pinehurst to take home the silver medal in the girls division. Pinehurst entered seven players in total for
the three-day event, which shows the strength of Pinehurst Golf as we had the most players from any school. We entered two teams in the girls division, Eunseo Choi, Yeonsoo Son and Grace Kim; Anisa Rammanee and Lingyao Qu and one in the boys, Towa Usui and Yicheng Wang. The final day of the competition was to decide the NZ Under 19 and NZ Under 16 champions. The only two students to make it through to the final day from Pinehurst were Yicheng Wang, year 8, and Eunseo Choi. Eunseo finished second in the girls competition and although Yicheng did not win a medal, it was a huge achievement to qualify for the final day. Towa Usui played his last match for Pinehurst, as he will be graduating this year. He played solid golf in Pukekohe but he would probably say not his best golf. Towa has been an important part of our team always carding
good scores which have helped us win some tight games. He has always been very quiet and reserved member of our team - most likely because he could not get a word in edge ways but took everything in his stride. The Pinehurst golf team wishes him the very best next year and extend him a huge thanks for his contribution to golf at our school.
Upper North Island Secondary Schools (UNISS) Netball ChampsLast week our top Netball team participated in the UNISS Netball Champs during Winter Sport Tournament week. They had a mixed bag of wins and losses throughout the week, but had an awesome final game, winning 25-23 against Fairfield in extra time. Our players had a fabulous time away from their daily routines, experienced doing things they would not normally do, improved their game, and developed new skills over the course of the week.
NZSS Climbing Champs Taine had a great time in Mt Maunganui competing in the Climbing events. He placed 11th in the Top Rope and 15th overall, amongst some of the top climbers in the country
1st XI Hockey Our 1st XI Hockey team have had a fantastic week on tournament down in Whakatane. Led by our two Captains Brooke Peacock and Emily Stuart. The girls have played some exceptional hockey and had a lot of fun doing it. After finishing second in the pool we had a tough match against Tararua in the semi-final but we will play for 3rd place today and are looking forward to a strong finish to the tournament. The girls are a young team with 7 Year 9's 4 Year 11's and 2 Year 12's. We are looking forward to some great years of hockey with this team in the future.
Alumni Visit in the Art Department The Art Department has been very lucky this year to have past students visit and speak about their experiences at university. Our visitors have included alumni Kyuwon Park, Angelica Morton and James Corles. This week, Oscar Botha an alumni student from 2020, joined the A Level Art & Design class to talk about his experience as an Architecture student at the University of Auckland. It was wonderful to host such an accomplished student and we were all incredibly inspired by his presentation of work. Oscar left us in a state of awe and amazement by all he is creating as a second-year student. Our thanks to each alumni who has taken the time
to visit and share their experiences and creations.
Message from the Principal of Primary Kia ora, What a busy week we have had in the Primary this week! There has been talk of sharks, tigers, and lots of crocodiles in our New Entrant and Year 1 classes. With trips to Kelly Tarletons and the Zoo it has been wonderful to give our youngest students the chance to experience education outside of the classroom. By the time you read this newsletter our Year 4’s will be back from Auckland Museum and Year 5 and 6 will have had a fantastic afternoon at the Bruce Mason theatre watching a professional production of the Little Mermaid. These events are so welcome and part of the passage through a Primary school that every
child should experience. When I spoke to some of the students about their trip to the zoo the day before they went, they were so excited about seeing their favourite animal and about going on a bus. I spent much of my childhood in England travelling around on buses or trains, the transport systems were very good, and so it is easy to forget that the journey can be more exciting than the destination if it is something new. I am pleased to say that everyone had a fantastic time, created memories and that a member of the public came over to one of our teachers to say how well behaved our students were and with many school groups that day, they thought our students were the best. Well done New Entrants, you make us proud! Kindness is our theme throughout the Primary at the moment. With the opportunity to be back in class and all together again
we are teaching our students the explicit skills of cooperation and collaboration through kindness, empathy, and friendship. I listened to students in P13 share their ideas on what they thought kindness to others might look like and it was impressive. They had a genuine desire to be helpful to others, especially younger students and were thinking hard about what they could do in their interactions with others to ensure that they were working together. They are after all young children and will make mistakes, we do still as adults, but by teaching them explicitly what kindness looks like we can help them to make good choices. There are many initiatives to support this with kindness quilts, posters and recipes being constructed as well as the kindness bracelets being awarded when children are caught being kind. It was one of my favourite days
this week and clearly a day that so many of our students had been looking forward to. Parents commented that their children were up early and super excited for Lego day. We shared funny stories about how much we loved Lego or otherwise, standing on the bricks is not pleasant and is something we can probably all relate to. Going through classes there was an amazing amount of creativity with tasks and challenges to use Lego in ways that were fun and educational. The zip line task was interesting and involved talk about angles and using soap to lessen the friction on the line. What would be the best material to use for the line? What happens when we use waxy string? Is the line high enough, is the angle of the line correct? Watching the Year 3 version of this and then Year 6 was fascinating, both groups were engrossed in the task. In Year 3 they were using chairs and there were some pretty
sharp angles to the floor which meant that the Lego sliding down sometimes broke on impact. In Year 6 they had longer lines and the angles were gentle resulting in less breakage but not always a successful run. In some classes students were designing buildings, a circuit for the Arena and solving maths puzzles. We think of Lego as something that is nice to play with, to follow instructions or go for free play but it has so many educational uses too that can be used to develop thinking, creativity and understanding. Next week is Book Week and we have planned a fantastic celebration of reading, everything you need to know is on Seesaw and we are looking forward to seeing you for lunch on Tuesday at the picnic and parade. There is still time for students to create their poetry slam and take some pictures of their pets and teddies reading. We
will see you at conferences too and cross country for New to 2 and 3-4. Kia pai tō rā whakatā. Have a great weekend. Sian
Kindness QuiltThe Primary students were asked to create a whole class, collaborative piece of work as a celebration of kindness. It encompassed elements of art and writing, as a way of expressing their ideas on the following questions: Why is it important to be kind? How do you show kindness each day? Here is a wonderful example of a
Kindness Quilt from P6, Year 2, Mrs Kenny’s class
Term 3 Learning in P11In P11 the sound of learning and curiosity abounds Writing Our legends were full of descriptive language, exciting openers, and direct speech to add detail about the characters. Reading We are exploring the plot in Charlotte’s Web about the importance of teamwork and friendship. This week we did a comparison between texts looking closely at the similarities and differences. Maths We have become proficient at finding perimeters of a range of regular and irregular 2-D shapes. Global Perspectives We have been learning to research information from secondary sources and shared our information on a poster Science In Science we have classified animals and are currently exploring the life cycle of a variety of living things such as frogs and butterflies. Lego day was very exciting and we enjoyed completing a range of challenges such as the tower challenge.
Lego DayExcited Lego engineers and mathematicians arrived at school on Wednesday ready to construct, create and develop their critical thinking skills. An exciting day was planned to develop three-dimensional thinking, problem-solving, creativity and of course to have a lot of fun. The Arts and Cultural team had put together a Lego themed photo booth for all the Primary classes to enjoy.
Years 5 and 6 were given the challenge of constructing a Lego maze and then writing the code to enable a Lego character to escape. Meanwhile, in Years 3 and 4 they could choose to build a Lego zipline that could travel a character across the classroom. Our junior engineers in Years 1-2 were very busy building Lego bridges that could hold the weight of their drink bottles. Our specialist teachers also joined in the fun with colour themed creations in Spanish, sporting arenas built in PE, Lego plant holders in Science and of course, ‘Everything is Awesome’ being sung in Music. Year 4’s were putting their mathematical skills to the test calculating the perimeter and area of Lego blocks
Year 4 Music Year 4 are exploring storytelling through music. We began this sequence of lessons by analysing the music of Star Wars and focusing on how a particular theme or motif reoccurs throughout the film to represent different characters (Vadar and Leia) and themes (the force theme, Han & Leia love theme). We then discussed how the elements of music are used to create a certain mood e.g. Darth Vadar’s theme is in a minor key and uses instruments and techniques reminiscent of military music. Vader is the leader of the stormtroopers. This makes him seem scary and powerful. Students are now working towards telling the story of how Maui Slowed the Sun, through music.
They have been given a portion of the legend to perform using the Elements of Music and techniques from the Art of Foley.
Year 11 - 13 Student Art Exhibition
The Art Department is proud to host this years IGSCE and A Level Art Exhibition showcasing work by the Art & Design and Digital Media students. Please come and celebrate the fantastic display of work from all our Senior students. The exhibition explores artwork from students Coursework Portfolios, the development of a chosen theme through to a final outcome. The Art Exhibition will be held in the Pinehurst Library on Thursday 29 September from 4pm – 6pm. The event is free, however could all those interested in attending acquire a ticket registering their attendance.
The Student Council are pleased to announce that they will be hosting a wonderful evening that celebrates all of the different cultures we have at Pinehurst. The Cultural Evening will be held on the 16th September between 4pm and 6pm. We have performances from our students and guests to showcase different talents and cultures. If there are any students who wish to perform from years 7 to 13, please complete this form here by the end of today. All of the proceeds will be donated to UNICEF along with the other fundraising from the Cultural Market day. Tickets will be $4
and will be available soon! We look forward to seeing you there!
The Book Fair is Coming!The Scholastic Book Fair is a pop-up mobile book shop that will be visiting our school from Sept 12th to Sept 16th. (Week 8) The Book fair will be set up in the library during Book Week and students will have a chance to browse the books and write wish lists during their library time visits. The shop will be open to parents before and after school Monday – Thursday. Parents may come in and view their child’s wish list items, and make purchases (payment by eftpos or cash ) for family and friends during the following shop hours: Morning Monday – Friday 8.15 – 8-45
Afternoon Monday and Wednesday 3.15 - 4pm
Afternoon Tuesday and Thursday 3.15 – 5pm Author Matt Owens will be visiting our school during Book Week. Signed copies of the book he has written about his rescue magpie, Swoop, will be available at the Book Fair pop up shop, or can be pre-ordered. More details about pre ordering to follow.
2022 Spring Netball – Years 0–6Registrations for Term 4 Spring Netball for Year 0-6 students are now open - this is for both boys & girls. Beginner and experienced players are all very welcome! Further information, including registration details can be found here: Netball | Pinehurst School To avoid disappointment,
please ensure you register before the close date – Wednesday, 14th September 2022.
Table Tennis Oceania GamesPinehurst Table Tennis coach, Adrian Soh, was selected to represent New Zealand in the Oceania games currently being held in Melbourne. Adrian along with his doubles partner, has placed second overall in the Mens division with Australia taking out first place. Adrian’s campaign continues today with him competing in the singles’ matches. We wish him all the best!
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