No images? Click here Newsletter - 10 June 2022Message from the Executive PrincipalKia ora koutou, good afternoon, 你好, 안녕하세요 I enjoyed a glimpse of a safari experience this week. Late Thursday morning, I popped into P2 (where I found P1 – yes, we can do confusing things with timetables sometimes). The whole class was hard at work, mostly writing about getting on a plane, flying to Africa and seeing lions, giraffes, hyenas and elephants. The rain splattered the deck outside and the room had that “winter” feel to it, but I felt suddenly as though I’d been transported to a far-off continent. This may have had something to do with the work I could see: children in their very first year of school independently constructing sentences and using their imagination creatively. And being so independent too. As soon as Mrs Eyre and Mrs du Toit asked the class to tidy up and move to the mat, there was a whirl of activity and the world settled itself, ready to hear what some of the children had written. It was perfect: busy, creative, challenging and orderly too. Which is a good description of much of what is happening around school this week. The Year 5 Camp is going well, with students arriving home very shortly. They’ve had a great time, even if the camp has been a touch damper than usual. Our older students have been receiving their Mid Year marks and are working through what they need to do to make further improvements with their teachers. And college classes have been settled and busy every time I’ve been into the classes. I talked with staff earlier this week about the importance of this time of year for all of our children: it’s the time of the first full reports, and it’s also the time when teachers and students have a clearer idea of strengths and weaknesses. Which means it’s the time of year to reflect, think about the past five months, and think about the five months to come. If you’ve got questions about this process, now is a good time to contact teachers, who will be happy to talk you through where your child is now, and what he or she can do to get ready for the second half of the year. On reports: I’ve read about half of the Primary reports now, and I’m pleased both with the quality of the reports and with the progress I can see that students are making. A huge thank you to the Primary teaching team for their incredibly careful, detailed work. It’s something we take very seriously at Pinehurst, and I hope you find them useful when you receive them later this term. I was asked at one of the Parent Consultation Breakfasts about lockdown, fire and earthquake drills. We do all three of these, and we had a lockdown drill this morning. As it was the first one for a little while – Covid again – we thought that were one or two things we could do to sharpen it up, so we’ll do another one in the next 6-8 weeks. We also have an earthquake and a fire drill scheduled, and generally aim to do one drill every term. Each classroom is also equipped with an “emergency box” and, you’ll be glad to hear, many of them have a bucket and a toilet tent. Essential. We haven’t had a lockdown for several years, but of course we need to be prepared! Finally from me: Covid. There have been no Covid updates this week because things have been so quiet. A Year 9 student tested positive on Wednesday night and we tested her close contacts on Thursday morning (all tested negative). We also had a Year 10 student test positive yesterday: we tested his contacts first thing this morning: one was positive, so he and his older sister are now isolating at home. There have also been a small number of students who have tested positive at home and who have not been infectious at school. We will therefore move to “strongly encouraged” masks on Monday, but we will move back to mandatory masks if we start to see more cases occur again. I do need to stress that “strongly encouraged” means that would like to see everyone continue to wear masks indoors, but that we recognise that the risk is a little lower. 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 Monday 13 June
Wednesday 15 June
Thursday 16 June
Message from the Principal of PrimaryKia ora, I complained to my family, located in various parts of the world, on our family app that Wednesday was too warm for winter. It was warmer here than it was in the summer in the North West of England, but it seems I may have spoken too soon as the winter weather has returned, and the rain has been a real feature towards the end of the week. Despite the rain our Year 5 students were having a fabulous time enjoying the outdoors at Carey Park in Henderson during their camp. When we visited, we saw indoor climbing, kayaking, go karting, the Flying Fox and indoor challenge games and our students were having a wonderful time. The teachers and parents were all smiles too, clearly loving an opportunity to spend time in the outdoors and away from the usual weekly schedule. The memories created will last for a very long time and the bonds between students will be even stronger than before. It is always a pleasure to take our students to venues outside of school as they demonstrate our values so well. Year 6 had a wonderful time on their visit to Orewa Estuary Arts Centre yesterday as part of their artistic studies in sculpture and working with clay. They also visited Centre Stage in Orewa to visit backstage and add to their learning on the running of a theatre and putting on a production. This will be very handy as we near the final stages of their performance of Madagascar Jr in Term 3. Year 1 are off to Stardome to study the Earth in Space and have a great time travelling to the city, some of them have never been on a bus so it will be a great adventure! On Seesaw you will see plenty of Two Stars and Wish assessments being posted which will cover every subject by the end of term. So far, we have covered Maths, Health, Music and reading. The two stars refers to two things your child thinks they have learned that they have done well, and the wish is one thing they think they need to work on. Children can take responsibility for their learning from a very young age in that they recognise their part in the learning journey and begin to take some ownership, with guidance from their teacher. Each lesson has success criteria which children use to check that they have understood the learning. This helps them to know what they have done well and what they still need to work on. Teachers are very much in control of what is to be learned and what the next steps are but they also help each child to understand their part and that they have an active role in their education. Alongside two stars and a wish on Seesaw, you will be receiving your child's report on Friday 17 June and parent conferences will be held on Tuesday 21 and Thursday 23 of June. Bookings for these will be open from the beginning of next week and you will be invited to select a time to meet with your child's teacher. We are really looking forward to sharing the successes and the next steps with you all. Noho ora mai, Sian Dragon Boat FestivalJune 3rd was the Dragon Boat festival (端午节), one of the three major festivals on the Chinese calendar. In junior primary we learned how this festival came about. We also discovered during the festival, we eat zong zi (粽子) to commemorate Qu Yuan, for his sacrifices and loyalty to China over 2000 years ago. To celebrate the festival; we made some zong zi (粽子) ourselves. Zong zi are normally made with sticky rice filled with either sweet bean paste, or savory meat. We used paper and wool to make and created our zong zi (粽子) Senior Year 1 and Year 2 have also been honing their skills for writing Chinese characters, making sure they follow the stroke order rules when they are writing their characters. P7 Library VisitThis week when P7 visited the school library they were introduced to some of the 100 children’s books to read in a lifetime. Dan was extremely excited that the librarian had chosen “and Tango makes three” to read which was one of the books on the list. The reason he was so thrilled was that his penguin had come to school that day and would most certainly enjoy this particular story. Mr Penguin (Dan’s special friend) came to school sporting a Pinehurst school uniform. He said his mum had stayed up all night making the uniform! P7 are so impressed with our new penguin student’s dedication in wearing the correct uniform! Mr Penguin is also encouraging all the students to see if they read the 100 books on the list! Primary ScienceOver the last few weeks both Year 5 & 6 have been learning about the digestive system. Year 6 made 3 D models to represent the organs in the digestive system then presented their models on Seesaw explaining how the digestive system enables us to break down food and absorb the nutrients. Year 5 created Wanted posters to explain the function of the different organs and the role they play in the digestive process. Students also researched the digestive system of other vertebrates and compared the organs to that of the human digestive system. Scientists use models to represent objects, systems, and processes. The making of the models allowed the students to think and explain the process of digestive system. Eventful Week for P6We became rock detectives in P6, and we learnt about igneous (volcanic rock) sedimentary rock (layers made up over time) and metamorphic (rock that has been stretched, folded, heated over time to change its appearance). We then used our magnifying glasses and sorted a range of rocks into the three categories. Then we documented our discoveries with drawings, labels, and descriptions of each rock. PE has been enjoyable, Mr Taylor taught P6 a new game called Atlantis. We had to stay on the mats and run, if we touched the floor then the guardians (the children) with balls, were allowed to throw and tag us. If you were tagged, you then had to sit on Atlantis (The large mat in the middle) until someone was able to high five you to set you free. There were plenty of squeals of delight and giggles during this game. The next part of the lesson was to demonstrate a range of movement skills such as balance in preparation for gymnastics. We were in pairs and given a range of activities focused on balance to complete. P6 has been looking at still life drawing and have created some amazing impressions of sunflowers using mixed media. We began with pencil drawings and then moved on to vivid, pastels, colouring pencils, and paint. P6 looked at the different colours in the petals of the flower and discovered different ways of shading. The end results are spectacular Term 2 Spanish with Señora Cataloni¡Hola a todos! Our Year 1 students have been busy learning about all the colours of the rainbow and animals in Spanish. A wide range of activities, songs and games have been covered which have allowed them to consolidate the new vocabulary. We have also learnt about domestic and wild animals, always a favourite topic of ours! The Year 2 class es have learnt how to label body parts from head to toe, along with the definite articles “el, la, los, las”. They are doing amazingly well and will be keen to show you what they have been learning about if you click on this song: Las partes del cuerpo . Song to learn the Parts of the body in Spanish for kids - YouTube Our Year 3 students have extended their number knowledge, as well as months and days vocabulary, to form dates. They are learning how to write and say the date and ask someone when their birthday is. We will be conducting a survey in class next week in Spanish to see which month is the most popular birthday month! Tidy Kiwis in P12Kia Ora, our class has warm heartedly welcomed becoming part of the Tidy Kiwis Club. We knew right away that we all share the same passion about keeping our environment clean and being sustainable. We are working hard towards a positive mindful approach to disposing litter. We’re committed and super excited in P12, we decided to create a permanent job on our task board, with the help of our enthusiastic committee which will be changing weekly. Look at this weeks Tidy Kiwi Club from P12. Huge thank you to our school and Mrs Jones-Hill for this wonderful initiative. In Writing we are learning how to write a magazine/ newsletter article. Our focus is to add attention-grabbing alliteration to our heading and subheadings to keep our readers interested and engaged. We are also learning the importance of using correct layout, identifying and using generalizing language as well as deciding how to include relevant information. We had a fabulous time yesterday working in pairs on Role-Play. One partner was pretending to be the journalist and the other was pretending to be a resident, witnessing the amazing superhero activity in Greenville Town. In Reading this week we are working along side Dood detective. Dood is all about using his ‘deducing detective’ skills. Our mission this week is to make connections from chapter 16, why Edward wished he had wings? Our class is working hard to use information from the text to make connections and complete the mission. We also learnt how to locate information and use implicit and explicit questioning to help deepen our understanding and make strong connections. In Maths we are learning how to solved 2- step word problems and deciding which operation to use and why. We also learnt to be successful at solving 2-step word problems, we have to read the instructions carefully, underline keywords and phrases, circle the numbers and finally decide on which operation to use. We have also mastered identifying, comparing, and ordering acute and obtuse angles. Message from the Principal of CollegeKia ora e te whānau o Pinehurst School Week six has been a short week but it has been no less busy. Whilst there was a brief hiatus of many winter sports over the Queen’s Birthday Weekend, during the week our Year 7 and 8 students have had North Harbour Zone Days for both Boys and Girls Hockey and many of our other school sports continued throughout the week. Our Year 11 to 13 students have had a full week of receiving midyear examination feedback and results. They are now working with their teachers to think about how they can make improvements to their learning. This might involve forming new habits, working out how to overcome obstacles and thinking about how they can develop an environment which helps them to learn. At this time, it is very important that our students see their midyear examination papers as an opportunity to improve and not as a finishing point. Please talk to them at home about their reflections on the examination process and about what their goals are for the coming weeks. Yesterday, many of our Year 11 and 12 students attended the Careers and Pathways Expo on the North Shore with Ms Griffiths. This gave the students the chance to meet with representatives from universities and training providers so that they could start thinking about their pathway after leaving Pinehurst. This visit is often an important starting point for many of our students and they should keep their minds open to new ideas and opportunities as well as ensuring they talk to others about what is available to them. Sadly, the weather has meant that we have had to postpone our POD House Challenge and we will now hold this event next week. Our students are looking forward to having some competitive fun in their POD groups and it should be a very enjoyable afternoon. KPL are the current trophy holders, I know they are keen to continue holding the trophy and so it should be a well fought contest. We are looking forward to Cultural Market Day next Wednesday. Many of our students will be organising their stalls and getting their products ready for sales. During the event, the Kapahaka group is holding a ‘give it a try’ session where students will be given the opportunity to learn a waiata and maybe even perform for others. Last weekend I visited the Inside Dali exhibition at Spark Arena, I would highly recommend it if you are looking for an interesting inside activity for what might turn out to be a rainy weekend. Whatever you do, I hope you have a wonderful weekend together. Ngā mihi nui Dawn Year 8 MathThe year 8s were doing an investigation on the golden ratio. They were trying to find the most beautiful student by taking facial measurements and looking at the ratios between some of them. For example, the height of your head, when compared to the width of your head, should be about 1.62 to 1. The ideal result—as defined by the golden ratio—is roughly 1.6, which means a beautiful person's face is about 1 1/2 times longer than it is wide. Y9 Global CitizenshipThere’s nothing quite like a lesson on global issues – poverty, hunger, climate change, global pandemics, conflict & terrorism to alter the atmosphere of a room - it’s not all doom and gloom though. Whilst mass media has a knack of sensationalising the problems we’ll face, in Global Citizenship we take a more general approach, before diving a little deeper from a solution based perspective. Some of our Year 9 students have been learning about the exploitation of people & resources in Sierra Leone, one of the poorest nations globally, yet one of the richest in minerals. Students have been working collaboratively to suggest solutions to solve the issue of conflict diamonds, otherwise known as “blood diamonds” – no easy feat! Upon gathering their research & solutions, groups were asked to think critically before reporting back to the class with their suggestions. Here is some of their work… Girls' FootballAnother win for the girls, beating Glenfield at home 6-1. Totally unheard of, all of the team were available this week which meant that we had a full bench and plenty of subs to rotate on the side line. Having fresh legs kept us in control and we dominated possession throughout the game. A few fast breaks away from a good Glenfield attack caught us off guard at times but our awesome defense, controlled by Tilly, was able to control play and guide the ball away from the goalkeeper, Lily, who kept a clean sheet first half. In the second half it was much the same and Pinehurst showed just how far they have come with some great play out wide and some long range shots. Superb goals came from Bella, Hannah and Lily and a special mention to Jessie (last week’s player of the day for her performance in goal) who scored her first goal for the team this week! Next week we are at home again to Long Bay Teal, 4pm kick off. College EnglishThis week, many of our senior students of Literature and Language have received their examination results. These results have been met with satisfaction at having their hard work pay off, as well as with a renewed sense of determination to make improvements. Teachers have spent time this week discussing with students how feedback can be used to inform understanding of both the examination content and, more importantly, which steps are the next to be taken on the road to higher grades. In AS Language, in particular, students spent some time thinking about which areas of the exam were most successful and why this might have been. It has been pleasing to see them working collaboratively to help each other determine areas for improvement. As well as teacher feedback, each student is provided with an Examiners’ Report. This report comprises two sections that outline common mistakes in student responses, as well as suggested answers. Students find it helpful to consider which parts of the report are relevant to them. Doing this increases students’ engagement with their examination feedback. It is pleasing to see students begin to implement the suggested changes to their writing and analysis. Mid Year examinations really do provide a fantastic opportunity to recalibrate and focus on aspects of our writing that need honing and refinement. Well done to all of our senior students for showing grit and a desire to continue to master their understanding of literary texts, and their analytical skills. Years 7-9 students have been busy preparing persuasive speeches for the upcoming Middle School Speech Competition in Week 9. Analysing the speeches of great orators has helped students identify impressive rhetorical devices and their effects on an audience. We hope that students feel confident enough to use some of these features in their own speeches. Historically, the Speech Competition has been highly competitive, with speech topics varying from Capitalism, Bullying, and Cultural Appropriation, to why Santa is perceived by many (rightfully so) as mildly terrifying… We are very much looking forward to another hotly contested competition this year. As part of the wider reading program for Middle School students, each child in Years 7-9 have taken up a termly Reading Challenge in 2022. Ms. Neeves has designed a fantastic challenge that encourages wide reading from varied genres. Students complete a range of reading tasks in response to the books they are reading in their leisure time and are awarded Schoolbox badges that honour their commitment to the challenge. It is our hope that some of our most avid Year 9 readers will become reading mentors for Years 5 and 6 students in the Primary School in 2023. Making connections with the Primary students and encouraging a love of reading across the Middle School, and beyond is of real importance to our Faculty, and is something the students are really embracing. Keep up all of your great work on the Reading Challenge! Get2Go Adventure Race PreparationA team of keen orienteers and adventure seekers are in training ahead of a pretty special event in July. The Torpedo7 Get2Go Series combines fun, outdoor adventure activities like orienteering, kayaking, stand-up paddling, mountain biking and a little bit of problem solving, into an action-packed day. We are entering a mixed team of 8 Year 9 and 10 students. The students are meeting weekly to help them learn how to work effectively as a team to navigate a range of problem solving activities. This week they were building hula huts! With 5 levels of complexity, the team had to work through being blindfolded, not being allowed to talk and having to transport their hut up a flight of stairs. Year 7/8 Zone Football DayLast week, 10 Year 7 and 8 girls represented the school in the annual football zone day. An awesome day was had by the whole team who worked hard to improve their skills against some extremely strong teams. We had a huge range of experience and some even played their first ever game of competitive football! Well done to all involved. Yu Zhang Wu - Symphony Orchestra AchievementPinehurst is incredibly proud of Year 11 student and pianist Yu Zhang Wu. Yu Zhang passed the audition stages and succeeded in beating over 15 other entries to be chosen as a featured soloist to perform with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra! Her performance of the first movement of Beethoven’s Piano Concert Number 3 in C Minor will take place in Wellington in August. The panel of judges said it was very difficult to narrow down the entries to only three, but Yu Zhang’s talent and musicianship stood out and she is now a chosen performer for the NZSO Young Artist showcase concert. She has previously toured and performed with the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra and has won many piano competitions in both New Zealand and overseas. Yu Zhang was also an AIMES awards recipient in 2020 as recognition of her talent and commitment to Music. New Zealand Dance Award – Top Junior Dancer 2022, Olivia WangOlivia competed last week in the National New Zealand dance competition held down in Christchurch at the Te Pae Convention Center. Olivia competed over the course of a 6 day competition against 29 other extremely talented dancers and came away with the New Zealand Dance Award for Top Junior Dancer 2022! Amazing work, Olivia. College Production - Annie!Tickets for Annie are on sale Friday 10th at midday! Please see below for more information. 27-29 July 7pm Tickets $25 Adult, $20 Student/Senior Booking via Centrestage Box Office 09 426 7282 or www.centrestagetheatre.co.nz or in person 60 Centreway Road, Orewa Credit Card Charges Apply In Week 7, the 15th of June, the Student Council is holding a Cultural Market at lunchtime in the gym. The Cultural Market showcases unique and authentic foods from cultures around the world, made and sold by our own Pinehurst students. Instead of money, the currency for the market is in terms of flags. Flag exchanges are happening on Tuesday 14th during the morning and at lunch, outside the IT room or the English rooms. The Cultural Market raffle is also being held and tickets are being sold at reception. The price is $2 per ticket or $5 for 3 tickets. Everyone, including teachers, students and parents can be in the draw to win $200 Loaded vouchers, Meet Fresh vouchers and a Pak n Save gift basket, as well as an hours training session with Albany football club. All proceeds from the Cultural Market and raffle are going towards UNICEF Fair Go. The Student Council have been working extremely hard and are so excited to see this event up and running next week! |