No images? Click here Newsletter - 4 March 2022Message from the Executive PrincipalKia ora koutou, good afternoon, 你好, 안녕하세요 I can hear excited children in the playground: it’s a Year 4 class doing an experiment with water. I’m not sure exactly what they’re doing, but I’ve just had a quick check, and I can see Mrs Herbert, as animated as always, explaining the process to them. A few minutes earlier, one of our in-school Year 6 classes were shaking off the cobwebs with a complicated, energy-dissipating game. They were equally excited, of course! And, wandering around College this morning, I saw the full range of engaged classes, students enjoying themselves and working hard. Some teachers were wearing headsets, with strategically-placed laptops designed to ensure that those students who have to self-isolate can access the lesson; but the teaching was proceeding as normal, and the school feels calm and purposeful. I’ll leave the actual Covid updates to my daily emails, but I thought it would be good to give a picture of the next few weeks in school. You will be aware that we have adopted a different approach for Primary than we have for College, and it’s useful to explain our thinking behind this. In Primary, we have adopted a hybrid model that we will now be able to sustain for the next several weeks if we need to, reviewing on a weekly basis. We made the leap this week because we had four cases (including 2 siblings) in the Primary school by Monday, and we had three teachers isolating by Tuesday morning. Two of those teachers, as you know, have gone on to test positive. At the time of writing (Thursday), we have had no cases in the Primary School since Monday. This tells us that we do not have widespread transmission inside the school, which is good to see. We also expect some more cases at some point, because the virus is widespread in the community. By offering a choice to parents, we do a few things. The first is that we ensure that all of our students receive a good standard of education. The students at home don’t have as rich and varied an experience as the students at school (as you know, we would prefer all children to be at school), but it’s a good experience, and we know we can do online learning well. Before we went to hybrid learning, around 30% of the children were at home, and we couldn’t offer them live online learning. Now we can. In some other schools, some parents are simply keeping their children at home and they are being marked as absent: our children are very much ‘present’! The second benefit is that our current hybrid learning model is sustainable: teachers who are self-isolating are still able to teach online (except when they are ill, obviously). This turns a 10 day period of absence into (usually) a 2-3 day absence. We are also able to ask our teachers to adapt and change their roles according to need, because we know that we will inevitably have further staff absence. Our structure means that we will offer parents a choice each week. Unless your child has been asked to isolate because of a case in his or her class (and, as we have seen, we do not have many cases at all) parents can choose in-school or online learning each week, and can change their minds each week. Not each day – that would be unmanageable! – but frequently enough to respond to the current situation. We also have the resources to shift and adapt our teachers and teacher aides weekly to ensure that we have a good, balanced structure in place. This means that, unless there is a huge, sudden outbreak, we will be able to sustain this model for the next few weeks and, if necessary, until the end of term. There are, by the way, just short of 40% of Primary children in school this week. I’m hoping to see more in school next week, as we have so few cases. In College, we also have a model we can sustain for as long as we need to. We cannot run hybrid learning in College in the same way as we can in Primary because lessons are taught by subject teachers, and we could not offer a high quality programme in school as well as one from home. Instead, we are strongly encouraging all students to be in school, where they can enjoy a full Pinehurst experience. Yes, with masks and a few other restrictions to keep people safe, but pretty much a normal experience otherwise. More than 90% of students are in school this week, I am glad to say. We chose this option partly because we are confident that we do not have widespread infections in school – there have been 7 College students who have tested positive, only one of whom has been in school this week and, despite some very wide testing, we have not yet seen any evidence of students catching it in the school. Students who are having to isolate are able to join Teams meetings, essentially “beaming in” to the lesson that they would be in were they at school. Work is available online, and students are expected to complete all of the work they would be expected to do if they were at school. If teachers are isolating, they are able to teach their classes from home: they teach, basically, an online lesson, and a member of staff at school supervises the class. We can sustain this for as long as we need to unless we have a huge number of staff who are absent. I hope that gives you a sense of the shape of the school right now and our reasons for it. Have a lovely, quiet weekend and I hope to see you in school 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 Message from the Principal of PrimaryKia ora, My favourite time of year has arrived at last, it is getting a little cooler in the mornings and leaves are beginning to turn brown. I love trees and places where they line the streets in rows, it makes me smile and wonder about the people who planted them. Autumn in my childhood in England, began in September and with it the start of a new school year, which as a child and then a teacher I loved. With so much going on in our world at the moment it is important that we as adults, and especially as parents being role models for our children, find something good to focus on that makes us happy. The news will probably be a little scary for children right now with war being mentioned especially, as well as the pandemic. It is a good idea to find your child’s happy places, books, art, sports, climbing trees etc. to give them opportunities to be children and see the world in a positive light. Although there are less children on site there are enough for us to feel like we are in school. The playground spaces are giving opportunities to spread out even more and continue to have fun. Mrs Thomson and I had a wonderful car race one lunchtime with Year 1’s in our wooden cars on the Junior playground. I was with the boys team and Mrs Thomson, the girls. We were both convinced we won even though the cars don’t move! Ms Pope led our Year 3 and 4 choir group outside on Thursday lunchtime. Masked and distanced, they were still able to create lovely melodies and had College students for an audience in the distance. Our new Peer Mediators have been trained and are refining their skills in their own year groups at the moment until they can safely venture out to other areas of the Primary to work with younger students. I must say they are very keen to do a great job and good at remembering when to go, ‘on duty’. Online the focus has been revising how to use the technology of Teams and how to learn online. We are busy remembering to put our virtual hands up, let everyone speak and not put GIFs into the lesson chat, it is actually a great way to learn social skills in a different way. We are so proud of the way everyone has adapted so quickly and flexibly yet again, it means we can give our students the best opportunities to learn. We know that the best place for our children to be is at school but whilst that is complicated we will continue to adapt our classroom programmes as much as possible for those choosing to learn online. The Maths Whizz trophy winners last week were P12! I know that Mrs Nasir was determined her class would win and they rose to the challenge. The overall engagement and number of green tick winners last week was fantastic. Thanks for making time for your child to complete their weekly progressions, it makes a big difference to their success. Next week our, ‘in school’ students will get the chance to bring their wheels to play at breaktimes, more from Mrs Jones Hill on this later today. We will still run a Wheels Week when everyone is back onsite, so no one will miss out! Kia pai to rā whakata, have a good weekend. Ngā mihi, Sian Coxon. A Snapshot of Learning in P20We have been extremely focused on our learning in P20 following the completion of the Year 5 Progression Testing (missed from last year). For some, this learning will now continue online and for others it will be happening in P19 now. In English, we have been on our first Big Writing Mission. The students are trying to convince Mr Turner (a school Principal) to let his students take part in a Time Capsule project. They wrote persuasive letters that convinced him. Now their next step is to now create some examples of written memories for his students to write to put in their Time Capsule. Before writing, students analyse exemplars, looking for examples of effective dialogue and description. A big part of Big Writing Missions is to work with writing buddies to up-level and improve pieces of text. In Maths, we have been designing and creating nets for a variety of 3D shapes. We began with simple cuboids. Then some took their learning on a journey to design triangular prisms, even as far as making a series of them to fit together, like a cake! Some enjoyed using 2D shapes that click together to make a dodecahedron with 12 regular pentagons. P19's Creative Cuboids and Olympic PictogramsIt’s already halfway through the term, and we can’t believe how fast the time is passing by. As people say, time flies when you are having fun! P19 have been busy as beavers with lots of fun learning going on. We have been exploring persuasive texts and recounts for Writing, reading a class novel ‘Hatchet’; focusing on sketching skills during Art; learning about the food chain in Science; discussing different emotions in Health and building a positive class community through meaningful, oral discussions and teambuilding activities that highlight the importance of working together. P19 are a fabulous bunch, always eager and keen to learn and take risks! We’ve been delving into Geometry, learning about 3D shapes, their properties, and drawing nets of 3D shapes using the correct dimensions and measurements. Ensuring that our nets have accurate measurements and thinking about where the tabs would go were important because it won’t make a complete shape if one of the lengths was different or missing a tab! We drew nets of a cuboid and added our creativity to make them into real cuboid objects such as buildings, notebooks, cereal boxes, vaults, and more. Have a look at our amazing Creative Cuboids! 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics was in February, and P19 researched online to complete the Olympics quiz, learning new facts about the Olympics and different sports that are involved. We learnt that the host country creates new pictograms in every Olympics, which are icons and simple pictures that represent each sport played in the Olympics. We had to look at them carefully to figure out which sport each pictogram was trying to show. From there, we each chose our favourite sports or pictograms to recreate. Can you try to guess what sport the pictograms represent? NE to Year 3 MusicNew Entrant – Year 1 New Entrant and Year 1 music students have been focusing on keeping a steady beat and copying rhythms. Games such as ‘Hot potato’ and ‘Chicken on a Fencepost’ have been a fun way of moving in time to the beat. They have loved using the stretchy band and squishy ball to find the pulse. They have also learned a range of action songs where they explored pitch, dynamics, and tempo. Lastly, we learned about the traditional Māori Te Rakau and used this instrument to find the first beat of the bar. Year 2 Music Year 2 music students have been focusing on pitch through the Solfege scale, Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do. Students learned several So-Mi songs and used call and response to practice their aural skills. Students enjoyed the ‘Poison Melody’ game where they echoed a sung melody (but not the ‘poisoned’ one – a little like Simon Says). We also enjoyed the So-Mi stories where we learned about a little boy named ‘So-Mi’ who likes to make up songs using the Solfege scale. Students explored a range of songs using the xylophones and learned the note letter names of the C major scale. Year 3 Music Year 3 have been continuing to explore rhythm through music notation. Students at school and at home have shown some excellent creativity when coming up with their own rhythms. Students learned to notate a given nursey rhyme using ‘Fruit Rhythms’. Year 4-6 SpanishIn Year 4 Spanish, we have been revising greetings and numbers. Then we have started learning how to ask, ‘how old are you?’ and how to answer back. Year 4 online classes love playing Kahoot, and at school, we had lots of fun playing “¿qué número es, Señor Lobo?” (Similar to what time is it, Mr. Wolf)! In Year 5, we have been revising ‘los sentimientos’: emotions. Last week, we have been busy making emotions cube. We are going to play some games using the cubes that we have made! Lastly, in Year 6, we have been learning about ‘la comida’: food. We have studied Spanish food and learnt vegetable and fruit words. We have been listening to some songs that helped us learn food vocabularies. We love dancing (or watching others dance) to the song ‘la ensalada’! What a week for P15!P15 have had yet another busy but exciting week! In Maths, we are learning how to solve tricky multiplication problems using known facts and making adjustments. We are also learning how to translate shapes using coordinates on an XY axis. The students have been using creative ways to explore how position and direction plays a role in our every day lives. In Reading, we are learning how to make connections to texts that we are reading. P15 have become very skilled in identifying links between stories and their own lives. Sometimes, texts can remind us of another text we have read. Other times, we can make a connection between the text and the wider world around us. We have also been learning how to skim and scan a text, locating key words and information to answer questions. In Writing, we are learning how to write a breaking news article. We are learning how to use an alliterative headline to hook our reader in, and sprinkling in some dramatic language to maintain their interest. We have been using time adverbials of time, place and cause to link our paragraphs in a logical sequence, ensuring we add some relative clauses to provide our reader with more detail. Ms Shaw is really proud of the progress the students have made in their writing so far this year. In Global Perspectives, we have been learning to compare and analyse different aspects of countries. We are expanding and refining our research skills, learning how to choose trustworthy sources of information. In Health, P15 are learning about how objects can carry value. The students brought an object from home that reveals something about themselves. They explained the importance of their object in small groups and then had the opportunity to present to the class. P15 are very much looking forward to the remainder of the term, working hard and having fun together! Life in P17We have busy writing breaking news articles as part of our Big Write mission. The purpose was to share information to the public about the raging forest fires in Sumatra, Indonesia. Now we are learning about the features of a biographical article so that we can write about Dan Johnson, a naturalist, who is working in the rainforest in Sumatra. The photos show us working collaboratively to identify powerful openers, strong connectives, and dramatic vocabulary. In Art, we have started looking at the Cubism style of art. We made connections with our class novel, Treasure Hunters, Secrets of the Forbidden City, where they were discussing a stolen Picasso painting. We have started a drawing using geometric shapes and have begun to shade with different values. Here are two of our incomplete pieces. Message from the Principal of CollegeKia ora, Upon leaving school yesterday afternoon I popped into the gym to see our teachers playing against the students in a Volleyball game. As we have made the decision to not play against other schools this term, we have created our own competition with 6 teams: 3 girls, 2 boys and 1 teacher’s team. We do play a range of sports with teachers vs students, and they are always fun for all involved, and competitive. To me, this is a small snapshot into the excellent relationships that our teachers and students enjoy with each other. We talk a lot about relationships, and I believe it is a key part in the many successes that our students enjoy. Staff work hard in the classroom to get to know their students, and they are also involved in many activities with our students outside of the class. Our students play an important part in forging these connections and it is great to see how these relationships develop as students progress through the college. As well as witnessing the Volleyball after school this week I have also seen the Production Cast and Orchestra practicing outside, as well as our Tennis and Basketball teams training. Students have been running around, completing the various orienteering courses, and this morning I saw a group of red-faced students finishing the running club run at 7:45am. A nice little bonus to start the week was our Golf teams win over Kristin. It is fantastic to see our students continuing to make the most of their opportunities. The feedback from running club is that this morning was hard, but it will get easier. One area we would love to see some more engagement is the Jazz Band. This is normally one of our highest performing groups, and at the moment our numbers are well down. If your son or daughter wants to be involved with the Jazz Band, please send them in the direction of Mr Ronayne. Thank you to the parents that came along to the online Year 9 information evening, and apologies for the technical glitch at the start where I spent a few minutes talking to myself before my laptop decided to shutdown and reboot. Next week we are looking forward to getting our Year 7 students out of class from some activities run by Bigfoot Adventures. This is a chance for students to build some skills and relationships as we have had to postpone their Camp until Term 4. Nga mihi, Kieran Verryt. Junior College Student Leaders 2022Congratulations to Aayoung Joung, Callum Morgan, Nicholas Xu and Chloe Zhang who are the Year 7/8 Head Councillors for 2022!! Year 7/8 Swimming Medal Winners 2022Congratulations again to our 2022 Interhouse Swimming Year 7/8 overall winners, who were presented with their medals & certificates this week. Year 7/8 CricketOver the past 4 weeks on a Wednesday morning before school, a group of Year 7 & 8 boys have taken part in the 2022 Cricket Skills Programme at Pinehurst. Coached by Isaac from ECB Cricket, the boys have learned the fundamentals of cricket, and for the final session this week they padded up to practice their batting, bowling and fielding skills in the nets down on the school turf. Sadly the Cricket Zone Day in Term 1 has been cancelled, but we are hoping to get the boys together again for a game against our 2021 Pinehurst NH Zone Day Boys Cricket team later in the term! Year 7 MathematicsSequences and Geometric Patterns Linking cubes are hands-on manipulatives that are used to assist with the understanding of mathematical concepts. These interlock together to build various shapes and structures. Using this manipulative can help concretize learning by helping Math become real and engaging, therefore making it more fun to learn for the students. It also causes abstract concepts to be more visual and physical. Year 7 Students use interlocking cubes to create picture frames, recognise number sequences and develop a formula to discover the ‘nth’ term. Year 9 Physical EducationStudents in Year 9 have been learning about what it takes to be an effective leader. As part of their lessons, they have experienced and practiced different leadership styles and discussed what makes a PE lesson effective. In small groups, they will now be starting their own planning, with the aim of eventually leading their own lessons for the rest of their class. Orienteering at PinehurstUsually our orienteers would be competing in the North Harbour Sprint Series at this time. Unfortunately, the series was cancelled for 2022 but our coach, NZ Representative Liam Stolberger, organised a Pinehurst School Orienteering Series with training and events. With the support of student coaches Charlie Spence, Tye McQuinlan and Zach Boss we have introduced a new group of students to this sport and extended the skills of those who are more experienced. We have also been fortunate to have enlisted the help of North West Orienteering Club to run electronic timing for us. It has been great to see the enthusiasm of all participants as they strive to develop new skills and improve their times. Excellent Round for OliverOliver Maher scored his best round to date in the Division 2 section of the North Harbour Golf Competition. His score of 37 was three over par on the front nine at Pupuke and a huge step forward in confidence for Oliver. His team played well overall and easily beat Kristin for a win. The Premier team also played well and scored their second win in successive weeks beating Kristin 136pts to 106pts. Pinehurst Volleyball LeagueThursday afternoon saw the start of our internal volleyball league and it was full of fun and good competition. The Dream Team (staff) played the Girls Blue team first; they got off to a slow start. The girls won the first set comfortably. The staff started to warm up, winning the second set and pushing the match to 3 sets. They managed to beat the girls 2-1. Mr Wiggins’ sneaky serve was the magic on the day. The Dream Team then played the Boys team and the game got a little faster and harder but the staff had the advantage as the girls had warmed them up so well. They beat the Boys team 2-0. The final game was between the Girls Blue team and the Boys 1 team. It also went to 3 sets and the girls tenacity and solid skills won them the match 2-1. They are sure to meet again in the league. Hopefully, the Dream Team will be able to stay injury free for the rest of the league. Auckland College Climbing SeriesRegistrations are now open for the Auckland College Climbing Series - Round 1 on 3rd April. If you are interested in entering any of these events please see Mrs Augustin in the Sports Office or email Cyndie.Augustin@pinehurst.school.nz Meet our new College Music Teacher & HoDHadley Ronayne has joined our staff as the new College Music teacher and the Head of Visual and Performing Arts. An experienced teacher from schools around the North Shore, he has taught at Rangitoto College and most recently Long Bay College where he has been the head of Music for the past 11 years. A keen performer, Hadley has played the piano professionally for nearly 30 years and used to tour New Zealand with singer Suzanne Prentice as the Musical director and keyboard player for the World Vision “Kids for Kids” concerts. He particularly enjoys teaching practical Music classes and is loving his role as Musical Director for Pinehurst’s production of “Annie” and also as the new Conductor of the College Orchestra. Scholarship opportunities Scholarship opportunities for brass and lower woodwind lessons are now on offer from the Music Department. Ideally suited to students who can already read Music (such as pianists or guitarists) the school can offer free or subsidised lessons in trumpet, trombone, French horn, tuba and bassoon. It is expected these students will practice extensively and be ready to join the College Orchestra in a relatively short amount of time. Email Mr Ronayne: Hadley.Ronayne@pinehurst.school.nz for further details. A sweet thank youThis week the Pinehurst Parent Community organisers raised funds in order to treat the teachers to a donut morning tea. They wanted to show their appreciation and support during these difficult times. Thank you parents from the staff! International Robot OlympiadThe International Robot Olympiad 2021 was held at the University of Auckland in January. NZRO selected the best students who represented NZ from the NZ Robot Olympiad 2021, and the following Pinehurst students were included in the NZ Team. They spent a lot of time and effort on their competitions, and got excellent results as follows: - Ella (Year 7): GOLD medal for the Robot in Movie Junior category and GOLD medal for the Creative Robot Junior category. - Sejong (Year 8): SILVER medal for the Creative Robot Junior category and BRONZE medal for the Robot in Movie Junior category. - Samuel (Year 7): Technical Award for the Robot in Movie Junior category and Technical Award for the Creative Robot Junior category. - Jack (Year 9): Technical Award for the Creative Robot Junior category. - Oscar (Year 6): Highly Recommended Award for the Creative Robot Junior category. - Kevin (Year 11): BRONZE medal from the Creative Robot Senior category. - Sherrie Li (Year 11): Technical Award for the Creative Robot Senior category. Congratulations to all these students! |