No images? Click here Newsletter - 20 May 2022Message from the Executive PrincipalKia ora koutou, good afternoon, 你好, 안녕하세요 The best-laid schemes o’ mice and men… (Burns this week, for those checking). We were looking forward to a great return to College cross country running this week but the deluge arrived and so… I’m still hoping, though, that by the time you read this, the Primary students will have had their shot at a skip through the mud on our back fields. Saturday, though, was a great day, and I was delighted to see both Kidzplay re-start with its usual energy, and also to see our College boys’ football team begin their season. This week, we have 53 teams across 12 sports in Years 1-8, as well as another 30 or so in College. It’s so good to see so much happening, and congratulations to everyone taking part in school sports. We would like to see every single student taking part in school sport, so keep making sure our students become actively involved. Congratulations to Shuan Liu, who was awarded a North Harbour Club AIMES Emerging Talent Award last week. Shuan graduated from Pinehurst in 2020, and is one of the most extraordinary pianists I have ever heard play. I’m very pleased to see her talent recognised. On music, actually: our programme continues to grow and Mr Ronayne and his team are enthusiastically steering our orchestra towards the KBB music festival next term. The range of instruments that are played at a very high level continues to grow, and if your child is a musician and is not involved in a school group, especially if they are in College, please get in touch with him. We’ll have more information on opportunities to perform very soon. I’m going to keep it short today. To our senior students: work hard in preparation for your Mid-Year Exams, coming up very soon. And to everyone else: make sure that, even as you get busier, you find time for novels, poetry and literature in general. It feeds the soul! Have a lovely weekend and see you on Monday! 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 23 May
Tuesday 24 May
Wednesday 25 May
Thursday 26 May
Message from the Principal of PrimaryKia ora, There was so much excitement this week with our first assembly taking place since early last year. Year 3 had the task of running the event for our Year 0-4 students and they were clearly happy to have the opportunity to showcase their work. We were delighted to hear about the learning they have been doing on endangered animals. In their classes this week I was really impressed with the knowledge Year 3 have on what makes a species endangered and to see their learning maps about the habitats, food and characteristics of their chosen animals. Andy Warhol pop art portraits were fantastic too, bright, colourful and looking very much like their owners! Part of keeping safe and healthy at the moment is having morning tea and lunch on the decks outside classrooms. Unfortunately though this has also meant a lot of litter which spoils our environment. Our Primary council are on the case and will be helping us to make sure that food rubbish goes home or in the bin. Mrs Aston has given us some snazzy certificates for children that are making a special effort to keep our grounds tidy and litter free. The Council are also helping to organise another Wheels Week starting on Monday with Year 1. Some children missed out last term when they were learning from home and we wanted to give everyone another opportunity to ride around the playground and fields. Helmets are a must of course but also need to be fitted properly so that they don’t slip. Let’s hope we get a great week of dry weather to enjoy our wheels. We have a number of students isolating each week from across the Primary and they get to spend the morning with our wonderful online teachers, Mrs Aston and Mrs Watters. Whilst Mrs Aston drives to Pinehurst each day, Mrs Watters lives in Scotland and stays up very late to teach children in Years 3 to 6. We are so lucky to have former Pinehurst teachers run our online programme and give our students such a great learning experience when they have to stay at home. Both teachers love working with our students too and comment on how nice it is to work with children who really want to learn. I have been fortunate to work with a talented group of Year 6 students this term in an English extension programme exploring literature. We have started with the most famous playwright of them all William Shakespeare and his romantic comedy Twelfth Night. A complicated tale, with mistaken identity, love and a hilarious sub plot, our students have taken no time at all to untangle the plot and explore the world of Shakespeare. We have a number of students in this term’s extension and enrichment programmes and will share details of what is being taught, with all parents in the coming weeks. Noho ora mai, Sian. A busy week in P6!Wow what a busy week P6 has had! In literacy we have enjoyed reading the book ‘The day the Crayons came home’ (by Drew Daywalt) a sequel to the best-selling ‘The day the Crayons quit’ and taking on the big write challenge. We have had fun completing tasks, such as word searches, learning to write and use the correct punctuation when writing questions, generating statements, linking questions and statements, recalling information, identifying and explaining what a blurb is, to name a few. In Science, our topic of interest is darkness and light. The students completed an experiment with the Dark Den. The dark dens were boxes that had objects hidden in them. They had a small viewing hole and a top flap to let in light. The students then looked through a viewing hole when the flap was closed, then when the flap was open, and lastly a torch was shone through the viewing hole. P6 have enjoyed predicting, making observations, recording and collecting evidence and sharing their observations.
In Art we have enjoyed learning to pay attention to detail, specifically examining composition/size, shape, colour, shading and perspective to create these beautiful still life drawings of teddy bears. Animal SafariThis term in P1 and P2 our theme for learning is Animal Safari. On Monday, a very special package arrived in P2. The P2 children were very excited to find out what was inside. There was a small note attached to the box that said - "Please help, my daddy can’t look after me". We opened the box and found a large, white egg inside laying on a bed of soft snow. Next, the class tried to guess who the egg belonged to. We gathered all the clues we had – the egg was on snow, it was large, and the package was from a dad. We decided to do some research into what animals lay eggs, we discovered that many animals lay eggs – turtles, chickens, crocodiles, and penguins! Through our research, we discovered that Emperor Penguins only lay a single egg. They live in Antarctica and the daddy looks after the egg while the mummy hunts for fish. We then predicted that we had an Emperor Penguin’s egg, and we were right! In Writing, the Year 1 children wrote fact files about penguins. Their focus was to write facts in full sentences and attempt to use a simple connective to add more detail. The new entrant children labelled the parts of a penguin. All the children used their phonics knowledge and ‘Fred Fingers’ to help them spell new words. Next week, our animal safari learning will continue, and the children are going to read the book Monkey Puzzle and discover all about animals and their babies. P18 Comic StripsWe have been super busy in class doing lots of everything! In reading the students have been learning to summarise what they read. Creating a comic strip to tell the main points of the story, and to include words and phrases from the text for the captions was one of the activities they completed during our Big Reading session. Cartoons and skunks were supposed to be cute, adorable and funny. Yet here he was, slashing at the water desperately trying to get the strong, pong sting out of his eyes. He was blinded for almost two hours, and during that time he learnt a valuable lesson. Food must be protected… - Sylvia Yang Brian thought skunks were lovely creatures until he got sprayed. The pain in his eyes lasted for a day which felt like a lifetime. All of his food had been eaten by the skunk. Bryan had learned a valuable lesson from the skunk. Protect your food and shelter. – Milena Wang Brian’s impression of skunks: cute, funny and harmless. That is, until an uninvited guest bombards inside his shelter. He stupidly throws sand at the skunk’s face and gets a faceful of it’s stink gas in return. While he’s thrashing around and clawing his face off at the lake, the skunk eats all Brian’s food. Will Brian learn his lesson to protect his food better, or will he eventually starve to death? 🦨 – Anna Gao At night, an unexpected guest came to bother Brian, it was black with white stripes and a bushy tail. Brian had nearly smiled at it but it came for his turtle eggs! Brian attacked it with sand but it sprayed him with its spray. Brian tried to wash it out but it didn’t work, what will he do? - Audrey Ge All was peaceful until a rascal, a skunk came but it was no cute skunk it was a savage skunk stealing food from other animals. Who knows what the skunk is going to do next… - Alice Yan Hard at work in P16In Health this week we have been working with Harold from Life Education as we learn all about eating healthily through making informed food choices. To learn about this, we looked at where our food comes from, and the changes that it can go through to get to our plates. We learnt about ways we can identify the processes that our food has been through and have found it interesting to explore our lunches, which has generated lots of good discussions about our food. This term in Art we are learning about European painting styles over time. This week we have been identifying different European artists by their style of painting. Some of the artists and art styles we have enjoyed learning about have been Pablo Picasso and Cubism, M. C. Escher and Tessellation, Georges Seurat and Pointillism. The children had a go at working with pointillism, and found that it took forever so were very impressed with Seurat’s perseverance. In Writing we are learning all about anthologies, and we have been working on how to create an anthology by writing stories around the topic of time slips. This week we have been exploring reviews and how they are written, this has been useful as it can help us to collate stories for an anthology. We have looked at both formal and informal written reviews and with partners have had a go at reviewing a book that we have read. We enjoyed writing informal reviews as it was just like we were talking to a friend about a good book we had read! In Reading, we have been exploring figurative language in poetry and songs. This week we had a lot of fun exploring idioms and deciding what they mean and how they can be used in context. There were some we found funny like ‘hold your tongue’ and ‘blow your own trumpet’. It was definitely fitting, as it has rained like cats and dogs this week! Message from the Principal of CollegeKia ora Pinehurst Whānau The position of my office, close to the music department, often affords wonderful entertainment. Recently, I have been humming along to some familiar pieces from Annie the musical as the orchestra rehearsals ramp up. Our students will be performing Annie early next term and from what I have been hearing it proves to be a very good show. Wellbeing week got underway on Monday and in support of this each school council prepared activities for students centred around improving their wellbeing. One such activity was a visit from the Paws Leading Us foundation. Paws Leading Us raise funds for Blind Low Vision NZ. Two golden retriever guide dog visitors were very popular, and students were able to spend time with them and have precious photographs taken. The Citizenship Council has also organised compliment cards for students to write a message of appreciation to someone they know during the week. The week culminates with pink shirt day today and council members will deliver messages of appreciation to each recipient in their POD. We had all been looking forward to Cross Country yesterday but sadly the weather meant that we needed to postpone the event. We have rescheduled for next Thursday and we are hoping for a nice, dry day so that all our eager cross country runners can take part. Year 7 and 8 enjoyed House Tug of War on Wednesday as their first interhouse event of the term. There was lots of fun, support and laughter but also some strong competition. Tōtara House were the winners, well done to all who competed and supported. Winter sports events continue and I had the pleasure of watching our boys’ football team play at home against Orewa College on Saturday. They have another home game this week at 10am so do come along and support them if you are free. Our Year 11-13 students are approaching midyear examinations which start on Thursday of next week. There has been an atmosphere of effort and endeavour as they make their preparations and work with their teachers to ensure that they make the most of this opportunity. Whilst this can be a busy time for our students, it is their chance to find out what they need to do in preparation for their Cambridge examinations at the end of the year and to experience examination settings. Talk to your children about how they are feeling about examinations and support them to persevere. Encourage them to talk to their teachers if they have concerns or questions about their examinations. Have a wonderful weekend. Ngā mihi nui Dawn.
Pinehurst College Cross CountryOur postponed College Cross Country event will now be held on Thursday 26th May 2022 at Rosedale Park. Japanese Korean Club안녕하세요. こんにちは. Last week our Japanese Korean club enjoyed a scrumptious Korean lunch consisting of gimbab, ddukbboki, spicy friend chicken, and traditional pancakes. We would like to thank Judy's Kitchen in Albany for the catering and the delivery of our delicious platters. Mrs Cataloni and the club members are looking forward to the upcoming Cultural Market at school later on this term to be able to introduce you to some of these amazing dishes! Watch this space... Tug of WarDuring Wednesday lunchtime we had our first inter-house event for Term 2, Tug of War. The tension was very intense as everyone wanted for their house to win. Many teachers and students showed support and enthusiastically cheered for their house. While spectating and cheering on the sidelines, I found it hilarious to watch people dragging along the ground, pulling their hardest. Overall, it was an exciting event where many of us showed excellent sportsmanship and teamwork. We are looking forward to the next inter-house event! - by Celina Lee, Student Sports Leader. Junior College DebatingOur 1st Junior College debate was held this week. Congratulations to the negative team who were the winners. Ellie, Arissa and Erica who managed to persuade the affirmative team, Saffie, Chloe and Jennifer that students in school should have Instagram. A big thank you to Sarah Xiang in Year 13 for adjudicating and who had this to say - It was a pleasure to be able to adjudicate the first Junior College debate, with many talented speakers and an enthusiastic audience. The Moot was "This house believes that students should not have Instagram", which sparked many insightful arguments from both the Affirming and Negating teams. After a passionate debate, the Negating team won by presenting a cohesive and perceptive argument. Paws Leading UsAs part of the wellbeing week, the Student Council hosted an event called Paws Leading Us. This was an opportunity for the students to learn about how people are living with low vision and maintaining a positive and healthy wellbeing. The Student Council organised for guide dogs Lottie and Lady to come in and for their handlers to talk with students about what they do and the role they play. Students were able to get a photo taken with the dogs and also cool down with an ice block. The field was buzzing with great discussions about the work the charity do in maintaining assistance and help to people with low vision bringing a wonderful positive vibe to lunch time. The Student Council worked extremely hard to make this event happen and we couldn’t be more proud of the effort and how well the event went. Through the raffle, soft toy, ice blocks and picture sales the Student Council have managed to raise $736.80 for the Low Vision Foundation. Well done! The Student Council will also be hosting the Cultural Market 2022 on the 15 June where we celebrate different cultures and provide the opportunity for students to sell food from their culture to raise money for Unicef. Young Enterprise Pitch CompetitionOn Monday, 35 students headed off to Zeal West in Henderson to pitch their business ideas to a panel of judges. Young Enterprise is a nationwide competition and ‘The Pitch’ is the 2nd stage of that competition. Our students represented exceptionally well. The judges commented on the high standard of presentation skill and preparedness as well as the enthusiasm for entrepreneurship that was evident from our students’ attitudes! A summary of the companies and their products are below: Aromasks want to help you breathe easy and reduce waste with an anti-bacterial mask spray. Fleur de Lune are supporting children living in poverty with their resin keyring. Case-T0mise are helping you express your individuality with a customised cellphone case. Solar & I want to encourage young people into STEM and renewable energy with a solar project kit for classrooms. Tu Teitei are addressing your need to see your phone without straining by creating an innovative keychain phone-stand. MyJena want to better enable you to express your own individuality through their clay figures. EverViolet are beautifying your life with a decorative dried flower display. ForLower are incorporating sustainability and aesthetics with a scent diffuser made from recycled plastic bottles. AS Enviro TripOn Monday, the AS Environmental Management class went on an educational and exciting trip to Kelly Tarlton’s Aquarium. Here the students had a session with a marine biologist all about how humans impact the habitats of marine life and strategies to help species repopulation for Green Sea Turtles and Gentoo Penguins. Students learned how poachers in Guatemala are being hired to help with finding and conserving turtle eggs, which benefits the populations of turtles and provides a positive source of income for the local people. Like some other reptiles, the sex of a turtle is determined by the warmth of the environment during the incubation stage and with higher temperatures more females will be hatched. This is certainly interesting to know with a currently warming climate! The students had a chance to see Peter, the brand new T-Rex skeleton at the Auckland Museum. There was a fascinating photo exhibition on from nature photographer Olaf Petersen, who captures human interactions with nature in a unique, artful way. The whole day was very exciting and the class enjoyed learning in a new environment. Girls' FootballLast week, saw the opening of the senior girls 1st XI football season, with the first game against Long Bay College and what a match it was. 3 attempts on goal within the first 4 mins of the starting whistle and we were on the board after 5 mins of play; just 12mins into the game we were 2 nil up. Strong teamwork from our defensive midfield players kept the Long Bay attackers in check. Some lovely through balls and excellent passing allowed our strikers to fulfil their potential and we finished the first half ahead 4 -0. As you can imagine the joyful cheering from our side line was deafening. After a quick team talk it was back to the business of scoring goals, and that’s just what they did. Our players stayed strong defensively and on attack they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. The mighty “Pine Trees” sure gave the support crew something to celebrate with a final winning score of 8-0. Thanks to the enthusiastic parents, friends and relatives who came down to support us. Next Wednesday we have home advantage in our game against Kristin, so come down and support the mighty ‘Pine Trees’ in our quest to make it 2 wins from 2. The team will be wearing pink to ‘Speak Up and Stand Together’ as part of their support for Pink Shirt Day across NZ and we’d love to see our supporters wearing pink too! Wednesday 25th May at Pinehurst – Kick off 4pm. Sports Council Yoga SessionThis week the Citizenship Council have been hosting wellbeing week and the Sports Council contributed on Wednesday lunch time by holding a have-a-go yoga session. Yoga has been proven to improve the wellbeing of those who regularly practice and there have been links made between yoga and reduced stress, anxiety and depression. Special thanks to Hunter, Andrew and Abi for organizing the event. Throughout the week our sports teams have also committed to wearing pink as part of their games or practices to ‘Speak Up & Stand Together to Stop Bullying’. We will include some photos next week. He kōtuinga mahi iti. He hua pai ā rau. - Small ripples create big waves. Year 8 Virtual Reality ExperienceMy year group was extremely excited about this class today, because we will be getting to try Virtual Reality. The Virtual Reality we were about to experience was run by the Sir Peter Blake Trust. Sir Peter Blake Trust dedicates their careers to sustainability by visiting schools throughout Auckland, telling students in all schools about the beauty of our oceans and how important it is to protect and restore the seabed. In our own experience, Blake showed us the difference between controlled and protected marine reserves to unprotected areas. The difference is enormous! The protected areas are lush green, and full of life while the unprotected had extraordinarily little sea life. We investigated different marine reserves and beaches around New Zealand. The Virtual Reality experience from the eyes of a machine with advanced eyes makes us realize how important sea life is and what damage we cause if we do not care for our ocean life. Thank you, Blake Trust, for giving us this experience. - by Carlos Baumann-Korneev, 8NW. Year 11 P.E.In Physical Education this term, Year 11s are learning how to challenge themselves appropriately in order to maximise their success through the context of volleyball. Each lesson, students have a choice of activities designed to improve an element of the game. This week, students had a choice of 4 stations. Some developed their serving technique and accuracy, some learnt about the rotation system and others were focused on linking skills to provide a more focused attack through digging, setting and spiking. Students are encouraged to identify their own strengths and weaknesses and make appropriate choices about their own learning. We are encouraged to see the progress they are all making. Enviro WeekA wonderful week full of fun activities and competitions from the Enviro Council has successfully ended. The Enviro council wanted to raise awareness about the planet we live on and to develop a better understanding of the environment around us. We created quizzes every morning based on the four elements; earth, water, air, and fire that will enhance each POD’s understanding of nature and our earth. Through these quizzes I discovered a lot more about our industrialization on the earth and what naturally existed before humans inhabited the earth. The environment council decided these quizzes were not enough to encourage students to be aware of our surroundings so on Wednesday, we invited a group from Auckland University called the DEVORA. This group of university graduates are part of a group called DEtermining VOlcanic Risk in Auckland (DEVORA). They brought along lots of exciting experiments that demonstrate the buildup of magma that will eventually create a volcanic eruption. They showed us two scenarios, one when magma erupts under water and one when magma erupts from the earth. Devora also brought all sorts of volcanic rock like basalt and tuff, as well as rocks that contain crystals formed from the extreme heat of a volcano. This green crystal was called olivine. Devora showed the ways technology is used to predict when the last eruption of a volcano was and how to determine if the rocks were from the same volcano or a different one close to it. On Thursday we created all sorts of carnival games that can earn POD and house points to determine who will win. All our materials were made from recycled or existing rubbish so that we are making use of materials that won’t create more harm to our environment. Our idea was a huge success and a lot of students showed up to participate. We encouraged people to bring a gold coin donation for a charity called Project Jonah which protects NZ marine life like dolphins and whales. On the last day, we had a competitive race to see which house could sort the most rubbish correctly into their categories. A lot of students participated to help their house win. In the end, Matai won the relay, and the prizes will be announced at assembly. Enviro week was a great experience, and it went very well, I would like to give a huge thank you to Ms. Rea and Annie who helped us organize and plan this whole event and of course, to the enviro council for all their hard work. I hope this will become an annual event and all year groups can enjoy the fun it brings. - By Sissi Yang, Year 10 Primary ProductionMadagascar – A Musical Adventure Jr. Year 5 and 6 students are really starting to ‘Move it, move it’ along with rehearsals for this year’s production. Lyrics are being sung, lines are being learned and everyone is full of enthusiasm and energy. As soon as the songs are learned, then we can start adding in the choreography. Once lines have been rehearsed a few times, then we begin blocking (which is the precise staging of the actors in the musical). It’s like a big jigsaw how it all comes together! College ProductionAnnie continues to progress through rehearsals, preparing to hit Centerstage, Orewa for a 27th to the 29th July show season. Catch a look at some photos from our latest dance and orchestra rehearsals. Tickets for Annie will be available from Monday 20 June. Year 6 Mathematics... Games of Netball in Year 4 P.E... Sibling PhotosSibling Photos have been organised for any families who would like a photo of their children together in their school uniform. There will be two sessions available from 2.30 – 4pm on:
These will be held in P23 (Junior Primary block). If your children are unavailable to attend these dates, there will be catch-up slots available during the year. Emails will be sent to sibling families with further details and a registration form. If you have any questions, please contact Sylvia Lum on Sylvia.lum@pinehurst.school.nz Research project on children’s reading and the impact of LockdownsPinehurst Librarians would greatly appreciate having some of our Pinehurst Whanau comment in the research for a project on the impact of lockdowns on children's reading habits. Please feel free to share the link widely, with anyone else you know that falls into this category. The link to the survey is below: Pinehurst Duo Chosen to Represent North Harbour HockeyCongratulations to Emily Stuart and Brooke Peacock who were both selected recently to represent North Harbour U18 Hockey. Emerging Talent Awards Celebrate Young Ones To WatchA new generation of Kiwi high achievers was celebrated at a glitzy gathering in Takapuna last Thursday night (12 May). Congratulations to former student, and extremely talented pianist, Shuan Liu who received a 2021/2022 AIMES Emerging Talent Award and a cash grant of $7,500. Run by the North Harbour Club, AIMES covers the fields of Arts, Innovation, Music, Education, Sport and Service to the Community. |