Message from the Executive Principal
Kia ora koutou, good afternoon, 下午好, 안녕하세요 Term 3 draws to a close today: budding trees signal the onset of spring; cool blasts of wind remind us that summer is still some way in the distance. T.S.Eliot wrote – exactly a hundred years ago in “The Wasteland” – that “April is the cruellest month”, referring to spring “stirring/dull roots with spring rain”. There are many ways to interpret Eliot’s lines, but one way to think of them is as a reflection on the promise and the pain of spring. New beginnings find their ways to the surface each year as we emerge from our winter cocoons: there’s excitement; and there’s also some trepidation
and nervousness. Forgive my sudden introspection: you can tell that I’ve missed teaching English Literature this year. We move into our spring holidays this afternoon. The next two weeks will see cherry blossom take over the trees in our central court, and when students return on October 17th, summer will feel very close indeed. There are only eight (packed!) weeks between the start of term and the beginning of the long summer holiday, so expect them to whizz past in a flurry of excitement. The last few weeks have felt a bit like this too. We had a very enjoyable Year 9-13 Sports Prizegiving yesterday. Congratulations to all the prizewinners, and to everyone who has taken part in school sport this year. Our all-conquering Golf team won Team of the Year; Yeonsoo Son won the
Sporting Excellence award; Nicole Choi won the Sportsperson of the Year award; and we also celebrated the all-round contributions made to Pinehurst sport by Henry Fang, Frankie Benison and Brooke Peacock. We also recognised a huge number of regional representatives across a wide range of sports, and national representatives in swimming, golf and orienteering. Pinehurst sport continues to grow in strength, and I’m very proud of everyone involved. And very grateful to the parents for their support of the students and of our programme. Congratulations, too, to the Year 5 and 6 swimmers who had a great Swimming Sports Day on Wednesday. The College ran its first-ever Interhouse Waiata Competition on Wednesday too: I can’t express how happy it made me to see 140 of our senior students singing waiata, accompanied by guitars and
ukuleles. Well done to Kate Le Lievre for her passion and commitment to making it happen. Also on Wednesday (a busy day!): we ran our first-ever, very successful Year 9 Commerce Market Day. Some good sales were made; some marketing lessons were learned. Last night saw another first for the school (at least for the last few years): Year 11-13 students displayed their work in the Library for the College Art Exhibition, which will now become an annual fixture. Watch this space, too, for additional art exhibitions in the future, led by our new Head of Exhibitions. On Tuesday, though, I had the great pleasure of judging an event which has long been an annual school fixture: the Year 4-6 Speech Competition finals. It was one of the best we’ve had, with a range of speeches that (rather unusually) featured many strong opinions about animals,
and it was a pleasure to name Yuri Lee the Year 4 winner; Mimie Lee the Year 5 winner; Mia Geng the Year 6 Runner-Up; and Alex Stanford, with a funny and thought-provoking speech about the need to respect animals, the overall winner. It's been a great week, in other words. Over the holidays, most of our Year 11-13 students will be in school for examination tutorials, and they will also be spending a great deal of time studying. These are the key weeks, exams starting, the heavy weeks on the horizon, that make a huge difference. Please make sure that your children are remembering to exercise and relax as well as study. Parents can make a huge difference in these weeks, providing structure, balance, perspective, and, of course, nutritious food! Have a lovely holiday, and I look forward to
seeing everyone back in school in two weeks. 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
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 I finished Week 9 by listening to our senior speech finalists and then watching our Table Tennis teams compete in their final games. The winner of the year 12 and 13 speech competition was Charlie Franicevic who entertained us with her thoughts on minimalism. Ashleigh Bernacchi came second place with a humorous and original speech entitled “How to Kill a Mockingbird”. All of the finalists presented their speeches very well and the audience of mainly Year 11
students were able to have a taste of what they are aspiring towards. At the table tennis, there were some well fought matches, and Team 1 won the North Shore Secondary Schools A1 Grade and Team 4 placed second in the North Shore Secondary Schools C grade. Great work from all of our table tennis players and thank you to Mrs Perkins for managing the teams towards these successes. Whilst the table tennis matches were playing, back at school we were hosting a Movie Night. This was a popular event organised and run by the Prefects. The evening was a fundraiser and $1400 was raised on the night. Students brought their own beanbags and enjoyed fizzy drinks, popcorn and pizza whilst watching a movie with their friends – what a great way to finish the week! Week 10 has been a short week but we have managed to pack lots in. On Wednesday at lunchtime we held our first ever Interhouse Waiata Competition. Kate Le Lievre along with other school leaders has championed the use of Te Reo Māori and worked hard to raise awareness of Tikanga Māori at Pinehurst. Kate has been the main driving force behind the Interhouse Waiata Competition, an initiative which will last beyond Kate’s time at Pinehurst. Each House has learned a waiata and they have come such a long way in a very short time. Kauri House won the competition but every House did a great job. On that same lunchtime, our Commerce department held a Market Day for Good. Students had made some very high quality and innovative products to sell at the market. Proceeds went to Kids Can
and the lunchtime market raised over $800. Sports Awards Prizegiving was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the outstanding efforts and successes of many of our students. Brianna Tirado, Year 13, was our speaker who gave a heartfelt and reflective speech about her journey in sport. Brianna has needed to exercise great determination, self-discipline and resilience as she has experienced the ups and downs of sporting life. In her closing remarks she noted that; “The biggest award successful athletes will receive is longevity, and socialisation as they give back to the sport, along with the legacy that they’ll leave behind in doing so”. Very wise words. As we work through the last day of Term 3 today, we will farewell our Year 11 and 12 students as they
start study leave. We are finishing the term with a final assembly for our Year 11, 12 and 13 students during period 6. My main message to the students will be a reminder to look after themselves during this time and also to finish well. Getting to the end of something in a positive way is very important in building a young person’s self-esteem and wellbeing. They will need to take some time to organise themselves so that they arrive on time for all of their examinations, in the correct uniform and with the correct equipment. As part of their preparation, during the break, many of the senior students will be attending holiday tutorials as they get the final pieces of advice and help from the experts. I hope you are able to enjoy some family time during the school break and I look forward to seeing you in Term 4.
Mā te wā Dawn
Year 9 Market – For GoodThe Year 9 Commerce market day was a huge success – There was a massive range of products on sale including pot plants, candles, toys, affirmation kits, lip balm, bagi (what even is that?) and wireless phone chargers. The students have been working on these businesses all year. Having been given a loan to start their enterprise, they had to research, develop and produce a product that was “Good” in that it targeted one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Not only did students pay back their original loans, but they also made over $800 profit! The profit will all be donated to KidsCan, who do wonderful work in our community.
Keep an eye on these young entrepreneurs, they will be doing great things in the future!
Kai and Culture Club are an incredible collection of people who care about the diversity of our society. We gather and enjoy meals while learning about many characteristics of various cultures. For Māori language week, we've been focusing on the Māori language and culture. We played Tī Rakau (the Māori stick game) to the tune of Tūtira Mai Ngā Iwi and learned useful vocabulary that we can use in class. The students in various students brought in some delicious kai for us to enjoy. Come join us on Tuesday Lunches in the Drama Room!!! - Pranuja Tahal
Settler Retirement Village Volunteering I had the privilege of visiting the Settlers retirement village in Albany with other keen volunteers from Pinehurst. A week ago, we talked with some of the residents there and had many enjoyable conversations. The question of their fondest memories brought up a variety of topics. I loved listening to their school memories and even their love stories!! Although there was a huge age gap between us and the residents, there was no sense of awkwardness, we were still able to connect with them. Through our conversations, I found it very heart-warming to have an insight into life in NZ
years ago and made me reflect on how lucky our generation is today. Back then some of the residents felt that they had limited choice in careers, the majority we meet were former nurses some of which expressed a desire to choose a different career if they had a choice. Overall, it was a privilege to spend time and chat with people who gave us a glimpse of their lives in early NZ. Talking to the residents is just one of the ways we were able to provide assistance to the residents. This week we walked dogs for residents who are unable to provide a long walk for their furry companions. Kasey (the dog) who we took for a walk had a blast with his amazing dog walkers. If you are needing extra service hours or DoE hrs or even just want experience volunteering I 100%
recommend joining the Volunteer club next year!! Thank you to our leaders, Sarah and Lisa for making this opportunity possible. - Natalie Raphael Yr 11
Year 11 students are hard at work preparing for their upcoming IGCSE Examinations. Students across two classes are busy practicing past papers and ensuring they are well versed in all the ways we can sustainably manage the worlds resources. Some of the topics they have studied include- water and its management, energy and the environment, rocks, minerals and their exploitation.
Julie Xiao, NZ National Fencing U15 Julie attended the NZ National Fencing U15, Cadets (U17) and Juniors (U20) tournament in Christchurch over the weekend and achieved 3rd place for U15 tournament. Well done, Julie!
Badminton SuccessOver the weekend a number of Pinehurst students who are badminton representative players, competed at various competitions. Veronica Xia and Jack Ji competed in the Waikato U19 Open which is well above there age group. Jack Ji placed 2nd in the Mens singles and Veronica placed 3rd equal in the Womens singles and 3rd in the doubles. Back in Auckland, Tony Yu (photo) also had a very successful weekend at the U15 North Harbour Badminton Champs. He placed 1st Mens Doubles, 1st Mixed Doubles and 1st in the Mens Singles. Congratulations and well done! We certainly
have some very talented, up and coming, badminton players here at Pinehurst.
Pinehurst Girls Badminton Team The Pinehurst Girls team (Veronica Xia, Alina Zhang, Cynthia Zhang, Hermione Xie, Jennifer Lin, and Julie Xiao) won the Junior Y9 – 10 Girls A-Grade Division in the North Harbour Junior Secondary Schools Badminton League. The team finished the competition as undefeated champions after winning every ‘Tie’ consisting of four single and four double games each Thursday afternoon at the Bond Crescent Badminton Centre for the past 9 weeks. At Pinehurst, we send both a boys and girls invitation team to the North Island Junior Secondary School Cup being held in Auckland from 22 – 24
November. This event will help prepare them for the New Zealand Secondary School National competition in 2023.
College Science Year 7 - chemical reactions We have been reacting various chemicals and identifying physical and chemical changes based on observations from experiments. Students have also been forming insoluble products of reactions (precipitates) and using filtration for separation. Elephants’ toothpaste is a popular practical as we can observe what happens during the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide to form oxygen and water. The oxygen bubbles get trapped in the bubbles caused by adding washing liquid and the foam produced looks like a giant squeeze of toothpaste fit for an elephant.
Year 7 Science - sound Polystyrene cups and string can be used to demonstrate the transmission of sound as vibrations. The year 7 students had fun sending and receiving messages without the aid of a cellphone!
Year 8 Science – electricity and magnetism Students have been learning how to draw circuit drawings using circuit symbols and then creating series and parallel circuits in the laboratory. They have been observing the difference between series and parallel circuits and investigating the relationship between voltage and current in both types of circuit using ammeters and voltmeters.
Year 8 Science – creating a compass We have been learning that the Earth’s core is like a giant bar magnet that produces a magnetic field that extends about 65,000 km into space. They magnetised their compass needle by stroking it with a bar magnet. They then observed that the compass was able to line up with the Earth’s magnetic field and wrote about how this can be used for navigation.
Year 8 Science - diffusion Year 8 students have been observing the movement of particles in fluids from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration (diffusion) using potassium permanganate crystals.
Year 9 – actively preparing for the checkpoint Students have been adding the exact quantities of acid and alkali together to complete a review of neutralisation reactions as active preparation for the upcoming checkpoint. This helps them to identify the products of neutralisation (a salt and water) and to review the use of universal indicator to quantify the pH. It also helps them to review how to measure volume accurately with a measuring cylinder.
Year 12 Chemistry Year 12 Chemistry students have been fine tuning their practical skills to prepare for the practical examination.
Preparing for exams in Geography:The year 12 and 13 Geographers have been managing time with some ‘revision clocks’ in class this week. With the exams fast approaching, it offers a great opportunity for them to show what they know across a range of different parts of the course. We can then identify strengths and any misconceptions to help them focus their independent study as they move into the term break.
Speech Finals 2022Well done to all students who participated in the 2022 Speech Finals and a huge congratulations to our winners. Zoe Atkinson in Year 10 delivered a thought-provoking speech about the need for us to consider different sides to each story. Particularly impressive was her inclusion of Goldilocks! Zoe came away with first prize for the Year 10 and 11 Speech Final, closely followed by Renalle Chan who gave us all something to consider when she challenged our shopping habits in a speech about Fast Fashion. Both students did a fantastic job of building rapport with their audience, as well as using varied persuasive techniques
with skill. Our Year 12 and 13 students delivered their speeches in the arena- adding an extra layer of pressure. All withstood the challenge and spoke with clarity and conviction. Charlie Franicevic spoke passionately about Minimalism and the pervasive sense that we all have too much ‘stuff’. It was refreshing to hear her reassure us that our nick-nacks don’t need to be binned just yet.. despite what Marie Kondo might tell us! Congratulations to Charlie for winning the senior competition. Ashleigh Bernacchi delivered a speech about ‘How to Kill a Mockingbird’, a highly original and comic take on Mockingbirds and how to… consume them! It was such a pleasure watching Ashleigh -and the other competitors- speak with such wit and confidence.
A2 Biology A2 Biology students recently completed a unit on Genetic Technology. As part of their work, they were able to make use of the school’s new PCR and Electrophoresis equipment. PCR is state of the art technology, used by scientists in disease diagnosis and forensics. The experiment the students carried out mimicked crime scene investigation techniques, trying to match DNA samples from five “suspects” to the sample taken from the “crime scene”. The opportunity to do practical work like this allows the students to gain hands on experience of the application of the theory they’ve been learning.
It also allows them to develop unique skills such as micro-pipetting and staining agarose plates. The students especially appreciated the opportunity to do some “real science”. This experience is not something students will gain at other schools and we are fortunate to have this technology as part of our Biology curriculum.
Pinehurst Year 7 & 8 Badminton League WinnersA huge congratulations to our two girls year 7 & 8 badminton teams who both received medals for winning their respective grades this term. The Girls Team A1 were the overall champions of Division A and the Girls Team B1 were the overall winners of Division B. The students in the Girls Team A1 was Elsa Lu, Emily Prasetyo, Michelle Prasteyo, Anegla Li, Jennie Su and Anna Lu. The students in the Girls Team B1 was Sophie Sun, Gina Xiang, Jiani Wang, Xier Wang and Rainy Yang. This is an awesome achievement, especially for some players who were competing in the afterschool league for the very first time. We are so grateful to have the
support of our amazing parent managers, Djohan Prasetyo and Erica Chen who have supported the teams this term.
Pinehurst Netball Team 7/1 – North Harbour Netball PrizegivingLast Thursday, the Pinehurst Netball Team 7/1 attended the North Harbour Intermediate Prizegiving to receive their medals for coming runners up in their respective intermediate grade for the winter season. The girls had a very successful season and only just got beaten in their final game. The following students were part of Team 7/1; Ella Ahn, Lena Chen, Georgia Cowley, Jessica Drescher, Jessica Hu, Eva Liu, Silvia Ouyang, Isabel Ramdhair, Candy Shen, Jasmine Yearbury, Felisha Zhao. We are very proud of the team and also their amazing coaches Izzy and Lindy Williams who have put an endless amount of time into the
team.
Message from the Principal of Primary Kia ora, There are a few tired young people in the Primary, ten weeks in a winter term is quite long for them and it has certainly been action packed. The end of term is a time for reflection, what went well and what could be done differently are always part of the process. We are very proud of our students and the effort they have made this term. They have been engaged, focused and enthusiastic about their learning as well as friendly, kind, sporty and fun. Everyone can feel a sense of achievement whether they are 5 years old or 11 and look forward to their final term in their current year group. We enjoyed a wonderful morning on Tuesday listening to 15 speech finalists from years 4 to 6. Speeches are an opportunity to write persuasively and learn the features that make for a sophisticated piece of persuasive writing. On top of this, students must learn to hold the attention of the audience through their use of intonation, gesture, eye contact and good content. Favourite topics were animals and especially pets as well as more weighty topics like world peace. It was a tough decision for the judges Mr Reed and Mrs Jones Hill, and the winners were very close but we are pleased to announce that this year's top speakers are Yuri Lee in Year 4, Mimie Lee in Year 5, runner up in Year 6 was Mia Geng and overall winner was Alex Stanford. Alex will receive the speech winners cup at our Primary prizegiving on the 6th of December. On Wednesday we took our Year 5 and 6 students to Northern Arena for their swimming gala. Usually held at the beginning of the year, we had to postpone due to covid, but it was an amazing event. We have some exceptionally talented swimmers who shone in the pool, race after race. Some said they were nervous when they were waiting on the blocks, perfectly natural, but once in the water they swam their hearts out. It was loud, humid, fast paced and exciting, thrilling and nail biting all at the same time. The behaviour of our students was exceptional as was their resilience and willingness to have a go. A huge thanks to the many parents who were timekeepers and for those who came to watch their children compete. It was a wonderful event and a great way to finish off the term, oh and congratulations to Totara House who were the overall winners. Today we say goodbye to Breanna Viskovich who has been a Primary teacher for almost five years. Breanna is off for new adventures in Europe with her husband, as they move to Berlin. Experiencing life in another culture is exciting, slightly scary in a good way and it broadens our thinking. We wish Breanna all the very best. Also leaving today on parental leave is Vicky Walton who is looking forward to the birth of her first child, we hope her fur babies don't get too jealous! Joining us next term are three Pinehurst teachers, Suzy Aston, Anna Speir and Hannah Cooper and we are thrilled to be able to work with them again in New Entrants and Year 1. Thanks for your support this term, the smiles, chats and chances to connect are part of what makes our school special. We feel a great sense of
working together in partnership which helps us to do a better job. However you choose to spend the next two weeks I hope you have a wonderful time making memories with your children, exploring the world and spending time as a family. Nga mihi Sian
Year 4 Camp at Peter Snell Youth VillageOn Wednesday the buses arrived to take Year 4 to our first ever camp! Ms Coxon, Mrs Jones-Hill and Mr Reed were there along with our parents to wave us all off. The excitement had been building for months and we were NOT disappointed… not even an afternoon of rain could put a dampener on our spirits! We arrived unpacked, ate our morning tea and checked out the playground, we waited eagerly in our groups for the activities to commence! We were sent off to either indoor activities, the Initiative Course or Frisbee Golf. The indoor games were
classics such as tug-of-war, sack race, egg and spoon and of course the x3-legged race!
The Initiative Course included the Balance Beam Shuffle where the entire group needed to discuss a strategy for transporting people and beams to get to the end, using only the planks and post without touching the ground. There was also an Off-Set Tilting Beam, the objective was to move the whole team from one side to the other without falling off!
Frisbee Golf used flying Frisbee’s instead of golf balls and clubs, the aim was to throw the disk into the ‘hole’ in the fewest possible attempts, following a map of numbered holes and keeping your own score- the lowest combined score for all of the holes was the winner. Not sure there actually was a winner, but it was fun taking part on a windy day!
After a dinner, a movie and shower our first day was over and we went off to bed in our cabins! Day 2 saw more activities, Bivouac Building teaching the skills needed to survive in the bush in the event of an emergency, again, lots of ideas and group discussions necessary. Next came Target Paintball using a slingshot to fire a paintball at a target in the bush either side of a roped off area. After a picnic morning tea we were off to the climbing wall which had arrived that morning amongst great anticipation!
We just timed lunch perfectly as in the afternoon we were rained off with a deluge! That didn’t stop the fun, we got out our card games and board games and spent the afternoon playing with our good friends and making new friends. Day 3 before we packed up to come home, we had the chance to try Archery, loading arrows into our bows and shooting at the targets. We learned about arrows, flights, bows, quivers and nocks! (ask us!). As we had to wait safely behind the line of tyres, the girls had an impromptu hair salon and the boys floated bark in the puddle! Next came the Air Rifle shooting… those cans moved! Finally, the big pack up and clean up, put our bags on the bus and headed to Event cinema for a movie with popcorn in
our own private theatre. One last board of the bus and back home to school and our lovely parents waiting for us!
KIDZPLAY NETBALL WINTER LEAGUE PRIZEGIVINGOn Saturday, 24th September we celebrated the 2022 Winter Netball Season. Thank you to all the teams and supporters that came along and congratulations to all our award winners. A huge thank you to all our wonderful coaches and managers who contribute their time, energy and passion to Pinehurst Netball, we appreciate you! - Pinehurst Pukeko Year 2 – Grade: Year 2 Kauri 1st
Place
- Pinehurst Ruru Year 3 – Grade: Year 3C 2nd place
- Pinehurst Tui Year 3 – Grade: Year 3A 2nd place
- Pinehurst Kereru Year 4 – Grade: Year 4A 1st place
- Pinehurst Kakapo Year 4/5 – Grade: Year 5D 3rd place
- Pinehurst Kea year 5 – Grade: Year 5A 1st place
- Pinehurst Eagles Year 6 – Grade: Year 6B 1st place
What a wonderful Winter season it has been and we look forward to a great Spring League that starts on the 29th October 2022.
The Power of PersuasionThe Primary Year 4-6 speech competition saw 5 finalists from each year group setting out to engage, inform and persuade the audience to believe in their carefully crafted argument. We were persuaded to let students choose their own subjects, why dogs are better than cats and to why we shouldn’t do speeches. Our finalists confidently spoke in front of a large audience and judging panel. We were impressed with their ability to effectively deliver their speeches using pausing, pace, tone and pitch to build levels of excitement, humour and persuasion at every turn. An interesting choice of topics were chosen this
year ranging from, “Why class pets should be mandatory,” to “Why cake is the worst food in the world.” A highlight of the speech competition was the attention-grabbing opening statements that caught the audience’s attention. Once our attention had been captured, they set about presenting a range of well thought out, researched ideas to convince us to agree with their opinion. Our clever speech writers constructed their arguments to appeal to our emotions, morals and sense of logic: “Why people should take vacations.” Mx Coxon agreed with this idea and did mention that she would agree to a two-week break starting this Friday. Mr Reed and Mrs Jones-Hill were faced with the difficult task of choosing the winning speech in each year group. It was a
tightly contested competition with few points separating the top contenders. We would like to congratulate all of our competitors on their ability to deliver powerful speeches with strong introductions, well-developed arguments and of course the ability to win over an audience of their peers and parents. The winners in each year group are as follows: Year 4: Yuri Lee: Why we should not cut down trees. Year 5: Mimie Lee: Why everyone should get a dog. Year 6 Runner Up: Mia Geng: Why we should ban animals in circuses. Overall winner: Alex Stanford: Why we should respect animals.
Year 2 Butterfly Creek Trip Year 2 students enjoyed taking a day trip to Butterfly Creek last week as part of our Education Outside The Classroom Programme. The students have covered the following areas in the science curriculum during the year Comparing similarities and differences in animal body parts and skin covering by: - identifying different body coverings depending what class animals belong to
such as mammal, birds, reptiles, amphibians or fish .
- making careful observations of an animal.
- Knowing what a habitat is and identifying different plants and animals in different habitats
- Identifying similarities and differences between local environments
- using identification keys to name some animals and plants.
- making careful observations of an animal.
The trip provided the students the opportunity to recognise how the science curriculum relates
to the real world by linking concepts and processes learned in the classroom and ideas and events relevant to their age and experience. Loads of fun was had by all!
P16 Update This term year 5 have been working on designing and creating marble runs out of cardboard tubes using different techniques. This week in P16, students explored existing marble run products. The children had a great time designing marble runs whilst trying to make the journey for the marble as long as possible. There was lots of experimentation and rebuilds as they tried to improve their marble runs.
P16 have been enjoying reading their class novel Stormbreaker, it’s going to be hard waiting for the school holidays to end to find out what happens next! Students created two truths and a lie using information from the story, once they had created these they had to share them with a partner asking them to identify what had really happened in the passage we were reading. Some truths and lies were very hard to tell apart.
Year 5 Trip to Zero Waste Zone Last Friday, Year 5 went to the Zero Waste Zone at the Waitākere Refuse and Recycling Centre. When we first arrived, we went on a tour around the centre in the buses. Year 5 looked at the different trucks and machines, learning about their purposes, we also saw the different areas for different types of waste. Everything gets sorted at the centre: cans, green waste, metal, there’s even a shop where you can buy items that can be reused, if it didn’t belong anywhere it went on the tipping floor – destined to be landfill. Next students went to the classroom where they did different activities, such as making a zero waste lunchbox,
identifying where different products come from, and examining worms from the worm farm. We also learnt lots of interesting new information, here are some of P16’s most important new learning: - Worms can eat almost everything such as cardboard, newspaper, fabric, food scraps.
- Not all plastic can be recycled, only plastics with the triangle symbol with a 1,2 or 5 inside can be recycled.
- 20 very large trucks leave the centre each day taking the rubbish they have picked up to a landfill area.
- Once rubbish is in the landfill, it just stays
there, it doesn’t decompose. We saw a newspaper that had been in the landfill and was still able to be read after over 30 years!
- When the landfill area is full it gets covered with soil and grass, but it is now deadland which means you cannot build on it although sometimes fields and parks will be put on it.
- Waste can be classified into recycle, reuse, rot, reduce and repair, this is something we want to try to do more of at home.
It has been a busy end to a fantastic term in P19. We have had mocks, which the students approached with an impressive level of maturity, book week, P19 were the proud overall winners of the daily book quiz, swimming sports and the speech contest! P19 produced some very persuasive speeches, which were well written and structured. There certainly could have been a lot more winners! In Maths cross groups, we have recently finished the unit on fractions and proportions. In Maths strand, the students also just finished a unit, on statistics. They interpreted and drew pie graphs and line graphs. They enjoyed surveying their classmates and organising the data they collected into suitable graphs. The students finished their gripping adventure
stories for a fictional Festival of Stories. They have recorded their final versions, which you can listen to on Seesaw and shared them with students in Year 4. In reading, we are coming to the end of our shared reading of War Horse by Michael Morpurgo. In the final chapters, the students have been continuing to practise comprehension skills. We have been finishing our unit on printing inspired by Andy Warhol’s work and his role in Pop Art. Having made a print from foam board, the students have created a series of prints using different colours of ink and paper and then highlighting their finished pieces with oil pastels.
P10 NewsIn Science, we investigated the important organs that humans have, the brain, lungs, stomach, intestines, and kidneys. We started off by gathering first-hand resources from labelling a model student where the organs should locate. Next, we divided into groups and collected second-hand resources by using Google to search for the functions of the organs. Lastly, the presentation, which is the most exciting part of this whole learning project. They all stood up there to present the organ they had researched and spoke with confidence. What a rich learning experience for them!
New Zealand International Children's GalaTwo of our Pinehurst primary students, Sarah (Year 4) and Shawn (Year 5), attended the New Zealand International Children's Gala performance at the Skycity Theater on the evening of September 10th. They participated in singing and recitation performances, and Shawn also was one of the MC's for the Gala! The gala was being streamed on YouTube Cubeekiz Channel on the night. You can still watch it on Youtube via the link below: https://youtu.be/yoXhA73aWpw
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