Message from the Executive Principal
Kia ora koutou, good afternoon, 下午好, 안녕하세요 The last week of our school year is always a special one. We have had three Prizegivings, have a couple of concerts today, and usually celebrate our whole community with a lovely sunny picnic, though we have had to forgo that this year. We have refused all through this term to bow down to the rain, but we have had to give in eventually. As King Canute tried to point out to his courtiers, there are some forces bigger than us! This week’s final newsletter is a shorter one, and my message is going to be shorter too. We have reached the end of a complicated year that accelerated into its final term, and I
want to say thank you to the amazing staff, parents, families and, above all, students who comprise our Pinehurst community. The first half of the year was marked by hybrid learning, periods of isolation, and other complications as we adjusted to a new way of living with Covid. The second half of the year has been characterised by a steadfast determination to give our young people every opportunity imaginable. I am proud – immensely proud – of the way our whole community has managed to support our students as we have adapted to new circumstances, maintaining our identity and, crucially, our sense of empathy and kindness as we have done so. Not everyone has agreed with everything, and of course there have been tensions along the way, but I feel that we are a special place: even when disagreements and difficulties emerge, we work
together to resolve them, and support each other while we do so. I don’t think it’s controversial to suggest that New Zealand is a little restless at the moment, and there are more divisions in our country than we are used to. In our school, though, I feel a sense of community, and this will continue to sustain us in the months and years to come. A huge congratulations to our Prize Winners this week: every single prize should be cherished, both by the student who has won it, and by the people who surround them. An individual award is both a celebration of individual talent and effort, and a celebration of the community that enables them to express their talent and gives them the context to make their efforts meaningful. I am proud of all you. This is, of course, my last
newsletter. Tomorrow evening, I fly to the UK with my daughters to see my family for the first time in four years. We will travel a little, enjoy Christmas in overheated homes while trying to avoid inevitable family arguments (not Brexit, as we all agree it was a disaster, but there are plenty more topics for us to mutter about) as the rain lashes down outside. In January, all being well, and Covid permitting, I will fly to Shanghai from London. I will no longer use my Pinehurst email either, though there will be an automatic reply offering my personal email if you need to contact me. I keep all these newsletters, so I’ve just had a look at the first one I sent out at the beginning of Term 3, 2017. The first thing I did, actually, was make the newsletter weekly and then develop a new style and approach, determined that it should be
about our children, and be full of life and colour. This is an extract from it: I’d like to begin my first newsletter to the Pinehurst community with a huge thank you for the warm welcome I’ve received from parents, staff and, above all, the students at the school. The sun, of course, has returned now that everyone is back at school, and it’s been a pleasure to wander around talking to enthusiastic young people enjoying blue skies and warm light as they eat, drink, climb, play lacrosse and attempt to create horticultural magic by giving birth to a feijoa tree with a twig, a small patch of earth and a determined frown.
You will notice the style! It’s a bit pretentious, actually, but I was pleased to see that the school in 2017 was inspiring the same thoughts in me as it does in 2022. It’s about warmth, our lovely environment, and our fabulous children. I am honoured to have spent the best five and a half years of my career in your company. There are many staff at school whom I will miss dearly; there are many parents I will miss just as much. And I am going to find it hard beyond words not to see so many of your children grow up and become young adults. Pinehurst has helped me find my identity as a school leader: I didn’t know what kind of Principal I would be. Well, you have helped me discover that, and I shall miss you all very much. And I know Pinehurst, under
the leadership of Mr Michael Waller, will continue to grow and flourish in as yet unimagined ways. The school, in 2017, was a very good school with unbreakable DNA – kindness, community, respect, excellence. In 2022, I hope that DNA has been further strengthened. And when I come back to visit, I know I will see a place that has become even more special, even more successful, even more a place for every young person to achieve beyond their own imagination. Go well, kia kaha, and keep in touch. My best wishes to you all, Alex 如需阅读校长的中文留言和重要事件日期,请点击
IMPORTANT: Parent Portal ChangesWe are making changes to our Student Information Systems that will affect students, staff and parents - collectively we describe these as our Parent Portal. For a number of reasons, we have decided, after a long, careful provisioning process, to move to PCSchool, a system in use in 31 New Zealand schools and a large number of Australian schools. This will replace Synergetic, So PC School will be used alongside Schoolbox and Seesaw in the future at Pinehurst. How does it affect parents/caregivers? The current method of logging into Schoolbox and the parent portal using an ID will end on December 13. In the future, parents will be able to log into our Portal and Schoolbox using the email address that is stored in our student information system (PCSchool). Existing passwords for gmail or Microsoft accounts will be used. For other email addresses a one time password will be issued at the time of login. We do not store any password credentials. In future, payments will be made in PCSchool. What you need to know On December 13, access to Schoolbox and
the current Parent Portal will end. Parents will no longer be able to log into the system using your current ID and password. We will be making changes to PCSchool and Schoolbox over the following 1-2 weeks and we anticipate letting you know in late December or early January how you can log in. We are currently checking student and caregiver information and will ask you to do a more formal caregiver details check early in 2023. You will be able to see previous student reports in the new system and any account balances will be transferred. If there is something you need to have from the previous system this can be requested from accounts. We have set up an information page at https://pinehurstschool.nz/portal with relevant up to date information including a form if you have questions.
Message from the Principal of Primary
Kia ora tatou, A wonderful week to round off a fantastic year for our Primary students. They are all a little bit taller than they were at the beginning of the year, have more friends and they know far more about learning and the world than they did before. It is a real privilege to work with students who want to learn and who are so well supported, and we don't take that for granted. As we say farewell at the end of today we will all be sad to see our students go. We develop strong relationships with students and families as we see them each day and at the end of the year, they take a little bit of us with them. Prizegiving was a very special event for Years 4-6 on Tuesday afternoon. It was a time to celebrate the academic
achievements of a large number of students and to recognise the service many students have given to their peers. There were many highlights, the kapa haka group, choir, the valedictory speech by speech cup winner Alex Stanford, the leadership of our Head Councillors Cathy Situ, Neo Yang, Felicia Shen and Alex Garcia Curtis and the cheers of students celebrating their friends. Awards are given per subject along with certificates for citizenship and endeavour. Special awards are given at the conclusion of the Prizegiving in the form of cups for the Arts, won by Bonnie Yu; Speech, Alex Stanford; Dedication to Music, Bonnie Yu; Citizenship, Neo Yang; Proxime Accessit, Felicia Shen and Academic Dux, Bosco Jin. Huge congratulations to these students, who have achieved so highly, with strong competition from other talented students. You may
or may not have heard that I am passionate about our students participating in Maths Whizz. In Pinehurst it is used as a homework programme rather than an in-school teaching tool. That is because we believe that our students get the most benefit from teachers teaching and that concepts can be reinforced using the programme at home. Maths Whizz closely aligns with the Cambridge curriculum and is the ideal tool for us to use. Along with weekly virtual stickers for progressions, termly certificates and pizza lunch for 5 wins of the trophy in a row, each year the three most improved students are awarded medals for the highest number of progressions. On Monday we presented these medals to April Wu in 3rd place, Yuri Lee in 2nd place and Sheldon Chan in 1st place. This is a significant achievement, especially for young children. Well done to our medal winners and to all students who have
engaged in the programme and improved their maths age this year. We farewell Leah Taylor today, one of our P23 teachers and say a temporary farewell to Yin Huang who is looking forward to the birth of her first child in February. We wish them all the best for the future. We will welcome three new teachers in 2023 and look forward to introducing them in our first newsletter of Term 1. Thanks to everyone for the support, chats, smiles and greetings at the beginning and end of each day. What a wonderful community to be part of; we are looking forward to doing it all again next year. Enjoy your summer and time with the family. Kia kaha, take care. Nga mihi nui. Sian
PrEP Market DayThe Primary Enterprise Programme (PrEP) is a cross curricular programme that provides an opportunity for our Year 1 – 6 students to operate their own business. It allows students to engage in an economic activity that culminates in a market day; with students buying and selling products they have created. What concepts does PrEP develop? - Managing money
- Making decisions
- Production of a product
- Earning an income
- Spending
- Saving
- Quality control
- Profit and loss
Our 2022 market was a huge success with an outstanding range of quality products on offer. The students enjoyed the opportunity to be a stall holder and a shopper. It showcased the creative thinking that took place in the design, production and marketing concepts connected to each business.
Year 1-3 SpanishThe Year 1 students learnt to identify their family members in Spanish along with the correct definite article for each noun – “el” for masculine members and “la” for feminine members
The Year 2 students explored the topic of food in Spanish. They talked about their eating habits, food preferences and what makes up a healthy diet. The students are now confident at distinguishing between singular (el/la) and plural (los/las) nouns that are required for various food items.
The Year 3 students have also learnt to talk about their family this term and can form full sentences; they can introduce their family members’ names and ages using third person sentence structures. It is great to see students manipulate their existing understanding of Spanish to extend their knowledge. Well done to all our Spanish learners for their amazing efforts this term and we wish our families a “Feliz Navidad y un próspero año nuevo”.
GreatTalk National Speech Contest Shawn Li (Year 6) participated in The GreatTalk National Final Speech Contest held at the University of Auckland this week and won the first place in both the Year 5 and Year 6 groups. This is a wonderful achievement, and he is very excited for the opportunities this brings, such as an invitation to join the Future Youth MPs Camp, a flight down to experience and learn about the New Zealand parliament in Wellington where he will present a speech, and the opportunity to talk with the Speaker of the House, Minister, or a MP! What an incredible achievement Shawn! Here are some photos of the
event:
P2 News!P2 has had a wonderful final week of Term 4! With plenty of versatility, creativity and teamwork. During our Reading and Writing lessons, we have been learning about ‘Fairytales’. Students have been comparing fiction and non-fiction texts through highlighting the purpose and structure of what they have read. They have discussed problem vs solution in the story and identified what went wrong and what the solution was. We explored how the problem was fixed and then how to change the ending with different solution skills. P2 students went outside taking problem cards to find and match with their solution cards. In Computer Science, students made a ‘paper cup robot’. Building the robot was an awesome activity where they can turn recycled materials into robots! The students designed and discussed building a robot in a group. This was a great experience to learn about the electronic parts and how to use motors, batteries and alligator electrical clips to help the robot move! In Global perspectives, we have been learning about having a job. This week, we’ve looked into being a volcanologist. P2 learnt that there are approximately 1500 potentially active volcanoes around the world. We had a volcano eruption experiment this week and saw how volcanoes are formed. We have been thinking about the volcanologists’ job descriptions and why we need that occupation in our global
community.
This Week in P23!P23 have had a fantastic term and start to their school Journey! This week we have gone all out with their Christmas crafts while recapping their awesome learning from the term! Using their new-found knowledge of 3D shapes, the students created cone Christmas Trees and cube presents. We also used air dry clay to create our own decorations to take home. We’ve had a visitor in our class this week too - The mischievous elf has been getting up to no good around the classroom, from stealing the teacher’s chocolates to riding a rocket ship! The children of P23 have
been keeping a close eye on him and writing a diary each day of what he has been up to!
Message from the Principal of College Kia ora e te whānau o Pinehurst School The College has been full of activity and excitement this week, ending the year with celebration. It has been the perfect opportunity to reflect on a fantastic school year. Yesterday, we held two wonderful Prizegiving ceremonies at which we were able to recognise the excellent achievements and endeavor of our students. It was lovely to welcome so many whānau members who came to support their children and siblings as they accepted their awards. If you were not able to attend, you can view the videos on our website. Congratulations to all prizewinners and well done to our students for supporting their peers during the ceremonies; the
Pinehurst Values were certainly on show throughout. The Pinehurst Orchestra gave phenomenal performances at the prizegiving ceremonies. This group have worked so hard and practiced together under the leadership of Mr Ronayne to polish their pieces in readiness for their performances. David Zhu, Peter Shi, Reynold Yang, Winston Hu and Hyun Jae Lee gave outstanding solo and group performances. Every week of this term has involved students either preparing for or returning from a school camp. The last week of term was no exception. Mrs Toerien and Mrs Rea returned from Nelson over the weekend with students who had completed an amazing camp as part of their qualification for the Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award. It is incredible to think about the huge range of experiences, opportunities and
challenges that Pinehurst students have participated in outside of the classroom this year. These ‘Education Outside of the Classroom’ experiences take extra effort, commitment and organisation from our teachers, but we know that they make huge differences to our students. Therefore, they are more than worth the extra sacrifices and effort. We celebrated some excellent sports results recently. Our waterpolo team achieved first place in the finals, a result we are incredibly proud of. They conducted themselves in an exemplary manner and showed great sportsmanship. There have also been several fantastic achievements in tennis. We are looking forward to the Christmas Concert which will take place this afternoon. Many students have prepared items for the concert and, due to the
absolute determination and persistence of Mr Ronayne, there will also be a staff Christmas Choir piece. It should be lots of fun. Obviously, we are sad to say goodbye to Mr Reed but we know that he will do a fantastic job in his new school, and we will send him off with our love and best wishes. Enjoy a lovely summer break together and we will see you in 2023. Meri kirihimete Ngā mihi nui Dawn
College Mandarin College Mandarin has been busy for the past weeks. Once we completed our research on the four great ancient Chinese inventions, we started to have a go at printing the old way. We carved some characters on to potatoes and started printing our sentences. Reading the carved characters took a little getting used to because they were reversed (mirror image). Have a look at the sentences we’ve printed.
2023 MUSICAL - HIGH SCHOOL MUSICALThe Performing Arts Department is super excited to announce that we have just been granted the rights to perform High School Musical as the school show for 2023! This is especially exciting as this will be the first show to be performed in the school's new theatre in College 5.
Auditions are planned for Week 2 of Term 1, 2023. Singers, dancers, actors, musicians and backstage crew are required for this exciting venture, and students should keep an eye out for further audition information coming soon. So, help be the start of something new- we cannot wait to put this production together! Go Wildcats!
Staff Morning Tea from the Parent Community At 3am on Tuesday morning, our amazing parent Selina Wang woke up early to make 120 carefully decorated cupcakes and 2 beautifully crafted Christmas cakes for our Pinehurst Staff. Delivered to the Staffroom by our 2 of our Social Coordiators, Selina Wang and Dalila Zaghil, on behalf of the Parent Community, to say Thank You to Teaching, Admin and Support Staff. Thank you to our Social Coordinators who worked throughout the year to not only help maintain social connection with their class, but also to work together as a team to help create a positive environment that connects the School
and the Parent Community. Your small gesture of thanks meant so much to staff and we thank you for the very kind and delicious treat to end our year.”
A great show will be featuring these summer holidays featuring a student from Pinehurst School. Katie Long will be performing with Auckland Performing Arts Academy in Grease-Young@Part at the ASB Waterfront Theatre in Wynyard Quarter.
Grease-Young@Part is a 70 minute, age-appropriate version of Grease, suitable for the whole family. It will be performed by over a hundred APAA students, aged 7-14 years across four matinee performances Saturday 17th to Monday 19th December. 10% of all box office revenue from the final shows will be donated to Breast Cancer Foundation NZ, in memory of the most famous Sandy of them all, Olivia Newton-John.
Tickets can be purchased through the theatre at https://tinyurl.com/bdenb9ph or via Ticketmaster at: https://tinyurl.com/ycy8sx5z (where you can also buy tickets to APAA’s full-length Grease production, showing during the evenings Dec 16-19 and featuring APAA’s 15-21 year old students). There are 2 casts, with 4 performances over the 3 days. Katie will be in all performances but will be in her lead role for
Cast Lightning on: Saturday 17 December at 1:30pm and Monday 19 December at 1pm.
Brain PlayBrain Play teaches science & technology classes to Kiwi kids aged 5 - 13, right across the country! We offer holiday programmes, online classes, in-person after-school classes, in-school classes, and free events for communities. Our topics include 3D printing, coding, animation, STEM experiments, LEGO & more. Free trials are also available for new students. Check out our website to learn more about what's on at Brain Play & book in today - https://www.brainplay.co.nz/.
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