Message from the Executive Principal
Kia ora koutou, good afternoon, 下午好, 안녕하세요 Our Environmental Management class had an interesting day yesterday, spending the day on Mrs Bayliss’s farm, mucking in and learning about all kinds of farm-related things with Mr Johansen. A few pairs of new gumboots made the trip too, coming back a little less pristine than they were a few hours earlier. On Tuesday, our senior Scholars had their own break from routine, completing a CSI – style investigation with Mrs Mann. Later next week, Year 1 head to the Museum; Year 4 visit an Art Gallery; and Year 5 and 6 are off to the Theatre. Which takes me to the Year 5/6 Production this week. I was
lucky enough to see both performances of Madagascar, and was bowled over by the acting, singing, costumes, make up and overall quality on stage. It isn’t easy to marshal a cast of 138 children, but I thought they were all wonderful. Thank you to all the staff involved, and to the parents for their support. Full houses both evenings, of course! I hope that the senior students have finished this week with a full set of mock exam results, and feel both pleased and determined to do even better in the external examinations next term. I’ve heard positive noises coming from the students I’ve spoken to, and the priority now is for students to work out what they need to place at the top of their lists, and to make sure that they have clear advice from their teachers. We have just about finished scheduling the Holiday Revision
classes as well: the full timetable will be out soon, and we recommend that students take a sensible, balanced approach to attending these. The classes are all revision sessions – no new material will be studied – and they run over five days, giving everyone time to manage their own schedules around these. Keep an eye out for more details about these. This week has obviously been a difficult one for the school. The road accident earlier this week was very upsetting, and we all feel fortunate that the boy who had the accident was not seriously injured. He came back to school yesterday afternoon. All of our parents who come to school to pick up or drop off their child will be aware of our increased presence and strict implementation of our road rules over the last few days. Thank you to everyone for your additional care and
thoughtfulness: we will keep road safety prominent in our reminders, and I’d just ask everyone to keep to the patterns of the last couple of days from now on. It may be more inconvenient at times, but it is safer, and that’s always the most important consideration. Longer term, we are communicating with the Council about additional markings on Rosedale Road, and are actively developing a strategy for increasing after-school co-curricular activities after school, as well as investigating the option of late buses – the two have to go together. This will take a little while, but may be the best long-term solution to the congestion we experience. Have a safe weekend and see you 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
Monday 5th September Wednesday 7th September - Year 1 - Auckland School Trip (P1, P2, P23)
- Year 4 Camp Parent Helpers Meeting
Thursday 8th September - Snr Year 1, Kelly Tarlton's Trip (P4 and P5)
- NE-Year 1 - Auckland Zoo School Trip (P1, P2, P23)
- Year 13 Transition to Tertiary Workshop
Friday 9th September - Year 4 Art Gallery School Trip
- Year 5-6 Little Mermaid Show Trip
- Parent Theatre
Tour
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, 9th September at 2:30pm
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 College This week for our senior students, it’s been all about feedback. Educationalist Dylan Wiliam, amongst others, has carried out extensive research into the effectiveness of teacher feedback. In his book, The Secret of Effective Feedback, he notes that feedback can only be successful if students take it on board to improve their performance. This week, students in years 11-13 have been receiving feedback and advice after completing their mock examinations. What will now make a
difference is what the students do with that feedback. There is a temptation for students to base their entire perception of their performance in mock examinations on their final percentage grade. Instead, they should be asking themselves what they did well, what they now need to focus on and how they are using the advice they have been given to make improvements. This week has been the start of the process of making thorough preparations as students head towards their final examinations. During the last few weeks of the school year, students need to make the most of their time with their teachers, seeking help and feedback wherever needed. Our Year 8 returned to school on Monday after a very active winter camp at National Park. They have quickly settled back into their school routines and
have been reconnecting with their classroom teachers. As the Year 8 students returned, many of our older students headed off to represent us at different sporting venues for tournament week. This is an excellent opportunity for our sports teams to work together outside of their normal environment and to support each other as they encounter different challenges. Yesterday we gave out AIMS hoodies to Year 7 and 8 students who will be representing us at AIMS games in Tauranga next week. Despite many of our students being out of school for tournament week, there has still been lots happening around the College. On Tuesday, the Scholars captains and Ms Mann held a forensics workshop. The Scholars Group consists of students who received outstanding grades in AS Level or IGCSE examinations. Forensic Insights provided a practical workshop where
these students were given the opportunity to analyse a Crime Scene for trace evidence, and use a variety of methods such as DNA, footprints, and hair samples. This gave our Scholars Group insight into potential careers and applications of their studies. The workshop was very well done with an extremely convincing crime scene! Yesterday our Primary classes spent some time with their College Buddy POD groups. This is something we have not been able to do for a while and it is a great opportunity for the Primary and College students and staff to connect, develop relationships and share learning. There was lots of fun and laughter. Next term it will be the turn of the Primary students to host the College students. I am looking forward to supporting our Model United Nations group on Saturday as
they work with other school teams to learn more about how the United Nations works. Many world leaders participated in Model United Nations as students, and this is a great opportunity for our students. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Ngā mihi nui Dawn
On Wednesday 24th August, 8 students from Year 9 and 8 students from Year 10 competed at Mathex 2022 held at the Barfoot & Thompson Stadium, Kohimarama.
It is always a busy, competitive and exciting event with hundreds of students from multiple schools demonstrating their extraordinary mathematical skills and problem-solving abilities. Some schools run specific programs for Mathex and so the competition is tough. All four of our teams performed exceptionally well and competed with enthusiasm. Year 9 Team A in particular achieved the maximum 100 points within 30 minutes. Congratulations to all of our students who worked well together in their teams and for obtaining commendable results.
Year 11 Subject Selection Year 11 students will be making option choices soon, and the opportunity to take subjects that are ‘new’ at AS Level. The subject fair was an opportunity to have a sneak peak at subjects that are of interest. Additionally, it is a good idea to talk to older students who take the subject, and ask them for their experience of the subject. Recently, the AS students wrote two lists: what Psychology is, and what Psychology isn’t. Here is what they wrote:
Graffiti Name Design Year 7 Art have just finished designing street art style typography in their weekly art class. Each student designed, coloured and cut out their own name and then students pasted these onto black card. Students studied different styles of typography and contemporary street mural making. Skills learnt included outlining, drop shadowing, gradients, bubble writing and overlapping the text. Later in the term, students will be working on their own murals that will go up around the school and these will be showcased during the week of the Art Exhibition which is in the last week of this term.
Environmental Management
Agriculture Field TripOur Year 10 IGCSE Environmental Management Class is learning about Agriculture – everything from Soil Erosion, to increasing agricultural yield to Sustainable methods of Farming. Near the end of this course we were very lucky enough to be invited to the Bayliss Family Farm in Helensville. We were greeted with Farmer Roger Bayliss and Mrs. Bayliss – a friendly well-known face. Mrs. Bayliss greeted us with the most delicious chocolate chip cookies, and her well beloved dog Otis (who was 100% apart of the class for the day). Their farm has been in the family for many years, it was once owned by Roger’s parents and Grandparents and so on.
This farm is a beef farm, so we started our day with some Math/Economics, measuring the grass in one plot to figure out how long 25 cows would be able to last without either starving or overgrazing the land. Once we worked that out, we had an electric fencing race to show how to divide up & separate the land to manage animal grazing. Unfortunately, my team did not win. After morning tea, basketball, and toilet breaks, we went to work. Aka, shocking ourselves with the electric fence. Do not worry though – no injuries here, it was all supervised. Roger demonstrated a machine he uses to detect any possible outages on the electric fence. It shows the electricity lost, what direction and approximately how many meters it is away from the device. We then got to see how Roger would weigh the cows to see if they were ready to be sold, or if they needed more fatting up. Roger gave us all the chance to work the gates and the machines to record the weight of each cow. He also explained that certain cows are sold for a higher price due to the look or ‘aesthetic’ of the cow.
We took a walk across a section of the farm to learn about drainage & flood management and how the water system worked to ensure the cows had sufficient water to drink in each paddock. It was an enjoyable trip – we were made very welcome by the Bayliss family, especially Otis the family dog. We are so grateful to have this experience - a nice change from learning in a classroom. - Chloe Birkenstock
Forensic Insight for Scholars On Tuesday we had the very knowledgeable Thomas Coyle from Forensic Insight run a group forensic workshop for our scholars. First we saw a presentation about cases such as the Thailand tsunami and Christchurch earthquake that Thomas had worked on before, and we got insight into the less glamorous side of what it is really like to work in forensics. Then we were able to begin a forensic investigation of our own into a fictional murder. The scholars learned how to dust for footprints, examine hair samples, take an imprint of weapon damage, and use a blood sample to examine the DNA profile of suspects. The workshop was highly engaging and the scholars had
fun and learned a lot. The mock investigation allowed the scholars to experience what it is really like to work in forensics. This was especially helpful for students who were considering a career in forensics. Students who were involved said they "enjoyed hearing about the real cases Thomas had worked on, and getting to see what it was really like to work in forensics." The workshop also provided students with a suitable challenge and many came away having learned things they never knew before about the way crime scenes are examined and the process for handling major crimes.
NZSC - National Swimming ChampsLast week 3 Pinehurst students attended the New Zealand National Swimming Championships and achieved some outstanding results! Well done, Jack, Osbert and Jasmine on a phenomenal week of swimming. Jack Potier
Gold - 800 free
Silver - 1500 free, 400 free, 200 free
Osbert Gu
Gold - 100 IM, 50 back, 200 back, 100 free
Silver - 100 back, 400 IM, 200 IM, 50 free
Bronze - 400 free
Jasmine Lyles
Gold - 200 breast
Silver - 100 breast
Bronze - 50 breast
1st XI Hockey Our 1st XI Hockey team have had a fantastic week on tournament down in Whakatane. Led by our two Captains Brooke Peacock and Emily Stuart. The girls have played some exceptional hockey and had a lot of fun doing it. After finishing second in the pool we had a tough match against Tararua in the semi-final but we will play for 3rd place today and are looking forward to a strong finish to the tournament. The girls are a young team with 7 Year 9's 4 Year 11's and 2 Year 12's. We are looking forward to some great years of hockey with this team in the future.
Message from the Principal of Primary Kia ora, It was show week for Year 5 and 6, the culmination of many weeks of singing, dancing, and acting coming together over two wonderful nights. Our students did not disappoint of course, and they delighted their audiences and us with their confidence, dedication, and team spirit. With a double cast of main characters enabling more to shine, the performances had a different flavour on each night as the combinations of students worked together. Everyone I spoke to had a favourite scene or song but agreed that the whole show was fantastic. Speaking to some of the students afterwards they told me that it was nerve wracking but
after a while you lose yourself in the play. Another said it was a great experience and teaches you responsibility because you have to learn your lines. They said it boosts your confidence and that they had made new friendships because you work with people you don’t always spend time with. They all talked about making memories and that they felt the show had taken them out of their comfort zones but strengthened bonds and helped them to make new connections. There is always more under the surface when we bring students together for events like these. We used to call it the hidden curriculum which is all the learning that goes on under the surface that helps young children to learn about life and gives them invaluable skills for the future. As adults, we have had a lot of fun putting the performances together too and I want to acknowledge the wonderful efforts of our Year 5 and 6
team in making the magic happen. They are a special group of people and they have worked really hard behind the scenes to bring it all together. I had a lovely chat with some Year 3 students about kindness this week. We got out our morning tea and talked about the things we liked about our friends. The words they used were pretty mature and didn’t just focus on being someone who played with them at breaktimes. They talked about respect, leadership, honesty, and integrity although they used different words for that, it was the essence of what they admired in each other. Our focus across the school is kindness and what that looks like. We have had kindness lessons, songs, recipes, rewards, and we are trying to catch as many children as possible being kind, so we reinforce the behaviour as children learn to be social on a wider scale
again. We are trying to put as many of the usual events as we can back into our programmes so that we provide a rich context for learning and children can look forward to coming to school because there is so much to do which is engaging. One of my favourite events is on again next week, Lego day. This is a cross curricular STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths,) focused programme where we use Lego to learn. New Entrants are going to Auckland Zoo, Year 1 to Kelly Tarletons, Year 4 to Auckland Art Gallery and Year 5 and 6 to a production of the Little Mermaid at the Bruce Mason Theatre. We have also been talking to children about road safety and safe places to cross. It would be great to reinforce this at home too by reminding your child to use the crossings. There are some fabulous
short videos on YouTube which you could view as a family, have a look at which you think are appropriate for the roads in your neighbourhood. Kia pai tō rā whakatā! Have a great weekend! Sian
Year 5/6 Primary Production - Madagascar!!
On Tuesday and Thursday nights the Year 5/6 Syndicate performed the stage show Madagascar – A Musical Adventure Jr. Students were fantastic and showcased their many talents of acting and singing. It was fantastic to see the syndicate of Year 5 and 6 students come together to work collaboratively, producing such a stunning show. See some highlights below!
We Love Football!!The New to 2 syndicate contains a very keen group of soccer players. As the grass area is rather muddy at the moment, we have set up a soccer pitch on the netball courts behind P2. Mr Taylor found a great set of goals for us to use. Every morning from 8:15 – 8:45 you will find Mrs Jones-Hill or Georgia Thomson supervising the football players before school. On Monday – Thursday lunchtimes some wonderful teachers have volunteered their time to come out and supervise the energetic football games. All students who would like to come out and kick a ball around are welcome. To make the supervision seamless we have
provided our New Entrant students who wish to take part, bright orange vests. Our wonderful Year Six Arts and Culture team have been rostered on in small groups to help supervise the younger students. They wear bright yellow vests so they can easily be identified by our younger players. The Year Six students help to keep the balls on the court, make sure everyone is being included and walk any student who would like to go back to the junior playground safely. We certainly love football here at Pinehurst.
Kindness InitiativeAs part of our Kindness Initiative years 5 and 6 were challenged to develop an Acronym Poem using the word respect. Students worked in pairs to develop showing respect towards another person’s point of view. In order to develop their understanding they discussed the following: - How do we show respect to ourselves, others and our school?
The students then shared their ideas with the class and showed respect by being attentive listeners. Here are
some great examples from P14.
Kind Matters SPCA Art Competition
Spanish Year 0 - 3 The Year 1 students have been learning about our families – la familia. We have been learning new vocabulary through songs and conversations with our friends. The students enjoyed learning about their friends’ families. We are also reviewing counting to ten in Spanish and we loved using the Unifix cubes to build numbers and pronouncing the words accurately.
The Year 2 classes have been focusing on the weather – el tiempo. We have been playing games to build our bank of vocabulary. We are learning how to have a conversation with our friends asking about today’s weather ¿Qué tiempo hace hoy? And responding accordingly.
The Year 3 classes have been consolidating our basic conversations and learning about clothing – la ropa. We have been exploring how to name our items of clothing and using the nouns correctly in the masculine or feminine form. The Years 1-3 classes are loving our brain break games in Spanish!
Year 2 STEMThe Year 2 STEM students have been learning about gear trains. They have discovered how to gear up and gear down a simple machine. Fun was had, designing a popcorn cart with a sign that spins. Without instructions provided, the students needed to design and build a gear train that moved the sign, deciding whether to gear up or gear down the gear train that was connected to the sign. Collectively, they decided to gear up the gear train because a lot of force was not required to turn the small sign. The students successfully connected the handle to the small gear making it the driver gear and the large gear was being driven.
The students have also been learning about axles and wheels. They have been exploring both single and separate axles and the benefits associated with each. They built simple machines and drove them on a windy path. The students soon discovered that single axles are great for driving in a straight line but when it came to windy sharp turns, separate axles allow the wheels to turn at their own speed allowing for a smoother, easier turn.
The Pinehurst Marimba Group Our group is currently working towards recording some pieces for the ONZA Marimba Festival, which will be online on Monday 31st October. The festival theme is ‘Songs from Rongo-Ma -Tane’ -The Cultivated Garden, with a wide range of upbeat music on gardening themes such as bees, worms in the ground, growing vegetables etc. The group’s favourite song is ‘Kumara’ with lots of exciting layered rhythms and parts. Cherrie Leefe (Marimba Group Teacher)
Year 1 and New Entrant Music Year 1 and New Entrants are developing their understanding of ‘pulse’ or ‘beat’. They are learning to perform an action song in time to the pulse. We are also exploring the theme of journeys. The classic children's book -‘Nicketty Nacketty Noo, Noo, Noo’ by Joy Cowley has them exploring sound effects with their voices, body percussion, then transferring the sound to percussion instruments. Finally, they create an adventure of their own using sound effects.
Year 2 and 3 Music Year 2 have been working on creating ostinatos – short repeated musical patterns. These can be created with word patterns i.e., fruit – watermelon, pear, apple, pear (a four-beat pattern) that can be spoken, clapped or tapped, transferred to instruments and have pitch added. There are some great songs that develop their skill in ostinatos such as ‘Fresh Fruit Salad’ and ‘Carrot Cake’. They are also learning to write out their rhythms using note duration symbols including minims, crotchets and quavers.
See our Year 3 Ostinato Video below!
Super Cluster Basketball On Tuesday 23rd August, the year 5 & 6 Super Cluster Basketball team competed at the Super Cluster Tournament against other North Harbour Schools. In the first game of the day, the team lost by 2 points to the overall winner of the tournament; Murray’s Bay. The second game was also a hard-fought game, with the team narrowly missing out on the win by one point. The team stayed strong and was able to come away with an awesome win over Mairangi Bay in their final match! It was awesome to see the talent on display at this tournament and it proves that we have some very strong basketball players
coming through from the younger age group. A massive thank you to Coach Christ for being so inspiring to the students on the day and all of the parents that came along to support.
News from P16This term in Computer Science we have been learning about Coding Unplugged. This week students worked in groups to create and act out a code. In their groups students took on different roles; The Walking Robot, The Programmer, and The Map Creator. The Map Creator had to create a map for the robot to use, this map included a starting point and an end point that was hidden from the robot. The Programmer gave instructions using arm signals. The Walking Robot had to look carefully at The Programmer and follow the instructions carefully. Working together, The Programmer needed to direct The Walking Robot to the end point. In
Reading, children have been exploring and comparing non-fiction texts through identifying the purpose, audience, language and structure of what they have read. A highlight this week has been visiting the library and finding a non-fiction book of their choice to evaluate and compare with a classmate. This lead to some fantastic conversations about the differences between different genres of non-fiction texts, this knowledge can help us to choose books more precisely for the purpose we are after. On Thursday we visited our buddy class in the college, P16 enjoyed a chance to be creative and create muddled up characters. The children had a great time working together, here are some photos from our fun afternoon.
Clay Pots In P16, we have been learning how to make pinch pots out of clay. At first, we had to make the clay soft so you could mould it by rolling it in our hands. After the clay is soft enough, we used different techniques to make our own pinch pots for example, making a ball first and then carefully and slowly pinching it in a circle while making sure that all the sides are the same width. To heal any the cracks, we needed wet clay and then to overlap the sides of the cracks. We also made sure that when we were adding parts to our pinch pots, we slipped and scored which means scratching the tic tac toe formation with a tool on both the pot and the part you are adding and then making the part that you scored wet. Some people learnt that if you don’t slip and score,
the part that you attached will either dry and then fall off or fall off while it is drying. Finally, we painted them. We had to use more paint than we thought as the clay sucked up lots of the paint. Here are some of the clay pots that P16 made. By Serena Yang
Police Visit in P6What an exciting week it has been for P6 this week. Our writing focus has been on how to write a report. We have looked at the purpose and audience that read reports and we have learnt the format of a report. We then chose a topic and heading of the report ‘what is the job of a policeman?’ The students came up with a range of questions that they wanted answered and we began to investigate by watching some you tube clips. This didn’t answer all the questions they had so what better way to get answers than to ask someone who does that job. We were very lucky to have a visit from Sergeant Kenny who came and answered the questions that
children had. P7 and P8 also came and enjoyed talking to Sergeant Kenny. This allowed them to have factual information for writing their report. In maths they have been enjoying Addition and Subtraction. They have recorded number bonds to 20, completed adding and subtracting multiples of 10 as well as rounding 2-digit numbers to the nearest 10. A huge thank you to P6’s college buddies there were a lot of giggling and laughter as we interacted with each other and completed a range of fun activities.
The Student Council are pleased to announce that they will be hosting a wonderful evening that celebrates all of the different cultures we have at Pinehurst. The Cultural Evening will be held on the 16th September between 4pm and 6pm. We have performances from our students and guests to showcase different talents and cultures. If there are any students who wish to perform from years 7 to 13, please complete this form here by the end of today. All of the proceeds will be donated to UNICEF along with the other fundraising from the Cultural Market day. Tickets will be $4 and will be available
soon! We look forward to seeing you there!
The Book Fair is Coming!The Scholastic Book Fair is a pop-up mobile book shop that will be visiting our school from Sept 12th to Sept 16th. (Week 8) The Book fair will be set up in the library during Book Week and students will have a chance to browse the books and write wish lists during their library time visits. The shop will be open to parents before and after school Monday – Thursday. Parents may come in and view their child’s wish list items, and make purchases (payment by eftpos or cash ) for family and friends during the following shop hours: Morning Monday – Friday 8.15 – 8-45
Afternoon Monday and Wednesday 3.15 - 4pm
Afternoon Tuesday and Thursday 3.15 – 5pm Author Matt Owens will be visiting our school during Book Week. Signed copies of the book he has written about his rescue magpie, Swoop, will be available at the Book Fair pop up shop, or can be pre-ordered. More details about pre ordering to follow.
2022 Spring Netball – Years 0–6Registrations for Term 4 Spring Netball for Year 0-6 students are now open - this is for both boys & girls. Beginner and experienced players are all very welcome! Further information, including registration details can be found here: Netball | Pinehurst School To avoid disappointment, please ensure you register
before the close date – Wednesday, 14th September 2022.
Dads' Fantail & TurtleAfter many postponed dates, Dads' FnT finally made its comeback in Term 3. After many requests and queries, we held our first 2022 Dads' FnT last Thursday evening from 6pm. It was a good turnout (considering we clashed with the Space Camp Info Evening and our a few of our regular Dads were on Year 8 Camp)! We did however see dedicated Dads manage both evening events. Great banter, great beverages, and great food is what Dads' FnT is all about, and from the feedback the next one may be sooner than expected...we've already got our next few 'Dad hosts' lined up, ready to go! Thank you to Tamuka Nyawo for his continued enthusiasm, spirit, and support at these events.
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