Year 5 Camp!

From crate stacking and confidence courses, to archery and air rifles (and just about everything in between!), the Year 5 Camp in Carey Park was a roaring success!

The Year 5 students spent four days and three nights doing a wide variety of adventurous activities, including bush survival skills, trolley carts and rock climbing, to name a few! Each student was challenged to complete tricky tasks by pushing themselves out of their comfort zone and testing their physical skills. The sense of accomplishment was evident on their faces upon completing an activity that appeared to be difficult or daunting initially. Their teachers are incredibly proud of the perseverance they witnessed from the students and the encouragement they gave to one another as their fellow campers completed an activity.

We would like to thank the fabulous parent helpers who came along to camp with us this year. Your help and support is much appreciated and made our camp the success that is was!

A picture paints a thousand words so here are some photos of our fantastic week at camp!

News from P14

Following a very unusual start to our week, we have been ultra-busy in P14 again this week.  In addition to our online day of learning, once we were back in school we managed to work on recognising the place value of each digit in a 4-digit number for what will become our cross-group Maths lessons, and on identifying lines of symmetry in 2-D shapes in our home room Maths lessons.

In our Reading this week we have begun to look at Detective Dood, his favourite activities include using his ‘deducing detective’ powers to​ make inferences and using the clues he has found to back up his thoughts and opinions. ​We are encouraging the students to become detectives as they read. They will become successful in the skill of inferencing when they, search for clues the author gives to add meaning to the text and share these clues with others​. They also need to use these clues to get a clearer picture of what the author is actually telling us.  They are getting into the habit of making predictions a bout the book from looking at the cover and are learning to make inferences, understanding what is “NOT” said but inferred.

In Writing, we are learning how to create a character description. We have begun our new Mission about Superheroes. Our lessons have included lots of oral descriptions about familiar superheroes, what they look like, what special powers they may have and what types of equipment and or transport they might use. We worked on expanding noun phrases, adding interesting WOW Words.

Our first Art lesson in year 4 took us on a classroom gallery walk about! We had the best time comparing and evaluating the many examples of NZ art. It was difficult deciding which period in time each piece of art comes from. We made a time-line and then stood behind the picture which we liked the best.

Lakewood Lodge Year 6 Camp

Last week the Year 6 students headed off on a five day four night camp, at Lakewood Lodge in Cambridge. School camp is a fantastic opportunity for students to develop new skills, friendships and interests as well as growing in confidence while becoming more independent. I’m sure this camp will be a memorable part of their school life.

Lakewood Lodge offered a range of indoor and outdoor activities which were all specifically designed with educational outcomes in mind, as well as incorporating physical and mental growth. Some of the activities that the students experienced were rock climbing, kayaking, archery, flying down over a lake and surviving a full day in the outdoors cooking meals over a fire that they had to make themselves.

A highlight of the camp was the camp concert and disco on the final night, the students brought out their best entertainment and moves to wow an audience and have fun with their friends. The students all pushed themselves beyond their comfort zone and can be very proud of the way the conducted themselves at camp. A massive thank you to all our fantastic parent helpers for your help and efforts at camp, you were all absolutely fabulous.

Settling in to P2

P2s have started to build on teamwork this week and we have enjoyed team-building activities! Each child held his or her section of the pool noodle in place, so the marble rolled through the pool noodle from one end to the other. They also discussed how best to line up, in what order, and how to tilt their section to keep the marble moving along. It helped students in P2 learn to work together, listen to each other, communicate clearly, and think creatively.

In Art, we are learning “line” and we used a marble to chase with colour pencils, it created lines in various directions. It made amazing abstract art! Children could explore there are different types of lines, such as thin, thick, horizontal, vertical, zigzag, straight, or curly. While drawing with marbles, children strengthened their small muscles in their hands and fingers, but also exercise their large muscles in their arms and shoulders. These motor skills will be essential for their learning to write. 

During our Reading and Writing lessons, we have been learning to retell the story of Elephant learns to share. We have been talking about what sharing is and how kindly we care for each other in P2. We spent some lovely time together outside of the classroom writing with chalk on the ground or reading a book on the hill of our backfield. 

College Inter House Athletics

Our annual College Inter House Athletics was held last Friday at the AUT Millennium. With the weather playing its part, and the students looking vibrant in there house colours, the event certainly had a carnival vibe. Nearly 650 students from the college competed against there peers in a variety of events throughout the day. There were some great results along with a few school records broken, some of which had been held as far back as 2007. Congratulations to our overall winners and new record holders!

Volleyball - From PE to Sport

Volleyball continues to grow at Pinehurst and the number of teams has climbed in recent years. In PE lessons, we made a concerted effort to focus on volleyball with students enjoying skill development and games. Students have challenged themselves to progress in individual skill development and we have seen confidence surge during this time.

Pinehurst now has 6 volleyball teams (3 boys/3 girls) and the season kicked off on Wednesday with the boys’ competition. Team 1 had a win first up against Birkenhead and then narrowly lost to Hobsonville Point in a tight third set. Team 2 won their first game against Glenfield, also taking it down to the wire in the last set of the game. Unfortunately, Team 3 are yet to kick off their campaign as both of their opposition pulled out, so they recorded 2 wins by default.

Physical Education prepares students for sport by supporting them to be confident to take risks, try new things and step out of their comfort zone. We look forward to seeing how the girls’ teams go in their first games tonight.

Photos from the Young Enterprise Trip Today!

College Mandarin 

Chinese New Year came early this year, by the time we came back to school we caught the tail end of this major celebration in the Chinese culture. We have spent the past week learning about its many traditions and the legends surrounding this festival. We have learned the importance of why 红包 red packets are given out, why certain food is eaten during the festival and why the colour red is used for everything. Come to the Junior College and read about what we've learned, while you enjoy the beautiful lanterns we've created to celebrate the year of the rabbit.

Orienteering – North Harbour Secondary Schools Sprint Series

A team of almost 50 Pinehurst students spanning Year 7 to Year 13 joined 300 other competitors yesterday for the first event in the Sprint Series (Northern Zone) at Albany Junior High School. Having held a training event at Pinehurst last week, the students were well prepared to compete as they navigated their way on a course of about 2 km around an unfamiliar school as quickly as possible.

Approximately half of the students are completely new to the sport which combines mental and physical activity. Seventeen students finished in the top 10 in their age category – Zach (8^th), Aaron (4^th), Bella (9^th), Cormac (6^th), Celina (4^th), Jerry Lu (7^th), Sam (10^th), Niamh (9^th), Otto (2^nd), Ivy (10^th), Charli (1^st ), Lilly (6^th), Sophie S (8^th), Chase (3^rd), Finlay (3^rd), Ehtan (8^th), Nick (9^th).

Arrival of The Grand Piano! 

The school is absolutely delighted to have the arrival of the school’s new Boston Grand Piano. This was purchased from the exclusive piano shop: ‘Lewis Eady’ with the generous donations from the school community.

Qualified staff, students and parents spent weeks looking for the perfect piano that would serve its purpose as both a solo and accompanying instrument, in the new school theatre. Already in use by selected students, the piano is already providing great joy to those lucky enough to play it. Year 12 performance piano student Yu Zhang Wu says she is delighted with the beautiful colour, tone, and action, saying “it is one of the best I’ve ever played.”

We can’t wait to showcase the piano once the school theatre opens.

College Music Groups 

All College Music groups are now either underway or their first rehearsals for the year are about to begin. The Jazz band led by Ben Fernandez has their first rehearsal on Monday from 3.30 – 5.30pm in the College Music room.

Our Rock Band students met on Wednesday for the first time and tutors Jason Herbert and Ben Fernadez are now putting together well balanced groups who will meet together during break times.

The College Orchestra will meet on Tuesday evening in the drama room for the first time. Directed by Mr Ronayne, this group looks forward to being able to perform in the new theatre and for the KBB Music festival and other school events.

The Harp ensemble will begin their rehearsals next Wednesday lunchtime with teacher Melody Lin and the newly formed College Choir under the direction of our new vocal teacher Miles Timmis, will meet for the first time at lunchtime on Tuesday. We also look forward to setting up the school’s Chamber groups in the coming weeks.

More information on all ensembles can be found on our Music page on our website or see Mr Ronayne, Miss Pope or email Mrs Jaques at Cynthia.jaques@pinehurst.school.nz

2023 School Productions

The Arts Department is pleased to announce that the casts for both school productions have been finalised and published for students to see. We are so excited to start working on both of these shows, and we are so proud of and blown away by everyone who auditioned. It was a really hard process for us to narrow down, and sadly, we can't have everyone who auditioned in both shows; we wouldn't have enough room on the stage!

Thank you for helping us solve the murder of Bjorn Faulkner in the Whodunnit The Night of January 16th, and make sure you "Getcha Head in the Game" at East High! 

The Night of January 16th 

High School Musical