No images? Click here Newsletter - 13 May 2022Message from the Executive PrincipalKia ora koutou, good afternoon, 你好, 안녕하세요 I’m going to avoid a deep dive into Keatsian imagery, especially as we haven’t had too many mists the past week, but autumn days like those we’ve enjoyed this week have certainly had their music. Crisp mornings and evenings; glorious, sunny days. It fair lifts the spirit! As does being back in school, surrounded by happy children and young people. I haven’t made it into any Primary classrooms this week out of an abundance of caution, but I’ve had many conversations with our smaller children, who impress me every time with their confidence and friendliness. These are the qualities that are most commented-upon by visitors to our school, and it’s something, I think, that is basked into our identity. I think the confidence and openness comes from the way our children experience success in the classroom and in their activities, accompanied by a sense of pride in both their own achievements and those of their friends. It also, of course, comes from their families, and from a sense of values that we all share. And it comes from a sense of security: our children know they are loved and known by the adults in their lives, at school and at home. I had a great time on Wednesday this week, listening to four of our Young Enterprise groups practice their Dragons’ Den pitches in advance of the competition pitches next week. We have eight Young Enterprise groups this year, and the quality continues to improve each time. A huge amount of creativity and sales know-how was on display, perhaps influenced by the entrepreneurial spirit we have flowing through our families. I also enjoyed wandering around sports practices this week, and I’m looking forward to getting to some games next week as well. Kidzplay starts on Saturday (we have the largest number of teams in the competition – 11 of them, including 3 Year 1 teams, who are always very entertaining to watch), and it will feel like the official start of the winter sports season to have 5000 people come through the school, largely very happily, complaining about the parking as they cheer on their children. Many thanks to those parents who attended the AGM on Wednesday. The large turnout was great to see. Many thanks, too, to those parents who came along to the Theatre site visit, hard hats on heads, and high visibility vests on chests. We’re looking forward to the much-delayed 30th Anniversary Dinner in four weeks’ time – we have a great turnout for that as well – and I’m also looking forward to our Parent Consultation breakfasts on the 2nd and 9th June. These will be about how we manage transitions and change in school, especially around staffing, which I know is a subject of conversation right now. My single most important job is appointing the right staff to our school: I’ve appointed around 95 people to Pinehurst in the last five years, and I’m very proud indeed of the teachers and administrators and other staff that have joined us in that time. This week, I’ve made three teaching appointments for the start of next term, and I’ve been delighted by the exceptionally high quality of candidates we have been able to select from. It will be good to have a chance to talk about the ways we do this, and what we look for in our teachers. Have a lovely weekend and see you on Monday! Ngā mihi, Alex. 如需阅读校长的中文留言和重要事件日期,请点击此处 Tuesday 17 May
Wednesday 18 May
Thursday 19 May
Friday 20 May
Message from the Principal of PrimaryKia ora, This week saw the return of Harold the giraffe from the Life Education programme. Harold was meant to visit us on site in Term One in his mobile van. That wasn't possible in the red setting and as Harold is booked up for the year, we asked if we could run the programme virtually. Over the next few weeks our children will be learning about health and wellbeing in their classrooms instead and getting all the good advice that Harold and the programme have to offer. Life Education is an international programme which is very much a part of kiwi life, and we are very pleased that we can use the resources ourselves this year. This year is the turn of the Year 5 and 6 syndicate to perform a show and the rehearsals so far have certainly been exciting. They really like to move it; move it and we know that the performances of Madagascar will be spectacular. Miss Brock lived in Madagascar before coming back to New Zealand and has been able to share photos and her experiences of living there, with us. We are getting ready for cross country and training for the competitions next week. This year will be extra special as we are combining a non-uniform Pink Shirt Day with cross country and hoping to create a lot of fun in the process. Kelly Lindsay has sent out all the details including an invite to parents to come along to watch. We can't wait to see you there; we have missed you! Kia pai to rā whakata, have a good weekend. Ngā mihi, Sian Coxon. Haere mai Term 2P9 students have begun term 2 with enthusiasm and a ready to learn attitude. It is fabulous to see smiling, happy faces greet me every morning. This term our shared novel, The Butterfly Lion written by Michael Morpurgo, complements our Big Read programme. In reading this week, students are learning how to visualise what they have read by using clues from the text to create a picture in their head. They are learning to use all their senses and imagination to create a mental image. This week in the Read Write Inc Spelling programme, we are learning how to spell words ending in 'al'. Students continue to apply phonic knowledge and skills to decode words, until automatic decoding has become embedded. “Today I learnt that lots of words ending in -al are adjectives. I find spelling easy because I can use my Freddie fingers to sound out and learn the sounds. We learn spelling rules. If a word ends in an e and your putting -ing on, first drop the e then add -ing.” explained Hannah. In Health, Oscar shared that this week they are learning about emotional bullying, and that emotional bulling is bullying that hurts your feelings. Students are learning the difference between bullying and other types of negative behaviour. They are developing skills on how to respond to being bullied or put down. In Global Perspectives: “We are learning about endangered animals and what shares our planet. We researched some endangered animals and why they are endangered. We found out that many animals are endangered because of what humans are doing to our planet. We thought about what they needed to survive. If they don’t and die, they become extinct.” We are going to do more research on how we can help.” said Luke. For our end of day brain break, we are lucky to be able to use the spacious field behind our classroom. We often play a game of ultimate tag. It is a fun way to end the day, especially in such picturesque surroundings. Hard at Work in P14As Year 4’s we are beginning to learn to take even more responsibility for our own learning. To do this, we help Mrs Prance construct a list of ‘success criteria’ known as our WASWW, then when we think we are finished our task, we check we have included all of the things in the list and amend anything if necessary. In Reading we are loving this term’s new book, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo, we are thinking about asking questions, before, during and after reading each chapter. We get to play lots of fun quick games such as, “Get the Gist”- we are only able to write 10 words to summarise the whole chapter we just read. It’s tricky getting EXACTLY 10… not 9, or 11, it has to be 10. We also work on extending our vocabulary, finding the definitions of words in either a dictionary or on an iPad . We are really growing as learners as we share lots of very similar, different ideas. In Writing, we have just accepted our new mission for the term, we are busy planning our own superhero’s. So far we have added details to the way our superhero’s look, the equipment or special powers they have and the special types of transport they use. We are becoming experts at expanding noun phrases as we add detail to our sentences. To illustrate how the writer is painting a picture with words in the readers head, we all listened to Mrs Prance read out instructions, we interpreted the specific details in our heads, then drew them on paper. Afterwards we held a ‘gallery viewing’ as we walked around looking at our classmate’s work, noting the similarities and the differences. In our Homeroom Maths we are looking at converting units of time, we are converting seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years, as well as converting between analogue and 12-hour digital clocks. In our cross-group Maths we have been using our Basic Facts to help us calculate square numbers and find all the multiples of different numbers. We love Reading in P14 and managed to go on our first visit of the term to the library on Monday, we listened to an engaging story about using our imaginations, then chose our favourite spots to read to ourselves for a short time. As part of our Global Perspectives Inquiry, we are thinking about all of the qualities of being a friend. We devised a huge list and realized, being KIND popped up most frequently. Our ICT lessons are moving along as we discover all about codes and coding. We managed to logon to Scratch and have great fun giving the little characters sets of code instructions to move around on an axis. Next time we will be adding a background for him to move around on. We collected all of the information we knew about coding on Post-it notes and as you can see, we started off with lots of great ideas.
Earth and Space in P5In P5 for Science we have been learning about Earth and Space. We have been asking questions about the world around us and talking about how to find answers. We now understand that Earth is the planet that we live on and that it is mostly covered in water. Celine said that we know the Earth is mainly covered in water because the photos that we can see from space show us lots of blue. We particularly enjoyed looking at images taken from the International Space Station showing what Earth looks like from space. Garvin noticed the snow on the mountains. Rayna explained that the green is the land. We were all excited to recognise the outline of the South Island from space. We demonstrated our learning by creating a small model of Earth. Irene decided to make a dark blue sphere and add green on top. In Global Perspectives we are learning about Looking After Our World so Science and Global Perspectives link well together. This week we have been exploring the problem of litter. In Reading we have been predicting and repredicting as we read, to help with our understanding of the text. The children were very successful as they predicted and labelled their ideas on whiteboards. They found clues in the text as we read on, and using this new information, were able to repredict what they thought was going to happen. In Literacy we have been reading The Wide Mouthed Frog and finding the adjectives in the story. Then we used our learning about adjectives to improve our own writing. In Art we are starting to learn about Pablo Picasso, and we will then create our own artwork using our new understanding. P19’s ANZAC Day Poppies and Breaking NewsMonday 25th April was an important day for New Zealanders. It was ANZAC Day, a day to remember and commemorate those who served and fought in the war. Red poppies are worn on ANZAC Day as a mark of respect to those who died while serving their country and are a symbol of remembrance. P19 have created an ANZAC Day Poppy Art to commemorate the brave ANZACs. Here are photos of our finished poppies, drawn on top of the poem called, ‘Ode to Remembrance’. In Writing, P19 are investigating a series of mysterious incidents where a number of European landmarks have vanished all of a sudden. We are trying to reveal what really happened by gathering various evidence and actively thinking about who could be behind all this. This week, we learnt some new writing features such as relative clauses, which provide further detail, and correlative conjunctions (e.g. neither…nor). P19 had to structure sentences for a breaking news item about the disappearing buildings that include adverbials of time and place, relative clauses and correlative conjunctions. It definitely was a challenge to upskill our writing and show what we have learnt! Chess ClubWednesday lunchtime is Primary Chess Club! Back with many enthusiastic Year 4-6 students working on their chess moves. We have Alex Huang our chess coach teaching us and everyone will also be trialling for the school chess competition held later on this term. Everyone is welcome. Bring a friend and come and have a game! Message from the Principal of CollegeKia ora Pinehurst Whānau Having completed my first full week as Principal of Pinehurst College, I have taken some time to reflect. At our recent assemblies, I spoke to the students about how astounded I am to see the incredible development of Pinehurst since I last worked here in 2007. There has been a remarkable growth in positive culture, especially in the feeling of endeavour and purpose. Our students can be proud of the way they conduct themselves and the positive way in which they interact with each other and their teachers. House activities are firmly underway for the term, and it was very entertaining to watch the House multi-sports event last Friday. If you are not familiar with multi-sports, ask your children to explain the rules to you; there was certainly lots of fun, laughter and determination from students who participated. Winter sports events are in progress and it was wonderful to see our College 1 netball team battling against Orewa College on Saturday. Good luck to all of our teams who are playing this week. Our first North Harbour Zone Day since 2020 took place on Wednesday with Mr Reynolds taking the Year 8 boys football team to an excellent event. Well done to all the players who took part. On Tuesday, I had the privilege of giving feedback to some of our Year 11 students who are pitching their business ideas for the Young Enterprise Scheme. Well done to all members of EverViolet and Fleur de Lune. Some great business ideas came through and Mr Johansen and I enjoyed hearing about the work you have been doing to get to this point. We have another full week to look forward to. Cross Country will be held on Thursday and this promises to be a great day with Year 7 and 8 starting at 9:30am and Years 9-13 starting at 11:30am. This year we are giving students the opportunity to run the cross country in a relay if they wish. I am looking forward to watching them participate. Next week is Bullyfree NZ week culminating in Pink Shirt Day. The theme for the week is: He kōtuinga mahi iti He hua pai ā rau Which translates to “small ripples create big waves”. Very apt for what I have seen happen at Pinehurst College. Have a wonderful weekend. Ngā mihi nui Dawn Sullivan. Student CouncilOn Wednesday the 18th May, the Student Council will be hosting Paws Leading Us. It is an opportunity for students to learn about how people are living with low vision and maintaining a positive and healthy wellbeing. At this event, students can gain information and education on the work the charity do. They can take a picture with a guide dog called Lottie, buy an ice block and a cute soft toy as well as enter a raffle to win an Echo Dot speaker! The soft toys are $10, everything else is $2 each and they will be helping a wonderful cause. Please support all the hard work the Student Council has put in to give back to our community as part of the wellbeing week. College ScienceIt’s been another busy week in the Science Department and as ever, we’ve been trying to fit in as much practical work as possible. We believe that hands on experience of the scientific principals taught in class is an unequalled learning opportunity. It’s also a lot of fun! There has been a huge range of practical work across all year groups and subjects, ranging from Year 7 Science to A2 Chemistry. Some examples from this week include Year 10 Chemistry learning about reactive metals, Year 7 Science identifying household acids and alkalis, Year 9 Science experimenting with density, AS Biology modelling DNA and A2 Chemistry making voltaic cells. It’s always great to see so much hands on learning taking place. Students in Year 11 have been working on a topic called electrolysis. In their practical lesson they were electroplating various metal objects in copper. The used metal wire or paperclips as the object to plate. NH Zone Day FootballIt was exciting to have a Pinehurst team heading out this week to our first official Interschool Zone Day for Year 7/8 Sport since last August! – NH Zone Day Boys Football. Playing in the Year 8 grade, our Year 7/8 team (of mainly Year 7 players) had a fantastic day up at Rosedale Park, playing some amazing Football and coming away with a mix of draws/wins and losses and a whole lot of valuable experience. Thank you to Mr Reynolds for coaching the team before and during the event, and to all our wonderful family supporters who came along to cheer for the team on the day. Year 7-8 GymnasticsLast week our Term 2 Year 7/8 Gymnastics programme got underway, with 25 students working hard this term to perfect their skills for competition events in Term 2 & 3. Gymnastics is one of the biggest sports at Pinehurst in 2022, with over 100 students taking part in Term 2 across Years 1-8. From Pinehurst Career Centre - North Shore Schools Careers & Pathways ExpoOn 8 & 9 June the North Shore Schools Careers & Pathways Expo is being held at North Harbour Stadium. There are over 50 different exhibitors including all NZ universities, many different polytechs and tertiary training providers from Auckland and across NZ, Education USA, Police, Defence Force, AFS Exchanges, Industry Training Organisations and more... This is a great opportunity to meet, locally, with so many representatives in one venue. All Year 11 and Year 12 students will be attending on Thursday 8 June during P4 and P5. An email is being sent to all Y11/12 parents with a link to an electronic permission slip. Please complete this as soon as possible. There are evening sessions as well and these are open to all students and parents. There will also be some presentations in the evenings – the schedule is still being confirmed and will be advertised closer to the time.
Auckland Philharmonic OrchestraOn Thursday 12th May, members of the school orchestra and other selected Music students went to see the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra perform their annual Discovery Concert. This concert has a programme especially put together for secondary school audiences and included pieces by Mendelssohn, Offenbach, Greig, Honegger, Smetana and New Zealand composers Liam Pram and Salina Fisher. Students were very pleased to be able to see and hear such a competent and full sounding orchestra play in the Grand Hall of the Auckland Town Hall. With such excellent, purpose-built acoustics the live orchestra sounded amazing and the programme was varied and exciting for everyone. Students particularly enjoyed hearing themes and pieces they already recognised, as well as works that were new to them. Rehearsals for this year's production of Annie are well underway, with students rehearsing three time weekly since the start of Term 1. This term we've seen the introduction of our production Orchestra, expertly lead by Mr Ronayne. Annie will be on stage at Centerstage, Orewa from the 27th to the 29th July. Nicole joins NZ Golf National AcademyCongratulations to Nicole Choi who has been invited to join the NZ Golf National Academy. She is one of the four to have moved from Phase Two of Golf New Zealand’s Talent Development Programme to join the incumbent National Academy members. The National Academy is the third phase of Golf New Zealand’s Talent Development Programme. Nicole is the youngest of the four, turning 16 at the end of May. Nicole will be flying our New Zealand flag in many international tournaments that are coming up. She will be off to Singapore and to Scotland in July. Nicole says she is happy to be selected and proud to be a student at Pinehurst School where her role model, Lydia, began her golfing career. LittleCooks needs helpers!Are you looking for some part time work? Do you like working with kids? Do you love to cook/bake? We are looking for a few helpers for our LittleCooks Monday class for Term 2. Work hours would be 2 hours, duties include working with a small group of students to cook or bake a recipe that the class is working on, and cleaning up afterwards. Applicants must be year 11 or above, responsible, reliable and confident both with cooking and dealing with kids. Pay is $19.00 per hour. Contact Suzi if keen at team@littlecooks.co.nz www.littlecooks.co.nz |