Principal's Panui - 23 February 2024
Kia ora e te whanau o te Kotuku
Scholars' Assembly
Today we celebrated the academic success of our scholars from last year. We acknowledged students at all three levels of NCEA that endorsed with merit or excellence. Further to that we were able to acknowledge students who received 15 subject scholarships in the rigorous scholarship process.
The celebration concluded with the top three scholars at Year 11, 12 and 13 being acknowledged for their outstanding academic performance in the previous year.
Prizes for our Top Scholars are $150.00 (3rd), $250.00 (2nd) and $500.00 (1st)
2023 Year 11 Top scholars
- 3rd-Charlotte Brain
- 2nd-Ruby Mitchell
- 1st-Jin Na
2023 Year 12 Top scholars
- 3rd-Emmilia Day
- 2nd-Eleanor Vincent
- 1st-Nina Lyon
2023 Year 13 top Scholars
- 3rd-Ishani Kumar
- 2nd-Zac Thomson
- 1st-Tinirau Hohepa
With the lead in to Scholars' Assembly and reflecting on the importance of academic rigour, all students need to know that it requires commitment and energy each hour of the day repeated day in day out.
I have shared the following message at assembly:
What do I want to be known for?
What is my brand image, my mana based on?
To answer this requires the need for more questions. What have you done with what you have been given? What does your track record to date say?
How many days have we had, and what did we do with those? There are 168 hours in a week. How many of those hours each week are used on 'What’s Important Now'?; i.e. what we say we want to be known for. Does where we spend our time and energy reflect what we say is important? Our spoken beliefs and values need to be reflected not only in our words, but also our deeds and actions.
At the end of week 4 there are 32 teaching and learning days left in term 1. The message to students and staff this week is, how well have you used the time given? Have you spent time ensuring that academic progress is occurring? Breaking the 32 days down further, there are only 6 Mondays left this term. How are you making sure that you use every one of those 6 days to good effect? One last piece of division, in the senior school you have 4 hours of each subject a week, and therefore you have 28 periods of Math, English or Science etc left this term. Don’t keep thinking there is plenty of time. What are you doing in the here and now to use the gift of time you have today to have made progress toward your academic goals. Potentially you may/should have completed a four-credit standard in each of your 5 learning areas and therefore should have banked 20 credits by the end of term 1. Even better, a number of these could and should be merit or excellence.
As master Yoda once said, ‘Do or do not, there is no try.’ For those who are going to say I’ll try, I say don’t just try, get it done.
Wellbeing Survey
Rutherford is using a web based tool with students to survey them about their wellbeing. This tool is called Goodspace. It takes less than 10 minutes for students to answer health and wellbeing questions. The survey is used by the Student Services team (that is the counsellors and the nurse) to ensure we are offering support to students as needed. This is a part of our wellbeing plan to protect and enhance the hauora of our rangatahi. In 2024 we will be surveying all year 9 ,10 and year 12 students. The survey will be conducted during tutor time. If you do not wish your child to do this survey, please email their tutor teacher asking them to be excluded from the survey. Thank you for your assistance and help.
Attendance
The school is making a concerted effort to ensure students attend regularly. This term we will be following up on students arriving late to school. If your son or daughter arrives late more than twice, you may be sent an email to alert you. If you have any concerns at all, please contact the Dean of the Year Level. We need to keep you informed and we also want you to communicate with us if you receive an email alerting you. Often there are genuine reasons and we take this into consideration. Attendance is important and so is arriving at the start of the day and lesson.
If a student misses one day of school every two weeks, they miss a whole year of school by 16 years of age. As a parent or caregiver, you, alongside our school, play a key role in building strong habits of regular school attendance. All students are legally required to attend school every day and it is a shared responsibility to make sure students attend and engage in learning from when they first start school. As we enter 2024, every day of school matters. You must let the school know if your child is going to be absent for a day or intends to be absent for a portion of the school term for whatever reason, like a tangi or medical procedure. Family holidays or taking time off for extracurricular activities (not organised by school) are not acceptable reasons for being absent. To report an absence, please log in to the School Portal and Click on Report Absence. You can also request an exit pass if your son or daughter needs to go to an appointment by choosing the exit pass option.
School Policies and Procedures
Rutherford College subscribes to SchoolDocs for all policies and procedures. These are available to staff, students and the local community.
Term 1 Reviews:
The board will be reviewing: Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Board Responsibility, Documentation and Self-Review Policies
The Community can review:
Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Parent Involvement, Communicating with Parents, Community Conduct Expectations, School Planning and Reporting, Reporting to Parents on Student Progress and Achievement
Reviews are open to anyone:
All reviewers
- Visit the website https://rutherfordcollege.schooldocs.co.nz/1893.htm
- Enter the username (rutherfordcollege) and password (kotuku).
- Follow the link to the relevant policy as listed.
- Read the policy.
- Click the Start your review button at the top right-hand corner of the page.
- Select the reviewer type.
- Enter your name (optional).
- Follow the prompts to show that you've read the topic and enter your feedback if you'd like to comment.
- Agree to the privacy statement and click “Submit review”.
Upcoming Events:
05 March - Western Zone Athletics
18 March - Summer Tournament Week
20-23 March Polyfest
26 March Champion of Champion Athletics
28 March - Western Zone Swimming
29 March - 2 April - Easter Break
12 April End of term 1.
Kia kaha
Gary Moore
