Principal's Panui - 14 June 2024

Kia ora te whanau ō te Kōtuku

Sharpening your Axe

I’m the last person in the world who would tell you not to work hard.  I’m also the first one to remind you that working hard must also be tempered by working smart, or you might just be wasting a load of effort.  There is a reason why we were born with both muscles and brains.

Consider the story of two lumberjacks in a tree-cutting contest.  Both were strong and determined, hoping to win the prize.  One was hardworking and ambitious, chopping down every tree in his path at the fastest pace possible, while the other appeared to be a little more relaxed, methodically felling tree and pacing himself.  The go-getter worked all day, skipping lunch break, expecting that his superior effort would be rewarded.  His opponent, however, took an hour-long lunch; then resumed his steady pace.

In the end the go-getter was dismayed to lose to his seemingly lazier competition.

Thinking he deserved to win after his hard work, he approached his opponent and said, “I just don’t understand.  I worked longer and harder than you, and went hungry to get ahead.  You took a lunch break, and yet you still won.  It just doesn’t seem fair.  Where did I go wrong?”

The winner responded, “While I was taking my lunch break, I was sharpening my axe.”

Hard work will always pay off; smart work will pay better.  Even in school there are students who study all day and all night, but still struggle to pass exams.  Then there are students who study hard but also find time for a game of basketball, and still pass every test.  Both groups study the same material, attend the same classes taught by the same teachers, and take the same test.

The combination of hard work and smart work is the formula for success.  Think about what needs to be done, and then think again about the best way to accomplish it – not necessarily the way you’ve always done it, or the hardest way, and certainly not the fastest way.  Never make work harder than it has to be.  That’s just a colossal waste of time.

The moral:  It’s good to work hard.  It’s great to work smart.  But it’s best to work hard and smart.

 If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first four hours sharpening the axe.

Abraham Lincoln.

So, what does sharpening your axe look like?

It can include making sure you are drinking enough water every day. Turning off your blue screen devices at least 30 minutes before trying to go to sleep to help the quality of your sleep improve.

Box Breath or follow the marble across the space ensuring you are breathing into your belly and not shallow breathing only into your chest. It includes writing down 3 things that you learned today to help commit the learning to long term memory and writing down 1 or 2 questions about things you were unsure of. Even if you don’t ask the questions, I encourage you to do that. Thinking about it is still valuable.

These are all little steps in the right direction towards striving for personal excellence. They have nothing to do with talent but everything to do with developing the right habits to achieve progress.  Use that 30 minutes to box breath, drink that last glass of water and do that little bit of writing. Who knows where these habits might take you.

Assessment Tracking

Our Achievement Tracking Team follows a system of notifying caregivers via email as soon as possible when students fail to achieve an assessment or miss submitting an assessment or checkpoint. The purpose of these emails is to intervene early when assessments are missed and ensure caregivers are aware of any issues.

If you receive one of these notifications about your son or daughter, please talk to them about the concern and check all of your child's assessments using our school portal, Schoolbridge. To access Schoolbridge, please go to https://rutherford.bridge.school.nz/ and follow the instructions to log in. That way, you can see your student’s reports, grades as they are published, and attendance. If you have any technical issues accessing the information, please contact our school office.

Our Deans are also monitoring these notifications and will be in touch if there is a pattern of concern across multiple subjects.

Parent/Student Breakfast 

We would like to invite you all to our first Parent & Child breakfast on Thursday the 27th June. If a parent is not available, a caregiver, uncle or aunty, grandparent or godparent is very welcome to come alone. This is an informal occasion and an opportunity for you to meet socially with other parents and spend time with your child before you both start your day. To cover costs, adults are $20 per person and students are $15 per person. You can purchase your tickets online from trybooking. 

Open Evening and Enrolments for 2025

In Term 3 Rutherford will host their annual Open Evening. If you have a son or daughter currently in Year 8, then please come along to the college to meet the teachers and learn more about Rutherford College. If you prefer to see the school in action you can attend on Friday 2 August between 9.30 and 1.30pm and experience a tour of the school and talk with students about what they like about Rutherford College.

Open Evening Thursday 1 August 6-8pm

Open Day Friday 2 August 9.30am-1.30pm

Following on from the Open Evening and Open Day is our Enrolment week from Monday 5 to Thursday 8 August 3.30 - 7.00pm and Saturday 10 August from 9.00 - 11.30am. All enrolments will be in our Information Commons. Booking schedules will be available closer to the time. To find out more about how to enrol, please visit our website.

Upcoming Events

17 - 21 June - International languages week
19 June - Readers Cup
19 & 20 June - LUV Music- 6.30pm School Hall. Book here
21 June - International Languages Evening
27 June - Parent/Student Breakfast 7.30am Information Commons. Book here.
28 June - Matariki Day - School Closed
04 July- School Ball - School closes 1.30pm
05 July - (Friday) School Closed for the holiday break

Kia kaha

Gary Moore