Principal's Panui - 25 October 2024

Kia ora e te whānau o te Kōtuku

A Week of Celebrations

I would like to thank all the staff and students who gave up their time to help make the 4 nights of celebration the success that they all were.

Fa’afetai Lava to Mr Talamaivao and our Pasifika staff and students for their organisation of the Pasifika Awards on Tuesday.

Ngā mihi nui to Whaea Stacey, Matua Jeff and Matua Paratene for their mahi and leadership of our Te Poho ō Hinekahukura awards on Wednesday. Congratulations to Samara Reede and Kauri Tairi having been named as Kaitātaki Wahine and Kaitātaki Tane as leaders of te Kōtuku Kapa Haka for 2025. 

To Sandi and the Performing and Visual Arts Teams including the Cultural Committee, a big congratulations for the best Arts and Cultural awards evening I have been to at Rutherford. Great night, great performances from our young people and a great guest speaker Ben Fernandez who also did us the honour of playing for us. 

Congratulations to Edie Annan who was announced as Dux Artium, the top award in this realm for her outstanding work as a Visual Artist.

Finally, to Gill, Kinga and Mr Mataia plus the Sports committee for the 4th night of celebrations of student involvement and pursuit of excellence in Sport. All 4 nights were wonderful and where we could celebrate our whanaungatanga and the special wairua that is part of our kura. Both Ben Fernandez and Cam Gliddon spoke of the spirit and togetherness they could sense within our community. Cam Gliddon was also a wonderful guest speaker at our Sports Awards. Anyone who has played 350 pro games in their basketball career and represented Australia at World Cups, and won Commonwealth gold medals and multiple MVP awards, has had some career.

Congratulations to Dylan Chapman and Chloe Ellis who were named as our Sports Captains for 2025.

Daniel Lipsham backing up from 2023 was again named as Dux Ludorum the top sports award for his amazing exploits and golden run of form in Wrestling. I look forward to hopefully seeing Daniel with the Silver Fern on his chest at the Olympics, maybe at Los Angeles 2028.

It has been my pleasure at assemblies this week to read out the names of students who will be receiving awards at our academic prizegiving on Wednesday evening October 30 at 6.30pm.  At Year 11 and 12 only prizewinners are required to attend. At Year 13 we expect all students to attend as this is their last official event as students at Rutherford College. Parents of prizewinners should have received their invitations to attend.

All Year 13 students should be in attendance to show support for their peers and to be there to acknowledge when our Proxime Accessit (Dux runner -up) and Dux Litterarum are announced. These awards are for the top two academic students in our school and are the two most prestigious awards that our students can receive. 

I will finish with a summary of some of the words that Ben Fernandez, our guest speaker at the Art and Cultural Awards shared with us. 

Ben spoke of the need for people with passion and purpose, with those who truly follow their passion needing to add perseverance to the 3Ps when there are obstacles and challenges to be faced down. 

At the end he summarized his philosophy in life down to 5 simple rules:

• If you don’t go after what you have, you will never have it. (It won’t come to you)
• If you don’t ask the question, the answer is no.
• If you don’t step forward from where you are now, you will always be in the same place.
• You are only as good as your last gig (so always give it 100%)
• Have fun along the way, it’s not just the destination that we need to enjoy, it must also be the journey.

Dates to remember:
30 October - Prizegiving for Seniors, Rutherford College Hall, at 6.30pm (last week it was advertised with the incorrect start time of 6pm). This is the last day for students in Y11-13 to attend school. They go on study leave in preparation for the end of year exams.
05 November - NCEA Exams commence
22 and 25 November - Junior Exams
29 November - NCEA Exams conclude
05-06 December - Wider Living Days activities for juniors
11 December - Junior Prizegiving and last day of the year for students. Year 9 Prizegiving is at 10am in the School Hall, followed by the Year 10 Prizegiving at 12pm. Students will be released after the end of the prizegiving.

Phones Away for the Day 

This is a reminder that students are not permitted to use phones during school hours. Before and after school is fine, but during the day, phones must be turned off and in bags. Exceptions are if students need their phone for health reasons or the teacher has allowed phones specifically for an educational task. Read more about the exemptions, rules and consequences here.

School Policy Reviews Term 4

All school policies and procedures are available on SchoolDocs. Sign in to the site using Username: rutherfordcollege; Password: kotuku. These policies are for staff, students and whanau to refer to. Everyone is able to review and make comment on a policy. The board reviews any feedback at their meetings with a view to continuous improvement. This term the following policies are open for review:

• Finance and Asset Management
• Managing Income and Expenditure
• Financial Conflicts of Interest
• School Donations and Student Activity Payments
• Expenditure
• Asset Management and Protection
• Property Planning and Maintenance
• Prevention of Bribery, Corruption, Fraud, and Theft

Enjoy the long weekend.

Gary Moore