Parents, whanau and wider community,

On the day of the nationwide strike on Wednesday, 29 May Rutherford College will be closed. We will not be open for instruction nor supervision.

There are two reasons for this;

1. Both the Board of Trustees and I wish to show our full support to our teachers and all teachers across the country with their pay and conditions claim. There is clear evidence throughout the country that teacher recruitment and retention is reaching a critical point. The numbers of people training to be teachers has fallen significantly and young teachers are not staying in the profession. I am currently on an advisory group relating to new recruits and the numbers are well down.
2. The second reason is linked to Health and Safety concerns. With the limited staff available to supervise students I believe it is prudent that we do not open for instruction. There will be a limited number of staff available on site for a variety of reasons, one being that we will still have staff and students at Year 9 camp in the Hunua Ranges. They are not due back to school until between 2.30 pm and 3.00 pm on Wednesday.

A message from Community Education – we fully support all the wonderful, hardworking teachers in NZ, however, on 29 May it will be business as usual for Community Education. Our teachers are on different contracts and it would be too disruptive to cancel all of our evening classes and arrange make-up classes. The same goes for our daytime ESOL classes in the Village.