Kia ora te whanau o te kotuku

Part of Rutherford Tikanga is International Languages week and I hope that all of our students have enjoyed all or some of what has been happening this week.

A number of international languages e.g. French, German, Spanish, Italian and English all evolved from Latin. Most school mottos are in Latin. Tohea is in Te Reo Maori and displays from our school’s earliest origins our commitment to our responsibilities under Te Tiriti.

Tohea meaning to strive for personal excellence has a similar meaning to the Olympic motto, “Citius, Altius, Fortius”.

Firstly, in Te Reo Maori: Tohea
In Latin: Citius, Altius, Fortius.
English; Faster, Higher, Stronger
Finally Rutherfordian: Tohea to strive for personal excellence, and recognising that winning is about being better today than you were yesterday and remembering that at Rutherford the rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold your foot long enough to enable you to place the other somewhere higher.

In other words;
Good, better, best
Never let it rest
Until you’re good is better
And your better is your personal best.

The foundation for good, better, best is based on strong foundations. The essence of strong foundations is relationships with people. As a school and community, these relationships are our core strength.  Rutherford’s vibrant personality is created by every person and group within our school, and it is the people and those relationships that create the pulse that makes our kura special. Within a community in excess of 1400 people, it is important to have shared rules around our must-do expectations. When we operate like this and the must-do’s don’t require unnecessary debate, then we create the capacity for increased energy and brainpower for those things that need our full effort and concentration. It is not possible for everybody to agree on all the detail but we can agree that we can all act with integrity and display respect in all our dealings with people, property, and the environment.

I want to thank the 95+ percent of our students for the positive way that you have responded to the reinforcement of the must-do expectations around the school. A limited few thought that these rules were new and did not, for some reason include them. What had unfortunately been the case was they had not been reinforced consistently and we needed a complete reset.

I would now expect that everybody should fully understand that if you want a drink of water you have a water bottle that you fill up before school, at interval, and at lunchtime. If you need the bathroom, you use it during these break times too. If you desperately need to go to the bathroom during class time and you do not have a pattern of behaviour of always trying to get out of class, then your teacher will be understanding of this.

Surrounding ourselves with people who live by values, based on our Rutherford core values is a formula for happiness, success, and good decisions.  We will always need people who are intellectually nimble, to be able to cope with the unknowns of the future, and emotionally intelligent so that they have the moral compass and integrity to make decisions for the benefit of the greater good.

Nga mihi nui
Gary Moore

Assessment Calendar: Term 2, Week 8
Monday, 21 June
13 Outdoor Education AS91789 – all week
13 Physical Education AS 91500
13 Statistics AS 91580
12 Media Studies AS 91252

Tuesday, 22 June
13 Outdoor Education AS91789 – all week
13 English Language US 30982

Wednesday, 23 June
13 Outdoor Education AS91789 – all week
12 Travel US 24728
13 Music AS 91416
13 Skill Pathways US 9681

Thursday, 24 June
13 Outdoor Education AS91789 – all week
11 German AS 909884

Friday, 25 June
13 Outdoor Education AS91789 – all week
11 Dance AS 90002
11 Engineering US 22923
12 German AS 91125
12 Mathematics Internal AS 91260
12 Science AS 91911
13 Accounting AS 91409
13 Biology AS 91640
13 Media Studies AS 91495