Kia ora te whanau o te Kotuku

Growth Mindset; A Positive outlook and a willingness to be realistic and optimistic about what creates the foundation for positive progress and change.

Why would anyone play baseball where even the best players have a strike rate of only 1/3?

Star baseball players only hit the ball about three out of every ten times. How do they live with such a high failure rate? By focusing on the law of averages. They know that if they just keep swinging the bat, they will get on base. In 1952 Roger Bannister ran in the Olympics and finished in fourth place, failing to win any kind of medal. He refused to quit. At this time, many experts considered it humanly impossible to run the mile in under four minutes. Yet that was Bannister’s goal. And on 6 May 1954, he became the first man to do it. Now runners do it regularly.

What’s the point? If you refuse to quit when you fail, you will ultimately succeed. You just have to be willing to get back up and keep moving forward. In 1832 Abraham Lincoln was defeated for the State Legislature. In 1833 he failed in business. In 1835 his sweetheart died. In 1836 he had a nervous breakdown, in today’s words serious mental health issues. In 1838 he was defeated for Illinois House Speaker. In 1843 he was defeated for nomination to Congress. In 1854 he was defeated for the US Senate. In 1856 he was defeated for nomination for Vice President. In 1858 he was defeated again in a US Senate race. However, today he is considered one of America’s greatest presidents.

A wise man concluded: ‘It’s a mistake to suppose that people succeed only through success; they often succeed through failures.’

And you’re not defeated until the past takes your focus off the future. So don’t be afraid of failure.

It effectively comes down to our attitude and resilience to know that we may suffer a defeat but we must never be defeated.

“The longer I live, the more I realise
the impact of attitude on my life.
Attitude, to me, is more important than facts.
It is more important than the past, than education, than money,
than circumstances, than failures, than successes,
than what other people think or say or do.
It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill.
It will make or break a company … a church … a home.
The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.
We cannot change our past …
we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way.
We cannot change the inevitable.
The only thing we can do is play on the
string we have, and that is our attitude …
I am convinced that life is ten percent
what happens to me, and ninety percent how I react to it.
And so it is with you …
we are in charge of our attitudes.”

Win, lose or draw we treat all outcomes just the same. They represent the current rung of the ladder and where our feet are now.

Upcoming Events – Āpōpō  Parent Evening Monday 30 May – 6pm for caregivers of Y10 students

Mental health is an important piece of the holistic vision we have for our staff and students at Rutherford College. New Zealand mental health statistics show that there is much work that can be done in this space. As a school, we are continually working towards supporting our students in this area, particularly in developing their skills to support not only themselves, but others around them too.

At Rutherford, we are about to embark on a programme called Āpōpō – The Next Day. The programme equips our students with some basic and effective tools, so that they can feel confident in their role of supporting those around them. We want to give our students the skills to become an even better family member or friend.

We will deliver the programme to our Year 10 students periods 1 and 2 on Wednesday, 1 June. Parents and caregivers are invited to attend a condensed outline of the programme on Monday, 30 May at 6:00pm in the school hall. There is no requirement for parents to RSVP.

The Āpōpō programme delivers helpful information, tips and tools presented by trained facilitators. It is interactive, involving games, activities and opportunities for participants to practice what they’ve learned through the use of role playing in a safe environment.

Āpōpō provides tools for helping our friends, our whanau and ourselves. It looks at the warning signs of someone who is struggling and it emphasises the power and practice of listening. It recognises the importance of asking questions in a safe space, explores the concept, ‘Safe for now’, it teaches skills that anyone can utilise, regardless of their qualification and embraces a holistic approach to health.

Āpōpō is about seeking to add to “the village” of help that already exists and empower youth to become part of that village. Through the learning, it should allow students to improve their relationships with friends and remove some of the stereotypes around talking about how we feel. We expect that it will provide opportunities for our kids to recognise certain behaviours early, ask good questions and then get their friend to the rest of “the village” for more professional help.

If you want more information or clarification about your child’s involvement in the programme please contact Mr Simpson, Deputy principal on [email protected].

Upcoming Assessments:

Monday 23 – 12MDS, 12OED 13OED, 13PHY
Tuesday 24 – 11ECO 12OED 13OED, 13PHY
Wednesday 25 – 12OED 13OED, 13PHY
Thursday 26  12OED 13OED, 13PHY
Friday 27 – 11ECO, 11ENG 12MAI, 12MUS, 12OED 13OED, 13PHY, 13SCI

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Kia Kaha
Gary Moore