Welcome back and I hope all families and whanau were able to enjoy some time together over the term 1 break.

W.I.N What’s Important Now?
There are a number of habits of highly effective and happy people that require zero talent and they include being on time; being prepared; giving things energy and effort; having a positive attitude including your body language and words; kindness.

In life there are things we can control and things we can’t, the things above are all in your control to help make positive steps forward. You will have more chance of being able to control these things if you look after yourself.

So please, drink water, eat fruit and vegetables, exercise and plan so that what needs to get done this week and this term is done. Look after yourself, get enough sleep, turn off blue screens half an hour before sleeping to get the type of deep sleep your body needs.

I also believe that we need to look at some of the things that may hold us back from progress and taking the type of risks that will develop our human capital.

How do we improve?
We try something different. This takes courage and bravery because we are moving from our circle of comfort into unfamiliar territory. If all the great explorers from years gone by had not left the harbours that they were familiar with nothing may have been discovered.

We do need to hold true to the values that provide the foundation for striving for personal excellence, such as a sense of responsibility; sense of integrity and a respect for ourselves other people and the environment. It involves knowing the positive behaviours that support progress. It means that you understand that in order for me to teach or to coach we need you to participate and not spectate. In other words, what’s your 50%?

Turning up is the first part (attendance) and how much you involve yourself when you are there (engagement). Can you increase your focus by five minutes per class in each subject each day? This may be something different. One of the major changes needed in order to improve is sometimes to let go of things that are holding us back.

How to catch a Monkey
How do you catch a monkey? Find a coconut and make a hole in the shell, a hole that is just big enough for the monkey to squeeze its paw through.

Tie the coconut to something, put a slice of fruit inside and wait. When a monkey comes past it will smell the fruit and put its hand inside to get it. Believe it or not, the monkey is now trapped because it won’t let go of the fruit by opening its paw and it’s only by opening its paw that the monkey can get its paw out and run away.

All the cleverness, all the talent, all the skill in the world is of no use if we cannot open our paw to save our life. Just like the monkey, we can be trapped by sticking to what we think we know and refusing to change.

In the monkey’s case, that is a closed paw. For us, the equivalent is a closed mind – holding fast to a fixed position even when the evidence is telling us something different. What makes us close our minds? Sometimes we have beliefs that hold us back. We have a fixed and not a growth mindset. Sometimes we believe that other people are lucky and it’s not the result of the hard work that they have put in that we didn’t see, we only saw the outcome. We attribute it to talent and not the hard work that developed that talent.

Sometimes it is not our beliefs but our actions that keep us trapped. We know we learn best, for instance, when we learn in manageable chunks over a period of time but we keep on leaving things until the last minute and trying to cram too big a load of information into our brains. Or we hope things will turn out all right even without doing the work that we need to do to succeed. We keep hoping the luck other people seem to have will rub off on us.

Acknowledgement: Learning Targets by Connie Moss and Susan Brookhart

What do you need to change to ensure that you give yourself the opportunity to achieve to your maximum and reach your potential?

APOPO – The next day
In the past few years Aotearoa – New Zealand has unfortunately led the world in youth suicide statistics. Much has been written and talked about, but what can actually be done locally to help our students and community? Using the analogy of a cliff, we do not want to have an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff to pick up the pieces there. We want to build metaphorical fences at the top of the cliff. Even better we want to build those fences hundreds of metres back from the edge of that metaphorical cliff.

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 next week. Parents and caregivers of students in all year levels are invited to attend a condensed outline of the programme on Monday, 10 May at 6:30pm 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 super 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.

Nga mihi nui

Gary Moore

Assessment Calendar – Term 2, Week 2
due Monday, 10 May
13 Statistics AS 91581

due Tuesday, 11 May
11 Drama AS 90999

due Wednesday, 12 May
11 Maori AS 91085
12 Early Childhood US 29852
13 Biology AS 91601

due Friday 14 May
12 English AS 91102, 91103
12 Geography AS 91244
13 Accounting AS 91405
13 Music AS 91425