Kia Ora te whanau o te kotuku

ATTITUDE

“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.”

Charles Swindoll

THE MAGIC PEBBLES

Students often wonder why they have to learn so much when sometimes they cannot see the point.

There is an old legend about a group of shepherds who were preparing to go to sleep one night when suddenly the sky lit up with a celestial light that shone down upon them.  Being shepherds, they knew something wonderful was going to happen and they waited with eager anticipation.  At last, a voice spoke from the heavens.  It said to them, “Gather as many pebbles as you can find.  Put them in your saddle bags.  Travel a day’s journey and tomorrow night will find you glad and will find you sad.”

The shepherds were disappointed and angry.  They had expected the revelation of something great for them and for the world.  It had happened before for other shepherds.  But instead they had been told to do something that made no sense at all.

Grudgingly, the shepherds bent down and picked up a few pebbles and put them in their saddlebags.  Next day they travelled their day’s journey and that night made camp.  They decided to empty the pebbles from their saddlebags.  To their astonishment the pebbles had disappeared and in their place were sparkling diamonds.  The leading shepherd turned to his companions and said, “The voice spoke the truth.  Tonight we are glad and we are sad.  We are glad because we have these precious diamonds.  But we are sad because we did not pick up more pebbles.”

We do not know in life which pebbles are going to turn out to be diamonds.  Everything you learn without knowing why you are learning it is a pebble.  But others before you have found diamonds in that knowledge and you can be sure you will find your own diamonds.  So learn all you can now, pick up as many pebbles as you can, and you will be able to look forward to a sparkling future full of diamonds.

UPCOMING ASSESSMENTS
11 April  – 11HED; 12BIO; 13BIO
12 April – 11HED; 12MUS
13 April – 11HED; 11MAC
14 April – 11ACC; 11ELT; 11HED; 11HIS; 11MAI; 11MAT; 11MDS; 11SCA; 11SCI
14 April – 12ACC; 12APH; 12GTW; 12HIS; 12MAC; 12MAI; 12PAL; 13HIS; 13USP

Kia Kaha
Gary Moore
Principal