Kia ora te whanau o te kotuku

Tournament Feedback

After a two year absence it was so good to be able to have 5 teams from Rutherford heading off to enjoy what tournament week has to offer.
For the record we had

• Prem Netball at UNISS (Upper North Island Secondary Schools) at Lloyd Elsmore Park.
• Boys 1^st XI Football in Whanganui at the Trident tournament.
• Girls 1^st XI Football at the Maurice Hulme Tournament in Rotorua.
• The Junior Boys Football at the North Island Championships in Tauranga
• 1^st XI girls’ hockey played in an Upper North Island tournament in Whakatane.

Congratulations to the 1^st XI Girls football who made the semi-finals and the boys 1st XI who had a 5-win, one draw record conceding only one goal. They went out on Penalties in the ¼ finals and finished 5^th.
I am sure that all teams will have learned a lot about themselves from the week at tournament. Some of what was experienced will create lifelong memories and create a sense of unity and togetherness that only these types of opportunities can provide. All teams gave a good account of themselves and the feedback from staff is that the attitude and behaviour was fantastic across the board. Thank you to all staff and parents who made this week a possibility. Those of us who were away with teams know what it meant to them.

Wrestling Success

A photo of our wrestling team that won best school at the National champs here last Sunday.
Daniel and Hezekiah both won gold so they are national champs, Imran and Dominic won bronze.
Hezekiah also won the Fair Play award because he went about winning in a fair and respectful way.
They won the best male team award and also this very tasteful trophy for best school in NZ.

Studio Show

Wednesday and Thursday saw sold out performances for our Studio Show. It was a fantastic display of talent and clearly portrayed how hard students had worked on their items with slick transitions between acts supported by excellent lighting and music. Congratulations to everyone involved for a thoroughly entertaining hour and of course special mention to the crowd who showed their appreciation so enthusiastically.

Life Education

The Life Education ‘SMASHED’ team is presenting to our year 10 students on Tuesday. SMASHED is designed to equip young people with the information and confidence to make responsible choices around alcohol. Life Education has been supporting health education in schools for more than 30 years. It is likely the student in your care taking part in SMASHED attended lessons with our educators and Harold the giraffe at primary school! More information can be found on their website.

How to enjoy life a wee bit more.

I recently read an article that was given to me written by Kate Coughlan, Editor of NZ Life and Leisure. The premise of the article is that Kate decided to disengage from daily news.

“I thought that I needed to know what was going on all the time. I don’t.” “Slightly bored, slightly distracted so we check the news. Why did I stop? For my own wellbeing. The consumption of news makes me realise just how grumpy so many people default to. People get angry or outraged about just about anything.” To avoid the negativity, like Kate I have stopped consuming the daily diet of dross and peoples’ outrage.  A recent British study showed that daily news feeds which by nature are negative increases the propensity for anxiety.

These are my own thoughts. Using the time alternatively means I have time for more positive pursuits. I sometimes liken life to the hundred-acre wood, where pooh bear’s fascination with honey is a singular happy focus, Tigger just bounces around enjoying himself and then we have Eeyore with his doom and gloom. Rabbit, Owl etc add their parts but my guess is that Tigger is unaware of the daily news. Pooh Bear does not have time for it, if he is to get his fill of the good honey and Eeyore spends all day in the thistle patch reading the latest news feeds and getting despondent.

In her article Kate talks about learning from the history of nursery rhymes. Henny-Penny the daft chook who mistook a donk on the head from an acorn for the sky falling in and set off to tell the king that the sky was going to fall in. She was joined along the way by many mates including Ducky Daddles, Goosey-Poosey, eager to spread the word of impending doom. Sadly, the whole lot were lured into a cave, by Foxy-Loxy and we all know how that turned out.

Nursery rhymes of the past with tongue in cheek, link pretty closely to the world of social media and people being too eager to jump on the band wagon. Social media is too often a vehicle for misinformation and energy wasted.

I am not suggesting that all is right all the time, but we can make our worlds that little bit more upbeat, by minimising our exposure to some of this negative messaging.

Upcoming Assessments

12 Sept – 13MDS
13 Sept – 13MUS
15 Sept – 11MAC
16 Sept- 11DRA, 12DRA, 12MAC, 13ADS, 13DRA

Keep up to date with all the Rutherford News here.

Kia Kaha

Gary Moore