As teachers, leaders and parents we get to set the mood, tone or climate within our individual teaching environments. Whether at school, home or any other environment we need to consider that what we do is values based. Is what we are saying and doing based on care and kindness?

To achieve this, we need to be clear, consistent and explicit about our must do and can’t do expectations.

If we strive to do this in all situations, we can build strong foundations for respect, responsibility, integrity and striving for personal excellence to develop legs and be verbs or words of action.

As teachers when we are calm, fair and explicit and then we back this up by being consistent, insistent and persistent with how we reinforce these expectations students, people in general build trust in us. If we are well prepared and planned, we have a greater moral influence, because we have the right to expect the same from all of our students as well as colleagues.

At Rutherford we aspire for a state of relaxed vigilance, where all people, adults and students know the expectations, routine and habits of mind that create the foundation for happiness which flows into personal success and excellence.

When this process is well understood and everyone walks the talk and talks the walk, life becomes more enjoyable and we have left over energy for the interesting, fun and rewarding should and could do’s in life. In other words, do the basic mahi and get the rewards.

At Rutherford this can be summarised as work hard, be kind, good things happen.