Principal's Panui - 13 June 2025

Good afternoon Parents and Caregivers

Subject and Option choices

This is the most important decision that students and families will take in term 3. The weight of this decision is not always reflected in the time that is put into researching and ensuring that the right decisions are made. Please do not trust what your young person says without verifying the validity of what they are saying with their choices.

This week with our Year 10s as part of the Kotuku ka Tohea programme I started this cohort thinking about the three years ahead and looking to get some planning and coherence toward an exit qualification. Subject choices take place in the middle of term 3, but conversations about this need time now and in the weeks ahead. 

What good looks like in simple terms.

• Work backwards from Year 13, when you look at your choices for Year 11. I walked them through a process of how best to do this.
• You should not make option choices based on a favourite teacher, what your friends are doing. It should not be the teacher who you might not get the following year, and although our friends are important, they should not rule your subject choice decisions.
• Keep your timetable (subject choices) as broad as possible e.g. don't pick all arts subjects thinking they are going to go into a Design job. If you hit Y13 and change your mind there will be a limited choice of subjects that can be taken. 
• Only have 1 (or 2 at the most) non-University Entrance subjects so that you can get UE and keep all pathways out of school open to you. This means in Y11 you need to look ahead to make sure those subjects will carry through to Y13 for University Entrance.

The process to date.

1. All Year 10 students received a hard copy of the course progression document.
2. They were asked to circle or highlight their Year 9 choices and then circle the subjects they are doing in Year 10
3. I asked them what they thought was the highest qualification you can get from NZQA. The popular answer was Level 3, increased to level 3 endorsed with excellence. The real answer is University Entrance. University Entrance for some students gets taken out of the picture due to lack of awareness and poor subject choices that restrict pathways. You can get Level 3 without UE but not the other way round.
4. They were then asked to highlight or circle the 5 subjects they are looking to take in Year 13. Then check that at least 3 or preferably 4 or 5 are UE approved.
5. Work backwards to Year 12 and then Year 11 where they were asked to highlight or circle the 6 subject choices over those two years that will create the pathway progression to year 13 

Course Progressions

I see the Year 10s again in the last week of term to provide or refresh the important pieces of the puzzle. I will update the process for families after the next session.

I may have targeted Year 10, but this process is relevant for Year 9, 10, 11 and 12s. I invite and encourage whanau to start their own conversation at home about this. The process highlighted here will be helpful but not a silver bullet. Please do not leave it to your young person to go on this journey and trust that they know what to do or will make the best choices. I can tell you that two out of three will be lost in the fog. I saw and heard that this week. They need advice, help and direction with what is a massive decision. It’s worth an investment of time.

Changes to the School Portal and how you access information

Our Student Management System providers have made some changes to the way you now access information on the portal. You will now see an icon on the dashboard which says "School Kiwi" - this is where you can click to view reports, NCEA information, and pay accounts. When you click this icon you will be able to view all the information about your son or daughter as you did before. If you need to return to the SchoolBridge Dashboard you can click the "Back to SchoolBridge Icon".  You can still report attendance and permission slips directly from the SchoolBridge dashboard. 

School Board Elections

All state and state-integrated schools are required to hold board elections every three years, and the next round will take place this year, in 2025.

The School Board is an important part of our school as they set the strategic direction for our school, consult with our school community about our school, ensure the schools funding is spent wisely and ensure that we are giving effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi within our school. Our board is made up of 5 parent representatives, the Principal, a staff representative elected by staff, and a student representative elected by students.The current board has appointed Election Pilot as our Returning Officer, and the election will be conducted online. They have been assisting schools with elections for over 20 years and have been the only election provider accredited by the Ministry of Education to provide online election services since online elections started in 2022. Nomination and voting forms will be sent to all eligible voters by email directly from Election Pilot. If we don’t have an email address for you, nomination and voting papers will be sent by post so no one will miss out. School Board Elections must be held in accordance with the provisions in the Education and Training Act 2020 and the Education (Board Elections) Regulations 2022. Your name and contact details have been provided to Schooled Election Pilot to enable the provision of election services for our school as required by legislation. They will use your contact details for the provision of election services for Rutherford College only and your details will be deleted 60 days after the election date as required by legislation. If you have any questions about the election process, please contact the Returning Officer directly on 0800 VOTENZ (0800 868 369) or [email protected]. We will continue to keep you updated through the various stages of the election process. Our election date is 10 September. If you are interested in becoming a board member, nominations will open in July so keep a lookout in your emails for information on how to do that. 

School Board Elections-Updating your Contact Details

With the School Board trustee elections are occurring this year in September, it is important that we have the correct information for you.  If you have changed your email or physical address we need to know. You can update the information by clicking on the "Your Details" icon on your dashboard when you are in SchoolBridge. Then you can click on "View" and request a change if your information is not current or incorrect. You can also access Your Details by clicking on the School.Kiwi icon and updating your details in the detail tab.

Kotuku Badge Applications

Students can now apply for a Kotuku Badge. Badges are awarded for outstanding performance or contribution to the school through Sport, Cultural Activities, Academic or Citizenship categories. For more information about the criteria, please read this page. 

Students need to complete the application themselves. They need to log in to the School Portal and Click on Permission Slips and Student Forms, Click Start Form, and choose Kotuku Badge Application form. They can edit it once started but they do need to make sure they hit the submit button to complete the process. Applications will close 27 June. Badges will be presented at assemblies in Term 3. The Principal makes the decision on all badge applications. 

Parent and Child Breakfast

Thursday morning we celebrated the second Parent and Child Breakfast in the Information Commons. We appreciated everyone who came along to enjoy delicious food and chat with other parents or staff. Thank you to all the organisers for their hard work as well as the Prefect group who did an outstanding job of serving food and helping with set up and pack down afterward. This is an event that we will look to continue every year.

Events coming up

• 16-19 June - International Languages and Culture Week
• 18 June - International Languages and Culture Evening - School Hall
• 20 June - School Closed for Matariki Day
• 26 June - School Ball - School finishes at 1.30pm (last day of the school term for all)
• 27 June - School Closed

Kia kaha

Gary Moore