Read the latest news from Rutherford College

Kia ora te whanau ō te Kōtuku

Successful people have learned……

The only way to get stuff done is to do the work.

They are wary of having a default approach for dealing with struggle, procrastination or overwhelm by looking for a quick fix or shortcut to deal with a problem. The allure of the ‘easy way out’ can be irresistible. Successful people have learned that any quick fix, will unravel soon enough, leaving you back at square one and, very often, in a worse position than before.

The Inescapable truth

There is no avoiding the obvious, inescapable truth: the only way to get stuff done is to do the work. Nothing can replace the nuts and bolts of sitting down and committing to the task at hand.

What works? It's painfully obvious.

• Talking about doing the work isn’t doing the work
• Preparing to do the work isn’t doing the work
• Scheduling time to do the work isn’t doing the work
• Making a to-do list for the work is also not doing the work.

The four things directly above can be helpful but it must go beyond these four things.

Because the other inescapable truth is that the only thing that is going to get the work needed done, is doing the work.

If there is work to be done, start working.

Rutherford Day and Rutherford Week - early finish 28 August (12.30pm)

Next week we celebrate Rutherford Day.

Introduced by our founding principal, Eric Clark, Rutherford Day has become a cherished tradition—an opportunity to thank the community of which we are proud to be a part, to celebrate the excellence of our students, and to inspire our senior learners with the words of an outstanding guest speaker.  This year we welcome back one of our own alumni as our guest speaker: Dr. Priyanta Ravi.

There is normal school for students in the morning, Period 1 and 2. The ceremony commences at 11.00am and senior students, along with our invited guests will attend the ceremony. Other students will have organised activities in the classroom. All students will be released for the day at 12.30pm approximately.

At the assemblies next week students will be presented with their Kotuku Badges. 

The Prefects will have other organised activities running throughout the week in the build up to Rutherford Day on Friday, such as Rutherford Cake on Monday.

Prefect Applications for 2027 are open- Year 12s – Step Up and Lead! 

Are you ready to make a difference at Rutherford College? Applications are now open for Prefect positions for 2027. Being a prefect is an opportunity to lead, represent your school, support younger students and help shape the culture of our school. We’re looking for students who are positive, responsible, approachable and ready to make a difference. If you think you have what it takes to be a leader and role model, put your name forward and give it a go! Apply via SchoolBridge/Permission Slips & Forms by Friday 28 Aug 3pm.   

Student Trustee Nominations Open 20 August 

The Student Trustee is the official student voice on the Board, helping to represent the views, ideas, and interests of the student body. As a board member, you'll be involved in discussions about the future of the school, including student achievement, school facilities, strategic planning, finances, policies, and major projects that impact students.  This is a unique leadership opportunity that gives you real influence and valuable experience in governance, decision-making, and advocacy. The Board meets twice each term in the evening.    
Election Timeline

• Nominations Open: 20 August
• Nominations Close: 26 August
• Voting Opens: 1 September
• Voting Closes: 11 September at 4.00pm

Nomination and voting forms will be available through SchoolBridge.

Course Selection Closed

Course selection is now at the stage where parents and whānau can log into SchoolBridge then click on the Learning Areas & Option Selection button to view the courses their son or daughter has chosen.

We encourage you to take a few minutes to review their selections and discuss them together. You can approve the choices if you are happy with them, or use this opportunity to have a conversation if you think your child may need to reconsider an option.

Please note that the approval function will only be activated once your child has reviewed their selections and clicked the “I’m Complete” button.

Your support and discussion at this stage can help ensure your child has chosen courses that align with their interests, strengths and future goals.

Derived Grade Exams and NCEA

As we head into the senior assessment season, this update explains Derived Grade Exams and the NCEA external exams. This can be a very stressful time for students, not to mention parents. My advice is that plenty of sleep and preparation is the best antidote to exam stress. 

Often speak with senior students about the need to employ effective revision methods. In my experience most students delude themselves that rereading their notes and highlighting them is effective revision. It is not. For students to retain information they must process it - perhaps into flash cards, quizzes and graphic organisers. The more they use the information, repurpose it, and test themselves, the better. It is also far more beneficial to start early and study in short bursts. It is actually important to allow yourself time to forget the information and then retrieve it again. This is like super glue for your long term memory. 

The other colossal mistake students mistake is to listen to music while they study. Many believe that listening to music aids their ability to study, but in reality, the music competes with the study material for attention. Learning is essentially a change in your long term memory and it requires us to get new information past our working memory and encoded into our long term memory in such a way that we can retrieve it. This process can be derailed very easily by overwhelming the limited space in our short term memory by extra sensory input in the form of music.

This concept has been extensively researched and the question of whether listening to music aids study has been answered. This is a summary of the findings:  

• Students who revised in quiet environments performed more than 60% better in an exam than their peers who revised while listening to music that had lyrics.
• Students who revised while listening to music without lyrics did better than those who had revised to music with lyrics.
• It made no difference if students revised listening to songs they like or disliked. Both led to a reduction in their test performance.
• Students who revised in silence rated their environment as less distracting and accurately predicted that this would lead to better performances in subsequent tests.

Despite considerable evidence to the contrary, many students are convinced that they should have their phones with them and their music on while studying. I hope we can all work together to change their minds.

Below are the details about our school derived grade exams and the NCEA exams in November. Please read carefully.

Please see https://study.rutherford.school.nz for the derived grade and NCEA exams schedules.

At a glance (put this bit on the fridge)

• Derived Grade Exams (DGEs): Tuesday 15 Sept – Tuesday 22 Sept 
• Why they matter: If a student can’t sit an NCEA external because of illness or emergency, we can only submit a mark if we have valid stored evidence gathered under exam conditions e.g., DGEs). No stored grade, no mark.
• If there is an unforeseen event such as an evacuation or a prolonged power or WIFI outage, a derived grade may be needed. Schools do not have paper exams as a back up should the digital assessment platform/wifi go down.
• NCEA external exams: Tue 10 Nov – Fri 4 Dec
• Best place to prepare: study.rutherford.school.nz (study advice + revision sheets)
• If your child is sick on an NCEA exam day: Stay home, contact us immediately, We’ll guide you through an NZQA Derived Grade application if you miss a NCEA exam. 
• Applications for derived grades are only made if there is evidence of a valid medical reason or a significant event. If you are seeking medical evidence the medical professional must fill in an NZQA form. Contact reception and we can email it to you.

Ngā mihi nui, 

Gary Moore