Read the latest news from Rutherford College

Kia ora te whanau ō te Kōtuku

Do Less and Obsess

Carrying on the theme from last week’s introduction of how to place your focus where energy needs to go, into things that make a difference.  Be intentional with what you choose to do. Putting time and energy into outstanding performance in the right areas by taking lots of little deliberate steps towards that goal. Firstly, know what’s important now. Making a short list of these things is helpful.

Start a pathway to; Do Less and Obsess. This will allow you to keep the promise you made to yourself to spend time on what you said was important to you.

When we want to get better and grow, just like in a garden, we need to prune away that stuff that is preventing new good growth.  Sometimes we need to be a bit ruthless with things that are holding back our future growth.  It is also important to prune things from our to do list before we try to add something extra. If you are already busy, the new harder to learn skill will be the first to have time taken away from it while our brain sends us back to, the comfort of what we already know how to do.

Before you start to prune consider completing a time in motion exercise. This will help you to discover time leakages and also things that we do that are just not necessary.

Write down in a weekly planning sheet what you spend time doing over a week.  This will help discover how much time is wasted on things that do not link to what we say is important. How many things are just unnecessary fillers.

Sports Team Photographs - 4th June
Venue: School Hall
The Schedule for team and groups photographs can be found here. Please check when you are due for a photo and make sure to bring your sports uniform along next week if it specifies that in the schedule.

Attendance and Reporting an Absence

This is just a reminder that if your son or daughter is away sick or not able to attend school, please report the absence via the School Portal. This also includes when you are going on a holiday during term time. You should note that this is recorded as an unjustified absence. Use the "other" section in the Absences Tab for reporting holidays.

If you need to pick your son or daughter up during the school day for an appointment, please make sure you request an exit pass the day before. You can do this via the Report an Absence function on the School Portal, by choosing 'exit pass' under the absence tab. This will ensure you son or daughter is available when you need to pick them up. If you do not do this, you can expect a delay of up to 20 minutes while we locate them and arrange for them to sign out.

For a explanation of what is a justified or unjustified absence, click here.

Dropping off or Picking Up Students before or after school

Due to congestion at peak times before and after school we recommend you drop your son or daughter off in the Church carpark on Old Te Atatu Road. They can walk the remainder of the way to school. This is a health and safety issue and the best way to keep our young people safe, especially those who are getting to and from the primary school. There is very little room on Kotuku Street when we have buses trying to navigate this space as well. Thank you for your assistance. 

Incident at School 29 May

The school did have an incident of a non-Rutherford student being on site on 29 May which resulted in the police attending. We took direction from the Police and the school did not go into lockdown although we were prepared to do so if necessary. There were no weapons involved and senior staff were on hand to manage the situation at the time. Support has been offered to all students who may have been affected by the incident from the counselling department. If your son or daughter needs to talk about the situation please contact their Dean or the counsellors direct via counsellor[email protected]. 

Events coming up

02 June - King's Birthday - School Closed
03-06 June - Samoan Language Week
12 June - Parents Breakfast - Book your ticket here- 7.30 to 8.30am $20 pp
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

Gary Moore