Read the latest news from Rutherford College

Kia ora te whanau ō te Kōtuku

It was a special occasion on Saturday morning at the Te Atatū Community Centre as locals gathered to observe and remember our fallen at the annual ANZAC Day ceremony.

Our head students Sasha Hickman and Aayan Ghoshal had been given the honour of addressing the people gathered to share their thoughts about what ANZAC day means to them. The words resonate but what the words on paper cannot reflect is how well their head, heart and soul was connected to what they were saying. Read Aayan's Speech and Sasha's Speech.

As we head deeper into the year, I have just looked back at the New Year's resolutions that I made at the start of the year to help keep myself accountable to the promises I made to myself and to others. There are one or two things on that list that I have decided to prune, to make space for the most important items, to have the room to grow and flourish. Can I encourage that you have a similar conversation with your rangatahi. First as a chance to reflect and review positively on the progress made but also to take an honest look at where the gaps are. This will indicate where energy and attention might need to flow more often. This process is timely, on the back of PSST conferences last night. 

Thank you to the many parents and caregivers who attended our Parent/Student/Teacher conferences last night. We had a fantastic turnout, with the majority of our teachers fully booked throughout the evening. It was wonderful to see such a high level of engagement, and the "buzz" around the school reflected the many positive, productive conversations taking place regarding our students' progress and goals for the year ahead. 

Changes in Junior Assessment as NCEA is Phased Out in 2028

For Year 9 Families

If you have had children at secondary school before, you may be familiar with the four level NCEA grading scale: Not Achieved, Achieved, Merit, Excellence New Zealand’s national assessment system is changing. Your child, as part of the current Year 9 cohort, will be among the first to move through this updated system. To prepare students for these changes, we are adjusting how we assess and report learning in Year 9.

What is changing?

We are moving from a 4-level scale to a 5-point scale:

Emerging → Developing → Consolidating → Proficient → Exceeding

This allows us to give more detailed and meaningful feedback about student progress.

What the 5-point scale means

• Emerging: Beginning to learn key concepts and skills. Requires regular support.
• Developing: Building understanding. Can demonstrate learning in familiar situations but still needs guidance.
• Consolidating: Working towards expectations. Showing most required skills with growing consistency.
• Proficient: Meeting expectations. Applies learning independently across a range of contexts.
• Exceeding: Above expectations. Demonstrates deep understanding and can apply learning in complex situations.

How to interpret your child’s progress

• Consolidating → Working towards the expected level
• Proficient → Meeting the expected level
• Exceeding → Working above the expected level

What this looks like in subjects

• Mathematics (and similar subjects): Students may receive percentage scores for tests.
• English, Social Studies (and similar subjects): Students will be assessed using the 5-point scale, based on the quality of their thinking, writing, and understanding.

Why are we making this change?

These changes:

• align with the new national direction for assessment
• provide clearer and more detailed feedback
• help students understand their progress before senior school

I have no doubt there will be adjustments to the grading systems used as the parameters of the new qualification system become clearer. You can expect regular communication on these qualification and assessment changes as your child progresses towards the senior school.

NCEA Co-requisite Literacy and Numeracy Exams (CAAs)

In Week 5 of Term 2, our Year 10 students will sit the NCEA Co-requisite Literacy and Numeracy assessments (CAAs).

These include three exams:

• Writing
• Reading
• Numeracy

These assessments measure functional literacy and numeracy skills, and students must pass all three to gain NCEA at Levels 1, 2, and 3.

Starting Tuesday 19 May, Year 10 students will sit:

• One assessment per day

• Across three days (May 19–21)

Year 11-13 students who are yet to pass the Co-requisite exams will sit the assessments in Week 6.

This is the first of two opportunities to meet the co-requisite in 2026. A second opportunity will be available in September.

What should students expect?

Some students may find these assessments challenging. We are encouraging Year 10 students to treat this first sitting as a practice opportunity. It is completely normal for students to need a second attempt later in the year.

How are we preparing students?

We are supporting students by:

• Setting up their NZQA online exam accounts
• Familiarising them with the types of questions in each assessment

How can parents help?

You can support your child by:

• Ensuring they bring their device to school and it connects to the school network
• Encouraging them to practise using past papers on our study website: study.rutherford.school.nz

KINDO is up and running

We are pleased to inform you that Kindo is up and running at Rutherford College. Many of you will already be using it at other schools so it will be an easy transition. We urge you to sign up and create an account if you don't already have one. This is a one stop shop to pay for any school related items.  Find out more here. All payments should be made through this platform from now on. 

Sign up to Kindo here. You can log into Kindo directly from the SchoolBridge Dashboard.

Road Safety Week - 4 -10 May

Road Safety Week is coordinated annually by Brake and involves hundreds of schools, organisations and communities each year.

Brake is a road safety charity that works to prevent road deaths and injuries, make streets and communities safer, and supports the victims of road crashes. Brake started Road Safety Week in New Zealand in 2012 as an annual event to raise awareness and promote steps that everyone can take to stop these needless deaths and injuries year-round. Brake has also coordinated Road Safety Week in the UK since 1997.

Road Safety Week aims to inspire communities to take action on road safety and promote life-saving messages during the Week and beyond. It also provides a focal point for professionals working in road safety to boost awareness and engagement in their work.

The theme of Road Safety Week 2026 (4-10 May) is Be a road safety hero, recognising everyone who helps to make our roads safer and support people after a crash, and explaining how we can all play a part in making journeys safer for everyone.

Everyone can be a Road Safety Hero. Road Safety Week 2026 recognises everyone who is working to make our roads safer and support people following crashes - from emergency services to health professionals, transport engineers to school crossing patrols, road workers to community campaigners. It also enables everyone who uses roads to understand how they can take responsibility for their own safety and the safety of others. 

School Policies and Procedures

Rutherford College subscribes to SchoolDocs for all policies and procedures. All members of the community can view these documents and also review them if they are open for comment during each term.

In term two we have the following policies open to review:

School Swimming Pool
Education Outside the Classroom (EOTC)
EOTC Governance Roles and Responsibilities
EOTC Risk Assessment and Management.

To Review a policy login in to SchoolDocs. Our username is: rutherfordcollege and the password is: kotuku.

Click on the blue review tab and to see what is open for comment. Staff, students and whanau can read and provide feedback which will be considered by the board at their monthly meetings.

What's Coming Up?
6 and 7 May - Studio Show - Find out more here.
8 May - Quiz Night
15 May - Pink Shirt Day - Mufti for students (wear pink).

Ngā mihi 

Gary Moore