Read the latest news from Rutherford College

Kia ora te whanau ō te Kōtuku

The big rocks in the jar analogy.

Close your eyes and imagine a 1 litre jar. The contents in this jar represent your life. Big rocks are the important things like your family, education, your friends, your wellbeing and your passions.

The pebbles are the other important things in your life, your job, your house, your car.

The sand is everything else, the small stuff. If you put the sand in first, you won't have any room, for the big rocks or the pebbles. The same is true in life, if you allow yourself to get distracted and focus all your energy on the small stuff (social media) you won’t have time for what you agreed with yourself, are the big-ticket items in your life.

Pay attention to the things that are crucial to your happiness, take care of the big rocks first. Don’t make too many big rock priorities, be selective. Set your priorities and then keep a clear focus on achieving this with thoughtful and regular planning and review.

Remember to remember what’s important now?

Now is the time to refocus or stay focused and take the next step forward as to what is important now while keeping an eye on the rest of 2026 and beyond. What’s important now is sometimes a sacrifice with the end in mind? It may mean you need to prune some of the pebbles and sand from your daily life to ensure you are giving the required time to the big rocks.

When you take control and plan you start to influence the situation with your own efforts, the result is that anxiety reduces, and productivity and effectiveness increases.

Allocating the required time to the big rocks is a good way to not live in a state of overwhelm.

Rutherford Hall of Distinction Awards open.

The Rutherford College Hall of Distinction, inaugurated in October 2025, honors distinguished alumni who have achieved exceptional success in their fields and made significant contributions to the community. The inaugural 2025 inductees included Dame Cindy Kiro, Pio Terei, Oscar Kightley, Yvonne Willering, and Professor Alan Barber.

Inaugural Inductees (October 13, 2025) [1]

·                     Dame Cindy Kiro: Governor-General of New Zealand.

·                     Pio Terei: Entertainer.

·                     Oscar Kightley: Actor and director.

·                     Yvonne Willering: Netball coach.

·                     Professor Alan Barber: Neurologist. 

Purpose and Nominations

·                     Recognition: The Hall of Distinction celebrates former students who have reached the top of their industries or made major contributions to the Arts, Business, Sport, or Public Service.

·                     Ceremony: The inaugural ceremony was held at the school on October 13, 2025.

·                     Nominations: Nominations for these prestigious alumni awards are managed by the school to recognize outstanding contributions to the community.

This 2026 nominations are now open. Please click on the link to nominate an individual. Nominations close on Tuesday 30 June, 2026.  

https://forms.gle/ue7CR8HCvBxNfpCF7

Parent and Child Breakfast

You are warmly invited to attend our annual Rutherford College Parent & Child Breakfast on Thursday 11 June, starting at 7.30am in the Info Comms building.

This special event is a wonderful opportunity to spend some quality time with your child before the school day begins, enjoy a delicious variety breakfast together, and meet our Senior Leadership Team.

Tickets can be purchased here: https://www.trybooking.com/nz/BDMU

This event sells out fast, so make sure you get your tickets early. 

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 if you already have an account.

What's coming up? 

29 May Class Photos

02 June Sports Photos 

03 June Cultural Photos

11 June Parent and Child Breakfast

Ngā mihi 

Gary Moore