Rutherford House News

2022 started a bit like the plot for a dystopian novel and it has thrown up its fair share of challenges and successes. We started the year under the government’s traffic light framework system at orange and ended the year mask free and with restrictions gone.

This did mean that the year started without the usual House Sports day. For the last 4 years Rutherford has won this event, so we’ll have to wait until 2023 to see if title number 5 will happen. I’ve tried to include some highlights of how the year went.

Our first placing in the Junior House quiz and a second placing in the Senior House quiz got us off to a great start for the year. This was followed by our seniors winning the Senior Winterfest and our Juniors being in a 3 way tie for the Junior competition. Cassie’s words of encouragement sum up our start to the year “Good job Rutherford! Keep up the amazing House spirit and keep showing up to House events. We are on a roll and we want to keep it that way!´- Cassie Taylor

Next up was the Year 9 Haka contest. Maya sums this up well. “I loved the Year 9 Haka competition. Rutherford really got into it. The Juniors seem to have embraced the House spirit and it was really pleasing to see everyone perform. Good work team!”- Maya James

Our highlight for the Public Speaking contest was the fact that one of our Juniors, Kiera-Lee McLachlan took out the prize for top Junior speaker. This was a fantastic effort.

In August, we were really pleased to continue our support of the Salvation Army’s Rangiora Foodbank. This is such a worthy cause and seems to run like clockwork each year.

"We have had several exciting house events this term, one being the Rutherford Can Drive/non uniform day. This was a big success in bringing together RHS Students with the shared goal of supporting the Rangiora Salvation Army Food Bank. " – Lydia Smith

For Choir, the theme this year was “Tribute”. Houses had to decide on an artist to pay tribute to and present one of their songs. Our song for the event was “I’m still standing” by Elton John; while our Waiata was “He Honore” . In the end, we were placed fourth. Well done to Ngata House for winning the event, your performance was fantastic!

“Although choir was a bit of a struggle at the beginning, the end product was amazing and I am so proud of everyone that participated. Great job Rutherford!” - India Higby

At one stage we were worried about being “the team that defaulted” FilmFest. It was held at the end of a busy exam week and many of our students were, understandably, exhausted. Luckily, Lucy and Lilly stepped up and said “No worries Mr Sim, we’ll make it happen.” The theme was “A race against time”.

“Film fest was super fun experience that was jam packed and super busy but the end result was definitely worth it and we are super excited to show everyone what we produced!” - Lilly Burbury.

I’d like to thank the Student Exec this year for all that they have done. Their sense of teamwork has been amazing, their communication with me impeccable, their enthusiasm for the House events relentless and their leadership has been valued by all. The team have been brilliant role models for the House and I’d like to thank them for their service.