Kia ora Rutherford whānau,

Term 3 has been a busy term for the students of Rutherford House. The main focus of the House competition has been on Senior Winterfest, House Choir and the Senior Public Speaking Competition. We have also been busy with your annual fundraiser for the Salvation Army’s food bank.

For House Choir this year we had a “theme” of Power Ballads to go with our other category of waiata. The team chose two items: Bon Jovi’s 'Living on a Prayer' and for the waiata they chose 'Te iwi E'. I may have said this before, but I love House Choir. I don’t believe any other House event brings people together the way that House Choir does. This year I was really unsure how we would go. We had an ambitious plan of what we wanted to achieve for the songs and they literally came together on the day. House Choir offers the student leaders some wonderful opportunities to problem solve; lead their peers and meet the challenges that come with leading your peers. I’d like to thank the Exec for their hard work that they put in and also pass on my special thanks to Max Cunningham, Archie Thompson and Jonty Howard for their work on the guitars.

Whilst on the topic of the Exec, we have appointed our Junior Exec this term. Congratulations to Jonty Howard, Samantha Perry, Jackson Wright and Chloe Wilkinson for being appointed to our leadership group. They came through their first assembly “unscathed”, doing a great job in the absence of our Seniors.

Senior Winterfest has just completed. This was exciting to watch with some brilliant team work. We had hoped to go through undefeated, however the last game was scored as a draw due to an emergency evacuation taking place. Senior Public Speaking will be taking place in the last week of the term, so we hope to maintain our slim lead in the House competition. We wish our participants luck for this hotly contested event. Term four will see the Annual House Quizzes and Junior Summerfest become the deciding events for the House Competition.

Also this term we undertook our annual “Can drive” for the Rangiora branch of the Salvation Army’s foodbank. Thank you so much for the contribution that was made to help our community. Approximately 1,400 food items were donated to the Salvation Army, which many people and families will be ever so grateful for. This year has been full of unprecedented times due to COVID 19, and there are likely more to come. We are so proud to have done our part and our donations we know that will have made a difference. The Rutherford Can drive is something we love to be a part of every year and this year was a great opportunity to show we stand united and we are eager to help our fellow Kiwis. The students chose to use the word “United” as a symbol this year.

All the best for a relaxing and well deserved break.