I’d like to invite Sports Prefect Sam Cassidy forward to deliver today’s reading

Todays’ reading comes from Ephesians 4, Chapter 29-32

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

This is the word of the Lord (thanks be to God)

Rectors Comments:

Thank you, Sam. This week we’ve been celebrating anti-bullying or bully-free week. I chose today’s reading for the words that Sam read, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs.”

Bullying in Aotearoa New Zealand is a real problem. We have the third-highest rate of school bullying out of 36 developed countries and one in 10 workers feels discriminated against or bullied at work. Those bullied are far more likely to experience mental health issues.

Pink Shirt Day works to reduce bullying by celebrating diversity in all its forms and supporting schools, workplaces and communities to be safe, supportive, welcoming and inclusive for everyone. Well done everyone for making the effort to wear your pink shirts to symbolise your opposition to bullying and in support of those who are the victims of bullying. Pink Shirt Day began in Canada in 2007 when two students took a stand against homophobic bullying, after a peer was bullied for wearing a pink shirt.

Remember it is about celebrating diversity. That means showing respect to others regardless of how different they are to you and how different their beliefs and attitudes about thing might be to you. If you’re wearing mufti today and hopefully wearing pink you are celebrating the fact that we’re all different. What a boring world it would be if we were all the same.

Respecting diversity can be a challenge for some because they feel threatened by others’ differences. They’re so use to their own world view and values and their attitudes are so ingrained through their own upbringing that they can’t deal with people who don’t match their experiences. And one way that people express their inability to accept that others are different to them, is to bully them. To pick on them. They can’t just accept that others don’t align with their values, attitudes, beliefs, interests, etc and rather than live and let live, they bully.

So what is bullying? Whether bullying is physical, verbal, or done through social media there are four factors that can be used to identify it:

1. Bullying is deliberate - harming another person intentionally

2. Bullying involves a misuse of power in a relationship

3. Bullying is usually not a one-off - it is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated over time

4. Bullying involves behaviour that can cause harm - it is not a normal part of growing up.

Bullying can happen anywhere, in person or online (cyberbullying), at any time. It can be obvious or hidden.

People who bully use their power — such as physical strength, knowing something embarrassing, or popularity — to control or harm others. Bullying is when one student (or a group of students) keeps picking on another student again and again to make them feel bad. They say or do things to upset them, make fun of them, stop them from joining in, or keep hitting or punching them.

Bullying is unkind and cruel. Who would want to be a bully? It sounds like an awful way to spend your time if you ask me. Think about the people who you respect in your life and ask yourself if they exhibit bullying behaviour. If they do, stop respecting them because they don’t deserve your respect.

I know Reverend Dunnett and your Deans have been promoting the value of respect in chapels and assemblies this week, and reminding you that we aspire to be a school that rejects bullying in all its forms and so I have the privilege of having the last word on this issue for this week. I do want to remind you though that whilst this has been our anti-bullying week and today is the day we wear pink, this is not an issue that’s isolated to one day or one week, and it will take a tremendous amount of courage and strength for us to stamp out bullying in our college, because it does exist and it is a problem that we have to face up to.

One way to tackle bullying in our college is to be an upstander, not a bystander

A bystander is a person who sees or knows a bullying incident is occurring to someone else and ignores it.

An Upstander is a person who uses words and actions that can help someone who is being bullied.

What actions you can take if you feel safe enough to do so?

1. Support the person experiencing bullying

• Even if you just stand beside them and let them know you’ve got their back.

• Encourage them to ask a teacher for help or go with them to get help.

• Let them know they’re not alone!

2. Distract

• Interrupt the bullying in some way:

• Help the victim to leave the situation they’re in.

• If one of your friends is a bully, try to move him on

3. Call it!

• If you feel safe to, let the person/people doing the bullying know what they’re doing isn’t okay.

• Use your words to show kindness to those involved.

• Don’t stand by and watch. It can be hard to speak up in the moment but it can make a huge difference.

4. Leave and act

• If you don’t feel safe to step in while the bullying is happening:

• Move away from the situation.

• Later, let the person experiencing the bullying know you saw and ask what might help.

• You might have the confidence to have a quiet word with the person doing the bullying.

5. Get some other help

• Support the person being bullied to get help from others – teachers, prefects, some other trusted adult perhaps.

Please reflect on whether you bully others. Are you bullying someone in your life now? Going back to our reading at the start, you will know if what comes out of your mouth is helpful for building others up. Think about that. When you are moving around the school, in class, at trainings, in the hostel, on the bus home……..do you say things that build people up, or put people down, embarrasses them, intimidates them? Perhaps by wearing pink today, this is the day that you choose a different path. This is the day that you start to show kindness and respect to others and respect diversity amongst our community and live according to our values. It will take courage if bullying has become a habit for you, so be courageous and make the right choice, not the easy one.

If you’re the victim of bullying, please reach out. Come and talk to your teachers, to me, to the prefects. We want to support you and we want to tackle bullying in our College because it’s not right and all students have a right to feel safe and respected at Lindisfarne College.

Finally, thank you to the vast majority of you who live by our College Christian values and do not bully or stand by while others bully. Thank you for building a positive environment for others at Lindisfarne and thank you for celebrating diversity and accepting that we are all different and that’s just the way we want it to be.
 

Please join with me in singing Highways in Heart.

Excellence Awards

We have two Academic Excellence awards to hand out today. Could I please asks Tukotahi Tiakitai to come forward. Tukotahi has achieved Excellence in two Level 3 Science papers this term.

Cultural Report:

I’ll now invite Cultural Prefect James Kennedy to give his report:

Manu Korero Speech Competition

The annual Manu Korero Regional speech competition kicked off this morning at EIT. The Manu Korero is a highly competitive and prestigious speech competition which is regarded as the biggest speech competition on the māori calendar. In Hawke’s Bay, participants can either choose to enter in the Māori or English sections. This year Heremia McGarvey and Noah Rogers will be representing our school with a group of boys going along to support both boys with a haka after each speech. Over the last few months, these boys have sacrificed many hours alongside Matua Pomare, practicing and mastering their speeches. Noah is competing in the Junior English section and Heremia will be competing in the senior Māori section. Heremia’s speech is around 12 minutes, all in Māori. We wish the boys all the best for their Korero today.

Matariki

I’m sure all the boys enjoyed having an extra day in the weekend just been for Matariki. However, it is important we realise Matariki is more than just a free day off school. Matariki is a part of a cluster of nine stars and is visible in the early morning night sky, just before

sunrise, at this time of the year. Māori believed this is a sign of the new year. A few weekends ago, the kapa haka boys and I put down a hāngī to celebrate Matariki. Other than being a fantastic meal, it was a great experience to be a apart of the hāngī. Overall, Matariki is a time of celebration, remembering loved ones who have passed away and to look forward to the future. Mānawatia a Matariki – Celebrate and honour Matariki.

St Columba’s Concert Last Thursday, the jazz, symphonic, and pipe bands travelled to the St Columba’s Presbyterian Church in Havelock North to perform a lunchtime concert. Each band performed exceptionally well and displayed a vast array of different styles and genres within their music. The boys put a lot of hard work into preparing for this concert, and it was fantastic to see the audience being so receptive to the musicians. It was an excellent opportunity for the boys to perform their music and a great way to give back to the community. The audience was also treated to a solo performance on guitar from Eli Rabbitte.

House Music House music is right around the corner, with only one more week to prepare. Every house member must be confident with their song lyrics to give their house the best chance to succeed in the competition. House leaders should be working on a walk-on/walk-off song to ensure their house can get on and off the stage effectively. There will House Music practices on next week on Tuesday and Wednesday morning, and the walk-on-off practice is on Thursday after lunch in the gym, along with practices for the ensembles, rock groups, and solos.

Thank you, James.

I now invite the Jazz Band to come forward for their performance.

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE THE SPORTS REPORT

We have one final award today. As you know Fergus Morunga produced a fantastic film this year ‘The Good the Bad and the Elderly” and many of you got to see that movie. What you may not know is that proceeds from ticket sales were donated to The Starship Foundation, NZ’s national children’s hospital and health care service for children all over NZ. Last week there was a screening of the movie at the retirement village where some of the filming took place and they had a collection as a contribution toward Fergus’ fundraising efforts. As a result of this, Fergus made a significant donation toward Starship hospital of $570 dollars and Starship has written to him to thank Fergus for this very generous donation and provided a certificate in recognition of his efforts.

Fergus, please come forward to receive the College’s congratulations.

Congratulations, Fergus.

I hope you all have a great weekend and look forward to celebrating our final week of Term 2 together next week.

I’ll now invite Reverend Dunnett to close our assembly in prayer.

Article added: Thursday 07 July 2022