Good afternoon School. Please be seated and welcome to everyone who is joining us online today.

I’d like to invite Deputy Head Boy Hopa Keelan forward to deliver today’s reading

Today’s reading comes from 2 Corinthians Chapter 8, Verses 8-9

But since you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you —see that you also excel in this grace of giving.

I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others.

This is the word of the Lord (Thanks be to god)

Rectors Comments:  

Thank you Hopa. 

Today I’ve got on screen a man staring into a mirror. I want you to imagine that you are staring into a mirror just like this man as I read a short poem to you. It’s called the man in the glass.

When you get what you want in your struggle for self

And the world makes you king for a day

Just go to the mirror and look at yourself

And see what that man has to say.

For it isn’t your father, or mother, or wife

Whose judgment upon you must pass

The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life

Is the one staring back from the glass.

He’s the fellow to please – never mind all the rest

For he’s with you, clear to the end

And you’ve passed your most difficult, dangerous test

If the man in the glass is your friend.

You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years

And get pats on the back as you pass

But your final reward will be heartache and tears

If you’ve cheated the man in the glass.

This poem lays down a challenge to the reader. It challenges us to question whether the success we have in life and the rewards and recognition we receive stand up to the ultimate test of whether we are good human beings.

A few examples for you to consider:

1. You might be the popular, cool, guy who everyone else follows. It feels good. People look up you. You’ve been told you’re a natural leader. When you look in the mirror and stare into your own eyes, you remind yourself of the mean things you said to someone that day, to put him down and make him feel small. So you don’t deserve all those accolades you receive about being a great guy. You’ve cheated the man in the glass.
2. You might be the best player in your rugby team. Everyone marvels at your skills. You score the winning try in the game. It feels great, until that night, you look at the man in the glass and you’re reminded of the disrespectful things you said to the opposition players when you scored the try, the way you rubbed it in when the final whistle went, the lack of humility.
3. Finally, you receive an Excellence grade for some school work that was not your own original work. You’ve taken short cuts, copying off friends. Your teacher congratulates you on your improvement. Says how pleased she is with your work. The man in the glass knows differently though.

It’s a bit like that idea of being able to put your head down on the pillow at bed time and fall asleep straight away, because you’ve had a good day, you’ve been a good young man, you’ve helped others when they needed it and you’ve been kind and honest and unselfish. You can look yourself in the mirror and say yep – that was another good day. I did the right thing today. I was a good man today.

It's a great poem, a short poem. Google the guy in the glass or man in the glass or come and see me in my office I’ll print you a copy. Refer to it from time to time to remind yourself of the sort of person you want to be. Don’t cheat the man in the glass.

For it isn’t your father, or mother, or wife

Whose judgment upon you must pass

The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life

Is the one staring back from the glass.

A simple but powerful message.

It’s now time for our assembly hymn and we’re doing things a little bit differently today with the chapel band not here, so Mr Harrison & Mr Stuart will lead us in singing the school hymn Amazing Grace.

Please be seated and thank you Mr Harrison & Mr Stuart. 

Mr Howlett will now announce some academic awards, which will be presented to students who were absent from our academic assembly earlier this term.

Academic Awards:

Centurions (GPA Score in the subject of 100%)

Chris Proctor            L1 Economics, L1 General Science

Archie Park              L2 Physics

Finn Balchin             L2 Chemistry

Armaan Kumar        L2 Mathematics

Year 12 Rectors Citations 2022 Academic Year

Jonty Bothamley

Academic Ties - SILVER TIE: Grade Point Average of 70%+ in best 5 Subjects

Nathan Campbell

Harry  Huxford

GOLD TIE: Grade Point Average of 90%+ in Best 5 Subjects - with Distinction

Keaton Pitcher 

Academic Colours (Grade Point Average of 70%+ in best 4 Subjects)

Callum O'Keeffe.

Callum is also receiving an Academic Centurion 100% GPA in Level 2 Physical Education

Academic Colours with Distinction (Grade Point Average of 90%+ in Best 4 Subjects for NCEA 2022)

Archie Park

Thomas Turner  

Rector speaks

I would like to welcome Lachlan up to present our latest sports report

Good afternoon I am pleased to be able to read today’s sports news.

FUTSAL

Junior Futsal Sunday Competition

A fantastic start to Round 1 for our Lindisfarne Juniors vs Hastings Boys High.  Arama in goal making many fine saves kept Hastings Boys to just 2 goals while we were able to score 7 with Carter Lachmund scoring 4, Andrew Wakefield 2 and Marley Hekenui 1. Post that game and many Sunday fixtures our Junior team has progressed to the semi finals to be played this Sunday.

Senior Sunday Futsal Competition

Our senior team had a solid start and a hard fought win over a good Hastings Boys High School team winning 2-1. The whole team made significant contributions to produce the win. They backed this up with wins over Taradale, Havelock North high School and just last Sunday Napier Boys High School. This has set them up to play Napier in a two-leg final starting this Sunday against Napier Boys High School.

SKIING

Olly Wilkins has just returned home from being away for 2 months training and racing in Switzerland.

At the end of last year Olly was selected for the New Zealand Alpine FIS Youth Ski team and placed 1st in under 14 age group and is 3rd seed.

During his time overseas, Olly raced in Folgaria, Italy at the Federation of International skiing Youth Children's World Cup with the New Zealand team. He came 32nd overall and 5th for his Year group. This is the biggest race for Youth Skiers in the world.  What an outstanding result and congratulations Olly.

SAILING

Carl Marshall had an amazing regatta up in the Bay of Islands last month.  It was a tough competition with trying conditions due to the approaching Cyclone, and despite two equipment failures, he has maintained his place in NZ as the under 17 age champion. Congratulations Carl.

Finn Balchin recently competed in the Oceanbridge NZ Sailing Regatta in the 420 category.  This is the country’s premier youth and Olympic class event and regularly has a strong field of international competitors alongside New Zealand’s top dinghy sailors.  Finn and teammate Jed from New Plymouth Boys High School had an awesome day on Day three and very nearly took out the win if it wasn't for a knot in their spinnaker halyard while in the lead. Second was a great result in such a high profile regatta.

LINDISFARNE v RATHKEALE SUMMER EXCHANGE 2023

Our Colts A Cricket batted first, and we scored 159 off 30 overs. Andrew Wakefield 62, Leo Kirkland 55 and Tom Raggett 20. Rathkeale in reply scored 102 off their 30 overs for 8 down. Wickets shared evenly amongst the bowlers.

Our 2^nd Xl Cricket also batted first.  We scored 177 all out which was a great recovery from 60 for 7. The recovery was lead by Archie Absolom scoring 21, Charlie Wenley 24 and bit hitting from Flynn Ellingham finishing on 70. In reply Charlie Ross and Charlie Wenley took regular wickets and dismissed Rathkeale for 90 with a few overs to spare.

Our Senior and Junior top 16 tennis players were combined and then ranked.  Saul Ramonteu-Chiros playing number 1 as a year 10 player was always going to find it tough against his experienced year 13 and rep player from Rathkeale College. This was an excellent match though with both boys hitting good angles with pace on the ball. Other matches to highlight was Freddy Hoggard fighting back after being down in the first set to win in straight sets including a tie breaker. Tom Baines and Charlie Titter also combined well to secure a tight doubles win. Overall 23-1 win to Lindisfarne.

Our 1^st Xl Cricket had a 3 day match.  On a bowler friendly wicket and a low scoring match Lindisfarne played superbly to win the match with a superb 101 for 4 down in the final innings. Prior to this batting performance and the nature of the wicket this looked like a bridge too far before the start of the innings. Some notable highlights from the match were Finn Reid taking 5-33 in the first innings along with Gordy Chatfield taking 4-5, and Jack Sunckell taking 3-9 in the second innings. Batting, three notable knocks came from Finn Reid 38, Oscar McDonald 26 and George Mowat 26. This was a close game that could have gone either way and it was good to see the whole team rally at times when runs or wickets were crucial to secure the win.

Thank you to the staff who were involved with the trip, Mr Hay, Mr Kane, Mr Fall, Mr Duff and Mr Petersen

COLLEGE TRACK & FIELD CHAMPS

On Friday we held our college athletics day and were lucky to have such nice weather.  It was good to see the involvement of so many boys.  There was some very tight and exciting competition between athletes.

In the individual championships these are the placings:

In the intermediate school:  1^st      Patch Leipst 

                                             2^nd     Spencer Bruce 

                                             3^rd     James Ogborn 

In the juniors:                         1^st      Jay Ladette-Pinfold 

                                               2^nd     Nakaia Waitere 

                                               3^rd     August Popodich 

In the intermediates              1^st      Angus Scott      

                                              2^nd     Ronan Brier    

                                              3^rd     Leonardo Kirkland    

In the senior:                          1^st      Callum O’Keeffe 

                                               2^nd     Jonty Roil 

                                               3^rd     Rene O’Sullivan 

The overall house results:     In 4^th place was Aidan

                                              In 3^rd place was Durham

                                              In 2^nd place was Oswald

Which makes Cuthbert 2023 athletics champions

Thank you and to everyone have a fantastic rest of your day and weekend.

Rector

Thank you, Lachlan.

House Banners

You would have noticed the incredible house banners at Athletics Day, which were created by members of each house.

There’s obviously a lot of thought, time, and effort that goes into the creation of the banners in order to get them ready for the first event of the year, and then our Art Department judges them to provide a ranking and overall winner of the house banner competition.

The criteria for judging the banners are:

1. Use of House colour
2. Composition (that is what’s included)
3. The overall message and use of the other 3 houses in the banner
4. Hierarchy (which means the relative importance of elements of the banner)
5. And finally the level of skill applied in producing the banner.

I’d like to congratulate all boys involved in the creation of the banners as they are outstanding and we get to enjoy them for the rest of the year at our various events.

So the results are in and here is the rank order for 2023:

4^th Aidan

3rd Cuthbert

2^nd Durham

1^st Oswald.

A special congratulations to Michael Davis, Zion Perrott and House Captain Jonty Roil for all their hard work on behalf of Oswald.

I would like to update you on the rescheduling of the College Production, The Addams Family.

Due to the time lost at school after Cyclone Gabrielle, the performance week of the Addams Family production with Woodford House has been pushed out to the end of week 2 of term 2.

The five shows will now run between Friday 5^th May and Monday 8^th May. Tickets will go on sale in a few weeks’ time. 

That brings our assembly to a close.

Tomorrow is swimming sports and so I hope you have a fun and competitive day to finish off the week before the mid term break.

We are past the mid point of the term now. There are four weeks to go and it has been a disrupted term and so please make sure you’re keeping on top of the class work and assignments as the work starts to pile on from this point forward.

Congratulations to everyone who has been acknowledged today and I’ll now invite Reverend Dunnett to close our assembly in prayer.

Article added: Friday 10 March 2023