Today’s reading comes from 1 Thessalonians Chapter 5, Verses 12-13 

Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. 

Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. 

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

Rectors Comments:    
 

Today we celebrate Pink Shirt Day and I’ve been impressed with so many of you dressing up in something pink. I’m sure that by now you know that Pink Shirt Day is an opportunity to express that you stand against bullying, and that you celebrate diversity and promote kindness and inclusion. As a Christian school that calls itself a family, a small community of people who come together as one all the time, I think we can all agree that there’s no place for bullying in our whanau. Because that’s what we are. I often talk about one of the special things at Lindisfarne College being that we spend time together as a whole school often. Like in assemblies, chapels, the dining room. We share each other’s company just about every day and that’s something that we must cherish, because not many schools have that privilege. We are actually more connected to each other and so we should be more caring of each other because of this. But it’s not always the case. 

Let’s just a few moments to reflect on what we are standing against today. What is bullying?  

• Bullying is deliberate - harming another person intentionally. 

• Bullying involves a misuse of power. The person doing the bullying is often bigger, stronger, or perhaps older or more popular. 

• Bullying is usually not a one-off - it is repeated. 

• Bullying involves behaviour that can cause harm to others. That could be physical or emotional. 

Those characteristics are from the Pink Shirt day web site. I have a few of my own to throw in there, which others may not agree with: 

• Bullying tends to happen when the bully has an audience. Bullies can actually be perfectly kind to people in a one on one situation, but when their mate turns up, they feel the need to pick on vulnerable people. So bullying can actually be a social activity 

• Bullies may have been victims themselves in the past and they justify their own bullying behaviour because of this. Perhaps they are being bullied themselves, or they were bullied in the past or they have suffered some other hurt or trauma that has triggered this behaviour. 

• Bullies usually regret their behavoiur later on, when they are mature enough to realise how unkind they were. I’m sure there are lots of people who don’t go to school reunions because they were the victims of bullying at school. I actually know of a person who doesn’t go to school reunions because he has horrible memories of being a bully himself. He told me that he was very popular and very good at sport at school, but that he’d give all that up if he could go back and be kinder to other students who he behaved cruelly towards. He told me he has a fear of going to a school reunion and someone calling him out for bullying behaviour. He said he actually loved school and played in some amazing sports fixtures, but he feels he doesn’t deserve to go back there and relive those memories, because he created horrible memories for other students. The sad thing about that is that he’s a really nice person, but as a boy he was a bully. 

So perhaps reflect on that story and if you are bullying someone or treating someone unkindly and it’s becoming a habit, take the steps you need to in order to stop. Perhaps you have the willpower and self awareness to just stop, but perhaps you need to reach out to someone to help you stop this behaviour. 

If you are a victim of bullying, please reach out and talk to someone. It’s not narking – that’s a stupid word. It’s bringing it to the attention of others so that the behaviour can be stopped and there won’t be other victim in the future. Everyone has a right to feel safe and respected and so don’t put up with bullying. Tell someone you trust and get help. 

And if you see bullying, call it out. You have the power to prevent bullying! Research shows more than half of bullying situations stop when students step in to support someone. Bullies won’t bully if their peer group tells them it’s not cool, it’s not OK. So be an upstander, not a bystander. 

The final word from me on Pink shirt day is to remember to respect others for their differences. If we look across our community here at Lindisfarne College, there is so much diversity, so much difference. I don’t think it’s helpful to spend lots of time unpacking and talking about all the ways in which we are different – we’d be here all day and that’s not really the point. The important point is that we agree to respect difference. The saying live and let live means to live your own life according to the values that you have brought up with and in keeping with the choices you have made about how to love your life, but more importantly, allow others to do the same. Show them respect for the way they choose to live their lives. Who are we to judge the choices others make, when we expect them to respect our choices and our values. I think that if we remember that then we’ll all enjoy a happy life with healthy friendships and that’s the kind of world that I want to live in. 

So thank you all for celebrating Pink Shirt Day and let’s all work together each and every day to say no to bullying and to showing genuine respect to each other that acknowledges and celebrates our differences. 

It's now time for one of our school hymns-  

Please join me in singing Brother Sister Let Me Serve You 

I’ll now ask Cultural Prefect Paora Watene to deliver his cultural report.  

The Addams family 

On Friday the 5th of May, Saturday the 6th, Sunday the 7th, and Monday the 8th of May, the Lindisfarne College and Woodford House production of the Addams family was performed. All performances were a success with packed crowds every night. Congratulations to all our boys that contributed in the cast, back stage, tech and lighting, as well as many others who assisted.  A big thanks to all the staff for your organization, time, and effort to make this year’s production as great as it was. 

Impromptu speech competition 

Yesterday were the 2023 junior and senior impromptu speech competitions. I would like to firstly acknowledge all of the boys who participated in this competition as it is very challenging to present a speech in front of your peer group. The results were as follows, and could these boys please come forward to collect their certificate:  For the junior section (3rd) Arlie Du Plessis, (2nd) Dominic Goodenough, (1st) Max Tubby. For the senior section, (3rd) Chris Proctor, (2nd) Antoni Milewski, (1st) William Duncan. Congratulations to these boys. 

Pipe Band Ceilidh 

On Saturday evening the yearly pipe band Ceilidh was held in the College Hall. The word Ceilidh is the Gaelic word for “Scottish party or celebration” which is an evening of great fun where there is music and Scottish dancing. This is a special at which we announce who the Pipe Major will be for the coming year. This year the Pipe Major is Fergus Morunga. Could Fergus and please come forward to accept the pipe major sash. Congratulations Fergus.  

Sports Report from Jack Blyth 

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

IN SAILING 

Finn Balchin recently placed 2nd in NZL Ocean bridge Regatta, 2nd in the Auckland Champs, and 3rd in the Open division and finishing 4th overall at the 420 Class National Champs and made the NZ team travelling to the 420 World Championships in Alicante, Spain in July.  Well done Finn and good luck for the up-and-coming events.  Good luck Finn. 

Finn can you please come up to receive your medals ( two medals- One for 2nd in NZL Ocean Bridge, and 3rd medal for open division. He did not receive medals for the other titles.) 

IN VOLLEYBALL 

Daniel Pascoe was selected for the Hawkes Bay U16 Volleyball team to play at the Inter Provincial Championships.   The last person we got into this group was Tino Savea, as a Year 10! 

Well done Daniel. 

IN MOUNTAIN BIKING 

During the school holidays Mr Dunnett & Mr Harrison took a group of keen mountain bikers to the NZ North Island Champs in Rotorua.  The highlights from the event are: 

Charlie Wiffin came 2 of 35 in the U17 Downhill and this put him in third overall for the event. This is an incredible result. 

Tennyson Wiffin came 2 of 29 in the U15 and 16th overall for the event as an U15. This is his best result today and shows great perseverance to fight back from a broken arm at the beginning of the season. 

Noah Hemmingsen finally saw two years of dedication and perseverance pay off with two earth shattering results!   He came 8/29 in the DH and 8/18 in the Cross Country which (unofficially) means he came 1st overall for under 16. They take the DH + Cross Country and Enduro and the combine them to have an overall winner.  He also managed to win the U16 enduro, this is our first time to receive a first place as a school team and Noah did it twice in one weekend. 

Charlie, Tennyson and Noah can you come up to receive your medals 

IN FENCING 

In the national u17 event Jacob Double produced a very respectable 9th in individual Foil and 8th in Individual Epée, as well as a GOLD in Team Epée (representing the Central region).   

IN CRICKET 

Andrew Wakefield played for the Central Districts under 15 team in the national tournament in Auckland in the April holidays.  From this tournament, he was selected in the nine man NZ team to play in the Junior World Series in Dubai in late September. Reid Palmer also attended this tournament.  The U15 CD team went through quite an extensive selection process due to the numbers interested playing at this level, so is a great achievement being selected.  Tom Raggett was selected although he didn't go due to injury. Good luck Andrew for your trip and experience going to the world series. 

IN FOOTBALL 

Last Friday & Saturday was the 2nd round of football. Our 1st XI played Havelock North High School and had a very good win 6-0.  Our 2nd XI won 5-0 against Hasting Christian School. 

Junior A had a win 9 goals to 0 against Taradale High School Junior A.  Junior B played Central Hawkes Bay and had a closer game 2-1 coming away with the win. 

Good luck to the 1st XI tonight and all the other teams tomorrow. 

IN CROSS COUNTRY 

The Lindisfarne teams competed really well last week at the East Coast North Island Secondary School Cross Country Relays. One of our Y9 teams made up of Titus Dunnett, August Popadich, Cooper and Campbell Ellingham, managed to beat out NBHS for first place which was awesome. 

The Senior boys team made up of of Rene O’Sullivan, Jacob Holder, Ronan Brier, and Jett Varcoe came home in third place. Well done boys. 

Can both teams come forward to receive your medals. 

IN SHOOTING 

Last week 6 of the senior boys attended the annual Murray Luke Memorial shoot in Taupo. 

This was the first shoot of the season.  In the single rise Nathan Campbell & Owen Read 19/20. 

In 10 Single Barrel saw Will shot 10/10 

It was the first round of the North Island Clay Shoot series in Hastings on Sunday. 

In Single Rise Jonty Bothamley, Will Lowry, Nathan Campbell & Owen Read all shot 19/20. 

In points Score Will Lowry shot 57/60. 

In 20 Single Barrel Jonty Bothamley shot the only ''possible'' 20/20, a great effort with Jonty recovering from the Iona ball Saturday night apparently. 

Will Lowry shot off for Points Score & finished 3rd & Jonty won the Single Barrel with the only 20/20. 

In the teams event our A team finished 3rd. 

IN WATER POLO 

Congratulations to Finley Day and Monte Douglas in Year 9 along with their Hawkes Bay Water Polo Under 14 Boys team who came away with a Gold Medal at the Hawkes Bay Water Polo  Sunny Bay Tournament.  They were award their medals by Sir Graham Avery, Honorary Patron of Hawkes Bay Water Polo. 

The team showed great potential and real strength against a much more aggressive opposition.  We are looking forward to your developments throughout the year in preparation for Nationals in Tauranga in December this year. 

Can both Finley and Monte come forward to receive your medals 

Rector 

Congratulations to everyone who has been acknowledged today and thank you once again for the way in which you’ve supported Pink Shirt  I’ll now invite Yr 9 student Ethan Mortimer to close our assembly in prayer. 
 

Article added: Friday 19 May 2023