Today’s reading comes from Psalm 37, Verses 23-24 

The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way. 

Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. 

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

Rectors speaks   

Thank you, Leon. Welcome Mrs Wards – College Council Chair. Son Stuart Curran Head Prefect and Dux in 2013. 

Today we’re facing the chapel end of the hall, as opposed to facing the stage as we would normally. That’s because I wanted you to be facing our famous stained-glass windows, so that I can talk to you about the Main central window, which is known as the Good Man Window. 

The Good Man Window was installed in 2007 and it includes the images of four truly “good New Zealanders” who are surrounded by words that describe their character and values. As a young man of potential at Lindisfarne, it’s your job to know about the Good Man window. You should be able to name the four men and talk about what they achieved in their lives and what you think their outstanding qualities were. Earlier this week I witnessed one of our Year 10 students being asked by a member of the public who the four men in the window were, and he said that he remembers being told, but he’s forgotten and it frustrated him because he wanted to be able to show that he did know who these famous men were. 

The man in the top left window is Lord Ernest Rutherford. You can see his face on a $100 note if you’re lucky enough to hold one. He is New Zealand’s most famous Scientist and probably one of the top five scientists in history. He’s known as the father of nuclear physics. He is one of only 3 New Zealanders to have won the Nobel Prize. He was awarded the prize for Chemistry in 1908. He discovered many incredible things: 

• Radio waves that could be detected over long distances – something we take for granted now, but in Rutherford’s day it was unheard of. 

• He invented the Geiger counter, a device that detects radiation 

• He developed underwater microphones called hydrophones to detect WW1 submarines 

• But he’s most famous for his work on understanding and splitting the atom 

Look at that word Innovation under his name. To innovate is to think of creative and original solutions to problems. That is such a fantastic quality and one you should try to develop in yourself. Don’t simply copy everyone else and repeat what’s been done before – innovate, experiment, take risks with your thinking and learning and create your own original ideas. Lord Rutherford was an incredibly clever man and would have had amazing Maths and Science knowledge, but he had to show curiosity and creativity to come up with his discoveries. 

The man at the top right should be familiar to you all and you would have seen his image on the NZ $5 note. He is of course Sir Edmund Hillary, the man who, along with his Sherpa friend Tenzing Norgay, conquered Mount Everest in the Himilayas, the highest point on our planet. They reached the summit at 11.30am on 29 May 1953. Sir Ed was promptly knighted and he went on to achieve other great feats, including leading a tractor expedition to the South Pole, and journeying to the North Pole too. But according to Hillary, his most valuable life achievement was founding the Himalayan Trust. 

Over a 40-year period, the Trust helped raise funds to set up over 30 schools, two hospitals and 12 medical clinics in Nepal. He knew that without Tenzing Norgay, the local Nepalese guide, he would never have made it to the top of Everest. Do you know the two men only stayed on top of Everest for 15 mins? Hillary took a photo of his Sherpa friend, but didn’t want one himself. Imagine that now, in a world where people are desperate to get that next great selfie – he became the first man to step on the highest peak in the world, and wasn’t bothered about getting a photo of himself doing it. Towards the right of Hillary, you see the word “Humble”. When we talk about humility at Lindisfarne College we mean are you gracious in action and word. When you score the winning goal or try, do you make it all about yourself, or do you point towards the one who made the assist and say “he set that up”.  

At the bottom left is the face of Mr John Rangihau. Perhaps a lesser known figure, but a truly good man none the less. He fought with the NZ Maori Batallion in WWII and went on to become a leader of his tuhoe people. After gaining his degree, he went on to work at Waikato University and spent many years researching ways to keep the Maori language alive. He set up the first Maori language pre-schools which later became known as Kohanga Reo. Boys, John Rangihau was an immensely important person because he recognised that the Maori language was dying and he knew that if he didn’t do something to get our young people learning and speaking it, we would lose it altogether.  

He had a very successful career in Maori Affairs, and he has a very strong link to our school. Along with a former Rector Mr Jim Pine and High Court judge Sir Rodney Gallen, Mr Rangihau established the Te Whaiti nui a toi Scholarship Scheme which recognises young Maori men of potential at Lindisfarne. Mr Rangihau’s son and grandson attended our college. 

Underneath Mr Rangihau’s name is the word service. He served his people and helped to save a language that is unique and sacred to our country. Service, like humility is one of our character flags. Think about when you last gave service to the school, unselfishly. Service is about giving without expectation of recognition or reward. For example, our Service Prefect Thomas Turner led the work on the Replay initiative over the last few weeks, collecting sports equipment on Monday and he also serves as the Intermediate School Boarding Prefect, which takes him away from his friends, because he’s giving service to the boarding house.  

OK – the final window. The bottom right window is a very famous New Zealander called Sir Charles Upham. He was awarded the Victoria Cross twice, for bravery in Crete in May 1941, and in Egypt, in July 1942. He was the only person from any country, to have been awarded two Victoria Crosses in WWII. He is described as the most highly decorated Commonwealth soldier of WWII, because the Victoria Cross is the Commonwealth's highest award for bravery in the face of the enemy. 

The citations that were read out when he was presented his VC mentioned his total disregard for danger, his tremendous leadership skills and his super coolness under pressure. In his own typical New Zealand modest way, like Sir Ed Hillary, he shunned the spotlight. When the people of canterbury collected 10,000 pounds for him to buy a farm in recognition of his bravery, he refused to accept the money, and instead insisted that it be used to pay for children of former soldiers to attend school if their parents couldn’t afford the fees.  

Now Sir Charles has obviously got the word courage under his name, but he also showed great humility like Sir Ed, he served his people like Mr John Rangihau and of course he was showed tremendous skill like Lord Ernest Rutherford. I hope you continue to show great courage like Sir Charles in your daily lives at Lindisfarne. Remember that courage at Lindisfarne is about standing up in times of challenge. I always remind you about standing up for what is right when you are with your mates. That takes courage.  The famous civil rights leader Mahatma Gandhi said “It's easy to stand with the crowd. It takes courage to stand alone.” 

So there you have it. The Good Man window. It’s been installed to inspire you all you to become good young men of character, and so during your time at Lindisfarne, get to know the Window, the names of the men who are celebrated on it, so that when I ask you to show a family around the school and they say “what’s that colourful window above the chapel sanctuary?” you can say “Oh now let me tell you all about our Good Man Window”. 

Please join me in singing the school song, Amazing Grace.  

Rector speaks 

Thank you, please be seated.  

We now have some academic awards to present from the Australian Mathematics Competition 2023, so I call on Deputy Rector Mr Howlett to read these out. 

 These boys received a Distinction in the Australian Mathematics Competition, held in August, meaning that they recorded a grade in the top 20th percentile of the thousands of participants from over 30 countries.  

Intermediate Division: 

• Coday Caton 

• Noah Hemmingsen  

Thank you, Mr Howlett. I’ll now ask Dominic Goodenough to come forward to present today’s Cultural report. 

Cultural Report from Dominic  

Bands Tour to Taupo Last Friday our Symphonic Band, Jazz Band, and Pipe Bands descended upon Taupo to share the gift of music with the local community! The day kicked off with the pipe band and the soulful sounds of saxophones busking outside the Taupo Information Centre. Passersby couldn't help but stop and appreciate the incredible talent these boys displayed.  

Our first official concert was at the Taupo monthly concert series at St Andrew's Church. The atmosphere was great as a large and enthusiastic audience gathered to enjoy the music, which included the saxophone quartet, jazz quartet, the piano skills of Leo Guo, a solo bagpipe performance by Fergus Morunga (pipe major), an extraordinary drum-line composition by our drum tutor, Mr. Budge, the symphonic band and jazz band. We then took our musicians to Hilltop Primary School, where we played a special program for the entire school. Congratulations to our great team of musicians who made this day possible. Thanks to Dr Kristensen and Mr Selfe.   

Big Orchestra Day  

Yesterday some of our year 7 – 9 musicians played at the Orchestra Day at Havelock North Intermediate School. There were over 120 young musicians that play all sorts of different instruments. Everyone rehearsed and practised together and learned a lot about what it means to play in an orchestra. At the end of the day the boys performed a concert to the public. Well done to everyone that took part in this this opportunity.  

HB Young Musician of the Year 2023 Violinist Josef Oosthuizen has successfully made it through the preliminary round of the 2023 Registered Music Teacher’s Hawke’s Bay young Musician of the Year Competition and will perform in the final tonight at Iona College’s Blyth Performing Arts Centre. Josef will play a selection of contrasting pieces, accompanied by Mrs Jan Beck. We wish Josef all the best for his performance tonight. 

Sports Report 

Swimming Postponed from Term one following the cyclone, the Hawke's Bay schools swimming championships have been held at the new Aquatic Complex at the Regional Sports Park.  As usual Lindisfarne performed very well at these champs and retains it’s place amongst the best HB schools in both competitions. 

Secondary Schools Champs: With Napier BHS being the main competition, it was unfortunate to lose the overall top school competition by a mere 7 points but many fine individual performances were seen.  Matt McKendry swimming up an age group in the 16/over, was the best overall in that age group and Sam Skidmore was the top overall in the 14/under age group.  Both swimmers won three of their 4 races.  The 14/under boys ( Sam Skidmore, Fletcher Dawson, Ollie Fritchley and Liam McEntee) won the medley relay with the and were second in the freestyle relay while the older swimmers (Matt McKendry, Liam Monteith, Wyatt Holmes and Angus Pringle) were second in the medley relay and third in the freestyle relay. 

Intermediate School Champs: Despite being down in numbers this team of 5 swimmers acquitted themselves very well, with the highlight probably being winning the Year 8 freestyle relay over Taradale Intermediate.  Thomas Mill, Archie Cole, Flynn Wickham and Max Tubby swam impressively in this event and were also place second in the medley relay.  Although there were no individual titles won the were a number of individual placings gained with Thomas, Max and Archie gaining some good results.  Lindisfarne were placed third overall in the Year 8 boys competition which is a fine result for such a small group of swimmers. 

EAST COAST NORTH ISLAND ROAD RACE & ADVENTURE RACING

Last week we acknowledged some of our Lindisfarne runners who competed in the East Coast North Island Road Race at Frimley Park.  

Hamish Butler ran a strong race to finish third in the Junior boys Division but he was away last week at tournament week with 1st XI Hockey and so we’ll acknowledge him shortly. 

Hamish also competed in the annual Rotorua Secondary Schools Tough Guy and Gal competition with our Adventure Racing Team. He sprinted ahead of the pack, claiming victory overall with a remarkable time of 27min:58 secs, and also receives an award for being a member of the Lindisfarne College team that was named the Toughest School. 

(Hamish could you please come forward now to received you medals and trophy) 

Tournament Week

 Last week, Lindisfarne College's talented athletes displayed their skills and determination across three major tournaments. 

Our 1st XI Football team embarked on a thrilling journey to the Lotto Boys Premier Tournament in Christchurch. After a week filled with intense matches and unwavering teamwork, these dedicated young men concluded their campaign with an impressive 14th place finish in all of New Zealand. Their achievement stands as a testament to their exceptional abilities and remarkable cohesion as a team. 

As we bid farewell to our three Year 13 players, we extend our gratitude for their unwavering dedication and valuable contributions during their time with the team. Their leadership and sportsmanship will be missed. 

In Wellington, our 1st XI Hockey team competed fiercely in the prestigious Rankin Cup / India Shield Tournament, featuring 32 top Secondary School Boys teams. Throughout the week, they engaged in seven intense games, securing victories in four of them. Their determination and gritty playstyle were evident, reflecting the true spirit of Lindisfarne's athletes. 

Our team clinched 25th place, solidifying their position among the top 32 secondary school hockey teams in the nation for 2024. We also celebrate the remarkable achievement of Captain Callum O'Keeffe, who earned his 119th cap for the 1st XI during the tournament a true testament to his dedication and leadership. 

The 2023 Lindisfarne U15 Rugby Team participated in the Lindisfarne Invitational Tournament, where they faced formidable opponents and experienced a rollercoaster of performances. They secured fifth place overall, displaying moments of strength and dominance in their matches. 

Notable achievements included a remarkable turnaround against Wanganui Collegiate and outstanding performances by key players like Charlie East, Noah Rogers, and Isaac Dann. The team would like to extend their deep appreciation to their dedicated coaches, Mr. Karl Jones, Mr. Julian Dann and Mr. Jock Miller, for their pivotal roles in preparing and guiding the team throughout the tournament. 

As we reflect on Tournament Week 2023, we celebrate the unwavering dedication, sportsmanship, and achievements of our talented student-athletes. Congratulations to all involved! 

Rector speaks 

Thank you Ms Akeripa and congratulations to everyone who has been acknowledged today. I’ll now invite Reverend Dunnett to close our assembly in prayer. 

Article added: Monday 11 September 2023