Kia ora e te Kura. Enho moi ra. Please be seated. 

I’d like to invite our Head Boy William Duncan forward to deliver today’s reading. 

Reading 

Today’s reading comes from PHILIPPIANS Chapter 3 versus 12-14 

 I have not yet received all these things. I have not yet reached my goal. Christ Jesus took hold of me so that I could reach that goal. So I keep pushing myself forward to reach it.  Brothers and sisters, I don’t consider that I have taken hold of it yet. But here is the one thing I do. I forget what is behind me. I push hard toward what is ahead of me.  I push myself forward toward the goal to win the prize. God has appointed me to win it. The heavenly prize is Christ Jesus himself. 

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

Deputy Rectors speaks   

In the reading that William shared with us the apostle Paul did not write Philippians in response to a crisis, instead, he wrote it to express his appreciation and affection for the Philippian believers. He talks about not holding on to the past, to what has happened, but to push forward towards what is a head of him. Too often we hold on to baggage that weighs us down. We over think things and we don’t let go of things. 

This reminded me of something I saw on social media, where a psychologist walked around a room while teaching stress management to class. As she raised a glass of water, everyone expected they’d be asked the “half empty or half full” question. Instead, with a smile on her face she inquired, “How heavy is this glass of water?” The answers called out ranged from 8oz to 20 oz. 

She replied, “The absolute weight doesn’t matter. It depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it’s not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I’ll have an ache in my arm. If I hold it for a day, my arm will feel numb and paralyzed. In each case, the weight of the glass doesn’t change, but the longer we hold it, the heavier it becomes.” 

She continued, “The stress and worries in life are like that glass of water. Think about them for a while and nothing happens. Think about them for a bit longer and they begin to hurt. And if you think about them all day long, you will feel paralyzed – incapable of doing anything.” Always remember to put the glass down.’ 

You have possibly heard this story before and there is a good reason why this story is so popular: it offers a very powerful metaphor of how our minds often tend to process things. We obsess and hold onto things. Worse: we keep stirring the water, so the mud does not have much chance to settle for the water to clear up. When you consider that water makes up approximately 60% of human body and 70% of our brain, you want to pay attention to what the water is telling us! 

The longer you hold onto the stress, the more it is going to drag you down. It does not matter if the stress seems to feel like nothing at first. Holding onto it for hours, days, weeks, or even months will make it grow into something more serious. 

Stressing will cause a domino effect. If you are stressed about a family situation or a relationship, you will not be able to focus in class. If you aren’t having effective learning in class, grades will start to slip. Once grades start to slip, your place in a course or class maybe affected.  

“Putting the glass down” means that you have removed the stress causer, learned how to deal with it, or decided to remove yourself until you have figured out how to deal with it. 

So: How can you put our glass down? How can you put your worries down for a little while? Well one thing we can do is pause. 

Learning to pause is one of the most important skills in life. We all have an extremely busy life but, even in the midst of all the things you have to do on a daily basis, you can create short moments of downtime. Create moments of complete silence by turning off the radio when you drive and take deep breaths at the stop light. Take short walks, or spend time in nature even if it is stepping outside for only five minutes to put your feet in the grass, admire a tree or stare at the birds. The possibilities are endless and it doesn’t take much time for the traffic in your mind to slow down. The ripples stop and the mud settles. This allows clarity and space for the brain to make the connections on its own. In those moments, we see ourselves reconnecting with the stillness at our core, that part that is as quiet as a feather. Our soul speaks to us in those quiet moments in between our thoughts, when we least expect it. We can gain some perspective on the situation and take the emotion out of it. 

Another way to put the glass down is to Stop judging – Pausing has a lot to do with cultivating awareness. When we allow our awareness to focus on what is in the moment, outside of the activity of our mind, “we contain all of what’s arising without the process that decides whether it’s good or bad, how it should or should not be”. Stopping this judgmental part of our thought patterns is another important way to move beyond our usual blocks, providing the mind with a new level of clarity, not needing to put things in our usual mental (and moral) boxes. 

So, with all that is going on at the moment, the uncertainty that is associated with the current industrial action, I encourage you to put the glass down, to pause and filter out the things that are stopping you from achieving. 

So, let’s pause together and put our glasses down. 

Please join me in singing the hymn ‘When I needed a neighbour.’ 

Deputy Rector speaks 

Thank you, please be seated. I’ll now ask Dr Kristensen to come forward to present the Cultural report. 

HB Festival of Bands 

Recently the Lindisfarne College Hawke’s Bay Festival of Bands took place at Lindisfarne College. Twelve community and school bands from Palmerston North, Hamilton and Hawke’s performed at the festival, as well as many soloists. Both our Symphonic Band and Jazz bands were awarded Gold awards. The Symphonic Band also received the award “Best Performance by a School Band”. Our soloists gained four Golds and one silver award. This was a fantastic result for our band musicians. Could the boys please come forward to accept their awards.  

Antoni Milewski - Symphonic Band  - Gold  

Callum Wallace – Jazz Band – Gold, and “Best Performance By a School Band” 

Max Tubby – Trumpet Solo -  Gold 

Edward Harvey – Euphonium Solo – Gold 

Isaac Chou – Violin Solo – Gold 

Ryan Palmer – Drum Solo – Gold 

Cultural Colours 

I’d like to make you aware of what Cultural Colours are. Cultural colours are awarded to students in the areas of The categories for Colours are: Kapa Haka; Pasifika; Music; Drama; Technical; Public Speaking. The criteria for Cultural Colours is as follows…  

• The student displays Excellence of performance, with skill and technique that could, lead to recognition at provincial or national level. 

• The student shows a consistent level of performance throughout the year. 

• The student shows unselfish dedication and commitment as well as a sincere and positive contribution to the College. 

• As a member of the College, the student acts as a role model to all others. 

So if you are working hard in your area of cultural interest, I encourage you  to keep this up and to be a role model to those younger students in the school. Cultural Colours are awarded at the end of Term 3.  

Year 10 Drama Class 

In the area of speech and drama, last night Mrs Atkin, Miss Pooley, and the year 10 drama classes travelled to Taradale high to see the musical production of Blood Brothers, which was proved to be a fantastic show.  

There have been great results from recent speech and drama exams. 36 students sat speech and drama examinations completing grades 6, 7, and diploma level.  All students passed with 95% of the boys passing with merit or honours. 5 achieved with the highest mark of honours plus. These boys were Noah Rogers, Liam Ocallaghan- King, Cody Caton, Thomas King. George Kilsby received Honours for his Diploma.   

Ngā Manu Kōrero Regional Speech Competition 2023 

Lindisfarne College is hosting the Hawke’s Bay Ngā Manu Kōrero Regional Speech Competition next Friday the 23rd of June. The English speeches will be here in the hall and the Māori speeches will be in the auditorium. Schools from around Hawke’s Bay will gather here to support their speakers. All winners progress through to Nationals which is held in Dunedin this year. We have several speakers representing Lindisfarne including Te Awarangi Puketapu-Pene in the Junior English section and Heremia McGarvey in the Senior Māori section. This will be a big day for the Maori Dept and the College. 

Kia kaha koutou, all the best to you all.   

The Salsa Dance Project 

We are looking for students that are keen to dance and have fun dancing to salsa music. The ultimate goal is to collaborate with Iona College, but first you need to learn the basic steps of how to dance to salsa music. Anyone from years 7 – 13 can try out for this next week on Monday at Interval. So come along and have some fun.  

Kia pai tō raa Whakataa – Have a great Weekend! 

Deputy Rector speaks 

Thank you, Dr Kristensen, I’ll now ask Sports Prefect Jack Blyth to come forward to present the sports report. 

Sports Report  

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

IN SAILING 

Jake Dickey won the Napier Sailing club Brass Monkey regatta two weekends ago for Optimist class. 

That was the last club regatta for the season.  Now it's all full-on winter regattas and training in Auckland for his Abu Dhabi regatta later in the year. 

IN SHOOTING 

On Sunday 10 of the shooting team competed in round 3 of the CLNISS series at the Wairarapa Clay-Target Club grounds near Featherston. 

In fine coolish conditions Owen Read shot one of only two possibles on the day, 20/20.  

A number of the boys were involved in ''shoot offs'' with Jonty 1st Single Barrel, Nathan 2nd  & Monty 3rd, Owen 2nd in Single Rise & Nathan 3rd in Points Score.  With a total day score of 93/100 Nathan also took out HOA & the prestigious Sam & Angus Donald Memorial Trophy in memory of the two Donald brothers tragically killed in 2014 and presented by David Donald . 

In the teams we had a total of 426/500 ahead of Palmerston North Boys 423 & Napier Boys 407 Jonty, Josh, Nathan, Owen & Monty took the Top Team as well, a tremendous result for them. As well with a day score of 86/100 Junior shooters Josh & Duncan shot off for Best Junior Shooter with Josh taking the title & Duncan 2nd. 

IN GOLF 

Nine players in three teams represented Lindisfarne at the HB Secondary School tournament at the Hawkes Bay Golf Club.  The top team of Cordell Henare, Leo Dixon and Zachary Taylor finished second equal with Napier BHS, behind the winners Taradale HS.  In the individual competition, Henare came third with a76 and Dixon fourth shooting 78.  In the Nett competition, Tom Baines was the runaway winner with a nett score of 63 after an outstanding round of 84. 

Well done. 

WHANGANUI EXCHANGE 

On Tuesday 7 teams went down to Whanganui travelled down to Whanganui for the annual winter sports exchange.  Ther results were: 

In football the 1st XI Won 3-0 and Junior A Won 6-1 

In rugby the 1st XV Lost 0-66, 2nd XV Won 33-15 and U15 Lost 12-29 

In hockey the 1st XI Won 3-1 and Colts Lost 0-1 

Lindisfarne won the overall exchange 4-3.  Well done to the boys that were involved, you represented the college very well on and off the sports field. 

IN HOCKEY 

The Int School Hockey B team has had a really successful start to the season.  Two draws for the first two games and a convincing win over St Pats on Friday.  12 – 2.  

The first XI Hockey played Taradale on Wednesday. It was a great team effort to come away with a 7-0 win. This game was Callum O’Keeffes 101st game for the first XI which is a fantastic achievement. It is very rare to have a player reach this milestone. Could Callum please come forward to receive his Hockey Cap that has been embroidered to recognise this achievement. 

(Callum O’Keeffe – Cap presented) 

IN CROSS COUNTRY 

The annual ECNI Cross Country was held on Wednesday, May 31 at Park Island in Napier. Lindisfarne fielded a team of 14 runners across the three age groups. In the Year 9 race, Cooper Ellingham ran home in second place followed closely by Campbell Ellingham in third. Titus Dunnett managed a fourth-place finish meaning Lindisfarne won the Y9 3-man team event. Ultimately, 5 of the 6 Y9 runners placed inside the top ten.  

Hamish Butler came in a respectable fourth in a hotly contested Junior race.  

The Senior race was highly competitive, and while we missed out on placing, the senior runners did well.  

IN THE COLLEGE CROSS COUNTRY 

In the Intermediate School:   3rd Louis Moffett, 2nd  Arlie du Plessis and 1st Konna Schnell 

(Can those runners please come forward to receive their medals)  

In the Junior School: 3rd Cooper Ellingham, 2nd Titus Dunnett and 1st August Popadich 

(Can those runners please come forward to receive their medals)  

In the Intermediate school: 3rd Will Baines,  2nd Jacob Holder and 1st Hamish Butler 

(Can those runners please come forward to receive their medals)  

Ini the Senior school: 3rd  Keegan Jensen,  2nd Jett Varcoe and 1st Callum O’Keeffe 

(Can those runners please come forward to receive their medals)  

In the overall House results:     

In the Intermediate School:  4th Durham, 3rd Oswald, 2nd Cuthbert and 1st Aidan  

In the Juniors: 4th Oswald,  3rd Aidan, 2nd Durham and 1st Cuthbert,  

In the Intermediates: 4th Cuthbert, 3rd Oswald, 2nd Durham and 1st Aidan,  

In the Seniors: 4th Oswald,  3rd Durham, 2nd Aidan and 1st Cuthbert 

Overall house placings: 4th Oswald,  3rd Durham, 2nd Cuthbert and 1st Aidan 

(Can Aidan House Prefect Callum O’Keeffe come forward to receive the trophy) 

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

Deputy Rector speaks 

Thank you, Jack. Congratulations to everyone who has been acknowledged today. All the best to the 1st XI Football for their game this evening against Taradale at Park Island, if you are free, please do go along to support them. We also have a team of Cross Country Runners heading to Palmerston North for the North Island Cross Country and we wish them all the best as well. I hope that many of you will be able to support the 1st XV Rugby team as they play Fielding on the Pakowhai field this Saturday at 12pm.  

We will now close our assembly in prayer, let us pray. 

In Psalm 46:1 we read “Lord, you are my refuge and strength, always ready to help me in times of trouble.”  Lord, we pray that through your mercy and kindness you would help us to simply let go of all the fears and worries, problems and doubts, guilt and disappointments that seem to be filling our minds so often, during the course of a day. Give us the strength and clarity of mind to find our purpose and have the courage to put the glass down and enable us to pause. We ask this in the name of your son Jesus Christ. Amen.  

Kura Etu, Please stand. 

Article added: Friday 16 June 2023