Week 4 already, time has flown already. I have been extremely busy over the last week spending the majority of it the Manawatu visiting schools there and in the Wairarapa. Palmerston North turned on the weather, torrential rain and freezing temperatures.

I believe anyone who lives there is extremely resilient and on birth issued with an umbrella, snorkel and flippers. I watched Fitzherbert Street fill up with water one evening from my second storey room. I chose this so i got exercise going up and down stairs and just in case of flood where i hoped i would be safe.

The people at the schools I visited were extremely friendly and great people all passionate about education. There were were some great examples and ideas observed of the teaching of PE and Fitness. A fantastic fitness trail at Ashurst School, extensive grounds at Rongotea and some excellent uses of space. Schools were all keen to do well in the teaching of PE and some great discussion and sharing of ideas took place.

I covered a few miles over the week and enjoyed a variety of different rural scenes from snow covered mountains to rolling lush farmland. The consistent factor was the presence of roadworks, everywhere I went there was a stop/go sign follwoed by kilometres of road under construction. I am sure the reopening of the Manawatu Gorge can't come too soon.

THe disappointment of the week was the announcement by the Minister of the increase in class sizes. A lot of research has been undertaken around the size of classes. It is intresting to note that the big improvers in academic achievement have been the Asian countires with China, South Korea and Singapore most notable in their improvement. The largest class size averages amongst these countries was 1 teacher to 17 children, a little less than our proposed 1 teacher to 27.5 children. I am unsure of the future of our system if this happens.

Next week I am away in Marlborough spending time at Nelson Lakes National Park, I look forward to this with relish and intend to scare a few trout whilst there.

Ka Kite.

A most interesting couple of weeks. A little bit of recreation, a school camp and a number of school visits.

It was great to catch up with the Year 7 & 8's in Wellington on camp. Surprising them at Upper Hutt Railway Station was classic with a number of shocked faces, a great surprise. Karen Barkle ran a wonderful camp well supported by Laurie Gordon and a great bunch of senior students. Some classic moments have been had by all. 

I had a great couple of hours fishing but didn't see a fish and got thoroughly soaked in a downpour. Still as the great chinese philosopher Confucious often did, it was like fishing without a hook, most theraputic.

Week 3 has seen me visiting a number of schools all over Hawkes Bay. A most interesting and rewarding experience. It is a privilege to be able to visit schools and see them working. There are some fantastic schools teaching some fantastic programmes, something that is unique and precious to our education system.

I have also watched some junior sport over the past 2 weekends watching our netballers and junior soccer players both games were most entertining.

I finished the week with a meeting with HekiaParata, the new Minister of Education, a very smart woman who spoke impressively with vision and insight. The refreshing thing was her honesty and directness.

I look forward to spending the majority of next week in the Manawatu visiting schools. 

1 Week into my sabbatical and I have been busy.

I attended the ANZAC service on Wednesday which had an excellent turn out. Well done to the senior students, Anne Frater and Karen Barkle for organising this day. I roughly counted around 180 people in attendance. This is always a moving ceremony and it is great to see a large number of youngsters in attendance. thanks to Mike and the Fire Brigade and to Leslie Hogan for the wonderful morning tea.

I have spent a lot of time this week planning my visits, confirming the schools I will be visiting and booking accomodation. I have also had phone conferences with Jo Tapine from Sport Hawkes Bay. Jo is putting together units of work around fundamental skills and will compliment my investigation.

I have had some time for rest and recreation, attending the gym in town and getting out on  the river. Unfortunately the trout were hiding and had the last laugh as I got thoroughly soaked in a down pour. Nature however was the winner with beautiful clear pools which I am sure lrage trout were lurking in.

I will keep you informed as the weeks unfold.

Monday 23rd April Blog 1

Greetings to all.......

I will endeavour to write about my travels over Term 2 whilst on Sabbatical. This Blog will be updated on Friday's relaying what has gone on during my week.

I wish Anne and the staff all the best in my absence. I welcome back all students and families to Ongaonga School for term 2. The start of the winter sports season begins this week and I wish our teams good luck in their first games.

Today I farewell my son Hamish as he sets out on a great adventure to England to play cricket for Berkhamsted Cricket Club just north of London. Hamish flies out tonight via Shaghai to London.

This week is a planning week with the special highlight being ANZAC Day. I look forward to seeing you all attending our special service on Wednesday at 9am.

That's all for now...

Ka kite

Mike Lewis

Principal on Sabbatical

Greetings to all.

A very busy Term 3. We have had some fantastic successes this term. Firstly it started with the 7 A Side. A tremendous day, thank you to all who helped out. It went so well, a great advert for Ongaonga.

We have had a number of pupils excell on the academic front with Miro King taking the top prize at the CHB Science Fair and then taking one of the top 3 prizes at the Hawkes Bay Science Fair. We are proud of Miro's efforts. Keeley Wilkinson-Piper also achieved with distinction at the Hawkes Bay Fair attaining a Highly Commended Award.

On the Arts front Miro again was achieved well being awarded Highly Commended in the Weta Arts Awards at The Festival. She was also runner up in the People's Choice Painting Awards. Well done Miro!

We were visited by Celtic performer Bob Bickerton who raved about our wonderful kids.

I congratulate all students who tokk part in the Cross Country Champs at Tikokino. Well doen to the winners and well done to all who completed a tough run.

We have had Mathletics, Tech Challenges, and still have a number of events to look forward to this term from Inter-school cross country to speech competitions.

Go the mighty All Blacks!! 

Term 2 has started well with winter sports in full swing. It is great to see our children playing sport on Fridays and our parents and teachers coaching with great enthusiasm.

We had teams entered in the Literary Quiz. They performed well finishing mid-table.

Science Fair projects are being developed. This is a good opportunity for students to find out about somthing that they are interested in and not to solve the 'Theory of Relativity.'

We have begun our Cluster Group Meetings, it would be great to see more people at them. Many thanks to those who have turned up so far, we appreciate your ideas. Remember you can go to any meeting.

The Novice Gym was a great event. All the competitors enjoyed their trip to Sherwood School. It was well run and went very smoothly. Great to see all the

See you all at the Cluster Meetings

Greetings to all

I am getting used to making this a more regular blog. Bare with me as I work it into my schedule.

Term 1

Term 1 has flown by although it was the longest term for a number of years. Our senior students have really steeped up to their roles given to them this year. The House Leaders are working well with their charges notably during Easter Day recently. Our Sports Captains are doing a very good job and our Enviromental Leaders are approaching their role with a passion. It is great to see the Science Lab running well thanks to our Science Leaders alias (Lab Rats).

We have alresdy had some success with our A Grade Cricket Team being unbeaten and our B Grade Teams perfoeming well.

Well done to all who took part in Triathlons Staff and Students.

Breaking News. Ongaonga School has been included in Year 1 of the Rural Broadband Initiative to roll out fast internet to schools. This will take place sometime from the 1st of July 2011. This could benefit the whole community. I will keep everyone up to date with information and announcements as they happen.

Have a safe holiday.

Week 7 At Ongaonga School

A wonderful start to the week with more success from our strudents on the weekend. Our Seniors entered 4 teams in the East Coast Finals for Agrikids, a competition run in conjunction with 'Young Farmer of The Year'.

Agrikids

Wonderful news, two teams made the final run off, a credit to our school with teams from as far as Masterton competing.

The team of David Parker, Rhys Hardwidge & Bailey Chapman finished 6th in the final with the team of Tia Maniapoto-Cheer, Jack Waugh and Miro King achieving 2nd place and qualifying for the National finals in June. Well done guys.

Summer Sports

It is great to see our students doing well playing cricket and tennis. Our tennis team is improving weekly playing in the A Grade and our cricket teams are performing well with the A Grade Cricket team unbeaten and the B Grade Cricket Stags team only having one loss so far. The B Grade Strikers had their first win last Friday, weel done.

Christchurch and Japan

Finally our thoughts go out to the people of Christchurch adn Japan on the tragedy that they are facing at present. We hope that this is the last disaster for a while.

yours in education

Mike Lewis