Learning Is Hard

"Learning is hard" is the message we got from Daniel's presentation to us on how the Primary School is addressing the issue of Learning.

Daniel took us through a presentation and workshop he recently took his parent group through. He is adamant that parents need as much exposure to new ways of learning as do the staff and pupils. He has consistently shared interesting readings and video clips with his parents through his newsletters; a practice I have been also following.

As part of his presentation he reminded us of Dreyfus' model of learning which shows that as learners move along the continuum from novice to expert, the need for 'Rule Governed Behaviour' i.e. such as following a recipe closely to prepare a meal lessens as we increase our 'Personal Practical Knowledge' increases and we are able to create a meal without reference to the recipe. As he reminded us, such a model is relevant to be aware of when planning learning for teachers, leaders and students alike.

By using some easy to organise activities he was able to show how hard learning can be and that when you group students into classes that the range of places learners are on the novice/expert continuum is very varied.

He also emphasised the importance of continuing our journey of developing a dispositions-based curriculum to sit alongside a knowledge-based curriculum.  This sits nicely with our views on promoting academic excellence and personal excellence. Knowledge is easy to discover; the real challenge is in developing the dispositions to test and use knowledge wisely and appropriately.

A neat activity was to select one image from dozens he provided which best suited our definition of learning.

I chose a map which had some well-travelled routes and less well-travelled routes one could choose to get from one place to another while overcoming some geographic hurdles on the way. It shows many alternatives to the destination.

Di has circulated a great reading on personalised learning which I really like (which means I agree with it and it must agree with me)

Oh, and today I met with the Ministry to discuss the timing of handing over the building to us and other related issues (out of hours usage and travel-wise plans) and I completed two more enrolments and Annette and I progressed our thinking around appointment of PA. Claire and Di spent time investigating AV options for the school.

The LOLs and SLT are doing a great job on nailing the detail of the principles and practice that will support our teaching and learning and tomorrow, after reading a great resource that Lea has circulated will explore the principles and practice that will drive the leadership necessary to put it all in place. When that is done, after 5 weeks of de-schooling and re-schooling and great thinking, challenging and sharing, they'll get into the nitty gritty of their leadership areas.

The process to this point has been vital for them to be successful leaders and I'm extremely proud of the carefully considered planning the DPs have put into this and the way in which the LOLs have responded. You should continue to check out their thoughts in their blogs.

I have a funny feeling that my focus will soon be shifting from the bigger picture stuff to resourcing, resourcing, resourcing!

Oh well, nothing like a challenge!

In The Zone

A big focus for the last 4 weeks has been about getting to know each other while, at the same time, developing common understandings around the values and principles that will support our teaching and learning. It has been neat to be using a range of getting to know each other activities which help us develop these common understandings and to see that these activities will be great to use with our learners.

Sally's latest blog posting points to the importance of connecting strongly with learners before too much learning is attempted. It was serendipitous to read this before we launched into our morning activity.

After watching an awesome clip from Billy Elliot when he talked about feeling like 'electricity' when he was in the zone and dancing Lea sent us for 20 minutes to create a sculpture which represents each of us in the zone. Despite having heard everyone's life stories we learnt even more about each other.

 Kylee and Claire's sculptures: Time Out of Control and Blah, Blah!

 Lea Living in a Bubble

 Being A Dork

 Yasmin's Heart Bursting

 Lisa's World: Sea, running on the land and writing

 Sally's Whare Tapuwha

 Sarah's Swartzenegger Explosion

 Steve's Physical Bellich-like world

 Annette lost in the garden

Megan converging

Claire then led us through a great exercise on developing our shared understanding of personalised learning. Di had adapted a power point that Sean from Western Springs College had shared with us last week. Once again, using our circle approach we came close to a common definition of personalised learning.

The week has gone very quickly yet Monday does seem so long ago. I think this means we have covered a lot of territory this week. It feels like we are fast approaching that bit where convergence and divergence intersect and we're about to burst through to another other side. Hang on tight!

You might not hear from me for a couple of days as Leigh and I off to Wellington tomorrow to watch the All Blacks!!!

Happy Birthday, Mum.

Gpilseo! Guacamole!

After a small, controlled, positive melt-down thingy within the SLT we emerged from our cave to another outstanding life story. This time from Lisa.

After having experienced the stories from all of our team some common themes have emerged. Family has been central in all of the stories, as well as a sense of space and belonging to place. The influence of parents, in particular, along with siblings and best friends has been obvious in the telling of the stories.

I then did my best to impress the team by explaining the GPILSEO (Goal, Pedagogy, Institution, Leadership, Spread, Evidence, Ownership) model of Change Leadership which is central to the Te Kotahitanga programme. It was my attempt to provide a framework for the work that we were all doing. I was particularly impressed with my whiteboard work which is going from strength to strength in this supportive environment!

Di then led the team through a process of drilling down further through the principles and practices which support the promotion of our values of Excellence, Inquiry, Connectedness, Collaboration and Innovation. It soon became apparent that many of the principles supporting one value were also present in supporting others. I once again called upon my 'whiteboard reveal' skills to produce an outstanding diagram to capture all of this. However, I had to quickly concede that the diagram produced by Lea, Yasmin and Sarah was superior to mine!

The afternoon had a different focus as I met with Annette to discuss the PA appointment process, got tsunamied by Peter from Hawkins around filling out a form no-one knew where it was so we could be UFBed. (Thanks for finding the form, Claire) and then enrolled another family totally committed to our planned model of teaching and learning.

I'm still feeling like the the luckiest Principal in the world as I work with our team, shifting out of actively participating and then stepping back to observe. I have been particularly impressed with the way in which everyone is allowing all of the team to contribute to the thinking and the discussing. Tino pai!

Make sure you check out their reflections in their blogs linked to this blog. Recent posts on our work and their thoughts are from Kylee, Steve, Megan and Jill.

The highlight from today was this photo taken from inside my pocket.

One of 14!

See you apopo!

Strumming, reflecting and sharing

This morning's highlight was yesterday's rogaine teams sharing their presentations of the interpretative photos of the sculptures. They make great viewing. This one is from the team which came second.

This Brilliant Britomart is from the team that came first.

The day actually started with a beautiful ukulele rendition of Lean on Me and was followed by Sarah and Annette sharing a report on their meeting last week with the Sustainable Business network. They have made some strong connections and are planning and plotting to ensure our school follows sustainable practices. Claire then reported on her time last week in Wellington where she visited the National Library, connected re Creative Commons and presented at the Core Breakfast. She has come away with a great connection with a researcher on integrated learning models in secondary schools and may have encouraged an invitation to be involved in how NCEA's potential to support future-focused learning can be best realised.

The SLT then met with Noeline Wright from Waikato Uni who is studying and supporting our journey over the next 4 years. During my 30 minute session with her she asked me to reflect on our progress to date. I was able to provide evidence (parent voice) on how successful we had been in sharing our vision of teaching and learning for our school. I also spoke proudly of the development of our SLT and the joy I was having in watching the DPs finally having people to 'lead'.

During the afternoon we had the privilege of hearing Kylee's and Steve's stories of their lives.

Experiencing Kylee's Story

Enrolled another couple of students today. One student turned up with pink hair and cat's ears on her head and was impressed that such a show of individuality would not only be accepted, but also encouraged. They loved the story I told them about my ex Head Boy Toiroa and his blue mohawk.

Looking forward to sharing a little about GPILSEO with the team tomorrow and a mtb ride in Woodhill in the dark!

I'll let you know how it all goes.

Urban Rogaine and Design Thinking

After late night rugby watching (yay the All Blacks), wonderful 3 hour mtb ride in Woodhill and dinner and fine wine with Lea and Pete I was pretty tired after the weekend rather than refreshed and was looking forward to a week more gentler than the last, but.......

We caught the 8am ferry to the city where the team of 12 (actually 11 as Lisa had a sick child) enjoyed a team breakfast at Mojos in the viaduct (highly recommended) before Lea split us into teams and gave us our clues and maps. Kylee, Jill, Sarah, Di and I headed off to Britomart and started collecting the clues that made up the sculpture trail and performed some great interpretative poses to accompany each sculpture.

 Pukana!

 Hard to explain this one

 Park your boat at the hotel

 Ninja Piano Playing

 Lisa joining us with Sir Peter

Megan's Gift (makes sense to me!)

We wended our way from Britomart to the Tank Farm and then back to Mexicalia for lunch. Apart from one glaring error on the map, Lea did a great job with the event, though her team did finish 2 minutes late!

We then headed to Trade and Enterprise where we had a great 2 hour workshop with Peter on putting Design Thinking in action. Megan had to put up with working with me. I don't think I created a great solution for her but thanks, Megan, for a win-win for me re my gift giving inadequacies!

The challenge is to take the learnings from the workshop and answer the "so what?" question with reference to our school establishment plans. Watch this space!

After a relaxing long black it was back onto the ferry for the scoot back to HP. I enjoyed the fresh air on the top deck where I was able to make sure Kylee coped with the trip OK!

Check out Kylee's blog for her account of today.

After a couple of hours getting on top of things at the desk (and enrolling another student) I headed home for a feed made up of ingredients bought from the HP Farmers Market. I then logged onto to Sound FM to register my top 5 albums in their competition to win a great sound system and their top 100 vinyl albums. I must win this!

I case you're interested my current top 5 are:
1. Highway 61 Revisited: Bob Dylan
2. Let It Bleed: Rolling Stones
3. Talking Heads 77: Talking Heads
4. Dark Side of The Moon: Pink Floyd
5. Transformer: Lou Reed

Nearing The End Of a Busy Week

I'm buggared! but I feel good, content and still excited. This week had interviews and appointments, enrolments, BOT meeting and normal challenging work

The most important decision I made since starting was the appointment of Claire, Di and Lea. We've had a great 6 months. I wish I had captured our thinking and our expectations and our inter-connectedness from the start because I am convinced I would be surprised by the huge growth and shift we have experienced. Both as individual leaders and collectively as a team. We are much more different in our views and ways of operating than you might think. This is good and the challenge is to recognise and allow for those differences. For all of us it will be ongoing work.

The most important decisions they have had to help make was in the appointment of our 8 Leaders of Learning. I was always confident in our rigorous process and our collective ability to nail it. We certainly did that. Steve, Yasmin, Sarah, Sally, Jill, Megan, Kylee and Lisa have really added to our team. I find myself sitting back often while the work is under way and admiring the full team in operation and feeling very privileged and proud. I once got told off by a staff member for talking about the staff as my staff. We are definitely a team, but when no one is listening to me I do refer to the team as my team - I think just because of the pride I feel.

Moving on!

The next and equal most important decision we have had to make is the appointment of our next and final (in the meantime) group of teachers. When Danielle, Cindy, Bryce, Liz, Martin, Ros and Pete join us next term we will be even stronger and even better balanced. I like the way several of the LOLs are already getting excited about bringing the new team in.

This morning we performed our first ever public ukulele performance of our school welcome song (sung to the tune of Under The Boardwalk) to our visitor and critical friend, Mark Osborne. After a neat round of introductions when I learned even more about each of the team, Mark heard from the LOLs on their work on developing the sense and meaning of our Hobsonville Habits.

What did I hear:

• vision without management is hallucination
• the use of space should reflect our values
• sustainability is built by protecting the vision
• displayed work should reflect our values - do we value product or process?
• teachers, learners and whanau should be able to develop their own metaphors that best help them understand the values/habits
• the challenge for us is to change "hope to" to "ensure that".
• be wary of being the best school only for the first cohort

Time for a meeting with Di, then off to the clubrooms for a beer!

The Fun Just Keeps Coming!

I had a real feel good feeling going on all day today. By 9.00pm last night I had made all of the calls offering teaching positions at our school. The 7 successful candidates were all excited and reacted passionately and positively. As individuals they all have an open mindset and are passionate about what we are trying to do. As a group they are diverse and will add to the diversity of our existing group. Knowing how even stronger our team is going to be and feeling really pleased with the process we ran has put me in a contented place.

Today was usual business with Finance Meeting to kick the day off followed by 2 more enrolments (now 71). It was great to hear a father say that he hoped that in our sort of environment kids will be addressing us by our first names. This was in contrast to a mother who hoped we would consult the community on that issue as she had some strong views on it!

I am continuing to be impressed with the open-minded approach of the parents so far to what we are going to try to do. Many are reflecting on the boredom and irrelevance of their secondary school experience and some are comparing what we are offering with what is occurring for their older children in existing schools. They resent the inability to have regular, relevant feedback from schools and feel, in many cases, that the schools don't want them too involved. I have promised we will be different!

Steve and I went on a tour of our new school with some MOE suits. Even more progress is being made. I was so impressed with the full glass walls I saw. This made the place more visible and even larger.

The school day finished off with a BOT meeting about which I will keep my thoughts private, but it was positive. Unfortunately it was a bit long and I arrived at the Primary School parent workshop as it was finishing. I'm sorry, primary colleagues, for missing what I have been told was an awesome workshop. You guys, rock.

Time to go home. See you apopo.

Tired But Not Weary

What I missed about today was a formal catch-up with the whole team. We didn't meet first thing because the SLT began interviewing again at 9.00am and needed time to get Lex up to speed on the candidates. As well, the LOLs were very clearly up to speed with what they were working on. You can check their thoughts on their work in their blogs. After our interviews we spent time making decisions about the appointments and by then it was the end of the day. I think I missed being together as a team.

As for the SLT it was a great day as we concluded our appointment processes. We interviewed another set of great candidates and by the end of the day we had settled on our 7 successful candidates. I'm not only rapt with the quality of the staff who will be joining us next term but very impressed with how the SLT worked so professionally, confidently and competently through this important process. I can't wait to skite about our new people. I also acknowledge the great qualities in those candidates we were unable to appoint.

I then went on to enrol another 6 families during the evening. This has been such an affirming process as all of the families are very excited by the vision of learning we have talking about. I feel very pleased with the strong level of consultation and information-sharing we have gone through with our prospective parent community. It has been hard work and sometimes challenging, but I think is already paying off.

Tomorrow will bring another round of excitement beginning with a Finance Meeting at 8am and concluding with a BOT meeting at 6pm. In between our LOLs will visit Albany Senior High School and we'll all have a catch-up after lunch.

Moving On

It may seem gentle being a Principal of a school with no kids and only a handful of staff but reflecting on today I'm not sure how a day could be more rigorous.

Following on from yesterday's great day with Julia Aitken (see Sally's views on that activity) where we inspected our brains we came together this morning. Our LOLs were set the task of taking our Hobsonville Habits and drilling down through them to create a series of 'I' statements which will end up forming the basis of our learner and teacher profiles.

While they were doing this the SLT had the privilege of interviewing 4 of our candidates for our next round of teaching positions. The calibre of the candidates is outstanding. We finished this about 1.00pm. As I walked past our LOLs quite regularly to collect the next applicant I was observing them in action as they had worked out a process for them to deal best with the Hobsonville Habits.

Just before lunch I checked my computer to find a shared document they had created to which they had all contributed. It made excellent reading. Steve's blog gives a neat description of that process through the eyes of Steve who joined us late last week after his Japanese excursion.

After a roundtable where they shared how they were going we were treated to the background stories from Jill and Sarah, after having heard from Megan and Yasmin on Friday. These stories have been a great process in learning about each other. Can't wait to hear from the others in the coming days.

From there Claire and I headed into the city for a very stimulating 2 hours with the ChallengED crew at Cognition. We were treated to a great presentation on Personalised Learning from Western Springs College and a very stimulating presentation from McAuley on Authentic Assessment.

After a trip home via school to bring in some of the primary school kids' painted wood things that had been left outside I got home just before 8pm feeling very satisfied with another great and varied day.

Now to re-read 4 CVs before tomorrow's interviews and write a referee's report for a colleague to make the day complete.

You should also check out this great video on our school zone created by our LOLs in their first week.

See you, apopo.

My Brain

According to Hermann I'm a 1,2,1,1 brain. My thinking style preferences have me mainly in the quadrant that is described as Imaginative, Spatial and Intuitive, followed closely by the quadrant that is described as Logical, Analytical, Rational and Factual and the quadrant described as Expressing and Interpersonal. The 4th quadrant is not as strong, but still significant and is described as Detailed and Organised.

The summary of this particular combination of quadrants identifies work that would be most satisfying as including solving tough problems, explaining things, taking risks, designing, seeing the big picture, being part of a team and helping people.

That description almost perfectly describes the job I'm trying to do now! Makes me even more confident!

However, what makes me even more confident is that the Senior Leadership Team is really well-balanced and that our desire to attract a wider team of visionaries who care about people has been achieved.

Other highlights of today:

• 2 of the team drilled down through their beliefs about learning and came up with, "Personally significant learning is powerful learning". Yeehah!
• Julia's reminder to not be practice driven, rather be driven by values and principles

I'm happy with my brain, Hermann, but after today it hurts (with pleasure)!

Tomorrow's job: appoint more staff. The fun and excitement just keeps on keeping on.

New Beginnings

It's time to bring Principal Possum out of hibernation!

I have been given this great opportunity to be Foundation Principal of Hobsonville Point Secondary School and have wanted to blog about this journey but for many reasons this hasn't happened. However, there are others who are doing this and if you want to track the journey I suggest you follow the blogs in my Blog List to the right.

Even though I'll reflect on how things are going I'll most probably do a Maurie and spend more time blogging about my interests and crazy escapades, including how Leigh and I are making the most of living in our new town, Auckland.

Brief Summary So Far
I started as Foundation Principal last October and spent a couple of months deschooling and reading and planning with Daniel Birch, Lisa Squire and Sharyn Afu who lead Hobsonville Point Primary School.

Leigh and I bought a wee whare in Massey and moved in in mid January and set about exploring the area by visiting local beaches and trekking in the Waitakares. Our daughter, Lucy, came home from the UK for a few weeks to join us but too quickly returned to the UK.

At the start of February I was joined by my fantastic DPs, Lea Vellenoweth, Claire Amos and Di Cavallo. Since then we have been working very hard on planning for our school. They bring a great range of experience, skills, knowledge, experience and personalities. We travelled together to New York, Rhode Island, Boston, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver visiting some great schools. Claire and I then travelled on the Apple Schools tour to San Francisco.

One of our most important jobs was to appoint 8 Leaders of Learning and these passionate teachers joined us 2 weeks ago. After a few days they shared how they were feeling and I ahve included some of their comments:

• have enjoyed exploring why I got into teaching
• discovering I am different to what I thought
• enjoying talking about great practice
• have been pulled back into the energy of teaching and learning
• real sense of whanau
• great buzz and level of enthusiasm

One of the neat things we did was present all new staff members, including ourselves, with a ukulele and we have formed the HPSS Ukulele Orchestra which all new staff members for ever and a day must join!

This week we appoint 7 more teachers for our school.

Learning Matters

Last week the government announced another $4 million will be spent on combating truancy amid claims that each day 30,000 young people are absent from school.

It is welcome news that more money is being allocated to this area. Youth Court Judge Andrew Becroft has been pointing out to government for many years that the majority of youth crime, which often moves on to become adult crime, begins with young people who are truant from school.

Opotiki College’s analysis of its students and the level of qualifications leavers have shows a clear co-relation between attendance and qualifications. The simple fact is that if a student attends school each day and remains at secondary school for four years they will receive national qualifications. In Opotiki College’s case in 2009 just 2 students left without qualifications after four full years of secondary education.

The opposite is equally true. 100% of students who leave before three years of secondary education have no qualifications. 50% of leavers who leave after just three years of secondary education, in Opotiki College’s case leave with no qualifications.

Almost all students who leave before these necessary four years have a pattern of poor attendance throughout their time at secondary school. The pattern begins with lateness to school, followed by missing the odd class and then moving on to missing full days.

In many cases by working closely with whanau who are keen to have their child do the very best the pattern is able to be broken and the student return to full attendance and get back on the pathway to qualifications. In a few cases the parents are either disinterested or even support the non-attendance. It is these students who don’t see out the four years and who leave without formal qualifications. They are , therefore, destined to a life time of irregular employment and low income.

It is unfortunate that the vast majority of those who we see with irregular attendance patterns began them very early in their schooling. In fact, Ministry of Education statistics show that the worst year for truancy is in a child’s first year at primary school. The pattern is difficult to break as it peaks again in years 7 and 8 and then again in years 12 and 13.

Obviously, then, something has to be done. I am not sure if throwing more money at schools to keep doing the same thing will be useful. As a school we are not certain that we can do much more for the 10-15 hard core truants we deal with as their pattern has been well and truly embedded.

Somehow, families of these children need to come to an understanding that it is their expectations of their child, their support of their child and their actions in making sure their child gets to school every day of their schooling from Year 1 that will break this negative, damaging and quality of life affecting pattern of poor attendance at school.

Schools can’t do this work. The community, its support agencies and the wider and individual families need to promote the belief that missing school without an acceptable reason is unacceptable. We need to do this for the sake of our young people’s learning and learning matters.

Latest Learning Matters

If we accept that age old saying that it takes a whole village to raise a child it makes sense that schools and families have to forge a close relationship if we wish all of our young people to realise their potential.

The Ministry of Education requires schools to develop close relationships with whanau and when ERO visits a school it meets with community members to assess how strong that relationship is.

Traditionally parents have quite a strong and regular relationship when their child is at primary school, but for a range of reasons this relationship weakens and becomes much less regular at secondary school. This may be because a secondary school is a much larger institution so may not seem as welcoming or even that parents themselves didn’t enjoy their secondary school experience so feel a little daunted.

In many secondary schools the relationship concentrates on supporting the school with fund raising. At Opotiki College we do very little school-wide fundraising and prefer to have our parents form a relationship with us in other ways.

As with most schools we have a number of parent teacher report evenings at which we get between 25-35% of our families present. We do, however, run Bilingual whanau hui every term which are well-attended and other evening sessions to explain subject choices, enrolment and qualifications. The attendance at these is still at about the 25-35% level.

Our parents have other opportunities by attending sports events and kapa haka practices and noho.

It is important that parents and whanau find a way to make a link with their local school. Last week we tried something different at Opotiki College. We had a mix and mingle evening for the parents of our Year 9 students. It was quite informal with a shared supper and introductions followed by parents meeting and chatting with the teachers from their child’s class. 50% of our families were present and there was a neat buzz as teachers and parents got to know each other.

I explained to the parents that it was not important if they could not assist their child with some of their homework but that it was important that they were active in taking an interest in their child at school and being present for them wherever possible. Those parents who turned up last week had taken the very first important step in being present for their child and showing their strong interest.

We now expect stronger turnouts from these parents at future report evenings as we have broken the ice with them.

One interesting question asked at the evening was about decile rankings and what it meant for schools. The Ministry of Education assesses each school’s community as to its socio-economic status and then groups the schools into ten (decile) groups with decile 1 being in the lowest 10% socio economic group and decile 10 in the highest. It doesn’t mean the decile 1 schools are in poorer condition, or get less money or get poorer teachers.

Many schools are burdened by such a label and as a result have lower expectations and settle for less. Consequently lower decile schools tend to have lower achievement levels. Opotiki College refuses to be limited by such a label and operates under a belief that our students can and will do as well as students anywhere in the country. We prove this with our results year after year.

Students, schools and communities cannot be limited by labels such as decile rankings. The way forward is by learning and learning matters.

Latest Learning Matters

Right now there is a large debate going on in education circles, especially in the primary sector, around the National Government’s policy of introducing national standards at each year level up to and including Year 8.

There is a huge amount of overseas experience, notably in the US and the UK, which shows such a policy has a negative rather than positive impact on student achievement so it is being treated with caution and, in some cases, hostility in the primary sector.

The Minister of Education claims that what is being introduced in New Zealand is quite different and has been developed fully aware of the faults in overseas models. She may well be right as New Zealand has a record of leading the way in educational practice.

Primary teachers are worried that they will be forced to ‘teach to the test’ and that the inevitable publication of league tables will show some schools, typically those in lower decile areas, are falling quite short of the national standard.

Good or bad; welcome to the world of the secondary sector. We have been operating in such an environment for ever with the national standard determined by School Certificate and now by NCEA and the publication every year of league tables.

One of the arguments against pay equity between the primary and secondary sectors is the lack of any external accountability for student achievement in the primary sector, something which secondary schools are faced with and fall or stand against every single year.

I don’t think I like the new policy but I will wait and see.

My advice to colleagues in low decile area primary schools in New Zealand is to take the opportunity to throw off the yoke of low decileness and show the Minister and your community that this does not limit achievement opportunities for your children. There are plenty of places where this happens.

Once again, decile 1 Opotiki College students have done impressively well in NCEA from 2009. With 83% of non-Maori gaining Level 1, 75% gaining Level 2 and 77% gaining Level 3 and with 62% of Maori gaining Level 1, 83% gaining Level 2 and 68% gaining Level 3 our students have done our school and community proud. In all but one of the groups above this puts us at or above the average level of achievement for deciles 8-10 schools (the highest grouping) and in the other we are above the average for decile 4-7 schools.

These figures are not a figment of my imagination and will soon be available to the public on the NZQA website.

The primary schools in Opotiki are doing a great job and despite their best efforts our Year 9 students do arrive well below the national average for their age group. This is normally the case in a low-decile community.

A combination of innovative programmes, committed staff, supportive parents, great resources and a ‘never give up’ attitude help our students to achieve these great results. The most important thing, however, is that we have learned to ignore our decile ranking and to operate in a way that shows we expect all of our kids will achieve national qualifications. This is the learning that matters.

The table below shows how tremendously well we have done with NCEA. The first column shows our % achievement of NCEA at each level, the second column shows what the national average % was and then the next three columns show the national averages for low, mid and high decile schools. Opotiki College is a decile 1 school but, as you can see, our figures put us in either the mid or, in many cases, high decile groupings. The achievement of Maori students in particular is well above the national levels.



The table didn't copy too well, but you shoukd be able to make sense of it.



ALL STUDENTS
Opotiki College National Deciles 1-3 Deciles 4-7 Deciles 8-10

Level 1 68 71 55 69 80
Level 2 81 75 60 73 83
Level 3 71 68 52 66 76

MAORI STUDENTS

Opotiki College National Deciles 1-3 Deciles 4-7 Deciles 8-10

Level 1 62 55 52 53 66

Level 2 83 62 59 61 72

Level 3 68 52 52 50 60

NON MAORI STUDENTS

Opotiki College National Deciles 1-3 Deciles 4-7 Deciles 8-10
Level 1 83 79 68 75 84
Level 2 75 81 69 78 86
Level 3 77 74 60 71 78

NCEA 2009

Once again we have punched well above our weight for a decile 1 school. With 66% of our Year 11s gaining NCEA Level 1, 81% of our Year 12s gaining Level 2 (with all but 4 of the rest gaining Level 1) and 64% of our Year 13s(!) gaining Level 3 (with all of the rest gaining Level 2) we have done wonderfully well.


The keys, I am certain, are strong leadership across the whole school, an emphasis on strong and positive relationships with our students, and a 'dog-with-a-bone' belief that everyone of our students can succeed.


When you consider that 60-67% of our students arrive at the start of Year 9 in the bottom quartile of nationally-normed literacy and numeracy tests I don't believe there would be many, if any, schools in New Zealand which 'add value' as much as we do.


Let's see what ERO's view is when they arrive in Term III!

Curse on Valley Station Rd

Two weeks ago I was charging down Valley Station and my derailleur was snapped off by a branch and I ahd to single speed back with my chain breaking on the last hill at home. So I missed the stream ride.

One week ago I attempted the same loop and had to turn around at the stream and walk back up to help Kurt look for his sunglasses. So I missed the stream ride.

Today I was hurtling down Valley Staion at a section known, by me, as the dip which has a fast downhill followed by an uphill which I alwayas attempt to coast up using my downhill speed. Half way down I lost my front wheel on the edge of the rut (Aaron should have trimmed the grass from this!) and hit the ground hard on my head and right shoulder. I did the squirmy, writhy, groaning thing rthat Barry has witnessed before and was helped to my feet by Lea. I has a bar end brand on one knee, my right fingers were sprained, my head hurt (thank god for helmets!) and my shoulder and ribs were complaining.

It was an agonising walk ride back to Waiaua where Lea arrived with the car. The Boss and Amber stuck with me - sorry for wrecking your ride. So I missed the stream ride for the third time.

Leigh was not happy when I got home and had a view that I do these things on purpose! Coffee, anti inflammatories and ice have helped. I have a suspicion that my shoulder may be worse than I am accepting, but don't tell Leigh.

Very disappointed that George, Brian and Dennis couldn't spend last night drinking beer and still make the ride. You all need to do better, especially you George if you aspire to be a possum!

Great to see Paul (Tegel) join the real hard man's club by spewing after yesterday's time trial!

Mangakirikiri Mystery

You really need a knowledge of this looped mtb track to fully understand this comedy.

Jarrod and Aaron thought they would clear the windfall from the Valley Station Road loop so..... Jarrod dropped Aaron off at the top of the hill at the start of Valley station and, armed with a hand saw, sent him along Valley Station on his mtb and told him they would meet somewhere along the stream. Jarrod then drove back to the skid site and hopped on his mtb with Shane's wee trailer and his chaainsaw in it and headed down stream clearing fallen trees.

When he had finished he had not seen Aaron so assumed he had backtracked to the skid site. Jarrod rode back up Mangakirikiri and at the skid site discovered the chain guard had come off the chainsaw so biked all the way back to find it then biked back to the skid site. But, no Aaron. Jarrod jumped in his truck drove up to Valley Station Rd and then along the newly cleared Valley Station as far as the truck would go without sustaining more damage than some scratches and a broken aerial. He the got on his mtb and carried on in the same direction looking for Aaron.

In the meantime Aaron, who had been meticulous about his clearing arrived at the stream and then rode up it until the skid site to find no Jarrod or truck. He assumed Jarrod had driven up to Valley Station Rd so he rode up this huge hill to get there but no Jarrod or truck. He then headed back down the hill, past the skid site, through the gate and ended jup at my plaace at aabout 6.00pm absolutely shagged and hanging out for a beer.

In the meantime Jarrod turned around at the little sisters, returned to the truck and drove baack out to Hermanssons cowshed and rung George who had no idea where Aaron was. Jarrod feared the worst and headed back to the skid site. At about this time Aaron rang George to come and pick him up who informed Aaron that Jarrod was back in the bush looking for him while swearing loudly.

In the meantime Jarrod rode back down the Mangakirikiri and near the first creek crossing saw Aaron's tyre marks so assumed he was out, rode all the way back to his truck at the skid site and drove out. Once he got cell phone reception he discovered Aaron and George were at my place drinking beer so turned up in quite a rage.

I was able to intercept him with a cold beer and was able to avert a family fall out!

When you are biking the newly manicured valley Station circuit please have a wee thought for the Teddy boys!

Surf's Up!

Yesterday Lucy and I went to surf lessons at Ohope and graduated successfully!

We had a one hour lesson on land taken by Beaver and the lovely Lucy. We learnt how to paddle through the waves, paddle to catch a wave, steady ourselves, get to our knees and then to stand and haka hula.

We then entered the water for an hour of surfing. Our instructions were to go out to where the waves were breaking and catch them after they had broken. To my surprise I stood up and stayed standing up right into the shore! Lucy proved to be as natural as I was!

After about 20 minutes of doing this we headed a little further out (still not quite over our heads!) and started catching waves before they broke. A couple of nosedives showed that it was important to stand quickly so both of us dispensed with the kneeling stage and got used to going straight to our feet. These rides were cool!

All too soon our hour was up and we got our certificate and headed home hugely pleased with our new status as surfies! Wicked dude! Lucy and I both agreed we were the two best surfers in the class of 10 and that she wasn't too far behind me!

Highly recommended dude! Now where can I get a board from?

Spot X

Spot X delivered for Pete, Kurt and myself this morning. I was up at 4.00am and Pete picked us up at 4.30 and we were off to spot X. We drove for somewhere between 30 and 60 minutes and walked for somewhere between 30 and 60 minutes to find ourselves perched on a great rock, with great water and nice swell and got the berley out quickly. It was a bit slow for an hour and then Pete and Kurt landed fish between 4 and 6k and then 2 casts later Pete pulled in about a 3kg fish. I was a bit slow off the mark but pulled in 4 up to 2kg ( 2 were only 30-33 cm!).

It was great fishing and the walk in and out, while strenuous, added to the adventure. Snapper on the BBQ tonight.

Thanks for the guiding, Pete!