Welcome to Önnestad Upper Secondary School!
The school is located in the south of Sweden, just west of the town of Kristianstad. It comprises upper secondary school for pupils aged 16 to 19 as well as adult education at vocational college.
The school runs the Natural Resource Programme where you can specialize in agriculture, horses, animal care or natural science. The vocational college supplies further education within farming.
The students live to the greatest part in the school's boarding where well-being and fellowship contribute to making school more fun. It is not hard to keep busy. In the spare time after school there is a series of arranged activities, everything from exciting visits to the theatre and special garage evenings for those who are interested in mechanics. All meals are served at the school.
Önnestad Upper Secondary School
School agriculture
Crops and machines
Cow barn
Pig house
Horse stable
Pet stable
Higher Vocational Adult Education
Contact
Önnestad Upper Secondary School: History and Facts
Here are some basic facts about the history of Önnestad Upper Secondary School.
In 1868 the first folk high schools emerged in Sweden. Önnestad and Hvilan were part of them. The school in Önnestad had courses as management, agriculture, barn management, surveying and leveling, and book-keeping at the program. In 1877 Önnestad could offer a 6 month (one term) long theoretical course for those students with at least one year of agricultural practice and reviewed folk high school course. We see this course as the schools first course ever.
Since then there have been many changes:
In 1888 the agricultural division at Önnestad Folk High School was organized as a Farm School.
In 1912 it was possible to inaugurate the new boarding, what we today call “Red”. It contained a lecture room in the basement, 30 student rooms and a kitchen/dining room for 100 people.
In 1930 the school got a farm in the village of Stoby, Olahus, as a donation from a juryman, Ored Ohlsson, who was a former student at Önnestad Folk High School’s first course 1868. That same year we built a new kitchen and the dining areas were expanded. The newly built red angle of the building was changed to reading rooms and lounges for the students.
In 1940 the joint organization between the Farm School and Folk High School separated into two after a government’s decision. This meant that the Folk High School got the teaching labs while the Farm School got the kitchens/dining areas and most of the student housing.
In 1943 the yellow boarding school and auditorium were inaugurated.
In 1963 the term Farm School was replaced with Agricultural College.
In 1971 education in the areas of agriculture and horticulture started within the new Secondary School. The County Council becomes the principal owner and takes over the school from the Guarantee Association.
In 1991 the school starts the Natural Resource Programme.
In 1997 adult education in farm management started.
The Council of Kristianstad takes over the school in 1999.
2009 a Vocational High school started with an education in animal care.
2010 the Agricultural society of Kristianstad was made into the new owner.
School agriculture
The students will of cause experience work praxis during their time at Önnestad Upper Secondary School. That includes working in the cow barn, horse stables, pig stable and the pet stable but also with our agricultural part which includes tractors, combine harvesters and other agricultural machines. The students also get work experience from working at our ecological farm, Olahus.
Crops and machines
The school is farming both around the school area and at Olahus in Stoby. We are using 758 acres for farming, 148 acres as natural grazing and 408 acres are woods. For these soils we are using 15 diverse tractors, 4 combine harvesters and 3 loaders in different sizes. We got all the right equipment for a modern agriculture and a fully equipped machine workshop.
We are growing most kinds of crops, such as fall-canola, plant potatoes, sugar beets, carrots and clover/grass lay.
At the school all the students receive teaching in how to use the different machines.
Cow barn
At the school barn there are about 95 dairy cows and somewhere around 125 young cows. The dairy cows, which are free ranged, are milked in a milk pit from 1994 with room for 12 cows. They are being milked three times a day, six o’clock, one o’clock and eight o’clock.
In the stable where the cows are tethered there are cows which are dried up, heifers that are about to give birth and mastitis cows. They are being tube-milked every morning and evening.
In the stables there are six nice and competent employees that always support you and help you develop and to manage independent work.
During your first year at the school you and a friend are, three nights a week, going to help with everything necessary down in the stable, everything between milking cows and deliver calves to trimming cows and feeding them. Later during that year you will spend full days down in the stables, to learn the routines and the everyday work with a dairy herd.
The school has 67 acres of grazing. On the nearest grazing areas we have the milking cows and the youngest calves. The heifers and the pregnant cows are located further away from the stables at large natural pastures.
In your last year you will be able to choose a course named Milk and meat production. During that course you will have the opportunity to take Green card in cow handling. That is a valuable merit when applying for work.
Pig house
Just recently the school started its own pig production, with our own sows and artificial insemination.
The school owns 47 sows and every fourth week new piglets are born. When the piglet weigh about 25 kilos and are around the age of five weeks, they are sent away to a breeder to be raised. In the second year at the school you will be able to choose a pig-course where you for instant will get a green card in pig care and attend an artificial insemination course, which on the job market will make you very attractive to the employer.
Horse stable
In the stables there are twelve school horses. We believe it is important to have different types of horses, everything between small to big horses, calm to fresh and coarser to slender body types. The horses are trained in a way that supports the student’s development and riding skills. Our goal is that all of the horses should be trained within all of the three disciplines. Most of the horses have already competed in one specific discipline, some horses in all of them.
In 2012 a new loose housing will be built inspired by “Active Stable and Active Horse”. It will be finished 1st of April 2012. There will also be around ten boxes and an additional building, in connection with the stable, with seven stalls for preparing and taking care of the horses.
At this moment we have three horse stables with 26 boxes overall and two stalls for hosing down horses. One stable is available only for the privately owned horses and the other two for the school horses. Right next to the stable, in the same building, there are lecturing halls and dressing- and lunchroom.
The manège measures 22x60 meters, and was inaugurated January 2000. There is also a new paddock, built in 2003 and connected to the manège, with the measures 22x63. At the establishment the school also has a dressage paddock and a big jumping course on grass. At the jumping course a coffin was built in 2004.
We also have a racing course measuring 600 yards. If wanted there are steeplechase hurdles of a smaller kind.
2003 a terrain course was built in cooperation with Gerth Nordin. The terrain course has many different kinds of typical obstacles, such as a sandbank for instant.
With trainer Sigvard Gustavsson you will get the opportunity to drive a horse and carriage. You will be taught everything from driving a horse in farming to obstacledriving. The student will acquire good insight into driving with a horse and learn how to handle different situations when driving in the forest and on other difficult grounds.
Students at the school have the possibility to rent a spot for their horse. All students get free access to the manège and paddocks. They can also get advice at any time from the very competent employees down in the school stable.
Pet stable
At the school we also have a pet stable, where we got most of the common house pets. There are chickens and ducks of different breeds, also the most common caged birds and rodents. Last but not least we got three Vietnamese Pot-bellied pigs. The animals are taken care of by our students and some extra students from an upper secondary school for students with learning disabilities. We also have a course based on taking care of and having a wider knowledge of our house pets, which you will get the possibility to study at our school. Having a pet in the stable is for free, but you must take care of it by yourself.
Higher Vocational Adult Education
We have been appointed to run courses that cover the demand for qualified workforce in the labourmarket. The education isgoverned by an extensive national quality assurance program that aims to preserve and maintain high educational standards.
We supply further adult education in the fields of:
· Farm foreman
· Work manager
· Qualified mechanic
· Veterinary technician
Contact
Önnestad Gymnasium och Yrkeshögskola
Skolgatan 37
291 73 Önnestad
Sweden
Phone: +46 (0)44 10 45 00
Headmaster Hans Martinsson
Further adult education Sara Slätt
Office Martin Comstedt
Elisabeth Ahlander
