Boorowa Central School

Principal's Address

Retirement of Mrs Debra Eustace

In January this year, one of Boorowa Central School’s longest serving teachers made the decision to retire from teaching. Mrs. Debra Eustace has been a teacher within the NSW Department of Education for 44 years, most of which were here at our school. Mrs Eustace filled a variety of roles at Boorowa Central School in her time, finishing up as Teacher Librarian.

Mrs Eustace started at Boorowa Central School in 1985 after teaching for almost 5 years in Sydney at a variety of schools. For the first part of her career, she was an English and History Teacher, recreating significant historical events in her ‘lovely wooden classroom’ near the principal's residence. In 2006, Mrs Eustace went back to university, gained a Teacher Librarianship degree, and became our school’s Teacher Librarian. She filled this role until her retirement.

Mrs Eustace introduced a regional public speaking competition during her time at the school which at its peak, attracted schools from Goulburn to Queanbeyan, Yass to Gundagai, Quandialla to Cowra, Canowindra to Crookwell and more. Many of the students involved in the competition utilised these public speaking skills in careers after school. In 1997, Mrs Eustace won a National Excellence in Teaching Award (NeiTA) for this competition.

One of Mrs Eustace’s proudest achievements when at Boorowa Central School was running the school’s debating teams for more than a decade. Most of the students that were in these teams travelled to and competed (often successfully) in regional competitions,  then went on to receive excellent results in their HSC English, Ancient and Modern History examinations having learnt the skills of argumentative discussions in the school’s debating teams. In 2011 Debra was awarded the Pride of Australia award for Public Speaking. Under her tutelage Boorowa Central School teams competed in eisteddfods with some ending up winning at National levels, others being State winners.

Mrs Eustace also coached teams for the Model United Nation regional competitions. Students competed in teams, representing  country, debating United Nation resolutions in old parliament house in Canberra. More than 100 private and public schools competed in this competition annually.

Mrs Eustace finally made the decision to retire so she could spend as much time as possible with her growing family and because she was now teaching the grandchildren of students she had taught!

We wish Mrs Eustace all the best for her retirement and thank her for her many years of service to our school and the wider school community.

NAPLAN 2025

The National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) will be commencing next week for 2025. Students in Year 3, 5, 7 and 9 will be completing a series of assessments designed to determine if young Australians’ are developing the literacy and numeracy skills that provide the critical foundation for other learning and for their productive and rewarding participation in the community. These tests are only a ‘snapshot’ in time.

The students will be tested in the areas of:

  • reading
  • writing
  • conventions of language (spelling, grammar and punctuation)
  • numeracy.

If you would like to know more about NAPLAN, please click here.

 

Boorowa Show 

The show was the hottest Boorowa Show that I have experienced in the past 8 years! Despite the heat, my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed visiting the pavilion to see the entries for all the categories as well as watching our Show Team in action, parading their steers and participating in the junior judging. Congratulations to all the students and staff involved in the show and the Boorowa Show Society for organising another fantastic event.

 

Glenlothlian Education Foundation grant

In 2024, many of our students benefited from the support of the Glenlothlian Education Foundation of Yass. This foundation provided Boorowa Central School with a grant that was used to decrease the financial disadvantage some of our families suffer when paying for excursions or buying uniforms.

I thank the generosity of this foundation and the many other businesses, organisations and individuals who provide financial support to the school for our students and its wellbeing programs.

 

Attendance and Behaviour challenge

As I mentioned in my previous newsletter item, I am keeping high attendance and low negative behaviours on the agenda this year.

Each Primary assembly, I am highlighting the class with the best attendance, and the fewest negative behaviour entries and acknowledging this with extra play time for those classes.

In Primary, the class with the highest attendance for the last 3 weeks was Ms Downey’s 2/3 class with 85.5%

In Primary, the class with the fewest negative entries was Kindergarten!

Each Secondary Assembly, I present the attendance and behavioural data, broken into year groups, and compared to the previous year. Through the use of this visual display and interaction with the students, the aim is to increase the narrative behind both of these areas and work toward improvement together.

As an incentive, I asked each year group to generate a list of ‘acknowledgements’ that I can choose from when their year group has excelled in either attendance or behaviour.

In secondary, the year with the highest attendance for the last 3 weeks was Year 12 with 81.66, up from 2024’s average of 67.66%! – what an improvement!

In secondary, the class with the fewest negative entries is Year 11. They had 0 negative entries over the past 3 weeks!

Congratulations to these year groups and classes.

Swimming Carnival Success

The annual Boorowa Central School Swimming Carnival was again, a hit with staff, students and parents alike. Despite the postponement of a week, the carnival was executed without a hitch on the day and all attendees thoroughly enjoyed the day.

I wish those swimmers who have qualified for Western Region all the best with their upcoming races.