Wee Waa High School students were warmly welcomed through the gates of their new state-of-the-art campus last Tuesday by ecstatic staff who lined the front pathway, cheering and high-fiving pupils as they entered a bright new chapter in WWHS’ history.
“We were just so excited for them from the moment they came in the gate,” said principal Jacki Neil.
“And the students were so excited, too; the smiles on their faces makes it all worthwhile.”
After a school relocation due to mould issues, four years of sharing a campus with Wee Waa Public School and plenty of highs and lows along the way, June 18, 2024, will forever be a momentous occasion in the WWHS record books.
The date was the highly anticipated first day of learning at the modern educational facility, which includes a new library, multipurpose hall, environment centre, food technology classroom, science labs and darkroom for photography, commercial kitchen, sports fields and courts, an Indigenous Cultural Centre, and 15 learning spaces.
“Wee Waa High School was established in 1939 and the journey for students, staff and the community since the relocation of the school was announced in 2021, till today has been an emotional one,” said Ms Neil.
“Through planning, design, construction and delivery, Wee Waa High School and the community have patiently watched as our new school evolved from an empty construction site, into a modern and well-resourced educational facility.
“Our new school features modern, purpose-built facilities that will support high quality teaching and learning, with specialist classrooms for the delivery of Science, Creative Arts, Hospitality, Technology and Applied Sciences, and the provision of dedicated classrooms that have been purpose designed to support students with a disability,” said Ms Neil.
“Our agricultural programs will continue to operate with theory taught in our new Environmental Centre, and practical lessons provided in the Wee Waa High School Agricultural Farm located at the old school site.
“I am also pleased to say that our Binaalba Centre will once again be a space for First Nation students to access support from our Aboriginal Education Officer and a community space for families and support services to meet and engage with the educational community.
“At Wee Waa High School our vision is to educate students in a caring, inclusive, and culturally respectful learning environment, where we empower our students to become agile, lifelong learners and successful, future-focused citizens, adept with technology and prepared for life in a ever-changing world.
“I look forward to continuing to work with the Wee Waa High School community in the coming years and to welcoming you all to our new school,” said Ms Neil.
All new buildings have been handed over to the school for students to use, however, some landscaping and works to areas such as the school oval will continue, and are expected to become accessible later this year.
The government department has begun the process to procure a contractor to conduct the works at the WWHS Agricultural Farm. Once a contractor has been appointed, a construction program will be developed, and the department will inform the community about the proposed start and completion dates for these works.
Currently, the Charles Street entrance is the only way to enter the impressive new campus, where the contemporary learning spaces feature the latest technology and furniture in a layout designed to support greater collaboration while catering for individual needs and improving educational outcomes.
The multipurpose hall is a sport enthusiast’s dream. It also contains a grand performance stage, with the gymnasium area leading out to a covered outdoor learning space and the school canteen.
“I think some of the students can’t believe this is their new school, it’s so big and modern and everything is new, right down to the pens,” said Ms Neil. “And I think Sally Cain was the most excited librarian in the North West on the first day in our new school because she hadn’t had books for four years. On the first day she had students in the library borrowing books and doing lunchtime activities.”
Beyond the bookshelves, Ms Neil said the library was proving to be a popular and friendly space for students to go at lunch time, where there are lounges for quiet reading time and areas set-up for students to work or play games and do group activities.
“The library really is an amazing space, it was the number one spot to be and it’s great to see students naturally gravitating to the space during break times,” Ms Neil said.
“I think the new school will help grow attendance rates, which will be great because every school and every teacher wants to improve the amount of time kids are at school – it means they can learn more, and they’ll achieve better education and life outcomes.”
It’s a fresh start for staff, students, and their families who, along with the WWPS community, have demonstrated patience and resilience while supporting each other through testing times.
In 2021, the NSW government announced a new high school would be built after a significant number of staff and students became unwell and suffered symptoms consistent with exposure to mould, including headaches, respiratory issues, and rashes.
WWHS has been operating from a temporary campus at WWPS rather than the old Purcell Avenue site, while building of the new school on Mitchell Street took place.
The Courier was treated to a tour of the school last week, and while the shiny and sparkling new resources along with the innovative infrastructure are mind-blowing; it was the positive atmosphere and beaming smiles on people’s faces that made the biggest impression.
Students and staff were bursting with excitement to show off and discuss their favourite parts of their phenomenal new campus.
The dedicated education team seemed optimistic, equipped with the best tools and resources to share their talents, and help local students reach their full potential.
Aboriginal education officer, Helen Wenner appeared both emotional and thrilled with the fantastic possibilities of the new Binaalbaa space.
Around every corner at the cutting-edge campus, there was something breathtaking to marvel at – from a commercial kitchen so spectacular it rivals the MasterChef set-up, to an extraordinary library warmed by natural sunlight and brand-new books with pages yet to be turned.
For the students and staff, week one was a time to discover the wonders of their new digs.
“We didn’t have normal classes on the first day, we had more of a settling-in day,” said Ms Neil.
“Students did a tour in their year groups and then we had an ‘Amazing Race’, so that the they could learn where everything was in the school – they had to follow clues and work out where buildings or different offices were.”
“We have a fully stocked science faculty, so the kids will be able to access all the experiments that they haven’t been able to do for four years because we didn’t have the facilities,” said Ms Neil.
“We’ve now got a complete commercial kitchen for our hospitality students, which is just incredible.
“State-of-the-art equipment – in our woodwork metal work room there is every piece of equipment that Sarah our teacher could dream of as a woodwork and metal teacher.
“Our art room is amazing too – we’ve got a large darkroom, pottery wheels and kilns.
“We’ve got simply incredible facilities, but I also think just in the general classrooms, the spaces are great and they’re huge in size.
“We’ve got movable desks so that they can be configured in different ways for different types of learning.
“We’ve got brand new laptops displays, breakout spaces from every classroom so kids can go out into those little spaces to do small group work.
“There’s just lots of options for different ways of learning, which is important because different kids learn in different ways, so we need to be able to accommodate this and teach them in different ways.”
The school reflects Wee Waa’s proud Gomeroi heritage and ancestral culture, thanks to students and representatives from the local Gomeroi community who contributed ideas through a series of workshops held during the new facility’s development.
And, on day one, students were gifted commemorative water bottles featuring artwork that is an amalgamation of designs created by Aboriginal WWHS students.
The thoughtful idea is the product of the workshop sessions held a couple of years ago, which also led to other outcomes including the same artwork being wrapped around the stairwell at the front of the school.
The WWHS community’s involvement from the beginning in the multi-million-dollar development has been very important to Ms Neil, with students, staff and community members given the chance to offer ideas, feedback and suggestions helping to create a valued sense of ownership and belonging for the children at the new school, especially after years of sharing a campus.
“I think that’s a big thing because we haven’t really had ‘a home’ for four years,” said Ms Neil.
“I think now they can make this their school.
“And they’ve had input, from the artwork, colours, facilities, and now that we’re here, we can further involve the students to help make it feel even more like their own space again – they can help build different gardens or they can use the sporting facilities, borrow books from the library, they can a do it all in their own school.
“And I do feel like the school is theirs, and the school is something to be proud of.
“We’ve also got new uniforms this year and now we’ve got the new school, so hopefully it will make the students and the community feel proud and help and help rebuild our sense of identity.
“I spoke to the kids yesterday and said – we really need to appreciate the facility, take ownership of it, and treat it with respect, we’re very lucky.
“I also think for a lot of the staff after we had so many false starts when we were going to move over, only to be delayed, I don’t think everyone quite believed that it was going to happen when it did.
“I’m walking around, and I can’t believe that this is my school too because it’s beautiful and most of us will never have an opportunity to work in a brand new school or anything
quite like this, it’s an incredible opportunity.”
Despite a few false starts and delays, enthusiasm about the new WWHS has been building in the community, creating an optimistic buzz about the future possibilities the spectacular school will bring to the Cotton Capital.
The educational investment is welcome news for families and students, but also local business owners and community members who hope it will help retain and attract people to the area, making the town flourish.
“I am a part of this community, and I think we deserve to have a great high school with all the facilities,” said Ms Neil.
“I think that’s why it was really important for me to see this project through to the end.
“And I worked really hard to make sure that we got everything that we got because I wasn’t going to let us have something that, I guess, was inferior.
“I fought hard … and I’m proud that we’ve got this – it’s great.
“And it’s here forever for the community – it’ll outlive me by a long time.”
While there’s no doubt the flash new school will offer students ample opportunities, Ms Neil said the positive core values of WWHS’ small school environment will remain. With the school’s educators taking the time to cater for the needs of individual students, seeking out beneficial programs to help boost confidence levels, life skills and support career pathways through university, apprenticeships, traineeships or work experience.
“I think that’s something that we do really well and it’s something we pride ourselves on,” said Ms Neil.
“We have such a range of students – we have some who are wanting to go to university, we have kids who are striving to move into the workforce, we have others who are keen on a trade, we’ve got kids who are still figuring it out and we work to cater to their individual needs.
“We’ve now got a really great dedicated special education space.
“We really want to push our high-performance education with all the resources we now have, we want to support and really push those kids, not just academically, but sporting and culturally, really encourage those kids to exceed their outcomes.”
At times, during the WWHS redevelopment project, Ms Neil’s role as principal has likely branched out to include ‘project manager’, however, with the support of her committed staff and school community, the popular leader has set a fine example and hopes to have established a school that will serve future generations and expand the educational opportunities for families in the Narrabri Shire and surrounding areas.
“I want to thank my staff; the staff have just been incredibly patient and have just stuck it out, stayed focused on and looked after our kids.
“The community’s been so patient as well and I know that families have been really unhappy with the delays, I’ve been unhappy with them as well, but it’s been gratifying that they’ve stuck with us and kept their kids at our school.
“And now look what they’ve got – it’s incredible, great things will happen here.
“I feel really proud that I can be the principal of this brand new school because I think we’ve just been through such a tough period over the last four years.
“And the staff have done an amazing job making sure the kids have continued to learn at our temporary site, but now with the resources and the facilities we now have, everyone can just really blossom and reach their potential.
“I’m really excited about what the next 12 months will bring, just to watch the amazing things that can be done with all of these new resources because they’ve had to make do with not much for the last few years. I think student outcomes will be incredible because of the environment that we’re in – I think it will be amazing.”
