The Dungog and District Community of Schools celebrated Education Week with a mass gathering of students, teachers, parents and community members at Dungog High School on Thursday evening.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
All the schools in the Dungog Shire – Dungog, Gresford, Paterson, Vacy, Clarence Town, Glen William and Martins Creek – all staged performances of singing, dancing or plays in between the presentation of awards.
Dungog High School principal Maureen Jarvis said the event this year was a celebration of local heroes.
“The purpose of this is to celebrate our achievements and successes across all the schools in this community,” she said.
“It is a celebration of partnerships between teachers, parents, students and the community.
“The theme of local heroes is very timely considering what this area has been through with the April storm.
“We have lived through the most testing of times and have seen men and women, boys and girls all working together as volunteers to help those who were affected the most.
“We saw young people go into houses and helped clean them out.
“Tonight we remember, reflect and celebrate the people in our community who have helped, not only with the storm, but in other situations too.”
Recipients of teaching awards were Zoe McAlister (Gresford), Louise Hunter (Martins Creek), Natusha Joy and Sue Hodgins (Dungog High School), Sue Graham (Vacy) and Danielle Smith and Jane Ryan (Dungog Public School).
Recipient of the student awards were Anneeka Knight and Matthew Benhard (Clarence Town), Macey Gilbert (Paterson), Kaitlin Horn (Gresford), Caiden Bagnall (Glen William), George Allingham and Zahra Barnes (Martins Creek), Aimee Robinson and Sam Neilson (Dungog High School), Amy Magri (Vacy) and Liam Kennedy and Jessica Olsen (Dungog Public School).
Non-teaching award winners were Laura Price (Clarence Town), Nicole Carter (Gresford Public School), Robyn Keller and Nicole Lancaster (Martins Creek), Annette Nelson (Dungog High School), Anne Bettinzoli (Vacy) and Amanda Chant (Dungog Public).
Community award recipients were Katie Bagnall, Susan Hallett and Bronwyn Prentice (Clarence Town), Amy Merchant, Kristy Duncan and Sylvia Lawrence (Gresford), Leanne Doorey (Glen William), Kath Jijsbers and Arthur Asplunde (Martins Creek), Val Cross (Dungog High), Kristy Grainer (Vacy) and Sarah U’Brien, Tammy Zanardi and Karen Sowter (Dungog Public).
The school music program from Clarence Town received the school award as did the cattle judging team from Paterson.
Gresford received an award for their Anzac commemoration and history program and Helen Rubeli received Martins Creek school award.
Dungog High School’s community art project received an award as did the kinder orientation program at Vacy.
Dungog Public’s kinder to year 6 music program also received an award.
