After a year without playground equipment the school has officially opened its new $30,000 structure with a special ceremony to thank the generous community.

School principal Karen Fonti said they decided not to cut a ribbon at the May 24 opening, instead choosing a paper chain with links signed by the students, staff and the community.

"This chain is a great representation of how we have worked together as a whole school community to achieve something great," she said.

At the end of 2017 the playground equipment was removed as it didn't meet safety regulations.

The school surveyed the students and families for ideas before the P and C took on the mammoth task of raising the money for new equipment.

With cupcake sales, canteen profits, stalls at various community events, half the money was raised in a year.

Then David and Summah Lagettie, who only recently moved into the area, stepped in with a donation to complete the project.

The Hilldale couple have the youngest of their eight children, Noah and Molly, at the school with four-year-old Hazel to start next year.

"It's such a fantastic school, everyone has been so welcoming," said Mrs Lagettie.

Mr Lagettie said the school reminded them of the country schools in the Riverina they attended.

"It makes us happy. It was the right thing to do," he said.

During the special ceremony school captains Madison McCosker and Lucy Thompson both gave enlightening speeches about the history of the project.

"Through the efforts of our P and C, the Lagettie family, whose kindness and generosity is beyond belief and lots of other outside sponsors, we were able to raise the money we needed to buy our equipment and start planning the installation so it was ready for use as soon as possible," said Madi.

"Vacy Public School now looks complete again and I know that all of our students are already reaping the benefit of your hard work," said Lucy.

"Our happy faces are the best evidence that when we work together as one, we can achieve great things for all."

For a group of year 7 Dungog High students the day was bittersweet. They helped fundraise for the equipment but just missed out on its delivery. They were happy the current and future students would enjoy the state of the art equipment.