Hermidale Public School wins inaugural Royal Easter Show Agricultural Innovation in Schools Award for Future Farmers Project

This week, the school - located in a tiny village between Nyngan and Cobar - was the proud recipient of the inaugural Royal Easter Show Agricultural Innovation in Schools Award.

"We are super excited to receive this award and to make a small contribution to agriculture education in our community," principal Skye Dedman said.

"The project brought so many amazing opportunities for our students, and we are so proud of how their learning has expanded through this journey."

The school was awarded the honour for their Hermidale Future Farmers project through which 10 students from kindergarten to year six helped transform a donated paddock behind the school into a thriving 85-hectare wheat crop.

The $50,000 in proceeds earned from the sale of the crop helped to fund excursions, like a recent trip to the coast, for the students.

Hermidale Public School teacher Rebekah Coddington said the Future Farmers project raised awareness with students about the importance of agriculture to Australia and the world.

"We are very focused on opening up pathways for students to get into the agriculture sector," she said.

"We are very proud of how our students have taken on their new role as broadacre crop farmers and they are just great advocates for the future of the agriculture industry.

This is the first time the Agricultural Innovation in Schools Award has been given out, and Royal Agricultural Society of NSW Head of Education Duncan Kendall says Hermidale's Future Farmers project was the inspiration behind the title.

"The staff at Hermidale Public School made the curriculum come alive for their students," he said.

The award is just another exciting milestone for Hermidale's students, who have just returned home from a trip to the south coast where they were invited to visit Tanja Public School. This was the first time many of the students have seen the ocean.

Ms Dedman said the trip was a great example of how two communities 900 kilometres apart could come together with a shared educational interest.

"There was plenty of hands-on learning and the students at each school really came away with a greater understanding of how our environment around us can provide so much education," she said.

"The students were on the beach touching shells and learning how crabs live - that is just first-hand learning that the Tanja students could share with our kids. And, of course, our students were sharing a lot about how to be crop farmers."

Back at home in the central west, the Hermidale kids and their teachers are getting ready to plant their next big crop.

"If it rains in the next couple of weeks we will put in some canola crops, and if not, we will look at another variety of wheat for this year," Mrs Dedman said.

"We are just excited to see how our students can continue to learn on the land around us."

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