TOOLEYBUC Central School might be a little school in the educational stakes, but when its 80-plus entries for the 2023 Swan Hill Show get before the judges, it is hoping to make a very big statement.
Principal Louisa Frost said the 120 students in the Foundation to Year 12 school had always been competitively creative when it came to the annual show and this year was no different.
And as NSW holidays are still going for this week, all the children will have time up their sleeves to get down to the show and see how their entries have fared.
Louisa said the focus this year had been entries in the handwriting and arts sections, even though cross-border issues could make some of that challenging – particularly, she said, in the exacting art of handwriting.
While it may not be calligraphy standard just yet, there is that classic old Australian problem of each state doing things slightly differently.
Handwriting is simply the latest example of our national inability to do anything the same.
“Cursive is the primary style taught, but Victorian cursive and the NSW equivalent are not exactly equivalent,” Louisa said.
“Each state teaches a slightly different take on cursive, so it will be a challenge for the judges to recognise there is more than one way to copy the poems the students have been given for the exercise.
“But when it comes to the art competition, well, art is whatever you want is to be, and although there are categories, such as sculpture or landscapes and so on, our students have produced something for just about every category available.”
Louisa said creative arts were mandatory for students from Kindergarten to Grade 6 and in that time students discovered a variety of art forms through a study of dance, drama, music, and visual arts “where they learn to appreciate, compose, listen, make and perform”.
She said each art form had its own unique knowledge and skills, elements or concepts, as well as a capacity to inspire and enrich lives.
“Our students must study 100 hours of both music and visual arts during Years 7 to 10,” Louisa added.
“They also have an opportunity to further develop their knowledge and skills in other art forms through elective subjects. Students can then select from a range of courses in Years 11 to 12.”
Louisa has been principal at the school for the past 10 years and says in that time he has seen a lot of awards come Tooleybuc’s way from the Swan Hill Show.
She said the Years 7–10 art classes, in particular, had contributed a lot of artwork across the categories and many of the budding Banksys would be taking advantage of their holidays to go and check out the scene in the pavilion.
“We have a strong arts theme in our school and in recent years are delighted to see our secondary numbers on the rise, as many of our families come from farms across the region, and the chance to put their work up against others in the same age range is an exciting opportunity for them and they always seem happy to make the most of it,” Louisa said.
