Established 1939 Enrolment ~610 (7–12) Campus size 191 ha Phone +61 2 6764 8600 | Principal Gordon Cooper Colour(s) Green, Gold and Rust Motto Ad Aspera Virtus (Latin) Founded 1939 | |
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Type Selective, Single-sex, Public, Day and Boarding Website www.farreragri-h.schools.nsw.edu.au Similar Tamworth High School, Oxley High School, Peel High School, Calrossy Anglican School, McCarthy Catholic College | ||
Farrer Memorial Agricultural High School is an academically selective, day and boarding, Public high school for boys, located at Calala, a small suburb of Tamworth, in northern New South Wales, Australia. It is the only public agricultural high school for boys in Australia.
Contents
- Farrer v eaglevale university sheild grand final 2010 avi
- History
- Campus
- Curriculum
- Sack System
- Notable alumni
- References
Established in 1939, Farrer is one of the few agricultural secondary schools catering for both boarding and day students with a healthy academic culture. The school currently enrols approximately 610 students from Years 7 to 12, including 360 boarders, making it the third largest boarding school in the State. Being a public high School, tuition is free, and the school charges the lowest boarding fees in New South Wales.
While an emphasis is placed on the agricultural curriculum, but a broad curriculum is also on offer for students from rural NSW who do not wish to return to the land or gain employment in an agricultural field. Other areas of emphasis at Farrer include sport and student welfare.
Farrer embodies a conservative culture with a high degree of inclusiveness of Ethnicity and Disabilities[School uniform]] is compulsory and is traditional in style, including blazer, tie and wide-brimmed hat. The school marches each week as part of the school assembly, and a prefect system is in place, playing an important role in the welfare and supervision of students.
Farrer v eaglevale university sheild grand final 2010 avi
History
Farrer Memorial High School was founded in 1939 as an agricultural high school for boarders, particularly those who are isolated and day students from the Tamworth region.
The school was named in memory of William James Farrer (1845–1906), a leading Australian agronomist and wheat breeder, best known for developing the "Federation" breed of wheat. His work led to significant increases in the Australian wheat crop for decades to come, and economic prosperity for the wheat industry.
Campus
The Farrer campus is 140 hectares (346 acres) in size, and is located on the outskirts of rural Tamworth, on prime Peel Valley farmland.
The school's facilities include computer rooms, TAS workshops, a 200-seat auditorium, Old Boys museum and multiple facilities to teach practical agriculture, such as a 170 hectares (420 acres) farm, horticultural centre and piggery. The dairy cattle, White Suffolk Flock and Angus stud are run as profitable business ventures, turning over in excess of A$140,000 at the Bull Sale in 2005.
The school's sporting facilities include a gymnasium, swimming pool, weights room, tennis courts, basketball courts, football fields and a cricket oval with practice nets. The school also makes use of the city's sporting facilities, including the synthetic hockey surface and athletics track.
Curriculum
Students at Farrer have the opportunity to undertake study in a number of areas from their School Certificate in Years 9 and 10, through to their Higher School Certificate (HSC) in Years 11 and 12. Some of these subject areas on offer include: Industrial Tech Metal, Industrial Tech Wood, Electronics, Information and Software Technology, Art, Music, Drama, Software Design and Development, Beef production, Sheep production, sport science and Journalism.
Agricultural opportunities include Beef cattle, Sheep, Dairy cattle, Wool husbandry, Horticulture, Pig Production, Egg Growing, Dry land and Irrigated cropping.
Agriculture at Farrer is mandatory for years 7 to 10.
Sack System
In years past, a "sack" was a student in lower years, particularly years 7–10. Such students were at the beck and call of students in higher years, particularly year 12, to labour at menial tasks such as shining boots, fetching food or creating confetti with a paper hole punch. The name "sack" was said to be derived from the idea that younger years were a load to carry, as a sack.
The power was not restricted to year 12. Students of any year higher than another were empowered to issue such commands. For example, a year 8 boy could make demands of a year 7 boy. In this respect, the sack system may differ from the English practice of Fagging.
Failure to comply on the part of a "sack" was often disciplined with corporal punishment from the year 12 students. This punishment commonly took the form of being struck on the backside with a broom, occasionally without pants. Active resistance to the system was met with ongoing intimidation, assault and bullying from many members of the school community, including the principal.
This punishment resulted in the interesting linguistic twist of the word broom being used as a verb. For example, "Tell that sack to get on with it or he's going to get broomed".
The school has now admitted in court that this system existed and that it failed to implement adequate control.
Notable alumni
Alumni of Farrer Memorial Agricultural High School are known as Old Boys, and may elect to join the school's alumni association, the Farrer Old Boys' Association. The Old Boys network totals approximately 4000 members across NSW, Australia and the world. Some notable Farrer Old Boys include:
Todd Grills - Professional Tenpin Bowler (2 gold medals)