Two of Lithgow’s smallest schools Hampton and Captertee Public School were given the ‘Secretary’s Award for Outstanding School Initiative’ for creating a cross-school program, the ‘One Schools Network’, that allows students to share their work and learning experiences with eight other schools. 

Hampton and Capertee, which have 7 and 14 students respectively, started planning some units of work together in 2015. 

“We wrote a program for kindergarten to year 6 for the same unit of work and then each week we would share our learning and samples of our work via video link,” Hampton principal Belinda Greer said. 

“I had only one boy in kindergarten and then there were no students until year 2, so he was used to comparing his work to the year 2s. But with the video link he could share his work with the kindergartens at Capertee and that sort of thing.” 

In 2016 Glen Alice and Euchareena Public School joined the program. Now the One Schools Network connects ten rural, multistage schools.  

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“We run video conferences, school visits and combined excursions and the units of learning are approved by curriculum advisers to ensure they are of a high quality,” Duncan Peard, the principal of Capertee Public School, said.

This year Hampton and Capertee visited Glen Alice Public School to study the environment and also went on a joint excursion to Sofala to investigate macro invertebrates in the local waterways.

Ms Greer said students from the different schools in the network now get invited to each other’s birthday parties.

“The first excursion we went on started with the schools completely separated but by morning tea they were all mixed in and playing together.”

Lithgow Public School was also acknowledged at the awards night for their remarkable improvement in literacy and numeracy results over four years, receiving the Secretary’s School Achievement Award. Since 2012 the school’s students have improved their numeracy results in NAPLAN by 129 per cent and literacy results by 99 per cent. 

“That means the same students are getting results in higher levels than in previous years. So a student who was getting a middle band in numeracy four years ago is now getting results in the top two bands,” principal Vicki O’Rourke said.

She said the improvement in NAPLAN results was achieved by changes to the school’s learning environment and culture.

“We now have morning routines in numeracy and literacy where students are working towards their own success criteria, that way we are encouraging students to take ownership of their learning.”

Ms O’Rourke said the school’s 2017 NAPLAN showed continued growth in results.