Boggabilla Central School started a new year of learning today with a tasty breakfast for its 109 students, their families and community members.

“The excitement from everyone in our school community about returning to school is a testament to what Boggabilla Central School symbolises for so many,” executive principal Jed Peisley said.

“Parents, carers and community members joined the students and staff for breakfast, shared stories of their holidays, took first day photo memories and prepared themselves for another year of learning and growth.”

Mr Peisley is in his second year leading the school after 13 years at Kempsey High School.

He and his wife, Laura Peisley, have loved the move to the remote small town a few kilometres from the Queensland border.

“The students are wonderful, the staff are amazing, the lifestyle in the community is fantastic, and the landscape is breathtaking,” he said.

Boggabilla Central School is a Connected Communities school, with 109 students from preschool to Year 12. Almost all the students (97 per cent) are Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander.

Mr Peisley had worked in Aboriginal education in previous roles in Kempsey and Casino secondary schools but not in primary schools.

“Being able to lead a school that develops our young learners throughout their entire school journey has been such an incredible privilege so far,” he said.

Last year he rewarded the kindergarten class with hot chocolate in Goondiwindi after they sorted out five large mixed boxes of Lego into colours, which Mr Peisley needed for staff professional learning.

“I asked the students to make and wear a fancy hat and to send an invite to each of the office staff to join them,” Mr Peisley said.

“The locals from Goondiwindi loved it. A classic memory is watching people smile as the students made their way along the main street, with their hats on and an office staff member in hand.”

Public education has also benefited from the appointment of Laura Peisley as Head Teacher Careers with the Educational Pathways Program, working with four secondary schools – Boggabilla Central, Moree Secondary College, Mungindi and Narrabri high schools.

And proving that distance is no barrier to opportunity, Mr Peisley continues to manage the NSW CHSSA 1st XV ruby union team and the Australian Schoolboys Rugby Union team, which last year toured to New Zealand and Fiji.

Sizing up the stats

More than 12,000 students across the central and far west of NSW returned today to the 133 schools in the Western Division.

The Western Division includes public schools from Balranald to Boggabilla, Cobar to Condobolin, Tibooburra to Tullibigeal.

Students return to school a week later than Eastern Division schools due to higher summer temperatures. 

The department’s Far West Network, which accounts for 119 of the 133 public schools in the Western Division, stretches 108,000 square kilometres along the length of the NSW western border and to the Queensland and Victorian borders. It has two time zones and two telephone area codes.

The largest public school is Willyama High School in Broken Hill with 600 students; the smallest is the most remote school, Tibooburra Outback School, with four students.

In alphabetical order, the schools range from Alma Public School in Broken Hill to Yetman Public School in the New England region, 30 kilometres from the Queensland border.