About James Ruse : From the Principal

On behalf of the students, staff, parents and ex-students, welcome to the website of James Ruse Agricultural High School. Students at our school enjoy life. They love learning. They excel academically, in sport, in music and performing and creative arts as well as in a range of cultural and social activities. They make our school a fun place to learn, to be challenged and to exceed expectations. Before school, during recess and lunch and after school, James Ruse AHS is abuzz with student clubs, workshops, performances, competitions, Olympiad preparations and various co-curricular, enrichment and extension activities. Students love being in Cadets, the Duke of Edinburgh scheme, Waterwatch, Interact, Amnesty International. They enjoy knitting blankets and trauma teddy bears as part of the Knit-Wits group. Students can join our stage or concert bands, our orchestra, our string and jazz ensembles, our choir. The Bandalism program and the Year 7 training band caters especially for those who enter the school not yet playing a musical instrument. There are numerous concerts throughout the year.

Students can participate in debating and public speaking, in writing competitions, in mock trials, in voice classes, as well as in a range of drama activities. They participate in a broad excursion program both in Australia and overseas, for example to Europe and Japan.

The Student Representative Council and the prefect body work hard to maintain a passionate, supportive school spirit. Both groups run numerous fun activities throughout the year including sporting events such as three-on-three basketball and musical events such as talent quests and dance and band "battles". Thousands of dollars are raised each year in support of charities and a student in Lebanon.

We have a strong focus on student leadership, on promoting positive values and developing a sense of global citizenship. Year 9 and 10 students access a long term, formal Student Leadership Program with a community service component. Students chair each of the school governance committees as well as participating in a range of other leadership programs. There are varied mentoring and support programs to look after the emotional needs of gifted and talented students, guided by the welfare team.

Our parents are part of this vibrant community at our school. The community of James Ruse (our P and C) participates in school governance as well as running information nights for each year group. The Mothers' Club works to enhance the quality of school life and parents assist in the library, the canteen, the uniform shop and with music, participating in presentations and sharing their expertise. Connections caters for the needs of ex-students and ex-staff. Ex-students have their own association and term newsletter.

We are a government co-educational academically selective school with an enrolment of 850 students from Years 7 to 12. Geographically located in Carlingford Sydney, our school is easily accessed by train to Carlingford station or buses to Epping or Parramatta. Our school is surrounded by a 5 hectare farm, raising stud Angus cattle, sheep, poultry and bees with an orchard of 90 orange trees and a similar number of peach trees.

Our student facilities include a mixture of new and heritage buildings built around a central quadrangle with a very modern, large and well-equipped Library as the focal point of our school. The administration block is in Barrengarry House, built in 1885 for the then farming Felton family. The Department of Education and Training bought the site in the mid 1950's and we became a fully functional agricultural high school in 1959.

Our school is well known for the high academic achievements of our students. We are proud of their outstanding Higher School Certificate and School Certificate results, just as we are proud of student success in the Olympiads in mathematics, biology, physics, informatics and chemistry, where they are part of the Australian teams annually. We also entered the computational linguistics Olympiad for the first time in 2008, winning the state title. We congratulate our students for winning competitions in English, writing, poetry, economics, business studies, geography, languages, (eg Japanese), technology, science and engineering, computer programming and in cattle showing. We value the teaching and the special programs that lead to our students reaching great heights.

However our focus is on the whole person. The extensive involvement of our ex-students in the life of the school is evidence of the wonderful, responsible young people we produce - young people who are full of the enjoyment all aspects of life offer. Our students, indeed, embody the school motto, Gesta non verba - Deeds not words.

Larissa Treskin
Principal