This year, there’s 70 students enrolled in agriculture or one in three students.

Junee High has been recognised for re-invigorating their agricultural department and has been named among seven schools demonstrating best practise including Tumut and Murrumburrah high schools.

Junee has been recognised as a ‘lighthouse school’ which provides a model and mentoring for other schools around the state.

Each of the seven schools have a particular speciality with Junee’s sheep stud, AgVison careers expo and the Ngumba-Dal Learning Community elevating it among its peers.

Other schools developing their own agricultural credentials will be able to use Junee as an example when establishing, rebuilding or re-invigorating their agricultural programs.

Agricultural teacher Paul Anderson said sheep at Junee High was a logical fit and served as an anchor for the curriculum while the learning community gave primary schools a chance to add to their curriculum.

A survey of students in years nine and 10 revealed 86 per cent of students had a genuine interest in building a career in agriculture, Mr Anderson said.

“If you're serious about the survival of a community, you have to encourage students to enter agriculture,” he said.

Mr Anderson said the new status was thanks to the support from the community to help develop the school’s agricultural credentials. 

“That support over five to six years means Junee High is moving along at a rate of knots.”

Mr Anderson aside from the teaching students about animals, he found another benefit was in the high school students teaching primary school students and in developing student’s communication skills when travelling to agricultural shows.

AgVision co-ordinator Sandra Heffernan said the students in the class weren’t always from farming backgrounds, with most coming from families based in town.

“We’ve been recognised as a school of best practise and for rural communities to continue to be sustainable, you’ll need people going into agriculture.”

With Junee High now recognised as a school using best practise, the future will be embedding agriculture into the curriculum so that it reaches all subjects.

The school will have a public launch of the Lighthouse status on June 24.