The Orange Small Schools Association (OSSA) consists of 11 local schools and was founded approximately 40 years ago. It sees students from small schools throughout the region coming together for various sporting and cultural activities during the year. This allows children from smaller schools to develop relationships and network so that when they attend high school, they already know a large number of fellow students, far more than just in their school or area. The relationships are developed early, and whether they are on the field, in the pool or on the stage together they are experiencing the same socialisation and competitiveness that larger schools provide, in a truly unique rural setting.

Several of these small schools are geared towards success in these events, with swimming programs during the week to ensure the children have the best chance possible of succeeding. Spring Hill public students swim each Friday afternoon, and have been training hard to represent their school with pride. “The goal is to be able to represent their school at the swimming carnival” says Principal Ann-Marie McAnaulty.

The camaraderie is something that is nurtured in our small schools and every single child wants to represent their school and do it well.

It’s not only a competitive sporting event but a very social event. It’s a great opportunity to catch up- not only for the students but also for the teachers, SLSOs and teaching principals. Staff love getting to see each other, networking and catching up with our fellow educators!

And it’s due to the hard work of the teaching staff, the support staff and the parent volunteers that these schools are able to come together and make this magic happen- it’s a whole community event.

The other thing these schools do really well? Inclusivity! Children with disabilities thrive in this environment, with these para-athletes smashing their events. Last year Spring Hill Public had four para-athlete children compete at the state level.

The OSSA swimming, athletics and cross country are stepping stones, every child, no matter the size of their school should be able to say “I’m going to keep swimming, keep running, or keep doing what I’m good at”. This is the path they can take to represent at state, and hopefully one day at the Olympics. They dream big at small schools!