Agriculture
The school teaches agriculture as a compulsory subject from years 7 to 10. It was formerly compulsory for senior years, but this was changed with the introduction of a new HSC curriculum by the Board of Studies, allowing an accelerated course. Agriculture is a significant part of the school's curriculum, with students undergoing study of the subject both on and off-site, where students study and visit agricultural enterprises both in the Greater Sydney region, with visits to regional horticultural farming enterprises such as the Sydney Royal Easter Show, farms in Bathurst, and Gloucester farms. There is also great involvement in with other agricultural schools, with the school linked with Yanco Agricultural High School, and previous Head Teacher of Agriculture, Lisle Brown, being the co-author of the Dynamic Agriculture textbook series, which is extensively used in agriculture in Australian schools.
The school leases approximately ten hectares of land from the neighbouring electricity sub-station for use in practical agriculture lessons. The farm land is situated north of the general school buildings, extending north to Lynch Close and east to Jenkins Road. The farm is arranged to include a vegetable garden, a classroom, a glasshouse and nursery, a greenhouse, an orchard, experimental plots, an area for field crops and a livestock section, among others. It also contains some riparian land which is currently being monitored and undergoing rehabilitation to its native state by the Streamwatch group (currently working as part of Sydney Water Streamwatch).
A significant amount of the farm land is set aside for student plots. Part of practical agriculture lessons involves students growing and maintaining their own crops. Mature crops in the students' assigned plots of land are then the students' to take home.
In addition to its use for educational purposes, the farm also supplies a wide variety of agricultural produce including: Cattle - Angus stud, paraded annually at the Castle Hill Show by the Cattle Group; Sheep - First-cross Ewes & Prime Lambs; Eggs - Free-range eggs; Poultry Meat - Broilers raised and sold onsite, Oranges - Washington Navel; Peaches - Flordagold and Sherman's Red varieties; Sweet Corn - Shimmer variety; James Ruse Gold Rose - A privately crossbred rose variety the rights were donated to the school in 1999 in celebration of its 40 years of teaching ; Apiary - Honey sold on-site in jars; and Macadamia Nuts. Various groups of students have been set up to look after these, such as the Poultry Squad and a Weather Watcher group to maintain farm records. In the past, the farm also housed Merino and Border Leicester sheep, named the Sharlea Sheep. It was replaced by the Aquaculture venture, Silver Perch and a crayfish growing system.
Read more about this topic: James Ruse Agricultural High School
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