Warialda Public School is leading a community of schools in north western NSW in an innovative project called Wider than Gwydir. The project is successfully broadening the minds and future horizons of students in the middle years (5-8) through dynamic industry partnerships and online collaboration.

Focus areas

• STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics)
• fluid career landscapes and awareness
• Middle years strategy
• student engagement
• digital disruption
• innovation.

Timeline and milestones

Positive impact

• Students more aware of a diversity of careers
• 75% of students have identified areas of interest
• increased number of students that are openly expressing their interest in careers that require further education beyond high school
• students more aware of the need to strive and work hard to achieve their goals.

Emotions

Emotions experienced throughout the journey included curiosity, concern, excitement, interest, motivation.

Challenge and solutions

Main challenge was bridging the gap of distance and isolation in rural NSW.

Solution – video conferencing technologies used to connect students and schools to industry experts.