IT HAS been a huge week at Calrossy Anglican School with fireworks, debating finals and chatting to the International Space Station all taking place in the past week.
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Calrossy's Cracker carnival last Saturday evening was a colourful event in aid of the lifesaving community service, the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service.
Carnival co-ordinator, Debra Watts, described the event as a successful and fun night for all the family.
With the big pack up now underway, Mrs Watts, said the numbers and money are still being counted, with the verdict still out on how many dollars the event raised for the helicopter service.
Gold coin donations were taken at the gate for the service, which will also receive a quarter of any money made from the other events, such as side show alley and various stalls, face painting and the sales of snow cones and glow sticks on the night.
The Westpac Rescue Helicopter staff and volunteers have estimated more than 4000 people enjoyed the fun and the fireworks.
Mrs Watts and Calrossy's combined P and F worked tirelessly on making the event happen and expects the figures will be better than last year. She also sent a big thank you to the many sponsors and the Calrossy families and staff that donated time and money to help the Cracker Carnival take off.
Calrossy would also like to thank all the sponsors including Allsopp Signs, Onsight Hire, Radio 2TM and 92.9, Tamworth Chainsaw and Mower Centre, 360 Fitness Club, Camping World Tamworth, Tamworth Fencing, Flight Centre Tamworth, A Bela Vida Beauty, AM Printing and Tamworth Norwex Consultant.
The carnival boasted more rides this year as it attempted to cater for older as well as younger children.
The dodgem cars, stunt jump and big ball wipeout were among the favourites.
The organisers say they were inundated with the numbers on the night and acknowledge the queues were long but hope the crowds realise it is hard to estimate how many carnival goers they'll get ahead of time.
The highlight of the night was the fireworks finale, with a spectacular colourful display hitting the skies above the William Cowper Campus. The fireworks were presented by the New England-based company, Holysmoke Fireworks, ran by Father Anthony Koppman from Guyra.
He is Australia's only priest and licensed pyrotechnic.
The organisers say it's too soon to answer the question on whether they'll be a third Cracker Carnival, with lots still to do in finalising the carnival just finished.
Fireworks haven't been the only thing reaching great heights at Calrossy recently, with the school taking out two of three finals in Federation Cup debating last week.
Federation Cup
The Federation Cup is a round robin competition held throughout term one between Calrossy secondary boys and girls, Carinya and McCarthy students.
The debates are held over four nights throughout the term with six debates on each night, culminating in the finals for stages four, five, and six.
The topics for the final debates were based on federal, state and local political issues and Tony Windsor, Peter Draper and Russell Webb were the guest adjudicators.
In the end the Calrossy girls took home the trophy taking out the stage four and six finals, with Carinya winning the stage five final debate over the Calrossy boys.
A highlight for all the debaters was a joint workshop run by the performing arts unit from Sydney last year to help them hone their skills ahead of the competition.
Tweeting Astronaut
Not to be outdone, the primary school last week also reached for the stars.
Calrossy's year four students made an amazing memory when they tweeted to British RSA Astronaut, Tim Peake, who is currently on board the International Space Station.
The students saw the space station and tweeted Tim as the space station passed over Lake Keepit, where they were on excursion, and he replied.
