AVID beekeeper and NSW Governor David Hurley toured the farm at Armidale High School on Thursday.
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School captains Chloe Maunder and Sai Subhanu Abbaraju said it was exciting to have such a high profile guest at the school.
“We’ve shown him the school farm and we have a beehive up there, His Excellency is quite interested in bees, so we had a chat to him about that,” Sai said.
Chloe said the experience was a little bit ‘nerve-wracking’.
“He’s talking to some of the students of our Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience program, he’s mixing with students at our school and taking an interest in their lives, so that’s really nice,” she said.
Mr Hurley said it was fantastic to see students learning rural farming skills that will be applicable to their futures.
“I think the important thing about this is, that it keeps them centred on what happens in rural communities,” he said.
“This is what business is about, careers, livelihoods, this is a lifestyle.
“To be introduced into that, and not just learning by experience, but having education around that is a real advantage.”
Mr Hurley visited the AIME mentoring program and said it was great to see Indigenous education being made a priority.
“It’s a tremendously successful program, it’s critical in terms of having people who can be a receptive ear, they give very positive direction and I think one of the great things about AIME is that there is no shame in AIME,” he said.
Principal Carolyn Lupton took Mr Hurley on a tour of the school and said the visit was a privilege.
“We were aware that he was a keen beekeeper so we showed him some aspects of the school farm,” she said.
“We’ve done a little bit of lead up to this, talking about what His Excellency’s role is and what sort of duties he performs.
“There’s been a great deal of excitement around the school and it’s helped them to put civil education into perspective.”
The NSW Governor also visited the University of New England and will visit the tomato farm and library in Guyra on Friday.