Newdegate Machinery Field Days: Excitement builds at Newdegate Primary School for annual field days

Mel Brinkman says her students are gearing up and brimming with excitement for the Newdegate Machinery Field Days — a highlight on the school calendar.

Ms Brinkman teaches 15 of the 46 children enrolled at Newdegate Primary School.

Straight out of high school, Ms Brinkman said she had no idea what career path she wanted to follow and decided to take a year off, volunteering her time and working in schools.

Working in schools during her gap year inspired Ms Brinkman to study education at university.

“I decided that it’s something that I would give a bit of a go at uni and see if I enjoyed it,” she said.

“Sure enough I ended up falling in love with it.

“It wasn’t something I knew I was going to do from a young age, but once I got started I couldn’t really see myself doing anything else.”

During her time working at schools in her gap year, Ms Brinkman did relief teaching work at Newdegate Primary School, and after two days was offered a job for the next year by principal Judy Garlick.

“I couldn’t think of a better school to start my career at, it sort of just all fell into place quite well,” she said.

Originally from Lake King, Ms Brinkman has fallen in love with the Newdegate Primary School and community.

“There’s something really quite special about the Newdegate Primary School culture and the kids — they’re just my sort of kids,” she said.

“Our school is a vital part to the community, and the community is amazing at backing the school and supporting our students in whatever we require their help with for getting things for our students.”

Ms Garlick said that Newdegate community has been “amazing” since she started in her role as principal six years ago.

“The parents are supportive, the children are wonderful, and our staff are incredible,” she said.

Ms Garlick said the Newdegate Machinery Field Days was a point of excitement for the primary school students each year.

“Our children are always very excited about the Field Day, and it is the highlight of their calendar for the year,” she said.

“We have a School Development Day on the Wednesday so that the children are all free to go to the field day with their parents, and other neighbouring schools’ staff join us for Professional Learning before going to the Field Day later in the afternoon.

“On the Thursday we take our whole school as an excursion and we go and visit some of the educational opportunities up there to learn about various aspects of agriculture and conservation, and anything that is applicable to our students.”

The primary school’s Music Club will perform for the first time on September 3, with about five nervous but excited children in Year 4 to 6 performing for the crowd.

“All our drums and guitars and sound equipment will be taken to the Field Day site,” Ms Garlick said.

“Our children will sing and play a couple of songs at about 1.30pm on Wednesday.

She said the Newdegate Machinery Field Days are an amazing experience for the school’s children and provides a valuable learning opportunity for them to discover more about the agricultural industry.

“It is of great significance to the agricultural community and to our community — and it’s an amazing achievement every year for a small community to put on something which is so well-organised and so well respected by the farming community,” Ms Garlick said.

“Our children love it, it’s very important to them and I think it’s a credit to our whole community.

“Our children understand that their parents are going to be extremely busy, but it’s a very positive time — I think it’s a positive acknowledgement of what a strong community can do.”

This year’s Newdegate Machinery Field Days will be held on September 3 and 4.