General News
18 September, 2025
Gilgandra PROBUS Club News
President Pat Thompson welcomed members to our September meeting and Jeanette Hawkins as our guest.
Contributed by Marg Schier, Publicity Officer
It is good to see more new people attending each month and often they decide to join our club. We are asked what does PROBUS do for our community? It is an opportunity for people to join together each month in fellowship with others you may not know or see often.
Following morning tea, our guest speaker for the September meeting was Michael Spora, who is the principal of Gulargambone Central School.
He commenced at the school 10-years-ago when there were 68 students and now there are 107 attending. Changes were needed to improve the school and gradually over the years this has happened.
Mr Spora spoke of the dedicated support of both a core group of teachers and support staff who have the students interests at heart.
They now see children enjoying school and attending far more regularly. The demographics of the Gulargambone district has changed when once farms were smaller and mostly grazing properties, now the change to the land is cropping large acreages. This means far less people living and working in the district and therefore reduced shops and services in the town.
A breakfast club was started at school and students must arrive by 8.30am to enjoy Vegemite toast and hot Milo and chats with the staff and by 9am everyone is ready for classes. Office ladies take orders for morning tea and hot lunches at a cost of $5. Students have the choice of that or bringing their own from home and now about 90 are participating.
Every medical facility comes to the school such as dental, hearing, and sight. Sometimes Mr Spora accompanies pupils to Dubbo for medical appointments.
Most children enjoy sport and they are encouraged to participate, often out of their age group to make up the teams. This creates friendships and smaller children must get off the buses first. Ten-years-ago, student behaviour was a huge problem but due to a lot of changes mentioned it has decreased dramatically.
If a child does not behave, they cannot participate in outings and classes are now happy and not out of control.
Several local volunteers conduct scripture classes each week. The local Lions Club sponsor public speaking and have conversations with older students about their future employment, also staff keep in touch with families to encourage their kids.
The director of education from Tamworth is very supportive of the direction Mr Spora has taken the school.
A highlight for some students has been a three-week camping excursion with Langley’s Coaches to the Flinders Ranges, Uluru, and Queensland. “Thank you, Michael, for the wonderful insight into your school, it should be a model for other schools to copy. Our members appreciated your visit very much,” Gilgandra Probus Club concluded.
