Over the last decade Coonamble High School in rural New South Wales, has being making a big push to 'close the gap' with their agriculture course.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 4 minutes 36 seconds 4 m 36 s Coonamble High School agriculture teacher, Adam Macrae, and Clontarf Academy director, Luke Ballard on closing the gap through agriculture. ( Alex Blucher ) Download 2.1 MB

The school of just over 200 students has seen a dramatic increase in the number of students studying agriculture.

Coonamble High School students, Brooke Elsley, Adrian Davis and Bradley King, with the ribbons that they've won at agricultural shows ( Alex Blucher )

More than half the school's students now study agriculture, and the majority of those learning about farming and animal husbandry are Aboriginal.

Last year every Year 12 student went into a job, to university, or further training.

A big part of that success has been the creation of The Bovine Appreciation Club by agriculture and primary industries teacher, Adam Macrae, also known as 'Macca.'

"We grow our own feed, we source cattle and breed our own cattle from surrounding areas and beyond, prepare them for the showing or put them or put them through the butcher shop," Mr Macrae says.

As part of The Bovine Appreciation Club the students travel to some of the most prestigious agricultural shows, including the Sydney Royal Easter Show and the Royal Queensland Show, or Ekka.

Adam Macrae says that the secret in getting students to come to school is in being an attractive option for their time.

"We have to be very honest with what we're competing with.

"We're competing with not coming to school, getting up to all that mischief that the kids that aren't engaged in school will carry on with, so we have to be an attractive market option for their time," Mr Macrae says.

The Clontarf Foundation's Coonamble branch, called the Coonamble Clontarf Academy, has worked closely with Adam Macrae to get more Aboriginal students into studying agriculture.

The Clontarf Foundation is a national organisations which focus on improving the education, self-esteem, life skills and employment prospects for Indigenous male students.

The organisation is one of only five out 150 Indigenous programs that didn't get a big funding cut in the Federal Budget, which saw $534 million slashed from the sector.

Year 11 student Adrian Davis, who's 17, is one of 63 students who are part of the Coonamble Clontarf Academy and is an important member of the Bovine Appreciation Club.

"I like leading the cattle, driving tractors, feeding them and taking them to steer shows...we win ribbons," Adrian says.

Coonamble High School students, Brooke Elsley, Adrian Davis and Bradley King, with agriculture teacher Adam Macrae and the school's cattleyards. ( Alex Blucher )

Also the head teacher of learning innovation at Coonamble High says Adrian is a good guy to have around.

"Adrian is an absolute natural with cattle, he's a big robust chap, he's very gifted, very brave, he's also got a wonderful stock sense and any steer that's big and ugly and mucking up, Adrian usually gets it and invariably he usually comes out on top," Mr Macrae says.

Australian Bureau of statistics figures show that 55 per cent of Indigenous high school students in Australia finished school last year, compared to over 83 per cent non-Indigenous.

Coonamble Clontarf Academy director Luke Ballard says that they are working hard with the school to do their bit to close that gap.

"Our main goal is to engage the boys in education, improving their attendance and their engagement in school, hopefully getting them through to year 12 and into meaningful employment,"

"We want to have things at the school that they want to be a part of, so with the Ag stuff, more trips away and more things that the boys are really interested in the better.

"They really took to it and loved working with the animals.

"In a country town like this, if we can have boys finishing year 12, as well as having a swag of skills in the agricultural industry up their sleeve, it makes them very employable," Mr Ballard says.