the students throughout the year.

Students from kindergarten to Year 12 received prizes and awards for academic and sporting excellence.

Special guest on the day was the Bourke District education director Jane Cavanagh who praised the school for its effort during the year.

"Lightning Ridge Central School is recognised as an outstanding school ... in particular for the very strong focus on teaching and learning," she said.

"The strong focus on professional development that has been embarked upon this year is quite amazing.

"What we're seeing today is the results of that," she said.

Lightning Ridge Central School principal Peter Partridge said he was also pleased with the progress the school had made over the year, and that even more needed to be done.

"It's going to take time but we're trying to do our best to support everyone and making sure we get it right," he said.

"I believe a testament to the commitment of our school is that next year many of the staff are eligible for transfer but only a few are taking it ... the majority want to stay with our school to see the growth that's going on and the good things that are happening. So we're going to have a much more stable staff next year."

He said the completion of the new buildings this year had seen a remarkable change in the behaviour of the students.

"The new buildings have made a huge difference.

"We've noticed a great reduction in the number of issues that used to occur when everyone was jammed into the little playground, we hardly have an issues like that occurring.

"We have a much happier culture within the school because students have space to move around."

The 2005 school captains were also inducted on the day.

The new captains are Renee Willis and Dawn Towney.

The John Reid Memorial award for Year 12 dux was awarded to Natasha Sorokoput.