The two-teacher school is located around 40 kilometres north west of Uralla and is accessed by two bridges, which both went under during the recent flooding.

Principal Mark O’Driscoll said in his eight years at the school he had never seen anything like it.

“There is a creek (Roumala Creek) right next to the shop in town which flows behind the school in a northerly direction to meet up with the Gwydir river,” he said.

“I had never even seen water in that creek up until December last year, it just rose up and there was just a huge wall of water coming towards the school and we had to immediately evacuate to higher ground.

“There were huge logs in it, it came up so quickly we just had to get out.”

As the buses were stuck on the other side of flooded creeks in December, the students had to be evacuated to Merilba Winery by car.

This time the school was more prepared with a Rainbow ‘getaway’ bus parked out the front ready for a quick evacuation.

“We noticed on the way to school that a few of the roads were blocked including Thunderbolts Way and the Bundarra road,” Mr O’Driscoll said.

“And then we saw the water was lapping against the bridges near the school.

“At 11am we got a phone call from the Uralla Shire Council and they said we really needed to make tracks and get out of there or we would be stuck.”

The school was able to contact students parents before making a getaway in the rainbow bus to higher ground in the nearby church.

“It was my first time in many many years where I actually had to drive the kids out in the school bus,” he said.

The students, who mainly live on properties in the surrounding areas, were able to get home safely.

However, they were not able to get back the next day.

“I have 10 students away from my class of 22 today and there is a total of 17 students away,” he said.

“It’s nobody’s fault, it’s just the rain, they can’t get here because most live on properties which have a lot of causeways that get flooded, which makes it impossible in this weather.”

One of the students has been unable to begin school at all this year due to the location of her property.

The school is hoping the rain will subside so they can get on with the school year.

“This week could be ok but we are told we are going to have to put up with this weather for another two weeks,” he said.