a farm, horticultural centre and piggery. The dairy cattle, White Suffolk sheep flock and Angus cattle stud are run as profitable business ventures, turning over in excess of A$140,000 at the Bull Sale in 2005. The school's sporting facilities include a gymnasium, swimming pool, weights room, tennis courts, basketball courts, football fields and a cricket oval with practice nets. The school also makes use of the city's sporting facilities, including the synthetic hockey surface and athletics track. Curriculum Students at Farrer have the opportunity to undertake study in a number of areas from their School Certificate in Years 9 and 10, through to their NSW Higher School Certificate (HSC) in Years 11 and 12. Some of these subject areas on offer include: industrial tech metal, industrial tech wood, electronics, information and software technology, art, music, drama, software design and development, beef production, sheep production, sport science and journalism. Agricultural opportunities include beef cattle, sheep, dairy cattle, wool husbandry, horticulture, pig production, egg growing, dry land and irrigated cropping. Agriculture at Farrer is mandatory for years 7 to 10. Sack system In years past, a "sack" was a student in lower years, particularly years 7–10. Such students were at the beck and call of students in higher years, particularly year 12, to labour at menial tasks such as shining boots, fetching food or creating confetti with a paper hole punch. The name "sack" was said to be derived from the idea that younger years were a load to carry, as a sack. The power was not restricted to year 12. Students of any year higher than another were empowered to issue such commands. For example, a year 8 boy could make demands of a year 7 boy. In this respect, the sack system may differ from the English practice of fagging. Failure to comply on the part of a "sack" was often disciplined with corporal punishment from the year 12 students. This punishment commonly took the form of being struck on the backside with a broom, occasionally without pants. Active resistance to the system was met with ongoing intimidation, assault and bullying from many members of the school community, including the principal. This punishment resulted in the interesting linguistic twist of the word broom being used as a verb. For example, "Tell that sack to get on with it or he's going to get broomed". The school has now admitted in