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Eden Marine High School and the Towamba community are working together to recognise students who helped an injured bus driver and their fellow classmates when their school bus rolled last Thursday.
A barbecue will be held in Towamba at 12 noon on February 15.
The school is full of praise for its students and the community has paid tribute to the injured driver who insisted that his young passengers always wore seat-belts.
"The whole community is invited to a social barbecue celebrating our good fortune and especially our kids, who were praised for their maturity and concern for each other and their commonsense no-nonsense approach when their bus overturned," Towamba spokeswoman Vicki McCredie said.
EMHS principal Ian Moorehead said the school was working with the local community to formally recognise the positive contribution and responsible action shown by students during Thursday’s bus accident.
"The students’ actions are a great example of the embodiment of our school values of respect, responsibility and resilience," Mr Moorehead said.
The Eden Magnet understands that one male student stayed with the bus driver, who suffered a medical incident shortly before the accident, until an ambulance arrived at the scene and also directed a fellow student to dial 000 for help.
Mark McKenna, father of Eden Marine High School vice-captain Claire McKenna, said his daughter phoned the ambulance when the bus had stopped moving.
"The kids were all really worried about Paul (the driver)," Mr McKenna said.
"It was so lucky no kids were hurt and it was probably because Paul always made them wear seat-belts."
Mr McKenna said the driver always insisted the students wore seat-belts.
He said Paul had been the school bus driver for many years.
The accident occurred on Towamba Road, west of Eden, at about 8.30 am last Thursday.
The bus left the road, near the intersection with Nullica Road, hit an embankment and rolled.
A NSW Ambulance spokeswoman said the 25-seater school bus was on its side when paramedics arrived at the scene.
About 20 students were on board.
The driver was transported to Bega Hospital in a stable condition.
EMHS principal Ian Moorehead acted quickly to put a critical incident plan in place .
Counselling was provided to the students and their parents at the school.
"While some students sustained bumps and scrapes, none of the students were injured seriously and they were able to attend school after the accident occurred," a Department of Education spokeswoman said.
"The principal praised the students for working together to contact emergency services and provide assistance and support to the bus driver and each other, while waiting for help to arrive," she said.
Police are continuing with their investigation into the cause of the crash but initial inquiries indicate the driver may have suffered a medical episode.
The Towamba barbecue will be held at the Towamba Hall at 12 noon on February 15.
Barbecue basics will be provided, bring your own extras and a salad/sweet to share; also a handball, tennis racket or soccer ball.