The cakes were baked, the sheep ready to be shorn and the scarecrows on guard - the Oropi School Harvest Festival celebrates rural life and attracted a welcoming crowd.

The annual festival gives people a taste of country life with rural activities, including the always popular team sheep shearing competition that involves eating a meat pie, drinking a ginger beer, then shearing a sheep – with the shearing machine powered by a team member pedalling a bike.

Isla Johnson, 11, finishes off her pie in the sheep shearing competition. Photos by Tracy Hardy.

PTA spokesman Stu Watson says the day was fantastic, with over 2000 people attending. He says the numbers were "way more than last year" and everyone seemed to be in good spirits.

This year was also the debut of the Oropi School's ‘Hottest Home Baker' competition, where the first prize winner won an oven.

‘Hottest Home Baker' winner Courtney Burnet, 13, with her winning cake and the oven she won.

Stu says 'The harvest festival is really a celebration of country life – bringing together some of the best local produce, homemade jams and all those things you'd expect at a country fair.”

Money raised goes to upgrading the school playground, outdoor education and teaching resources.

Mr McKinnon gets wet at the Wet the Teacher game.

Savannah Hinga-Miller throws the sponge, hoping to wet a teacher.

Peter and Grace, 4, McHannigan at the coconut shy.

James, 8, and Ashton, 6 Horne with their winning scarecrow, Scarepot.