There were almost more adults than kids at Mount St Thomas Public School on Thursday.
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And, it seemed the dads were having more fun their kids.
At least Phil Malcomson was. Mr Malcomson was among about 100 dads who dropped by the school for a special dads and kids event run by the Fathering Project.
"It's great to be able to spend some quality time with my son and meet some of the other dads," he said.
Fellow dad Nathan Nicholls also appreciated the opportunity to skip work and enjoy some playtime with his seven-year-old son Zane.
Fathering Project Illawarra/Shoalhaven regional coordinator Nikolaj Nielsen said it was great to see so many dads attend the not-for-profit charity's first event at Mt St Thomas.
"Our mission is for every child in Australia to have an effective or engaged father or father figure," he said.
"We do that by coming into schools in order to meet the dads and form a dads' group and then that dads' group runs events like the one today.
"On average we run about four events, two dads and kids events and two dad only ones, where they come in together and talk about being fathers, the good things, the bad things - they just form a community really, which is why the schools enjoy the project.
"The more people involved the better. As the saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child."
Mr Nielsen added the best thing about the events for dads was meeting other dads.
"They have the school in common, they have the kids in common but we find that most dads don't actually know the other dads from the school," he said.
"People assume everybody knows everybody but they don't.
"So dads meet other dads who are in the same stage of life and form a group and they lean on each other in hard times and they celebrate the good times. It fights isolation."
Mr Nielsen added having an involved father figure was all good news for kids.
"Academic results, emotional intelligence, self esteem all goes up when you got an involved male role model in your life. That's why we have two dads and kids events and two dads only events," he said.
Mt St Thomas Public School principal Ronda Moon said the Fathering Project was helping to engage dads with kids at the school.
"A lot of research suggests that it is very good for brain development for kids to be engaging with their fathers for periods of time so we just want to provide that platform," she said.
"We also want some networking between dads because they sometimes miss out on that connection and relationship mums have with each other."
Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
