School of the Air is a generic term for correspondence schools catering for the primary and early secondary education of children in remote and outback Australia where some or all classes were traditionally conducted by radio, although this is now being replaced by internet technology. In these areas, the school-age population is too small for a conventional school to be viable.© Wikipedia
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Contact detailsE: admin@longreacsde.eq.edu.auP: 07 4658 4222
Longreach School of Distance Education (formerly the Longreach School of the Air) can be found on the Landsborough Highway. This is a totally different way of schooling and we were keen to join a tour and find out more about this form of education to outback areas. The tour begins with a talk about how the school operates and then you are shown around the buildings - if a class is in session you can sit in and listen to the teacher interact with children over the air.
Very interesting set up which included small accommodation buildings so the children from around the area can come here once or twice a year for a week – get to know each other and have group lessons. It is mostly funded by the P&C and they are very proactive in giving the children as many experiences as possible - providing a couple of excursions each year.
There are lots of gifts to purchase and all the funds go back into the programme. The library has a scheme available where you donate $15 and then your name and home town are written on a sticker inside the book (you choose) which goes into the Library.
The students are given a major project each year - one year it was Drought resistant pot plants – all plants are made of metal and they are displayed around the centre (in pots of course). Last year’s project was to make an animal from bits of machinery or metal from around the farm. They had echidnas made from horse shoes, snakes from hand rail and a dog from bike chains – very good and very creative (again displayed around the grounds of the centre).
If you are travelling with children in the outback this would be a great experience for them to see how outback children learn - imagine only seeing your fellow classmates once or twice a year.