Queensland’s last School of the Air hosts mini school in Cloncurry for remote students
When new teacher Jess Somes took a job with the Mount Isa School of the Air she did not expect her first classroom to have a bar in it.
Last week, students from the Cloncurry region attended their first ‘mini school’ for the year at the Cloncurry Race Club after COVID-19 restrictions had kept them away.
Mini schools are events for remote-learning students where they come together with their parents or governesses to meet their teachers and classmates face-to-face.
In small towns like Cloncurry mini schools are often held in community spaces where students have enough room to camp and set up temporary classrooms.
The race club has space to camp, amenities, a large shed for the classrooms — including a bar-cum-desk for teachers — and a playground to keep the students entertained during their breaks.
“It is definitely very different to mainstream,” Ms Somes said.
Originally from the Richmond area of Queensland, Ms Somes said she always wanted to work with rural and remote students.
She was thrilled to be offered a position with Queensland’s only remaining School of the Air.
“I was always really interested in the education of students in the bush,” Ms Somes said.
“It was always a passion of mine when I was going through [university] so I did a lot of rural [placements].
For Year 6 students Olivia Hawkins and Emma Locke, mini school is an opportunity to not only meet their teachers but see their friends from surrounding properties.
Olivia will head to boarding school next year at Fairholme College in Toowoomba but Emma says she will be continuing to learn remotely with distance education provider Western Alliance.
Olivia said her normal classroom was just herself, her two sisters and her governess Julia.
Emma said her learning environment was similar but with her mum teaching her and her two younger siblings.
“There’s a lot more students in a normal school but here it’s small and you know everyone,” Olivia said.
“It’s really fun to see everyone running around,” Emma said.