Day 2 of our “Hop on Hop off tour”. We visited the Alice Springs School of the Air (ASSOA) which was more much interesting than we thought it would be. It also happened to be their 59th birthday so they were celebrating with lamingtons and tim tams. We were also so lucky in that a past ASSOA student was there for a week doing work experience so we were able to hear about the teaching from this perspective. There are other School of the Air’s in Australia in WA, NSW, SA and Qld. This one covers an area of 1,300,000 sq km. The closest student is 80km away with the furthest being 1,300km away. On average they have 120 students at any time including pre-schoolers and children up to year 9 at which time they usually go to boarding school or continue via correspondence. Currently they have 133 students. Children from Aboriginal communities also participate. Each student requires a home tutor usually a parent or in some cases a private in-house tutor. The school has been operating since 1951 and is due to the inspiration of a Ms Adelaide Miethke who recognised the lack of education opportunities for remote communities. In the early days radio was used however nowadays computers are used with students being able to see each other and the teacher which makes learning much more interactive. From both the student and teachers perspective it is as close to being in a classroom as possible. 12 full time teachers and 1 part time preschool teacher are employed by ASSOA. The class teacher visits each students home twice a year and each term students meet in Alice Springs for sporting carnivals, swim week and get together week. From here we visited the Olive Pink Botanic Park. Olive Pink was an anthropologist in the early 1900s who designed the park whilst studying Aboriginal culture and how they use plants for medicinal purposes. The park is a self guided interpretative walk with descriptions of what each plant is used for in the Aboriginal culture. Quite interesting especially the sulphur tree! John went to the local Rotary meeting, they run the Hedley on Todd boat race, the only boat race which is cancelled if there is water in the river!!!
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