Case studies

Distance Learning

Kath MacAlister is Deputy Principal of a Reception to Year 12 Area School in Roxby Downs, South Australia. She was prompted to drop us a line after reading the Wakefield EAZ article last month. She empathized with their dilemmas of distance and thought she'd provide an insight into her school's situation. Now, you might want to get the atlas out to fully appreciate this…

Roxby Downs is in the north of the state, inland, and about six and a half hours driving time from the South Australian capital city, Adelaide. Our district includes schools on the Aboriginal lands like Oodnadatta and Mintabie, opal mining communities like Cooberpedy and Andamooka, schools in the Flinders Ranges such as Hawker and Quorn, and coastal communities like Cowell. Our District is, in fact, so large that our District superintendent flies his own plane in order to get better coverage. Most of the meetings I attend are in Port Augusta, which entails a five hour round trip - up at 5am to leave home for 6am to begin a meeting at 8.30 am, finish the meeting at 4.30 or 5 pm then travel home. This is fairly normal practice for Principals/Deputies when on a weekly or fortnightly basis we would travel for at least one meeting. We do as much of our district/system work through tele or video conferencing but really enjoy the opportunities to network face to face.

At least Roxby Downs is a small town. We have a supermarket and a couple of Hotels (pubs/clubs). Go a bit further north to the smaller towns and they have to have food orders delivered by rail once a fortnight - a good way to save money when there is nothing to tempt one.

I guess the thing that rang most bells for me when reading the Wakefield EAZ article was the similarities not differences. Over the last five to six years our District, and this school in particular, has really focused on training and development for teachers that centres in on teaching and learning. From the Values Based Accelerated Learning programs to 4MAT and Brain Theory it is exciting to see the techniques and strategies incorporated into classroom practice and shared with beginning teachers or those seeking to revitalise their practice.