Broken Hill School of the Air

The School of the Air in Broken Hill is a primary virtual school located in Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia. Hay Campus is the second campus of this school.

This Distance Education Centre is one of many that uses the term School of the Air. The school was established in 1956 and now caters primarily for the geographically isolated students within a radius of approximately 300km from Broken Hill, with a small number of travelling students enrolled in the school for periods of between three and nine months. The school’s enrolments are governed by the Distance Education Guidelines for Enrolment.

In 2010 126 students were enrolled in SOTA, 69 boys and 57 girls. None of the school’s classes exceed fourteen students.

The School of the Air provides Kindergarten and Year 1 to Year 6 education. At the Broken Hill campus all classes consist of a single school year level. At the Hay campus classes are of mixed year levels and incorporate students who are travelling, both within Australia and overseas.

The school aims to develop excellence in learning over distance through open communication and personalised teacher/pupil and home supervisor interaction.

The School of the Air in Broken Hill web site is at http://www.schoolair-p.schools.nsw.edu.au.

More Details

The educational programme provided for the students is centred around the correspondence material, with air lessons, telephone, fax and field services used to complement the program.

This School of the Air operates a satellite education program to provide face-to-face instruction to students undertaking their education from home at isolated rural properties. This is also supported by a Field Service Programme which includes home visits to all students as well as the provision of mini-schools. Mini-Schools are face-to face-teaching opportunities, usually conducted at an isolated property whereby all students and home supervisors travel to the location to participate in a range of activities across all key learning areas.

Schools are supported by the Country Areas Program (CAP), which for instance included the provision of a Home Tutors Conference in 2010 and a recording studio to provide supplementary visual lessons and feedback.

The school continued with a pre-school program in 2010, enrolling 18 isolated students.

The educational programme provided for the students is centred around the correspondence material, with air lessons, telephone, fax and field services used to complement the program.

The School of the Air in Broken Hill was modelled on the Katherine School of the Air in the Northern Territory using the Royal Flying Doctor Service radio network.