Talk of the Town: Introduction to the school room

For many families on cattle stations it would require travelling hundreds of kilometres a day to their closest primary school to help their child get an education. But thankfully for bush families there is School of the Air.

But what is it like starting in the school room?

My husband and I live and work on a cattle station between Mount Isa and Cloncurry in North West Queensland.

My husband runs the properties with his father, while I raise our three kids (5, 2, 7-months), work as a journalist and teach my son.

As someone who has not grown up in the bush, and attended my hometown primary school, the only information I had heard about SOTA was my husband's stories of what it was like for him...30 years ago on the radio.

Needless to say it has changed a lot and having had no background to this style of schooling, my introduction to SOTA seemed intense.

We had our school introduction at the end of last year, we were given subject information, what your school room should look like and what technology you would require. We were also given an 80 litre tub of resources and another box full of subject activity books and home tutor teaching guides.

I felt completely out of my depth and spent a good two weeks going through the content, ringing other mums and freaking out about how I was going to juggle everything.

Starting school was hard, trying to keep your student focused while you are juggling two babies was extremely difficult on my own, but thankfully we found a rhythm and a routine that stuck.

And despite stressing about getting a school room ready in our house, we did (and still do) most of our school work at the dining table where I can keep an eye on the babies.

Our Monday starts with our school muster (assemble), families dial in over the phone or online as the principal reads out notices and school awards for the week.

Once the Muster is done we would get straight into school.

During the first term subjects included, Maths, English, Soundwaves, Literacy, Science and Digital Technology. During term two we had Maths, English, Soundwaves, Literacy, HASS and HPE.

One thing I was surprised about when starting Prep was that the kids only have half an hour on-air with their teacher a day.

I thought it would have been longer, but watching my son wiggle in his seat and attention turn to the cows outside, I soon understood why.

Students also have half an hour, one-on-one with their teacher where they conduct some assessments and readers.

And while this style of schooling may seem isolating, students also take part in group days, activity weeks, sports carnivals, minischools, camps and Sports 4 Bush Kids; which is an annual week of sport hosted by Isolated Children's and Parents' Association.

Despite the work load of being a home tutor (especially if you are teaching more than one child) is a full time job, the good thing about teaching your child is that you know how they learn best and can adapt the coursework to better their understanding.

And the most rewarding part, is seeing the light bulb moment when something you're teaching them finally clicks.

That makes all the hard work (and sometimes stress) worth it.

- Talk of the Town is a weekly opinion piece written by ACM journalists. The thoughts expressed are their own.