School on wheels

FEBRUARY 2009
By Andie Gatti

In Queensland, advisory visiting teachers aren't the only ones who go on the road.

Catherine Fullerton outside the travelling classroom

Queensland has a one-of-a-kind school on wheels that travels the country following the agricultural show circuit.

Principal Catherine Fullerton helped start the Queensland School for Travelling Show Children in 2000 to educate primary school students whose parents are show workers.

The school has 64 Prep to Year 7 students and four teachers and follows the Queensland curriculum.
'For generations, travelling families involved in the show circuit experienced limited access to mainstream schooling,' Ms Fullerton said.

'They were either involved in distance education or travelled from school to school each week.'

Now the mobile school usually spends a week in each town.

A map of some of the towns and places the school has visited.

Two semi-trailers containing a purpose-built library and resource area, an ICT section, a kitchen and amenities and two marquees, which are used as outdoor classrooms, are stationed at the local primary school the weekend before the show.

'Come Monday morning, our students arrive at the classroom to be met by their teachers ready for another week of school,' Ms Fullerton said.

Students wear uniforms, and a satellite and wireless network supports student learning.
'This is a school, like any other, just on wheels,' she said.

At the end of the week, the children pack away their schoolbooks and equipment ready for the operations officer to retract the classroom and move it to the next site.

This mobile school and other innovative programs ensure isolated children throughout our vast state receive a quality education.