Carnarvon School Of The Air

Melbourne Private Schools introduces Carnarvon School Of The Air in Carnarvon, for all your education and learning needs.

There are school of the air programmes in all states except Tasmania.

School classes were conducted via shortwave radio from 1951 until 2003,after which most schools switched to wireless internet technologies to deliver lessons that include live one-way video feeds and clear two-way audio.

Each student has direct contact with a teacher in a major inland town such as Broken Hill, Alice Springs or Meekatharra. Each student typically spends one hour per day receiving group or individual lessons from the teacher, and the rest of the day working through the assigned materials with a parent, older sibling or a hired home-stay tutor.

Traditionally, the students received their course materials and returned their written work and projects to their hub centre using either the Royal Flying Doctor Service or infrequent and unreliable post office services. However the extension of Internet services into the outback now enables more rapid review of each child's homework.

As the children are in isolated situations, the School of the Air is frequently their first chance of socialization with children outside their immediate family. This is supplemented by 3 or 4 annual gatherings where the children travel to the school to spend one week with their teacher and classmates.

Studies have shown that such education has a parity with if not better standard than traditional methods of schooling.