Rural and Remote Education - Qld
Rural
and Remote Education - Qld
Meeting with students at Boulia
State School, 4 October 1999 - notes
Boulia State School
goes up to Year 7. The meeting was attended by 16 students, 5 boys and
11 girls. The students spoke about their experiences of school and life
in Boulia. They talked about their likes and dislikes and their hopes
for the future.
Activities in Boulia
"I really enjoy swimming
at the Boulia pool."
"I have my own motor
bike. I ride it all the time." [5 year old girl]
The students had
just returned to school from two weeks holiday. They spoke about what
they did during their holidays.
"I went to the
motor bike track every day."
"We went rally driving."
"I played football with my friends."
"I went fishing."
"I went swimming at the local pool."
"I had a really boring holiday."
School curriculum
and facilities
"We should have more
music classes."
"We have a carpentry
room at the school but we hardly ever use it because the teacher is not
available very often."
"I wish we could
use the home economics and woodwork areas at school more."
"The school has language
classes for Years 6 and 7 but only German. The German teacher visits the
school once a fortnight."
"PCAP [Priority Country
Areas Program] organises programs for us. They get people to come out
here for art and dancing and things like that."
Technology
The majority of students
knew about the internet. Seven students said that they had a computer
at home. A number of students said that they had computer 'pen pals' at
other schools.
"Computers are fun.
We use them at school. There a quite a few computers in the classrooms."
"Sometimes it is
very difficult to get onto the internet."
"PCAP sponsors our
school with computers."
Sport
"Sport at school
is really good."
"We have pretty good
sports equipment at school."
"I love going away
for sports."
"Sports carnivals
are great."
Camps and school
trips
"The school organises
trips for us. One year we went to the Gold Coast."
"Mostly older kids
go on camps. It would be good if more younger kids could go too."
Fighting and conflict
at school
"Sometimes there
is fighting and teasing at school. Swearing too."
"Kids tease each
other a lot at school."
"There is 'hundreds
of teasing' at school." [5 year old boy]
"If you hit someone
at school you get into trouble. They give you detention and make you do
hard work."
Indigenous issues
"There are not many
opportunities to speak Aboriginal languages in Boulia. The local Aboriginal
people are nearly all gone from the area now. There are some Aboriginal
people here but they are mostly from the Northern Territory."
"My family come from
the Torres Strait originally but we live in Boulia now. We speak our own
language at home."
"We speak 'lingo'
at my house." [Indigenous girl]
"At school we celebrate
NAIDOC [National Aboriginal and Islander Day of Commemoration] week."
Isolation
"We don't have many
other kids the same age to converse with and play with."
"I really like having
contact with other outback schools."
"We like it when
people from other places come to visit us."
Climate
"There is a lot of
rain in Boulia but also a lot of drought."
Safety and road
conditions
Quite a few of the
children or members of their family had been involved in road accidents.
They attributed this mostly to the poor quality of the roads.
"The roads here are
pretty bad."
"There is lots of
dust which makes it hard to see sometimes."
"In lots of places
there are only single roads, so you have to pull over to the side if a
car comes in the other direction. If a road train comes towards you, you
have to get out of the way quickly otherwise you could have a bad accident."
"My mum died in a
car accident."
Plans for the future
The students were
asked what they planned to do after they completed Year 7. Seven or so
students said they planned to go away to boarding school. Four students
said that they and their families would be moving to another centre so
that they could continue their schooling. Several planned to stay with
relatives and one with friends. Places they intended moving to included
Mt Isa, Gympie, Townsville, Charters Towers.
"I wish we didn't
have to leave home go to high school."
"I'm looking forward
to graduating."
Last
updated 2 December 2001.