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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.