Speaker: Madison Cox, Pre-service teacher

Hi everyone, my name is Mady I'm from the University of Wollongong and I'm currently completing my last semester of uni and doing a bachelor of primary education and I just completed my internship in Tamworth. So I'm just here to answer a few questions for you about doing a rural or remote prac. So where I did my previous prac so my three previous pracs were in the Mungo area so no more than 20 minutes away from where I lived and the opportunity came up to do a prac in Tamworth and I thought, why not? It'd be a great opportunity the department of education organizes everything including the school, accommodation and they also give you an allowance. So you actually get paid to do your internship which is also great. So why I chose to teach in the Tamworth area post uni so basically I am deciding to go back to Tamworth for term four. There are so many teaching opportunities the schools themselves are just lovely and it's just a great opportunity in general how I found my accommodation and how I've made it my home. So the accommodation that was provided was amazing it backs into a farm, it's just a beautiful house and I've organized with the landlord to rent there as well as my roommate who's also from the same uni as me. We're both going back for term four so we organized a rental agreement for term four. So yeah, I'm really happy about that the house is incredible. The country school community, so basically I feel like this is something everyone should experience. It's such a tiny community, the teachers, the families, the kids, everything that admin staff like everyone's just so close and so supportive it's incredible. So after the school gate closes, so basically with COVID social things bit hard at the moment, obviously but at my school, there was four other practice students mostly from different universities as well. So that was great way to get to know people and obviously just know that you're not alone you have other people with you and where I hope to see myself in two years. So in two years time, regardless of location wise I guess I just hope that I'm in a supportive and inclusive school environment and that I'm incorporating things that I learned on my rural prac, because I learn so much just different things that you don't really get to see in schools at home, I guess but for anyone who's on the fence and thinking, Hmm, should I do it, should I not? Honestly, just go for it like it's great experience. However long your prac is just a few weeks of your life, its great honestly, I couldn't recommend it.

Speakers: Ellen John and Clare Bollen, Pre-service teachers

- My name is Ellen John, I'm a classroom teacher, here at Narrabri Public School.

- And I'm Claire Bollen, and I'm currently doing my internship here, at Narrabri public school. So I'm a student at the University of Sydney. I did my Bachelor of Arts, and now I'm doing my Master of Primary Teaching. I did my first teaching prac last year, in the Northern territory in Maningrida. And now I'm doing my second prac and internship combined here at Narrabri.

- I studied in Wagga Wagga at Charles Sturt University. I studied a Bachelor of Primary Education and I did full pracs in country areas. Griffith, Wagga, Claire and here at Narrabri Public School as my internship.

- So I teach rural scholarship holder which means my internship was chosen by the department. And I'm just really lucky that I got placed here at Narrabri.

- When I arrived here for my internship I had a friend who had a spare room so I stayed there for my accommodation and that's how I found a accommodation around town.

- I was lucky I was paired up with a girl who's doing prac at the high school so we just rented a two bedroom apartment through Airbnb and we've just made it our temporary home. We cook together every night and we've just got some candles and plants to make it a bit cozier. It's really nice, it's only five minute walk from school and I love being able to walk not having to drive or catch a train or a bus to school.

- The country life is really rewarding, people are quite friendly, welcoming, willing to share things with you, show you around town. And after the school gate closes, I like to enjoy sport catch up with friends, go out for breakfast and dinners and on Friday afternoon, we like to catch up with staff around at the pub.

- The school community and the wider community have been really supportive and friendly. Everyone's so willing to share things or show us around or give us tips. I've only been here seven weeks and everyone's made it feel like a home, same as El, we get drinks and dinner at the local pubs and then on the weekend I like to go out bush walking or hiking and just seeing everything that's around.

- Teaching is a rewarding profession and I can guarantee that if you choose a country area like we have here in Narrabri you'll have a great time.

Speaker: Bill Shipway, Pre-service teacher

Good day, my name's Bill, and I went to UTS. I studied the bachelor of education and international studies. I did my proximal over Sydney, mostly in the inner West. I'm in the Western suburbs. I chose the broken Hill area just because I'd heard so many fantastic things about it. And I've always wanted to live I guess a country life growing up in Sydney. How I found my accommodation. Well, I found that through the principal of the school that I did my prac internship. And now that I work, which is Broken Hill Public School or central, as it's known locally. Then after that because I had joined forty clubs, Central Broken Hill Football Club. I made quite a lot of mates. And then one of them offered me a room to stay or him and his partner. So, I stayed there. He's a primary school teacher. Shay is a high school teacher just recently moved in with my partner who I met out here. Also who came from Newcastle. The country school community is absolutely fantastic. I love it. You see your kids everywhere you go. You find yourself shoveling dirt, and you find yourself doing the extras around the school. But your lifestyle here is such, he'll say, yeah. I'm not complaining about that. Outside of the school Gates, I play 40 Go Camping, join sorts of different classes. You find yourself learning new skills all the time going forward with driving, stuff like that which I've never done, going hunting, stuff like that. Yeah. I love it. There is so many opportunities. You don't have to be a sporty person. You can be an artist, and you can- you can do all sorts of things. Yeah. I love it.

- Hey, how's it going? My name's Alex and I am studying Secondary Teaching at Sydney University. My major teaching area is History and my secondary area is Commerce and Economics.

- Yes, I'm Dean and I'm also at Sydney Uni. I'm doing Secondary Teaching as well, doing Maths and Science and focusing particularly on Senior Chemistry.

- Yeah, so we are doing our final internship placement at Murrumburrah High School, which is about four hours Southwest of Sydney, 90 minutes from Canberra near the town of Young. It's actually the smallest high school, government high school in New South Wales. So a very different environment to my previous experiences in Sydney which was, one was at a comprehensive high school in Western Sydney and the other one was at a private school. So very different to those experiences as an, obviously out here as part of the rule experience programming.

- Yeah, it was a very good different change. I had one on the northern beaches of Sydney and another one in the inner west. Both were public comprehensive schools that had quite big numbers of students. And it's quite a different experience here.

- Being in a school with 110 students or so. So very, very different. In terms of accommodation, it was all sorted by the departments. They, set up a place and this obviously came out of the stipend that we got. But as we both know, we had a bit of flexibility on that. Like you contacted the departments.

- Yes. Who were able to kind of, with consultation, we were able to choose somewhere that we were all happy with so that we could kind of you know, all come to an agreement on a place that was suitable for everyone.

- Yeah, and it's been, it was a lovely place. Bit out of town on a farm living the farm life you know, waking up to sheep, it's great. It's very different to living in a city or a town. It was quite and been a great experience. In terms of the country school community, it's been fantastic. Everyone is so friendly, so willing to help and they really take you under your wing and support you throughout. I mean, if you ask for anything, they'll help you out, they'll make sure you feel welcome and set you up really well and I'm sure Dean is gonna say the same.

- Yeah, it was very, very welcoming, everyone was very welcoming here from the very first day. You know, everyone wanted us to get involved in everything and you know, everyone wanted us to be a part of the community which was a very nice feeling to have people around that always wanted to help you. It was great.

- Yeah, yeah. And with lock down and stuff this year, I know all my friends in Sydney who were doing their internship spent the first few weeks doing really online while out here we were allowed to be in the classroom and teach face to face which was a massive privilege with the lockdown. But you know, following a few safety, test your environments, as much as slight requirements, wearing masks or that sort of thing we were able to have a pretty normal internship on the whole.

- Yeah, definitely. And it also helped because outside of class or outside of teaching, we were able to go out and do stuff. We're able to you know, see all the scenes that were around us.

- Yeah.

- And you know, we'd go with teachers and staff you know, they'd invite us to go see places with them, we were able to have dinners with them, we were able to you know, play some sports with them and stuff, so it was quite good being able to come here, being able to be part of the community, being able to make lots of friends very quickly which was great. So we were able to you know, play tennis, basketball.

- Go to bush walking, hiking, swimming.

- Yeah.

- So much to do and to explore the country areas is just such a fantastic experience.

- Yeah, sure.

- I've I personally loved my experience doing a rural placement, it's been fantastic, it's been a great opportunity to sort of try before you buy when considering teaching in country areas.

- Yeah.

- And I know Dean.

- Yeah, I got a job at the end of this. So, you know, by the end of this internship, they offered me a permanent full-time position which is terrific to get straight out of uni. You know, there was a position available here and they needed a science teacher and so I was able to fill the position and now I have a full-time job.

- And that seamless transitioning to next year and to full-time work.

- Exactly.

- But yeah, so if you're thinking about doing a rural placement, I strongly recommend you do. Give it your all, it's a great experience to sort of you know, add an element to yourself and you know, I'm sure future employers will love the fact that you've put yourself out of your comfort zone and really tried something different.

- Yeah, I think it's a great experience. You know, there's no harm in doing it. You know, it might be a bit of a leap to do it but I think it is a really great one. And it's, you've got a lot of support both from the schools and from the Department Of Education which is terrific to have.

- Yeah, totally. So if you think about it, do it, good luck. You'll love the experience, see yah.

- See yah.