Sunday History Photo / NT

The Alice Springs School of the Air was the first one of its kind established in Australia. It is a primary aged correspondence school that utilises various communications technologies to have daily contact with students, home tutors and teachers. The first broadcasts were made from the Royal Flying Doctor Base in Alice Springs, Northern Territory (NT), in 1951.
Alice Springs School of the Air turned 50 on June 8th 2001. During the week commencing June 4th the school had a special in school week to celebrate the 50 years.
The week involved current students, staff, parents and tutors as well as all those who have been associated in one way or another during the previous 50 years.





The focus for the students was through The Arts and an artist in residence, Christopher Brocklebank, was employed by the School Council to lead this part of the celebrations. Christopher had worked in a similar way with the school before and has an understanding of the context. Christopher has marvellous skills for making things 'evolve' and a History Maze was the culmination of a week of work by the students. All the students enjoyed the maze and in a very positive fun environment learnt lots abut the history of the school.
During the term 1 'in school' students had an opportunity to work with a highly skilled local potter, Midge Coleman in making their own special tile. The tiles incorporate designs depicting transport, technology, and the environment while the youngest children made clay hands and feet. These tiles were used to make a wall outside the Visitor Centre show casing the students' work.




50 years of providing distance education was well worth celebrating. The following timeline outlines many of the significant dates in the 50 year history of the school.





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