At Collarenebri Central School, in western NSW, COVID lockdowns this year underlined the level of disadvantage experienced by many remote Australian families. Thankfully, the school issued mobile devices and work packs to ensure the continuation of learning and connectivity during the six-week school closure.
But one of its dedicated teachers – UNE graduate Sarah Thomas – is adamant that geography will never determine educational outcomes for her students.
Having attended school just 100 kilometres away, in the opal-mining outpost of Lightning Ridge, even further west, Sarah’s no stranger to the tyranny of distance. The long travelling distances, poor roads, and even worse Internet connections.
When she left home at age 17 to study for a Bachelor of Education/Bachelor of Arts at UNE, Sarah remembers being desperately homesick, even living in supportive Duval College. She was the first in her family to attend university.
“My parents had not finished high school, let alone considered university,” she says. “It was absolutely terrifying to leave my family, my community and all that I knew, to go off into the great unknown. Throw in a lack of knowledge about how university works … and it’s even harder. I had to navigate a whole new system.”
But Sarah had some important allies on her side.
“It was my teachers at the Ridge who had shown me that university study and teaching was a path I could take,” she says. “Ours was a remote school, in the middle of nowhere, but they were fantastic educators and mentors, and I am still in touch with some of them today. They did everything they could to ensure I received a meaningful education.”
Those teachers also inspired Sarah’s own educational philosophy.
“They taught me that there is potential in every student, and that’s what I now try to unlock,” she says. “If I can do what they did for me for a student here at Colly or anywhere else, then that’s my measure of success.”
At UNE, Sarah’s ambitions were supported by the community of people she met. “Living on campus, I was able to make new friends and, particularly through the Oorala Centre, I developed an important support group, academically and socially,” she says. “We were all first in our family to attend university and most of us were from out west. We still regularly catch up.”
Despite only having been at Collarenebri Central School for little over a year, Sarah is already sharing the Head Teacher Secondary role in the K-12 school of almost 100 students. About 88% identify as Aboriginal.
“Encouraging positive identity is a big part of our everyday here at Colly,” says Sarah, who teaches English and Geography. “The kids deserve the best of the best – the same opportunities as students in prestigious schools in metropolitan areas – and that’s what they get.
“I am a great believer that education is for everyone; it does not judge where you’ve come from, rather it shows you where you can go. It is a powerful tool, with the ability to transform and enrich the lives of individuals and those around them, and I take that into the classroom with me every day.”
Growing up, Sarah loved to read and learn. “Even from a very young age, me and my sister would play schools and I would always be the teacher,” she says. “I think I will have that love of learning until the day I die. I am so fascinated by new things, and building on what I know to make sense of the world.”
After spending three years teaching in Bathurst, where she was “exposed to a lot of experienced teachers and good practice”, Sarah says her resolve to work in rural and regional Australia strengthened. “I always, always wanted to come back out west and there is nowhere else I would rather be,” she says.
“Schools really are at the centre of their community and play such an important role, and the kids out here are just lovely. I wish everyone had the opportunity to teach out west at least once during their career because the rewards, professionally and personally, are real and significant.”
