Alice Springs School of the Air Celebrates 75 Years as World's Largest Classroom

When Jane Hayes was at school, lessons sounded different to a regular classroom, if she could hear them at all.

Like many kids living in remote Australia, Ms Hayes relied on the Alice Springs School of the Air, which delivered classes on a radio across vast distances in the heart of the nation.

In a time before internet or satellite technology, this presented a unique challenge in the classroom, as lessons were sometimes difficult to hear over other people using the same frequency.

"Sometimes we could hear them, north of Darwin, better than our teachers here in Alice."

Technology has improved since the school's earliest days, but the service it provides as "the world's largest classroom" 75 years later remains crucial for families in the bush.

A world-first

This year, the Alice Springs School of the Air celebrates its 75th anniversary, making it the oldest of its kind in the world.

The idea for the school came in 1944 from Council of the Flying Doctor Service South Australia member Adelaide Miethke, who suggested using two-way radios to educate remote children.

The school's first lessons were held in 1951.

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Families attending the school come from a mix of cattle stations, national parks, remote Aboriginal communities and roadhouses, with students located over an area of more than 1.3 million square kilometres.

The school has had many notable visitors including the late Queen Elizabeth II, then-Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana, and the late UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

Originally delivering three half-hour sessions per week over radio, lessons have transformed as technology has evolved.

Moving from radio to satellite technology and the high-speed internet available today, lessons are now conducted over video calls.

Kerrie Russell is the current principal of the Alice Springs School of the Air, and her own children were educated at the school.

She said technological advancement had made it easier to engage students.

"Once you've got all the cameras on … then it [makes] teaching and learning even more targeted and interactive for students," Ms Russell said.

Students celebrate

Maeve Martin is a year 4 student at the school and lives at Mount Denison Station, about 250 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs.

Maeve and her classmates attended the anniversary celebrations after travelling hundreds of kilometres across Central Australia to gather at the school campus.

Maeve thinks school would have been a lot tougher during the first lessons back in 1951.

"Well, it would have been much different. It would have been harder I would think, because you would need to really pay attention."

"Like I do pay attention, but [you would] have to pay attention so much."