I am a huge supporter of Teach Learn Grow and their student-led programs to bridge the education opportunity gap across Australia. I have been a TLG volunteer since 2019, after hearing a glowing recommendation of the Rural Program from a friend at university. Researching the program online and learning how much of an impact each volunteer makes inspired me to sign up straight away for the Winter Rural Program that year. I have now been on three TLG programs to various rural and remote schools in Western Australia and want to share with new tutors some of the things to expect and what I wish I had known on my very first program!

For the Summer Rural Program of 2020, I was fortunate enough to visit the small town of Menzies for a week to tutor some of the students at the Community School. Before this trip, I had never even heard of Menzies, an old gold-mining town about 130km north of Kalgoorlie, situated on Wangkatha country. I was part of a small group of five volunteers who went there- two coordinators and three tutors- and this was the smallest group I had ever been a part of before with TLG. The entire experience was fantastic, and I learnt so much about Menzies and myself in my time there. I feel amazingly grateful to have visited this town and to be let into their wonderful community for even a few days.

We arrived in Menzies on Saturday afternoon, tired after sitting all day on the Prospector train from East Perth to Kalgoorlie and then jumping on a bus that drove the rest of the way to Menzies. After an hour on the bus, we were finally there, although I felt extremely fortunate as other groups of tutors remained on the bus far longer as they continued north to Leonora and Laverton. While we waited for one of the teachers to come and show us where we were sleeping, we discussed our first impressions of Menzies- mostly how isolated it seemed, over an hours drive from the nearest town and completely surrounded by red desert.

We stayed the night at the old principal’s building on the school grounds. It was built in the early 1900s when Menzies was a massive mining town and the school still taught hundreds, but there were less than 20 students when we were there. The accommodation was great and had a bathroom and kitchen attached to a main bedroom, with a walk-in cupboard filled floor-to-ceiling with helpful teaching supplies and games. We were eternally grateful during our stay that the building was updated in the last couple of years with a working air conditioner, as the temperature almost reached 40˚C while we were there. We spent the afternoon setting up our sleeping bags and air mattresses in the bedroom and organising a roster for cooking and cleaning. We all decided to have an early night and to wake up the next day before the sun to explore the rest of the town.

In the morning, we woke before 4 am to watch the sunrise and spent the day exploring the town. There were some wonderful artworks and historical landmarks that we spent the day exploring, including an old mine site out of town that had a fantastic view of the town. We were very lucky to have an opportunity to walk around and appreciate the town and land, as I doubt I would have ever had a chance to see it otherwise. We then spent the rest of the day preparing for our week of tutoring sessions, sorting out the resources provided for a week of STEAM activities.

Our first day of tutoring was extremely busy and full-on day. We had an excellent opportunity to meet some of the school staff and students at the breakfast club in the morning before class started. Many rural schools have a similar program where they serve toast, cereal and spaghetti for students who get to school early, and this is a fantastic time each day to talk to the students and learn their names and interests.

The first class of the week is always an exciting experience, where you get to meet the students you will spend the rest of the week with. I was partnered with four students from kindy to Year 9 across three sessions, split between lower primary, upper primary and high school as Menzies caters for all students from Years K-12, implementing remote online learning for the upper years.

We all spent the first half of Monday getting to know each other and bonding while making an absolute mess with food dye and shaving cream during our art activity. Even though I had tutored with TLG before, meeting the students at Menzies Community School was an eye-opening experience. I found it amazing that classes would have pre-primary and Year 5 students working together, and heartwarming how the entire school felt like a big family. Throughout the whole week it was clear through their work that the staff shared in this caring spirit. Fellow tutor Bec shared this sentiment and when asked what stood out about the entire experience, said that ‘travelling to Wangatha country to work with the local Wongi people was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Menzies is such a beautify community who really cherishes their students. This rural program really reaffirmed my desire to work in a small town in the future, and was a wonderful experience to meet the wider community and see how the school operated under different circumstances to our schools in the city.’

The rest of the week followed a simple pattern, where the tutors spent half the day working on forms of STEAM activities, such as art, science and engineering, and the second half tutoring maths outcomes through various games, puzzles and drawings. We would also take breaks throughout the day to play classic TLG games like Little-White-Pony and Boom-Chicka-Boom to keep students energetic and engaged in sessions. Jevin, another tutor to Menzies commented that ‘[his] favourite part of RP would be conducting the tutoring sessions each day and seeing the child's grasp of concepts increase over the week. Even in a single session it was amazing to see that "light" switch on in their head as they understood the main concept for that session.’ At recess and lunch each day, we would quickly eat our food to race back out to spend time with the students, often playing games or building with Lego inside the classroom on warm days.

After school each day, we would go back to the principal’s building and relax and lesson plan. Everyone was passionate about helping their students and we would all brainstorm tutoring ideas together. Most afternoons we would also walk into town to join in with various community activities, such as visiting the local youth centre and art gallery or watching the community prepare for an upcoming basketball game with Leonora. We all had a great time playing netball with some high school students, although we were definitely out-matched. We were also invited to join many of the school staff for a pub dinner at the end of the week.

Olivia said that as a coordinator, ‘one of the best parts of coordinating the Menzies program was the unique relationships I was able to build with tutors and students, but especially members of the community and staff.'

It was also wonderful to hear from Anne Sheehan, one of the senior teachers at Menzies School after the program. She said that ‘since 2016, we have had the great pleasure of having Teach Learn Grow teams come to our small school. I have experienced nothing but dedication and enthusiasm from the young professionals who have visited here. I have witnessed each team member show nothing less than authentic interest in the students with whom they have worked. This experience has impacted on our own students who range from Kindy to Year 12 so much that many times at the beginning of each academic year I have been asked when will the TLG team visit again?’

The entire Rural Program experience to Menzies was amazing, and I have made wonderful lifelong friends with other uni students that share the same values as me, as well as hopefully made a difference in the lives of the students in Menzies. I fully recommend anyone who can to spend a week on a Rural Program and see what kind of difference you can make in a small community, and that they can make on you.

Bec created an amazing montage of our week in Menzies made up of 1 second clips taken from just a handful of events throughout our week. She said ‘travelling to Wangkatha country to work with the local Wongi people was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Menzies is such a beautiful community who really cherishes their students. This rural program really reaffirmed my desire to work in a small town in the future, and was a wonderful experience to meet the wider community and see how the school operated under different circumstances to our schools in the city. There are no words to summarise my time in this small town, but this video is an insight into some of the things we got up to!’

2021 Winter Rural Program applications are open now, click here to apply today.

Article written by Hannah Landwehr (Public Relations Officer)