EAS Category:

• School Environment (Regional or Remote Schooling, Excessive Travel Time, and Frequent Teacher Changes)

Supporting Documents:

• School environment coversheet including personal statement
• School Statement

Background

Throughout high school, Rodney lived on his parents’ cattle farm about eighty kilometres south-west of Longreach in central Queensland. The drive to school in town took his Mum two and half hours as a roundtrip. But in year twelve, when Rodney got his full licence, he discovered a short cut that could bring it down to two hours and ten.

He loved his new freedom. It never occurred to him all the driving might be detracting from his studies until his new maths teachers – a young city guy fresh out of teacher’s college – asked if he’d ever consider moving into town.

While Rodney was swerving potholes and blaring the radio on his way home every afternoon, the teacher pointed out, his friends in town were already studying. As for the city kids the maths teacher had met during his recent placement in Brisbane, they had access to private tutors, heaps of choices of extracurricular sport and music activities, and dozens of museums and art galleries to visit on excursions and weekends.

Rodney said he could never leave Mum and Dad alone with all the farm work. But the teacher’s comments got him thinking.

Most days, by the time he got back to the farm, he was too weary to give his homework the attention it deserved. Even in the holidays, it was hard to catch up; there was always a fence or a water tower to be mended or a sick heifer to take care of. And what was the deal with having four different maths teachers during years eleven and twelve? Did that happen to kids in the city?

Now that he thought of it, his maths grade had slipped from a solid A to a mediocre B across senior. That was bad news if he was going to get into engineering like he planned.

Application

Rodney applied for an educational adjustment in the School Environment category. He supplied a completed coversheet with a personal statement that described how his long daily commute impacted his senior studies and listed all the teachers changes he’d experienced during senior maths.

He also asked his supportive maths teacher to complete a school statement on his behalf, confirming the circumstances.

Outcome

The EAS assessor checked Rodney’s senior schooling was done in a regional or remote area (RA3 to RA5) by looking up the school address online using the Australian Statistical Geographical Classification. Rodney was eligible for an initial adjustment based on the well-established disadvantage of attending a high school in remote Australia.

The assessor also confirmed the distance from Rodney’s home address to school and made an estimate of his daily travel time, which matched the personal statement. They judged Rodney to have experienced greater disadvantage than peers who did not have to commute. A second small adjustment was applied to Rodney’s selection rank.

Finally, the assessor read the school statement completed by Rodney’s teacher, who was able to verify Rodney had experienced three teacher changes (four teachers in total) across years eleven and twelve, with a measurable negative impact on his subject result.

A third small adjustment was applied, putting Rodney within striking distance of the selection rank he needed for a Bachelor of Engineering.