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Student snaps up north Queensland job offer
Working as a pre-service teacher in the remote north Queensland town of Pormpuraaw recently has opened several doors for University of the Sunshine Coast student Simone Harkin.
Simone, 32, has secured a job teaching in the Indigenous community on Cape York Peninsula next year and is looking forward to heading north again after an “awesome” time there during the final placement of her Graduate Diploma in Education at USC.
Simone was one of 17 USC students who received Rural and Remote Education Bursaries from the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation in Semester 2. These bursaries, of up to $2,500, help cover the transport and living expenses of pre-service teachers while they are completing placements in rural and remote areas.
Simone said she probably would not have gone to Pormpuraaw – about 1,800km north-west of her home at Kureelpa – had she not received a bursary of $1,200.
Pormpuraaw has a population of 650 and the state school has about 90 students and seven teachers. The town’s isolation and limited power supply means that food is very expensive.
Simone said the work placement presented some unusual challenges for her, but she found it a thrill to go outside her comfort zone and enjoyed the opportunity to develop a greater understanding and respect for Indigenous culture.
“It was awesome,” she said. “I liked learning about the culture of the people there, especially how they do things and why they do things.
“I can now see where they’re coming from. And now that I’ve got a job there, I want to learn more and more about their culture.”
During her six-week placement, Simone had to overcome a serious language barrier, as English is a second language to all students. Many also suffer from a condition called glue ear which makes it difficult for them to hear or pay attention.
However, she said students’ experiences of attending school were generally very positive and she particularly enjoyed their Monday morning presentations about weekend hunting expeditions.
The Tim Fairfax Family Foundation bursaries were introduced this year to assist USC in encouraging the best and brightest student teachers to work in rural and remote schools.
The other 16 Rural and Remote Education Bursary recipients for Semester 2 were John Armstrong, Ashton Bird, Phillipa Branfield, Lisa Campbell, Laura Duncan, Kristen Gynes, Ebonie Humbert, Leonore Lancaster, Susan Lee, Rachael McKinlay, Andrea Potter, Samuel Rouse, Patricia Routley, Brittney Steadman, Veronique Williams and Anne Wilson.
Ten of the 17 recipients are final-year graduates, and seven of them have gained employment in rural and remote locations in 2011.
— Terry Walsh