A partnership between the University of the Sunshine Coast and the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation will support more than 500 education students to complete placements in Queensland’s country schools.
The Foundation recently made its largest-ever investment in a long-standing partnership with UniSC – $750,000 over the next five years.
The funding will continue to grow UniSC’s Regional, Rural and Remote Education Program that supports students with bursaries for rural and remote placements.
UniSC Vice‑Chancellor and President, Professor Helen Bartlett, said the gift was a vote of confidence in a program that had helped to send 1450 pre-service teachers to experience teaching in country schools.
“We know that rural and remote Queensland schools have a teacher shortage problem, with these schools often the last to attract new graduates and the first to lose them,” Professor Bartlett said.
“UniSC has been working to change that since 2010. The idea is straightforward. Give pre-service teachers the financial support and the opportunity to experience rural and remote teaching firsthand.
“Our students have taught in some of Queensland’s more remote classrooms, and had their eyes opened as to where such a career can take them,” Professor Bartlett said.
The outcomes are resoundingly positive. More than 86 percent of participants say they intend to seek employment in a rural or remote community after they graduate.
“We know from other research that teachers who complete a placement in a rural community are far more likely to stay. For the children sitting in those classrooms, that continuity matters enormously,” Professor Bartlett said.
The funding also supports UniSC’s Coast to Country program, a five-day excursion to schools in central, remote western and north Queensland for UniSC education students – encouraging them to consider teaching outside larger cities.
For UniSC teaching graduate Anthony Gronert, receiving the bursary changed his life – in more ways than one.
In 2015, it supported his placement in Monto, a rural Queensland town he’d first encountered on a UniSC Coast to Country trip.
“The town just had a really nice vibe,” he recalls.
Anthony accepted a position at the same school at which he undertook his placement and what he what he found in Monto exceeded his expectations.
Teaching PE, maths and ag science at a school of around 160 students, he quickly got to know his students and their families.
“In a place like Monto, if you put in a bit of extra work for the kids, with their sport, their tuition, whatever, you get instant gratitude and thanks. You’re stopped in the local IGA for a chat and become part of town quickly.”
Anthony stayed in Monto for nearly six years. Beyond the classroom, he threw himself into community life attending events, helping with sport, and building lasting friendships.
Monto also gave Anthony something he hadn’t anticipated. Three years in, a maths teacher named Maddy arrived at Monto State High School. She is now Anthony’s wife, and their twin girls are eight weeks old.
While Anthony now teaches at Mountain Creek State High School on the Sunshine Coast, he acknowledges, “I owe a lot to Monto.”
Of Tim Fairfax, Anthony says, “He’s probably the reason I’m still teaching. “And in a roundabout way, he’s responsible for my family life too. If I ever get to meet him again, I’d love to show him a photo of the girls.”
UniSC’s relationship with the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation is one of UniSC’s most enduring philanthropic partnerships.
Tim Fairfax AC said the partnership with UniSC reflected a shared commitment to Queensland’s rural and remote communities and the children who grow up in them.
“For fifteen years we have seen what happens when a student teacher arrives in a place like Monto,” Mr Fairfax said.
“They don’t just teach, they become part of the community. This investment is about making sure that keeps happening.”
