IMAGINE a classroom big enough to fit an entire small nation inside and you have some idea of the magnitude of the challenge involved in distance education.

Discover one of the largest “classrooms” in the world with a tour of the Longreach School of Distance Education, also known as the School of the Air.

It’s an extraordinary opportunity - like being taken into the homes and lives of the people involved in the school.

You realise what a co-ordinated approach has to be taken when students are so far from their teachers. Teachers and students aren’t the only ones involved in making distance education successful. Mothers and home tutors are involved and ensure the assigned schoolwork is completed and returned to the school by post.

Hour-long guided tours are conducted each weekday morning from April to the end of the school year, starting at 9.00am and 10.30am.

Visitors watch an audio-visual presentation of the school’s operation and observe an on-air lesson through a glass-walled studio. There’s also an opportunity to view students’ work and purchase a unique souvenir.