Keep Driving
Host: Koordarrie Station
Written by Kristie de Pledge – Owner, Koordarrie Station.
It has been a busy two weeks for the de Pledge family. We travelled 800km to my husband’s family property for three nights, to talk business and assess where we were at and where we were going. It was lovely to see the family all together, especially when the place looks so amazing after good rains.
Good summer rains!
Young cattle feeling very curious about what we’re up to.
This station has bore the brunt of many big cyclones and it really is amazing to see how much it has come back from the last big ‘blow’. Cyclone Laurence was a Category 5 cyclone, the eye passed just 30kms from Mandora homestead. It was very lucky in a lot of ways it didn’t hit a town.
The homestead was a shambles afterwards and this is great pic to see how lovely it is again.
Beautiful gardens after being completely smashed.
Once we returned from there, my nanny and I had one night at home to sort out stuff (some already sorted beforehand) and then blast off the next day to Carnarvon, another 370km, to attend the annual School of Airs ‘Home Tutors Seminar’.
This is to help parents and Home Tutors get set up at home for the school year and for the kids to have valuable time with their classmates and teachers. As you can imagine this is extremely exciting for the kids and much fun (plus some brain work!) for the mums and dads who go. With only a few actual camps or activity days that the kids go to in the year, the time they spend with their friends and teachers is very special.
They attend swimming lessons every afternoon for three days and do school activities with their classes. Some nights have a disco, movie night, and BBQ at the town park. The kids catch a bus to school every morning which is obviously a big thrill!
Such fun for a bush kid.
Parents and home tutors gather at the school and are given talks by specialist teachers about specific subjects like Mathematics for example. We are shown how the school is performing, alone and against the national results. We hold meetings for P&C, ICPA (Isolated Children & Parents Association), School Council and private one on one meetings with our children’s teachers to see where we’re at for the start of the year.
It’s pretty exhausting, so much to take in, especially as a new parent or home tutor, but a great opportunity for making new connections and developing a relationship with our school peers.
So Friday rolls around and it’s wind up day, the children do a presentation to the school community on what they have done that week and there is some great interactive discussion with the kids. We gather our next set work (the years work is divided into ‘sets’ that last two weeks), sports equipment, and whatever else we need and most people head home that day . . . loaded up to the max!
I was very silly this year and didn’t bring the trailer, my car was loaded to the ceiling in the back, there was no floor to be seen in the middle and the kids had their feet up on all that stuff, which included vital things like beer, mail, more food to take home, water bottles amongst other various things! The front passenger has quite often had to travel the four hours home with a carton of beer or mail bag under their feet as well, but not that trip, luckily for her.