Dubbo School of Distance Education

Dubbo School of Distance Education (DSODE) provides a valuable equity service for New South Wales students who are unable to attend their local school or access courses not offered in their home school. An experienced, skilful and committed staff of 130 teachers and administration officers ensure that each student is provided with personalised learning and support. Building and nurturing quality relationships is a key strategy used to engage students in the school community. The school provides an extensive field service program where teachers provide workshops for individuals and groups of students in various rural locations. Residential camps enable students using the school's hostel to participate in a variety of educational and social activities. Approximately 400 full-time and pathways students from Preschool to Year 12 students are enrolled in DSODE programs. Students may enrol for periods of time varying from six months to 14 years. In addition to a wide range of Preschool to Year 12 NSW Board of Studies courses, DSODE has created programs to support students with disabilities, students who have identified learning needs in literacy and numeracy, young parents, students with a history of behavioural problems and students who wish to pursue studies in vocational education. Each year DSODE expands curriculum options for students and smaller isolated rural schools by providing programs for over 600 students studying one or more single courses while enrolled in another school or TAFE. The school develops and implements quality blended learning programs and creates opportunities for students and teachers to interact through face to face contact, telephone, video, satellite and online activities. At DSODE enrolments occur throughout the year. Consequently it is important to ensure that any test data such as NAPLAN is published and interpreted within a rich contextual framework. DSODE endeavours to have as many students as possible participate in NAPLAN so that the school is able to access the diagnostic information NAPLAN provides. When interpreting DSODE's NAPLAN data the following information must be noted: the cohort size can be very small because of the logistical challenges in attempting to have students participate in the assessment by attending a camp for the week or completing the assessments at home and returning them to school by the due date; it would be inappropriate to judge a school's performance with any cohort of less than 20 students. Students enrol continuously in DSODE; it is therefore important to look at the length of enrolment for each individual of any NAPLAN cohort before drawing broad conclusions. Because of the equity nature of the DSODE provision the student cohort has a high proportion of students who have identified and unidentified needs which may impact on individual NAPLAN performances. The positive difference that enrolment in DSODE has made in the lives of so many students has been profound and exciting.