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English · Year 5e · Learning Journey 4 · Theme 4 School and free time · A2

Unusual schools: the School of the Air

Students who live hundreds of kilometres from their school and had lessons by radio, now on the Internet: I compare schools and clubs in the English-speaking world.

A2comparatives · superlativesadverbs of frequency
Yellow card · March → April · 6 lessons

Compare: bigger, more interesting, the best

To compare: -er than for short adjectives, more… than for long ones. Tap the cards.

Hi, I'm Mia. I live on a cattle station in the outback, 500 kilometres from Alice Springs. My school is the School of the Air: I have lessons on the computer every morning. My classroom is smaller than yours, but my playground is bigger: it's the desert! I never take the bus. Once a year, we all meet in Alice Springs. It's the best week of the year!
-er than
Short adjective: -er than.
My classroom is smaller than yours.
more… than
Long adjective: more… than.
Online lessons are more modern.
the best
Irregular: good → better → the best.
It's the best week of the year!
frequency
The adverb of frequency goes before the verb (but after be).
I never take the bus.

My words → tap a card: it turns over and I hear the word

Culture → the School of the Air, a school as big as a country

The School of the Air studio in Alice Springs, with microphones and screens
The School of the Air in Alice Springs, Australia · LecomteB, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

In Australia, some families live in the outback, on huge farms with cattle (cattle stations), sometimes hundreds of kilometres from the nearest town. How do the children go to school?

In 1951, in Alice Springs, the School of the Air sent its first lessons by radio, using the radios of the Royal Flying Doctor Service. The children answered the teacher with a two-way radio. Today, lessons go by satellite and the Internet.

The area covered by the Alice Springs school is more than one million square kilometres, more than four times the size of the United Kingdom. Once a year, the students meet in person for a week together.

Did you know? → tap a card

I listen → Mia, a student of the School of the Air

Listen. Write down the distance, the time of the lessons and two of Mia's comparisons.

I watch

Video: “The School of the Air” · channel ABC Education (Australian public television) · watch on YouTube. The video only loads when you tap (youtube-nocookie player).

My mission during the video
  1. Write down three school words you hear.
  2. Write down how the students talk to the teacher.
  3. Write a comparison: The School of the Air is … than my school.

I watch too (archives from 1962)

Video: “"School Of The Air" Lessons Broadcast To Outback (1962)” · channel British Pathé (archives) · watch on YouTube. The video only loads when you tap (youtube-nocookie player).

My mission during the video
  1. Compare with today's video: what has changed?
  2. Write a sentence in the past simple: In 1962, children used…
The lessons in this learning journey (6)
  1. How far is your school? Distances and transport.
  2. The School of the Air: comprehension (ABC Education video).
  3. 1962 vs today: compare the two films.
  4. Grammar: comparatives and superlatives.
  5. School clubs: chess club, drama club, robotics club…
  6. Final task: invent a new kind of school and compare it with a school you know (real or imaginary).
Sentence starters → for my final task
  • “My new school is called…”
  • “It is bigger than… / smaller than…”
  • “The best thing is…”
  • “Students don’t have to…”
  • “It is more fun than…”
For the teacher → goals and official curriculum
  • Theme 4 “School and free time” → topics: discover unusual kinds of schools; school clubs.
  • Understand a report; compare two schools; present a club.
  • Grammar: comparatives and superlatives (bigger than, more interesting than, the best); as… as; adverbs of frequency (always, often, sometimes, never).
  • Give your opinion: I think… In my opinion…

Texts and materials: A report by ABC Education (Australian public television); a British Pathé newsreel (1962); a photo of the Alice Springs studio.

Theme 4 “School and free time”. Source: French national English curriculum for lower secondary school, decree of 5 May 2025, BO no. 22 of 29 May 2025 (in force in 5e from September 2026).

Worksheet to fill in (paper or ENT)

The same learning journey, to print or to put on the ENT. For a PDF, choose “Save as PDF” in the print window.