Modern learning goes the distance
When you hear of distance education, students using laptops on remote rural properties likely comes to mind but that’s not the case in 2024.
As principal of Finigan School of Distance Education, Daniel Rattigan said the landscape of remote learning was changing rapidly.
“It’s very different to the old correspondence model where in distance education you’re used to mainly kids on isolated properties,” he said.
“Now it’s quite a range of students; about a third of our full-time students are travelling either around Australia or overseas, and we have a lot of students from private and public schools accessing single courses through us as well.
“We get highly academic students, but we also have students who come through with circumstances going on in their lives that they might be struggling with and can’t attend a face-toface school for a period of time.”
Founded six years ago, FSDE is a purpose-built institution tailored for K-12 distance learning, located in Crestwood, NSW. With stateof-the-art facilities, Mr Finnegan leads a dedicated team of more than 80 teachers who teach almost 400 students.
Mr Rattigan, who was chosen to attend Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education in the US last year on a Teachers Mutual Bank Principals Scholarship, said he worked with teachers to find innovative ways to build trusting relationships with students in an online space.