Eight-year-old Frankie Laurie navigates a maze of packed-up dodgem cars, a teacup ride, towering semi-trailers and rows of caravans to reach a large expandable trailer at the Redcliffe Showgrounds, about half an hour north of Brisbane.
“This is my school!” she proudly tells 7NEWS.com.au.
Her one-minute walk to class winds through the temporary home of Australia’s travelling show community, where families have gathered ahead of this year’s Royal Queensland Show. Inside the trailer is the National School for Travelling Show Children (NSTSC), a classroom that follows Queensland’s show circuit and gives the industry’s youngest members a place to learn while their parents set up rides, prepare food stalls and run the show.
A Classroom on the Move
“This is where I sit,” Frankie says, pointing to her desk before showing off the classroom library. “We have Where’s Wally books... and lots of Outback books. Lots of good books.”
The number of classmates changes depending on where the school is parked. “Sometimes there’s one, sometimes there’s 10, sometimes there’s 20, but right now we have seven,” Frankie says.
The school is based at Redcliffe for the lead-up to the Ekka, arriving about two weeks before Brisbane’s biggest annual show opens as travelling show families make their way south from North Queensland. Unlike previous years, the classroom is set up away from the bustle of the Brisbane Showgrounds.
“I like it here. Less distractions,” Frankie says.
A Family Tradition
Her mum, Coral Pink, laughs that not all children might entirely agree with their classmate. “It’s boring for the kids, definitely,” she says. “But it’s nice to have a little bit of time where they can focus.”
The Pink family has showground history running through its veins. Frankie is a fifth-generation show child. Her great-grandparents helped build one of Australia’s best-known show traditions with rides and food stalls, pioneering Australia’s iconic Dagwood Dog that has become synonymous with agricultural shows.
At some shows, the classroom is set up right in the middle of the action. “At some shows... they walk around with us at recess,” Frankie says. “We like it, but then when the teachers say, ‘No, not at this show, we’re not walking around at this show,’ then it’s boring at recess.”
Life on the Road
Coral knows the travelling classroom well. She sat in one herself as a child before watching her daughter follow in her footsteps. “It brought back some memories,” she says after walking through the classroom. “I love it.”
While the setup has changed over the years, the routine remains much the same. Each morning, parents help set up the expandable classroom before children arrive with laptops and work packs from Dubbo Distance Education. Every student has a tray beneath their desk filled with everything they need for the week. By 9am, the classroom is full of children in teal school polos embroidered with a Ferris wheel and carousel horse, a nod to the unique life they lead. Inside, a full-time teacher and teacher aide guide Prep to Year 6 students through their online lessons before helping them one-on-one as they work through the curriculum.
Life on the road, however, sometimes calls for a different timetable, with school even scheduled on weekends. “A lot of the kids miss out on Mondays because we’re travelling to the next town,” Coral says. “So they make up for it on a Saturday. The kids don’t like it, but often it’s only half a day.”
When the Ekka opens, Frankie’s school routine changes again. As her family moves into a hotel on the Brisbane Showgrounds, she is homeschooled by her mum or dad while they work. “Our family stays in there,” Coral says of the Brisbane Showgrounds. “So Frankie does homeschooling with me during that time, or her dad.” “It’s really handy to have the school around. It just makes life so much easier because they don’t see you as a teacher.”
A Supportive Community
Former Western Australian teacher Amy Burton spent six weeks travelling with the school earlier this year while touring Australia with her husband and her two kids. She expected an unusual teaching experience. Instead, she found one of the most supportive school communities she’d worked in.
“The parents are just so lovely and so supportive,” Burton says. “They were always like, ‘Do you need anything? What else does the school need?’”
Parents regularly helped set up the classroom, organised sports days and even stepped in to move the travelling school between shows when needed. “You just seen this whole community come together,” Burton says. “The parents were all doing it.”
The classroom itself surprised her too. “It is probably bigger than what my classroom was back in WA,” she says. “It is a full resourced classroom.”
Burton quickly discovered even school lunch looked a little different on the show circuit. At one show, she and two students spent recess riding the Ferris wheel while eating fairy floss and slushies. But for the primary school teacher, the children stood out most. “They’re beautiful kids. Absolutely beautiful,” she says. “They put their headphones on and get onto their lessons and they know they’ve got to tick off everything for the week.”
Coral says that willingness to pitch in is part of growing up in the travelling show community. “These kids could talk to anybody,” she says. “They’re very talkative. And very inclusive.” She says that same sense of community extends well beyond the classroom. “If someone’s going through something, they will all gather together to help that person or help the family,” she says.
Overcoming Tragedy
Coral is the daughter of veteran show people Jaze and Glenn Pink. In 2017, the close-knit show community rallied around the family after Coral’s siblings Jack, 19, Marina, 17, and Destiny, 15, were killed in a horrific crash while travelling home from the Dubbo Show. The tragedy devastated Australia’s travelling show community and prompted an outpouring of support from show families across the country.
“They helped us when my brother and sisters passed away. Everyone banded together and helped us and sort of carried us through a really, really hard time,” she says.
Years before becoming a parent herself, Coral sat in the same travelling classroom Frankie attends today. “It brings back memories... it was such a big part of growing up for me,” she says. “I just want my kids to have the same thing.”
Not long ago, Frankie wanted to become a teacher. She’s less certain these days, but after growing up in a classroom that travels from town to town, she’ll always have a story few Australians can match.
