School Without Walls (Canberra)

The School Without Walls (SWOW) was a public alternative school in Canberra, the capital of Australia, which operated from 1974 to 1997.

School Without Walls
The building which housed the School Without Walls from 1980 to 1997, now the Ainslie Arts Centre
Location
Braddon, Canberra

Australia
Coordinates35°16′27.9″S 149°8′14.2″E
Information
TypePublic alternative school
Opened1974
Closed1997

History

In 1973, a group of students, teachers and parents voluntarily met to establish the school to cater for educational needs they considered were not being met by the mainstream public education system in the Australian Capital Territory.[1]

The school's original location was on Childers Street within the campus of the Australian National University, where the meetings to establish the school were held. Later in 1974, the school relocated to what is now St Patrick's Church in Braddon, which had previously housed the Catholic schools St Patrick's School and St Mary's School–Our Lady of Mercy. In 1980, the school moved to what was formerly the infants building at Ainslie School in Braddon (now the Ainslie Arts Centre), where it was co-located with the Questacon science centre.[1]

In 1996, the ACT Education Department conducted a review which recommended the School Without Walls be restructured, and in 1997, SWOW was relocated and merged into Dickson College.[2]

Notable people

People who attended SWOW includes Tim Ferguson.[3][4]

Ned Manning spent a short time there as a teacher.[5]

Further reading
  • Ryan, Julia (March 2013). "Canberra's School Without Walls, 1973-1997". Canberra Historical Journal (70): 25–34. ISSN 0313-5977. OCLC 1057922643.

References
  1. "Report on the inquiry into the implications of the proposed restructure of the School without Walls (SWOW) for the alternative education needs of secondary students in the ACT" (PDF). Government of the Australian Capital Territory. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  2. "Report on School Without Walls – Government Response". Legislative Assembly Hansard. ACT Legislative Assembly. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  3. "'It's funny because it's scary'". Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. 6 October 2012. Retrieved 10 February 2019.
  4. Tim Ferguson (2013). Carry A Big Stick. Hachette Books. ISBN 9780733629358.
  5. Ned Manning (2012). Playground Duty: A Teaching Life. UNSW Press. pp. 88, 89. ISBN 9781742241265. Retrieved 10 February 2019.


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