Saying goodbye to our new friends by Tom and James

We went to three schools in the desert, Warburton (5 days), Jameson (1 morning) and Blackstone  (2 days). We made quite a few new friends. Stephanie and Amber from Blackstone wanted to take us to the oval after school but it was getting late and Mum was a bit worried about all the dogs. We had dinner at Miss Catherine's house which was a stew cooked on the fire in a camp oven. They do a Montessori program at Blackstone with kinder to grade 2 in one class. We made a chocolate cake with blue icing for afternoon tea. Kids also get breakfast and lunch at school to stop them going home. You also get a pass for the pool and shop if you stay all day. There is lots of football, just like at Warburton. No one worries when the ball gets kicked on the roof - the kids just climb up and get it! It was a very long drive back to Alice Springs so we stopped at Yulara for a night and had pizza. We're looking forward to seeing our teachers and friends at Sacred Heart again but we hope to go back to the desert again soon.

At the creek and on the road

Camp dogs and toasted marshmallows by Tom

We've been toasting marshmallows on the fire here. There are a lot of funny-looking dogs, a bit like in Hairy Maclary. I've been practising footy a lot at lunchtime. My new friends are called Jakoby and Keathan. Miss Katie is a nice teacher and I've been helping the other kids with reading and writing. There are usually about 8 kids in the class but less by the end of the day because some of them forget to come back after lunch! We had an enormous bonfire last night.

Miss Priscilla by James

I've been going to school at Warburton in the Gibson Desert. My teacher is Miss Priscilla. On Friday there were four kids in my class in the morning, six a bit later and two at the end of the day. A lady read a story in a different language called Ngaanyatjarra but my teacher speaks English. I'm the only kid who can count to 100 but the abacus is broken and only goes to 90! Miss Priscilla has been trying to trick me with some hard sums and has been teaching me 'groups of' (multiplication). A cafe is open on Sunday morning so we had coffee (Mum) and cake (Tom and me). Tomorrow we might try a different school at Mantamaru or Papulankutja.

A weekend at Warburton

What lurks below? And a desert school day.

We found a waterhole at Alice Springs airport but there were no fish to be found. Then we flew over Uluru and Kata Tjuta. Then we drove 500 kilometres on a dirt road. We fell into bed at Warburton but thanks to a two hour time difference we were ready for school today. We had fun at school and went for an excursion to the police station! Tom pressed the siren in the police car and some people thought it was a real emergency! Lots of kids don't wear shoes, even for playing footy! You are allowed to tackle here. Our teachers, Miss Katie and Miss Priscilla are very nice but not as lovely as Miss Browne and Miss Wirth. School finishes at 2.30 here which is lucky because we are very tired now...