I am Helene Piper (nee Raffan) and my family has had continued contact with the Western Australian distance education schools since 1941 when I studied Correspondence Lessons for 6 months before going to the local Winchester School, a one teacher school 3 miles from our farm. As was common in those days, when I was in what is Year 8 in 1947, I did Correspondence Lessons again as did my sister Joan in 1950 while based at the Winchester School.
The Winchester School closed in 1951, so our younger brother John attended the Carnamah School and did Year 8 on Correspondence in 1954. There were 6 others doing Year 8 at that time in the school.
Our connection with distance education extended to our Aunt, Miss Winifred Raffan who taught at the Correspondence School for several years from 1947 to 1952.
My husband also studied by correspondence and was supervised by his mother from 1937 to 1938 when they lived in Perenjori, and from 1941 to 1943 while they were living in Irwin in the Mid-West.
In 1991 we once again had a family member teaching in distance education; my daughter Janet Bain (nee Piper) taught at the Distance Education Centre in West Perth.
