Jess's Story / Caravan Project / Family Action Centre / Research Centres / The University of Newcastle, Australia

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Jess's Story

Jess turned 16 in February 2008. She lives on a caravan park with her mother. Jess had a transient childhood and even though she was placed in the gifted and talented class she left school in Year 7.

Since leaving school Jess has educated herself through independent study. At the start of each year Jess buys cheap exercise books to do her work in. She writes poetry, stories and song lyrics and she loves ancient history. She regularly goes to the library, and reads up to four books per day. She now phones the library and they have a stack of books ready for her for when she arrives! She says she reads anything and everything, her favourite book being Pride and Prejudice. Her mother says she has had to ground Jess for staying at the library after her 5pm curfew.

Jess also uses the computers and internet at the library and has taught herself how to use spreadsheets. She buys text books for different school subjects and works through them independently.

Jess is now enrolled in TAFE. The Caravan Project support worker made a special appointment to introduce Jess to the TAFE Head Teacher of the Certificate of General and Vocation Education, who agreed to offer her a flexible curriculum. Through discussions with the TAFE Jess is now studying the equivalent of Year 9 as a full-time student and has the flexibility to change some classes to a ‘Flexible Delivery’ model where she can work at her own pace. Jess will also be able to fast track into the Year 10 and HSC equivalent.

Jess and her mum lost everything in the June 2007 floods, including their computer. Her mother would like to get a computer for the family but says that she can't afford to buy one, so the Caravan Project has organised for a computer to be donated to her. According to Jess, the library has offered her work once she completes her course.

Reproduced below is a poem that Jess wrote when aged just 15.

Tiger Eyes

Always, always where she walked
One left, one right, two tigers stalked.
Sleek and striped, they paced along
Bright and beautiful and strong.
The great heads swung, the wild eyes glowed
She never feared the open road,
The jostling crowd, the bullies' sneer
For she had tigers always near.
As she walked, the grimy streets
Echoed to her tiger feet,
Slowly padding, menace filled
Prowling past where rubbish spilled.
When jeered at by local touts
She knew neither fear nor doubt.
Though most of them were twice her size
She fixed them with her tiger eyes
And went unharmed, for as they stared
They almost saw the tigers there:
A gleam of gold, a scrape of claw
A hint, a whisper of a roar,
A shadow cast where no sun shone
An image, flickering, fleeting, gone.
For always, always, where she walked
One left, one right, two tigers stalked.