Seven children sit in rapt attention in Dale Brittle's class on Christmas Island. But these children - aged between five and seven - aren't like the others at the island's school. When they go home to their families they'll return to the fences of their secure detention facilities.
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''It's just like teaching any children,'' Ms Brittle says. ''They're lovely kids. But some of them have been through a lot.''
There are 280 children at Christmas Island District High School (the name is a misnomer), between five and 17. Another 24 children from the nearby detention camps attend daily classes, with five to seven-year-olds in one class, and seven to 13-year-olds in another. Teenagers aged 13 to 17 are offered classes at the nearby recreation centre, with intensive English a priority for older children.
Teaching asylum seekers' children is complicated by the fact that most stay on the island for only one to three months, before they are transferred with their families to mainland facilities or to Manus Island's processing facility. ''I guess my focus is more about them having the oral language skills because we don't know how long they'll be here,'' Ms Brittle says. ''So you can't really work to a curriculum.''
In class, Ms Brittle reads a picture story book that names different animals, asking the children to identify them as she goes along. When she gets to a page about a goldfish, a Sri Lankan boy, all arms and legs and serious expression, offers: ''I had one of those at home.''
Later, Ms Brittle sadly says: ''They're kids, and it is amazing how resilient they are. Like that little boy. It's quite interesting, you know, they all love playing in the [play equipment] boat.''
Deputy principal Alan Thornton, who runs the asylum seeker program, says the school tries to offer a safe and supportive environment, where children are, for a time, unencumbered by the uncertainty engulfing their families.
On Christmas Island, asylum seeker children spend half an hour each day playing with the school's other children at recess and lunchtime. In the playground, they are just like any other child.
But once they leave for ''alternative places of detention'' on the mainland, not all will go to school. The Department of Immigration says it is committed to giving access to education, although a spokeswoman could not say what proportion of asylum seeker children go to school.
