Some settlements and larger farms such as Fox Bay and Port Howard later had their own settlement schools. Travelling teachers still work their beats to outlying settlements farms and camp houses, teaching children up to age 11 when they go to Stanley school.

The West posed particular problems for Camp Education and travelling teachers.  All problems for or with or for the teacher had to be addressed by Magistrate at Fox Bay who further passed letters and reports back and forth from the Colonial Secretary who in turn might find it necessary to consult the Governor himself. As everything went by mail ships to and from Stanley this inevitably took time.
Parents had to buy books for their children. There is a ‘School Material Return’ for February 1899 listing material sold and materials on hand. These returns were submitted to the Stipendiary Magistrate at Fox Bay and were sent onwards to the authorities in Stanley.
The settlements and camp houses allocated to a traveling teacher  were known as his ‘beat’. It was the responsibility of the shepherd at whose camp the teacher was currently at to provide accommodation, food and horses. It was his duty to ride to meet the teacher and guide him to his own camp and also to escort him to meet the shepherd next on his beat. One beat on West Falkland included Leicester Creek (G McKay family), Port Edgar (E F Smith family),Teal River (Angus McLaren family), Crooked Inlet (Edward Summers family), Little Chartres (McAskill family) and Dunbar (John Goodwin family).
A teacher would stay for two weeks (or thereabouts), teaching and setting a programme of homework hopefully to be completed in his absence. In the old records at Fox Bay, West Falklands there are parents’ letters of opinion about a situation regarding the horse bought for the first travelling school teacher, J Duncan. The letters are well written with good spelling showing that at least one parent had had an adequate education maybe in Scotland before emigrating and was perhaps well capable of teaching their own children reading and writing skills.  There is the odd one that shows very basic literacy but the writers were still able to write well enough to clearly express their opinion on the matter.
Mr Duncan seems to have had a few problems coping with some places on his beat. He had registered a protest against teaching at Mc Askills, Little Chartres, about his accommodation. In January 1899 the Fox Bay Magistrate Hurst had reported to the Colonial Secretary in Stanley that ‘Dr Keay had very recently slept in the same room without any more inconvenience than generally met with in the shepherd’s house.’
There is a letter dated 17th July 1899 (midwinter) from G McKay, Leicester Creek teacher to Mr J Duncan who was waiting at Little Chartres to be moved on;
Mr McKay writes: Owing to the whooping cough being at the Little Chartres I think it best for me not to come for you this time and by the time you are back to the Chartres I will not be able to come for you therefore I will have to do without your services.
Mr Duncan replied: I may add in conclusion that the above seems to me a very shallow device for getting rid of the trouble of going for the schoolmaster as I know of several people who have stayed at his house after leaving here.

The Teacher's Horse 1898/99

Itinerant Teacher Duncan had in 1898/99 requested the parents in his district, to facilitate his movements from house to house by buying him a horse. A few of the parents bought the horse but seeing the horse used for the benefit of those who would not help to pay for it spoke to Mr Duncan and objected.  Mr Duncan recorded this as ‘unpleasantness’ in his diary and promptly sold the horse to Magistrate Hurst (on credit as he was not able to pay) in order to repay the subscribers their money. (At this point Mr Duncan had tried exchanging districts with the other teacher but Hurst thought that Mr Lawrence’s district would object to having Mr Duncan). There followed a spat between teacher Duncan and Magistrate Hurst, the whole sorry story being reported to Stanley and eventually the Governor.  Hurst reported that he considered Mr Duncan was aware that he would be doing away with his means of carrying out his duties by selling the horse;  he also objected to Mr Duncan making him the means of bring the teaching of the children to a standstill.