Category Archives: Parents and families

Stories, songs and rhymes for early literacy

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Every month, our friends at the State Library of Victoria bring their wonderful Baby Bounce and Storytime for preschoolers to the hospital’s Specialist Clinics waiting area so that families can enjoy stories, songs, rhymes and activities designed to stimulate imagination and language development in babies and young children.

With the support of our education partners, the RCH Education Institute creates meaningful learning opportunities for children and families in The Royal Children’s Hospital and promotes reading and literacy throughout the RCH.

 

Christine from the State Library of Victoria is joined in a singalong by young Ivy.

Christine from the State Library of Victoria is joined in a singalong by young Ivy.

The State Library runs regular Baby Bounce sessions every Wednesday from 10.30am-11.00am and Storytime for preschoolers from 11.30am-12.30pm in the library’s Experimedia centre. Enter via the Swanston Street main entrance.

Passionate about Project-based learning

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The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) provides a unique environment for student learning. The RCH Education Institute has started 2013 with a focus on a program of fantastic Project-based learning to engage students in meaningful learning experiences with real world relevance.

Project-based learning focuses on questions that drive students to encounter the central concepts and principles of a subject in a hands-on way. Students form their own guiding question and then design their own investigation techniques, allowing them to develop valuable research skills as they engage in design, problem solving, decision making, and investigative activities. Project-based learning emphasises creative thinking and real world application by allowing students to explore many ways to solve a problem and to apply their learning beyond the classroom.

In 2013, RCH teachers are facilitating a series of six ‘passion projects’ which children and young people in the hospital can choose to become involved in. To learn more about each of the projects students can choose from at the RCH, view the project trailers below.

Embedding learning in a paediatric hospital

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Re-imagining learning in hospital

The International Journal of Inclusive Education recently published our key findings in relation to the process of re-imagining a hospital setting as a community of learning for young people with chronic illness. The paper focuses on young people as learners within a hospital space and explores the overarching themes emanating from the Keeping Connected project such as normalcy, diversity and communication. Taking up Roger Slee’s notion of ‘the irregular school’, our researchers set out to describe how our setting at the RCH, is transforming the way in which children and young people are supported to maintain their connectedness to learning. The paper reflects on the ways in which a hospital can respond to young people’s needs as learners and offers a model of inclusion as a form of cultural change in this important out-of-school setting. A copy of this research paper is available at  http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2012.752877

Appointment of Early Childhood Educator

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sonya-320x200We welcome Sonya Nedovic to the Education Institute to take up the position of Early Childhood Educator. Sonya is a passionate and innovative educator who has extensive experience in a variety of early learning services in both Australia and the United Kingdom. Most recently, Sonya has worked as the lead teacher in the pre prep setting at an early learning centre. She has a keen interest in innovative, child centred, environmentally sustainable and culturally inclusive learning programs. She is excited to be offered this unique opportunity and very much looking forward to the challenges associated with leading the development, planning and implementation of high quality, responsive early childhood learning projects for the young children associated with the RCH.

The appointment of an early childhood educator is a welcome addition to our team of dedicated professionals and has been made possible through additional funding provided by the Victorian Coalition Government to support the learning needs of our littlest learners. It will enable the RCH Education Institute to provide a tailored kindergarten program to preschool children attending the RCH, in line with the National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education and Care and will allow for a more seamless transition to school for the almost 100 preschoolers who spend over 20 days in hospital each year.

And a good Friday was had by all…

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GFA320x2002This year’s Good Friday Appeal raised a staggering $16,405,534.65 for The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) and the Education Institute was proud to contribute to this effort by collaborating with The Art Cabriolet to provide arts-based activities for children and their families at both the hospital and the ‘Kids Day Out’ celebration at Etihad Stadium.

A number of our RCH Education Institute staff and the Art Cabriolet team volunteered to transform Main Street into a children’s art precinct, where children of all ages drew, sculpted and painted. Some very special guests including ‘the Master Chef’ himself, George Calombaris, dropped in throughout the day to help out.

Meanwhile, over at Etihad Stadium, we provided a thirty metre ‘Drawing Wall’ for children and young people to experiment with. So many children and their families got involved in this activity that the Drawing Wall did not remain a blank canvas for long!

The rich engagement by so many children and their families in quality arts-based activities was the best possible outcome and reward for our respective efforts as part of such an important RCH event. We are so pleased that we were able to make such a significant contribution to this years Appeal.

Be Active. Be Happy. Be You

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The Royal Children’s Hospital celebrates National Youth Week (NYW)  this Wednesday 10 April with a ‘rocking’ activity on the hospital’s Main Street.

NYW is an annual, week-long celebration of young people (aged 12–25) throughout Australia.
It is a joint initiative of Federal, State, Territory and Local Governments that gives young people an opportunity to express their ideas and views through fun activities and events nationally.

This year’s NYW theme is ‘Be Active. Be Happy. Be You’.

RCH children, young people and families are invited to explore this theme using photography and their choice of props to identify what it means to be active, happy and themselves. These student ‘selfies’ will be collated to form an RCH Youth Week collage.

Students will also have the opportunity to create music using the Rock Hubs, a one-stop instrument station supported by our RCH teachers.

The action will be on Main Street and on wards from 10am-2pm.