MissingSchool was featured in an article from ABC News. To view the original article click here.
Year five student Fred McGuigan couldn’t go to school for more than a year after being diagnosed with a brain tumour.
But that changed when he met a robot named Steve.
“This charity gave us the robot and that was situated in his classroom with all his classmates and his class teacher,” Fred’s mother Tiffany McGuigan said.
“He was able to move the robot around and be involved in classroom activities from home using an iPad.”
Fred and his family live in Perth, after moving from New South Wales so he could take part in a clinical trial with a special paediatric oncologist.
Diagnosed at age seven, the primary schooler was too unwell to attend class for more than a year, while undergoing chemotherapy.
Ms McGuigan said he was lonely and isolated at home during this time.
“He saw his siblings going off to school every day, and he was stuck at home feeling pretty horrible,” she told ABC Radio Perth host Stan Shaw.
“For a social kid, that was really heartbreaking to have to witness.”
Ms McGuigan had heard about the use of “telepresence robots” when the family was still in Sydney, as one of Fred’s classmates at the time was using one.
Fred McGuigan attending school from home while undergoing treatment for a brain tumour.(Supplied: MissingSchool)
She contacted the charity that provided the robot, MissingSchool, which helps sick children participate in classroom learning using technology.
When the robot arrived, it allowed Fred to communicate with his classmates as though he were in the room.
The robot had a digital tablet for a “head” and Fred’s school friends named it “Steve”.
“He was able to move around the classroom. He used to go out into the hallway for small group activities. He could go to the library, and really feel like he was involved in a classroom,” Ms McGuigan said.
“And he was able to keep those relationships up and have a joke with his friends.
“I remember once when the robot ran over the teacher’s toe, and they were all laughing and they made a big joke.”
Robots rolling out across Australia
Access to technology like the telepresence robot that helped Fred is now being rolled out at schools across the country through a pilot program called Seen and Heard.
The program will also train teachers and provide support for vulnerable students and their parents or carers.
Fred McGuigan can move his robot around the classroom and school hallways to participate in class activitites.(Supplied: MissingSchool)
Megan Gilmour co-founded MissingSchool 10 years ago after experiencing the challenges of having a critically ill child who was isolated from school.
She said the new program would help more schools and families to reconnect kids who were stuck at home.
“No different to the universal provision of wheelchair access ramps, schools have an obligation through the Disability Standards to ensure kids who can’t be there can continuously connect with their curriculum, peers and school support from home or hospital,” Ms Gilmour said.
“But without additional resources to do so, schools struggle to provide education services beyond the school gate to the tens of thousands of isolated children across Australia each day.”
She said MissingSchool hoped to extend the one-year nationwide pilot program into all schools by 2025.
Ms McGuigan said Fred was now healthy, thriving and back at school, but when he was unwell the robot provided a vital connection to the classroom.
“It changed his day-to-day mood really by being able to be involved in society and communicate with his friends and learn in a more meaningful environment,” she said.
