Your child deserves a meaningful education and a sense of belonging in their school, regardless of their health situation. We passionately believe that all children should be seen and heard. We also have the evidence that school connection will keep your child in sync socially, nurturing their resilience and identity as a learner and helping to overcome anxiety in the classroom. It is this student anxiety schools and families are grappling with across Australia and around the world. School connection offers hope by showing your child that they are worth educating and they haven’t been forgotten. Your child’s school is responsible for continuing education for your child under the Disability Standards for Education. We are here to help.
Our free-to-families See-Be robot service connects sick kids to their friends, their learning and their school community when they can’t attend. Telepresence robots allow absent students to dial into classes from hospital or home to see and hear, be seen and heard, and take their lessons in real-time. The kids can remotely operate and move their robot around their classroom as if they’re there.
Research verifies that there is no safe threshold for absence and missing more than 10 school days per semester increases the likelihood of negative effects on education outcomes. Anxiety in the classroom is increasing post-COVID and it is this student anxiety schools and families are struggling to solve. Without a virtual school connection, your child’s academic achievement may be hindered, relationships with their peers and teachers disrupted, and isolation from their school community can affect their mental health and wellbeing. School absence increases the risk of student anxiety and disengaging from school and learning, with long-term consequences that may persist into adulthood. Sick kids get lonely and miss their friends and learning – and rather than moving to distance education, most want the normality that school life offers, especially when they can’t be there in person.
Having your child’s school maintain connection can keep your child up-to-date socially and academically, help to normalise a critical period in their life, and give them a chance to be “just kids” rather than patients. The potential positive benefits of school connection for your child include improving mental health outcomes, addressing school anxiety, improving educational engagement and attainment, and reducing social isolation. Benefits can extend to keeping peer relationships, reducing student anxiety and supporting families by lessening management fatigue. Telepresence technology provides remote learning, virtual school opportunities for the absent student alongside their class and peers, rather than moving to distance education where they lose social connection and important teacher relationships.
Schools can help by: collaborating with healthcare services; early intervention and planning with parents; integrated and consistent provision of education across home, school and medical settings; individualised, formalised and actionable agreements and adjustments documenting support for your child; measures addressing your child’s social and emotional needs and anxiety in the classroom; and continuous connection between your child, their teachers and peers through real-time assistive telepresence (including telepresence robots) during absences. Thanks to COVID-19, most schools have telepresence technology in place that was previously used for remote learning when all students were at home. This technology could be turned on immediately to connect a student with a complex health condition so they can can learn from anywhere. While some schools may suggest a move to distance education or home schooling, many students wish to maintain connection with the school they are enrolled in and hope to return to.
The Disability Standards for Education require your school to support your child with access to school facilities, assistive devices, accredited curriculum, and learning alongside their peers. The Standards do not limit equality to physical presence, and students who miss school with a serious illness or school anxiety still have a right to access their schools with the help of assistive devices (including technology) and receive ongoing support. Distance education, which is designed for continuous remote learning attendance, does not fulfil the need for educational and social continuity with their school of enrolment for students with chronic absences. Our robots work like access ramps to give sick and absent students an unmistakable presence in their schools so they can learn from anywhere. Remote learning access to the classroom provides equality of education provision and helps to address the student anxiety schools and families are experiencing at increasing rates.
While any type of telepresence technology allows students to learn from anywhere, unlike more static technologies (such as Zoom, Teams, or FaceTime, etc.), robots “teleport” in to your child’s classroom. From their remote location in hospital or at home, they can access their classroom. They can see and hear their teachers and classmates, be seen and heard, and move the robot around their classroom using their own device without the teacher’s intervention, unlike distance education which enrols the student in a different virtual school. The robot allows your child to participate in their lessons in real time, and be included in learning and shared social experiences (lunchtime, playground, assemblies, and ceremonies). As a proxy for physical presence and movement, the robot gives your child independence and can help to ease school anxiety. Click here for a simple comparison of telepresence technology options, many of which are now familiar to schools thanks to remote learning during COVID-19 lockdowns.
We are committed to affirming the identity of the young people we work for and stand in proud solidarity with the LGBTQIA+ community.
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