Help get seriously sick kids back to school!
While it’s natural for kids to miss a day for a sniffle, more than 70,000 kids around Australia who miss school because of serious illness would like nothing more than to be there, hanging out with friends, eating vegemite sandwiches and learning.
Instead, they spend days, weeks and even months or years at home or in hospital.
When you’re battling a serious illness, missing school can make you feel lonely and forgotten. It can hinder your learning, disrupt your relationships with classmates and teachers, and hurt your social and emotional wellbeing.
And this can have a devastating, long term impact into adulthood.
I’d just be in hospital ... with nothing."
Joshua
Student
The good news is, MissingSchool’s telepresence robots now make it possible for students who cannot physically attend class to “be at school” wherever they are.
I took [the robot to assembly] to show the rest of the school so that if they saw it around, they knew what it was, they knew why we had it at the school ... it’s been really good for the school community."
Colleen Matthews
Teacher
What happens when students with serious illness stay connected?
When sick kids connect to their classroom, they get to be “just kids” rather than patients, they get to learn and have fun alongside their classmates, and their classmates get to connect to their friend who is lonely at home or in hospital. The robots become part of the everyday for teachers, students and seriously ill kids, and barriers to learning and social connection start to dissolve.
When you get that diagnosis, there are no words that can describe that day … and then the robot came into play! … it’s a link, and that’s a constant through a very abnormal time … the social connection can’t really be measured, it is fantastic!"
Katie Hammond
Parent
How do our robots help get sick kids back into their classrooms?
Sick kids can control the telepresence robots from home or hospital and can move about their classroom in real-time. They can see and hear their teachers and classmates, and be seen and heard. They can even “move” to other classes, meet with friends, and participate in everyday school activities.
MissingSchool wants to put a robot in every Australian school and create a future where missing school because of a serious illness or injury, is a thing of the past.
It means they wouldn’t be missing out, and they’d still get a future like all of us."
Lauren (a peer’s perspective)
Student
You can help us get sick kids back to school today!
DO a fundraiser in your school, workplace or community, or DONATE now!