Towards the generation of knowledge relevant to our children and young people’s education and health – an Australian experience

Glenda Strong’s career has been shaped by her passion in providing every child and young person with rich and meaningful learning and development opportunities, so they can reach their full potential as lifelong learners. In her role as the Executive Director of the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) Education Institute Glenda focuses on increasing the profile and importance of the role of education support in the provision of holistic, patient and family-centred health care for children and young people. Glenda has held senior leadership positions in the Victorian Government Department of Education and Early Childhood Development and has a special interest in curriculum development. Her other roles include primary teacher, education consultant and senior administrator in the government education sector.

Contemporary health and education systems internationally are focusing on the importance of good health, development and wellbeing for all children and the long-term population and economic benefits that investing in children represent. Strengthening the health and education interface is central to establishing positive life trajectories for all children. Whilst many paediatric hospitals worldwide have education services that maintain children’s connection and continuity with their schools and school communities, there is a limited evidence base of children’s hospitals as high quality alternative learning environments that maximise the connection to learning for children and young people. As the leading provider of paediatric health care in the Australian state of Victoria, the Royal Children’s Hospital is an important site for children who spend vital hours of their lives having their health needs met. In 2008, approximately 16,500 school-aged children were treated by the hospital. We consider the capacity that strong cross-sectoral and multidisciplinary partnerships with key teams within the hospital and the education community bring to our work as we build our research base around quality learning environments during the management of children’s health care needs. This workshop, presented by education and health professionals and researchers from the Royal Children’s Hospital Education Institute brings together a body of work that links education and health systems, research and practice, and engages children, young people and families in the continuing education process. This will be an interactive, case-based workshop with opportunities for participant discussion.

Format of the workshop

1.     The opening presentation by Glenda Strong will outline how the work of the Royal Children’s Hospital Education Institute is responding to the challenges of teaching children with health conditions and keeping them connected to a community of learners at multiple stages of learning and critical transition points. Glenda will speak about the Education Institute’s delivery of child-and family-centred education support and the ways in it which it engages with statewide and regional education infrastructure. As the Royal Children’s Hospital prepares to re-locate to its new, state-of-the-art premises in 2011, Glenda will illustrate how the Education Institute is preparing to embrace opportunities for in-patients and outpatients’ learning that arise from features of the new hospital.

2.     Dr Julie Green will present the RCH Education Institute’s research agenda that is focussed on forward-looking policy development and practice at the education-and-health interface. Drawing on collaborative partnerships with medical, nursing and allied health professionals, early childhood education and care sector, schools, universities and the community sector, Dr Green will illustrate how the Education Institute is developing new knowledge through three of its key focus areas: 1) how a children’s hospital is being developed as an alternative learning site that promotes rich, high quality learning environments hospital-wide as an important dimension to children’s health and development; 2) addressing the needs of education support for post-compulsory school-aged young people with health conditions; and 3) how partnerships with parents, schools and communities can support children’s learning and healthy development.

3.     We will then present a case study of an evidence-based teaching and learning project that links education and health systems, research and practice. ‘The 3 East Project’ is engaging young people and their families in the education process on the Royal Children’s Hospital’s adolescent ward. We will describe the design, implementation and evaluation of a project that is underpinned by contemporary understandings about children’s learning, a cross-sectoral and multidisciplinary commitment to linking young people’s health and education, and a philosophy to assist young people particularly at risk of disengaging from school and peers to remain engaged with alternative learning spaces. Based on a ‘Learning Anytime, Anywhere’ approach, we will explain the program logic of this project and how the engagement of families and adolescents in the education process was central to the project design, implementation and ongoing service delivery.