When Central Queensland Life Education rolled out its new high-tech mobile learning centre (MLC) recently, 11-year-old Rainey from Rockhampton’s Mount Archer State School, was excited to join her Year 6 class for their program session, Relate, Respect, Connect.
The students explored what respectful and disrespectful relationships look, feel and sound like.
CQ educator Liz says: “We discussed that it is normal for friendships to change, and that no friendship is ‘perfect’. We also identified that our individual differences can sometimes make friendships ‘tricky’ and practised strategies to resolve disagreements and build respectful connections with others.”
It was fitting that Rainey was one of the first children to visit the new Central Queensland mobile learning centre, which replaced the previous 30-year-old van. It was Rainey who provided the impetus for a hydraulic wheelchair lift to be added to the CQ Life Education van in the first place.
Rainey was born with spina bifida and when educator Liz saw her difficulties accessing the old van, she wanted to do something.
Liz reached out for help, which resulted in the Queensland Government Gambling Community Benefit Fund and The Courier Mail Children’s Fund providing grants for a state-of-the-art hydraulic wheelchair lift to be installed.
The movable platform has now been fitted to the new CQ mobile learning centre.
Now, Rainey and other children with disabilities across the region can access the Life Education program safely and with dignity.
State Member for Keppel and Assistant Minister for Education Brittany Lauga cut the ribbon on the new and improved MLC a few weeks ago and joined in the Healthy Harold cake celebration.
Apart from wheelchair access, the new van also features digital educational resources, Healthy Harold, a 75-inch smart screen, HEPA filters and COVID-safe air purifying systems.
It allows for the latest audio visual and 3D technology to be embedded into lessons, including augmented reality, which enables children to see what organs in the human body look like.
The $130,000 MLC will benefit more than 50 schools and over 10,000 children who participate in the Life Education program throughout Central Queensland each year.
The project was three years in the making and was made possible thanks to the CQ Life Education committees and supporters past and present, and generous donations from sponsors including a $50,000 grant from the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation and $20,000 in funding from Aurizon.
Thanks to our generous sponsors and supporters and to Rainey for making a difference and being such an inspiration!
