Children’s Week KIDDO Gippsland
Children’s Week is a national celebration that recognises children’s talents, skills, achievements, and rights.
GippSport KIDDO Gippsland program received funding from The Victorian Department of Education and Training to run 3 Children’s week events across the Wellington Shire Council. The KIDDO Gippsland Children’s Week event was across 3 locations in Maffra, Sale and Yarram, with 78 children registered to participate in these physical literacy opportunities.
These sessions were aimed at building awareness of physical literacy and its intergenerational importance, through educating parents and running a fun, game-based activity with the children.
The Story of Wellington Shire KIDDO Gippsland
For the more isolated towns in Wellington Shire Council, there is not only limited access to facilities, but there is also far less opportunities provided to their community.
KIDDO Gippsland targets isolated towns and communities with increased barriers to provide our physical literacy sessions, showing its direct suitability for the vastness of Wellington Shire Council.
The pure number of registrations for these 3 sessions indicate a huge demand for this type of programming in Wellington and suggest that parents are aware of and interested in developing intergenerational physical literacy.
The Barriers faced in Wellington for Children
In towns such as Yarram there is currently no physical activity offering for those aged under 5, let alone a program directly targeting physical literacy and addressing the 4 domains of Social, Psychological, Cognitive and Physical consistently in sessions.
The 2018 AEDC (Australian Early Development Census) depicts Wellington Shire Council as having a higher percentage of developmentally vulnerable children than Victoria and Australian averages in the Physical, Emotional and Social domains, with the more isolated areas of Woodside, Gormandale, and Boisdale having worsened statistics.
KIDDO Gippsland is based on the concept that we will come to you, removing access and cost barriers. The sessions include an introduction into physical literacy for the parents in the form of our take home resource, ensuring caregivers are aware of the concept, the data behind it and the importance it has on lifelong movement patterns and attitudes.
For the children, the sessions are based on fun, game-based play focussing on two focus skills for the physical element, building confidence and engagement for psychological, building relationships in the community for social, and due to its game-based nature the children are exposed to rules and strategy to assist in cognitive development… just to name a few of the elements considered in sessions!
Why KIDDO Gippsland Works for Wellington
How KIDDO Gippsland Children’s Week went
Parent feedback throughout children’s week centred around the fact that nothing like this was provided weekly in any smaller towns, and this style of programming is more important than ever in returning to activity post-COVID.
“This was such a great session, and we had the best fun! Does this run weekly?”
“Where can I find out more about this program? My little man loved today so much.”
“He has never had to follow any kind of instructions from a stranger before, and he was laughing and loving it most of the time! We really need a program like this.”
The Results
This Children’s week grant allowed us the opportunity to deliver our program free of cost to a shire that could really benefit, and at each session the caregivers raised their awareness of Physical Literacy, while their children enjoyed game-based play activities.
We had approximately 100 participants including children and their families, with parents quick to comment how much their child enjoyed it and where they could find our sessions regularly. The appetite for this programming was evident, with the rainy Gippsland weather proving not to be an obstacle for a lot of families. Caregivers communicated that they are hyper aware of the changes the past few years have had on their children’s development and the opportunities they have missed in comparison to their siblings or cousins, and welcomed this type of regular programming in their community where possible.
With the clear demand and enjoyment from our sessions, we are currently working with local partners to explore funding opportunities to be able to bring this program to Wellington Shire council consistently. This would mean physical literacy opportunities for children and their families, employment opportunities for coaches, and professional development available for early learning educators…as well as a whole lot of fun!
Work with us
Contact us with any questions about KIDDO in the community or partnering with your local early learning centre/daycare/kindergarten/playgroup.
Phone – 0477 238 777
Email – renee@gippsport.com.au
Website – www.kiddogippsland.com.au
Social media – https://www.facebook.com/kiddogippsland
