BCHS Annual Report 2025 - Report - Page 29
Farewell to the
fabulous Robbie
Building skills
for school
BCHS’ School Readiness Funding program connects with
kinders across Greater Bendigo. Our team of passionate
allied health professionals collaborates with early childhood
educators and parents to build skills and knowledge across
the areas of children’s communication, wellbeing, access and
participation.
In the 2024 school year, the team provided 852 sessions in
43 centres across the region – a mix of in-centre and online
professional development sessions. The team did an array
of tasks in the kinder setting, from sitting in on mat time
coaching with educators around managing behaviour and
coregulating with children, as well as coaching around referral
pathways and supports for families and children. They also
supported programs such as Kimochi’s and Mat Man, running
mat times or small groups, or supporting educators to run
these, targeting speci昀椀c skills like pre-writing or emotional
regulation. The team also supported families by holding a
number of informative and practical sessions such as literacy
mornings, where families attended with their children and
read books together one-on-one. Families then left with
information around the importance of literacy for kinder
children and what they can do at home. Drop in sessions were
also held with families given the opportunity to speak with an
allied health professional and ask any question they liked.
A highlight in 2024 was the development of a number of
initiatives to support children of refugee background. The
team partnered with Settlement Services to deliver Harmony
Workshops that unpacked the refugee journey, and also
developed some engaging, easy English resources to support
conversations with children about healthy eating.
“The compassion, the
friendships that can be formed
and just having someone,
that kindness, feeling really
safe and comfortable to be
yourself with them.”
Voices from
the May 2025
Family Services
client survey
“Feeling like I wasn’t
doing it all on my own
and that I had the
support and help I
needed.”
29
It was an incredibly busy 12 months for the
Stepping Stones Program. The demand for our
specialised groups continued to challenge the
team, which this year ran 昀椀ve groups a week
to assist with meeting the needs of the children
and families.
Stepping Stones is for children aged from two to
school age, who have an NDIS early childhood
plan. As we prepared children to transition to
school, we also welcome lots of new little faces
to the program. We have explored and created
together throughout the learning journey.
This year our much-treasured Robbie Knight
decided to retire, saying farewell to the children
and families in June.
Robbie had worked with young children for more
than 31 years and speci昀椀cally in early childhood
intervention for 14 years.
She said she has loved helping children hone
skills that will carry them through their life.
“I love how the children respond back with their
laughter and hugs, and to see how parents have
respected and welcomed our support,” she said.
Robbie can now be found helping run her
family’s Black Angus cattle farm in Axedale.
