Healthy Harold Zooms into action

In response to COVID-19 restrictions and to help us reach more schools in regional and remote areas, this year Life Ed launched Healthy Harold’s virtual classroom, connecting children to health education at a time when they need it the most.

An agile alternative to our face-to-face teaching, Life Ed’s virtual lessons are live-streamed into classrooms, and feature our specialist health educators, along with our popular mascot Healthy Harold the giraffe.

In September, students from Lord Howe Island Central School, along with NSW Minister for Education and Early Childhood Learning, Sarah Mitchell, participated in the first trial of our virtual classroom.

Situated approximately 500km east of Port Macquarie, Lord Howe Island Central School is only reachable by boat. It was the first time ever students from the school were able to receive a visit from Healthy Harold.

Ellisha Conway, Teacher/Relieving Principal at Lord Howe Island Central School said “As we had previously watched some of the Healthy Harold lessons I like that the children were able to interact with the Life Ed teacher which made it that much more special like as if we had been able to visit the Life Ed van.”

This month, students from the Southern Cross School of Distance Education also Zoomed in to see Healthy Harold in action. From Palinyewah, Pooncarie and Pomona in south-western NSW to Ballina in northern NSW, distance was no issue, thanks to the new technology.

“Life Ed via Zoom allowed our students from right around Australia and from a range of contexts to join together to learn about health and safety.  The programs were age appropriate, relevant, interactive and, most importantly, fun.  Thank you to the Healthy Harold team.” said Assistant Principal of Southern Cross School of Distance Education, Kath Baker.

The Life Ed program has expanded its delivery model to include online, virtual and face-to-face visits.

The Life Ed virtual classroom is supported by the BHP Vital Resources Fund.