By Callum Ludwig
A number of Warburton Primary School students are some of the latest to benefit from the Glasses for Kids program.
Glasses for Kids visited the school on Monday 18 November, providing free vision screening for students from Prep to Grade Three.
State Schools’ Relief Glasses for Kids Program Manager Luke Owen said Warburton came up as being an area of need.
“We screened 22 students for any sort of vision difficulty or issue and we ended up prescribing five pairs of glasses, there were five students who were identified as needing vision support and they’ll receive glasses at no cost through the program,” he said.
“Statistically we find through the program that about 25 per cent of students have an undiagnosed eye condition, so that’s 25 per cent of students in a classroom who might not be able to see the board, might not be able to read a worksheet, may have issues with colour identification, and obviously for a student who’s just entered prep or is still in the early years of primary school, that can really entrench a level of disadvantage and struggle within a classroom setting,” he said.
“By going in early, identifying these issues earlier, flagging these issues with parents and hopefully being able to prescribe glasses as well to limit the impact that this issue will have on the child, it ensures that the child has an equal footing with everyone else in the classroom to achieve and do their best.”
Glasses for students who require them usually arrive at their school to be handed out about three weeks after their screening.
Mr Owen said they get a lot of feedback from families and schools.
“In general, attendance improves as students are much more likely to want to go to school because they’re not in that daily struggle of not being able to see correctly,” he said.
“In terms of educational attainment and achievement they are doing better in school, have less behavioural issues and just have a greater sense of wellbeing and feeling of being part of the school community,”
“Sometimes if they do have an undiagnosed vision issue they’ll feel a little bit on the outer, always trying to mask the fact that they can’t see correctly.”
A scheduled Glasses for Kids program visit consists of:
Optometrists conduct individual screenings for students whose parents have consented to them taking part
Additional vision testing for students whose initial screening indicates that further assessment is required
Optometrists will order prescriptions for students requiring glasses
Program staff help these students to pick a frame of their choice for their glasses
Written advice is handed to the school to send home with students to their parent/carer detailing the outcome of the visit
Students with eye issues that require further investigation will be provided with a referral letter.
Warburton Primary School Principal Nathan van der Monde said Glasses for Kids is a really easy program to set up if you’re a school leader.
“The program itself offers a service for families that is much needed and something often that is harder to organise, particularly because sometimes things like eye tests, glasses and follow-up appointments can be quite pricey,” he said.
“If you are under financial pressure, particularly in today’s current financial climate, it may not be something that you prioritise so this just is a way through State Schools’ Relief funding that more students can be given access to that quality support,”
“At the end of the day, if you can’t access the learning, then you are relying on other senses and other ways of absorbing information and the majority of the learning that we do is done through sight.”
