How Gowrie Victoria is embedding children’s voices in meaningful ways

Gowrie at the Harbour will soon be hosting an exciting event at the centre as part of Museums Victoria’s Playbound Festival from 5-20 July.

This year, Gowrie Victoria partnered with Global Play Lab for Playbound! 2025.

Gowrie Victoria’s event, called Lightscape Explorers, will offer children the opportunity to play with light, shadow, and transparency using child-safe STEM tools like microscopes, blacklights, light tables and projectors. Children will experiment with natural and recycled materials such as cardboard boxes, tubes, and refractive materials and observe how they change and interact with different types of light and shadow. The free public event will be held on July 16 from 10-12pm.

Behind the scenes, Gowrie Victoria is doing things differently.

In the lead up to the event, Early Learning Manager Sabiha Soylu and Educational Leader, Philippa Almack-Kelly considered how they could embed the voices of children in designing the event. Their thinking reflects the Australian Government Early Years Strategy and new guidance that describes how children should have a voice in decisions that impact them. When we seek children’s input in designing services intended for their use, these services are more relevant, targeted, safe, developmentally appropriate, and ultimately more effective.

For the last few weeks, Sabiha and Philippa have worked closely with their colleagues to form multi-age inclusive children’s committees across Gowrie at the Harbour, to review and select materials and design the event. These committees enabled children to express their voice through play. As children played with, shared, and talked about the materials, educators noted their interest, engagement, and the sophistication of the language they used – whether certain materials evoked extended conversations about light and shadow and questions about the topics. They noted that interest in the event extended beyond the materials as children suggested they should make signs to welcome visitors to the centre. Educators consulted children on what makes a good public event, discussing safety, risk, enjoyment, and learning, which generated great excitement and pride about what the children can offer as experts of Gowrie at the Harbour - their place of learning. The voices of younger children and babies were included as educators and other children noted their attentiveness and responses to materials, lights and interactions.

Planning with children

Planning with children was beneficial for both children and staff. Children felt valued as experts of their own world. Contributing their ideas about a real-life event raised the stakes for children, extending their thinking and energising them in ways that an imaginary scenario could not. Educators saw children’s capabilities in a new light as they offered valuable insights into how to run the event and posed questions that were not previously considered.

When we share power with children, we take a risk as we relinquish our authority as adults to make all decisions on behalf of children. The reward, however, is deeper engagement and learning for educators and children. Children begin to develop their skills as agentic beings that can offer valuable insights, make decisions and share their experiences. This learning must commence early if young children are to develop the skills to become actively engaged citizens who positively contribute to making the world a more peaceful, just, safe and sustainable place.

Resources

To access resources designed for the event by Global Play Lab, see the links below:

Lightscape Explorers Resources

Voice of the child

To learn more about embedding children’s voices in policy, research and services:

Voice of the Child Toolkit - Centre for Community Child Health