P21: How we did it

Learning well 

Teaching in a hospital school brings its own challenges. Great Ormond Street teacher Louise Hough describes life at the school.

I‘ve always wanted to do this job. When I was 11 I had a friend who had cancer and while he was in hospital a TV programme showed him being taught at the hospital school. I saw the programme and knew it was what I wanted to do. After qualifying, I taught in mainstream education for four years, then eight years ago got this job.

There are around 140 children in the school at any one time but it fluctuates. We teach early years to age 18 but if a child is statemented, we teach them from two and a half.

This year we are celebrating our 60th anniversary. We have one big room, a former ward, split into one area for KS1 and 2 and another for KS3 and 4. They have separate timetables. I am one of a team of 30, and specialise in literacy, although we teach all subjects and all abilities.

We meet first thing to see which children are coming and to allocate children to teachers. The schoolroom runs from 10am to 3pm; those of us who teach on the wards start earlier and finish later to fit in with ward rounds.

Children come and go from the classroom. Sometimes they come in their pyjamas or attached to a drip, sometimes they have to leave for treatment. We have to be flexible.

We have core groups that come regularly for months at a time. Children who come for dialysis are with us three days a week and their home school for two. Not many children do exams, but we have a facility where they can.

The problem is always how to engage children who are so ill. We try to use skills-based activities. I know they look forward to coming – and it gives the parents a break. We have visitors – Linford Christie came to open a sports event, Emma Thompson came to talk

about Nanny McFee and Yogi Bear came – but had to go home early because he was too hot in his costume!

I teach mainly on the long stay wards where children aren’t well enough to come to the school. They’re in isolation because of the risk of infection. We use laptops and iPads, as we are restricted in what we can take in. We can’t stick rigidly to a lesson plan. One of my pupils, Adam, 11, is on the oncology ward and we made an animation, a bit like Wallace and Gromit.

The first minute you meet a poorly child you’re about to teach will determine whether or not they will want to go ahead with the lesson, so it’s important to be jolly and upbeat.

Sometimes it can be an emotional strain. You see some heartbreaking things. But I love my job and can’t imagine working in a normal classroom setting again. This is where I fit best.