Hospital School - A Year in the Life (preview)

Hospital School A Year in the Life Martin Dixon

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Hospital School A Year in the Life

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Martin Dixon

Hospital School A Year in the Life

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Frontispiece Helen working with a student on PICU (Paediatric Intensive Care Unit)

Published by Chelsea Community Hospital School 369 Fulham Road London SW10 9NH Copyright Š Chelsea Community Hospital School 2012 www.cchs.org.uk Photographs Š Martin Dixon www.martindixon.org.uk Printed in UK by Shore Books and Design All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form, or by no means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN 978-0-9571812-0-5

Contents

Preface - Martin Dixon Foreword - Andrew Bush Introduction - Janette Steel My Time at the Hospital School - Asha Kotechka

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Chelsea Community Hospital School Post 16 Students Meetings with Past Students International Projects The Opening of Our New School Art Dance Science Isolation Horseriding Exams Mudlarking on the Thames Foreshore Music with Wigmore Hall Cookery A Trip to the Science Museum Sports and Games Pottery The Staff Team The Marvellous Medicine Ball

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Supporting the School Acknowledgements

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Preface My first encounter with childhood illness was at the age of five, when my younger sister died of leukaemia. Times have changed and survival rates for childhood leukaemia have risen from around 14% to 50%. Life surprises me with its twists and turns; I have since worked in hospitals as an engineer, a teacher and now a photographer. For the last 15 years I have had the privilege of teaching music to children and young people at the Chelsea Community Hospital School. One of the rewards of teaching is discovering the reciprocal nature of the relationship and the unexpected learning from our students.

This engagement continues to fuel my work both as a musician and photographer.

Photographing the Hospital School over a year the project has unfolded slowly, the images and engagements with the subjects coalescing and evolving their own narratives, as if the camera’s selective frame suggests its own story, one that incorporates both the everyday and the sublime.

Inevitably I can see all the things left out, all the other stories that might have been told, but here it is – a story of the surprising range of activities that happen day in day out at the Hospital School, the dedication of those that work there, and the extraordinary resilience of the children, young people and their families.

I would like to thank all the students and staff at the Hospital School who worked with me on this project, and to dedicate it to the memory of my little sister, Annette.

Martin Dixon - Photographer & Music Teacher

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Foreword School is an important part of every child’s life. If a child has a one-off acute illness, such as appendicitis, and misses a couple of weeks off school, this is sad but not a tragedy; the child can soon catch up. However, for a child with a chronic illness, with repeated prolonged admissions to hospital, really pro-active steps must be taken to ensure that the child does not drop further and further behind, maybe in the end giving up in despair – and remember, it is just this group of children who will likely have to live by their brains, because manual jobs may be beyond them.

This book celebrates how superbly well the Hospital School has risen to these challenges. The teachers need to be doubly qualified. They need to be excellent teachers, as a group doing everything from teaching A-level physics to helping a toddler daubing paint on paper. They have to be able to support each child, under highly abnormal circumstances, in keeping up with their normal peers. But the teaching team also needs to understand the health issues; they have to interpret these to the local school, and maintain education even when the child is isolated because of infection. They need to work closely with the local school to ensure work is being sent in, and the child is keeping up. The teachers are also a mandatory part of the multi-disciplinary team; their insights into the problems that may be developing at the local school are invaluable, their role in alerting the wider team that school is not going well, and actions need to be taken, is vital.

Professors are notorious for not really knowing what is really going on – it takes those at the coalface to ensure that vital information is gleaned and not overlooked.

This book shows how fantastic the teachers are in fulfilling this role. They have long used the internet to help the child isolated in hospital keep in touch with their school and their peers back home. But they do far more than that; there is a huge range of activities for the children to enjoy – exercise workouts and horse riding to name but two. The school artwork is breathtaking – they have exhibited at the College of Physicians, and around Europe. Only the most philistine visitor could pass the school without being awe-struck. The teachers try to make being in hospital a special time – and how well they succeed. Only the best will do for the children – and what a galaxy of different talents has been recruited to support them.

But does it actually matter? Surely medicine and surgery is what actually makes the difference? Of course excellence in both is essential, but anyone who thinks that is the end of the story misses the vital dimension of holistic care, of wholeness; we all need joy in our lives – how much more do our hospitalised children! And while we are all hurtling around trying to fulfil endless and ever-changing directives from Apparatchiks, each one less evidence-based and more intrusive than the one that went before, the unsung heroes of the school carry on faithfully doing what really matters to those whom the hospital is actually all about, our precious children. Salut!

Andrew Bush MD FRCP FRCPCH Professor of Paediatric Respirology Imperial College & Royal Brompton Hospital

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Introduction Chelsea Community Hospital School provides education, therapy and an enriched arts programme at four hospitals in the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea and in Westminster.

We work at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, the Royal Brompton Hospital, St. Mary’s Hospital and Collingham Child & Family Centre. We also work with young people in their homes if they are unable to attend school due to a medical or mental health problem.

Some of our students have conditions that are progressive.

This means that they may spend more time in hospital as they get older with a likelihood that their education will be delayed because of illness. Our school programme therefore embraces the 16 to 25 year old age group. We are a school that stays open for 50 weeks a year working with pupils throughout the year, over and above the term times when there is statutory provision for 4 to 16 year olds. Alongside early years, primary and special needs teachers, we also have a team of subject specialist key stage 3 & 4 teachers who ensure our students are well prepared for their exams. Our school also has learning mentors, an exam officer and a careers counsellor. This team works with the student, family and the home school to ensure their pathways to the future are secure despite missing school.

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Our Art and Drama therapists support those young people who have had difficulties in attending school or who are coming to terms with a change in their lives brought about by a medical condition. This is essential, as 60% of students who have an acute or chronic medical condition report having been bullied.

Our creative arts team works throughout the year and includes an Artist in Residence, a musician, a potter, a photographer, a Poet in Residence and a storyteller. They encourage creativity and diverse opportunities for self-expression, they reassure and motivate as .....

‘Getting together on an arts project makes you feel connected’ ‘It gives me purpose and dignity to my life’ ‘It is a reason to get up in the morning’ And that is what we all need. My reason to get up in the morning is very clearly seen in Martin’s insightful photographs.

‘Hospital School - A Year in the Life’ shows many remarkable journeys recorded ‘through a lens lightly’.

Janette Steel - Principal

My Time at the Hospital School When I was very young, too young really to attend school, I used to beg my way into the Rose Ward classroom every day I could. To me the classroom was a world of exciting activities designed to keep boredom at bay whilst in hospital. Perhaps it was a bit uncool to want to go to school, but it offered me so many things to do, and I loved talking to the teachers who treated me with great affection and probably more maturely than my inquisitive little self deserved, which I naturally loved!

Even as I became older, the school never lost its appeal and we were always visited by a teacher each morning, so even if it wasn‘t our turn to attend the classroom on the rota, we were offered activities and support at our bedside. The only times I remember even remotely not enjoying something to do with the hospital school, was these early morning visits if I was attempting to have a lazy morning in bed (trying to catch up on the sleep you lose to the sounds of hospital night-time activity!).

We were lucky enough to have frequent visitors who were experts in their respective fields. One of these was a storyteller who used to bring props and puppets to draw us into the fantastical world of his creative mind, creating brilliantly interactive and entertaining experiences which provided me with an escape outlet on some very difficult and stressful days as I was drawn into his animated worlds (and returned to my bedside in a distinctly better mood than I had left it in earlier in the day, much to the relief of my long-suffering mother!).

We also had the opportunity to work with different members of the London Symphony Orchestra, who spent the day with us on several occasions and provided hugely entertaining and interesting sessions whenever they came.

A particular inspiration to me was an artist I spent a lot of time with who taught me an enormous amount – not only about art, but also about life – and always encouraged me to achieve more than I thought I was capable of.

Looking back I remember only good times in association with the Rose Ward school room over the twelve or so years that I intermittently attended it during my frequent hospital stays.

Throughout this time span, I was witness to a complete change of location of the school room, several large scale renovations and lots of different staff! One thing all the staff had in common though, was their willingness to go the extra mile for us and the support and encouragement we received, whether it was during exam/revision periods or emotionally difficult times.

I honestly couldn’t have asked for more from them.

Since transitioning to the adult services we’re still offered a large amount of support in several different areas, including careers advice, art and design projects and materials, or just someone to hang out with over a coffee or to take us on a trip out of the enclosed walls of the hospital.

Over the years I have kept in contact with several of the long-term teachers who taught at the school while I was still in paediatrics and am now lucky enough to consider them not just as my old teachers, but as friends too.

Asha Kotechka - Post 16 Student

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Chelsea Community Hospital School

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A stay in hospital can be an unsettling change to the everyday rhythms of our lives. For a child or young person the normal patterns of getting up and going off to school or being with friends and family have shifted – things are not as they usually are. This is the situation for the 14% of school age children and young people with a medical condition who spend time in hospital.

There is now a break in the routines of everyday life. Between the ages of 4 and 16 we go to school to get an education and that includes making friends, being part of a team and sharing ideas.

The Hospital School can act as a stepping-stone for children and young people during their time in hospital providing not only a diversion from medical interventions, but also a lively, welcoming place where the familiar patterns and experiences of life can continue and where students can make friends, learn new things and achieve academically.

Returning to school after a period in hospital means having to pick up the threads of learning and of friendships so the hospital school provides links with regular school, enabling students to carry on with their own schoolwork and stay in contact with friends.

Marie - Assistant Head 13

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Pips teaches geography to the primary students at St Mary’s Hospital.

Being attached to monitors or having regular medical tests is no barrier to coming to school.

Miranda teaches maths.

Students trace the number 8 as part of their yoga practice.

Steve runs a video conferencing link up between the hospital schoolrooms.

The drama of uncovering a Renaissance painting with Clare from the National Gallery.

In the sensory room pupils experience a range of stimuli either as part of their learning or for relaxation.

Faisal brings a student to school from the hospital ward.

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