The Accident Hospital recognised that the hospital was legally required to provide education for children within a few days of admission and once they were in a fit state following the recovery from the shock of their accident, they would be visited daily by one of the hospital teachers
Education offered at the Accident Hospital covered a very broad spectrum and was tailored to meet the needs of the individual child, this could range from sitting chatting, playing or reading to a very young or sick child in order to stimulate their interest in life and in recovery to tutoring a teenager in examination subjects and even arranging for CSE or A level examinations to be taken in hospital
The teacher’s main aim was for the child to return to their own school at the end of their period in hospital and for them to be able to slot back into their own class without having to face the problem of falling behind at school as well as coming to terms with their physical injuries. The teachers provided work for the child with the aim of this in mind, sometimes linking in with the school to ensure they are doing exactly the same studies
This relied very much on the cooperation from parents and teachers from the child’s own school to make this possible
Part of the educational process was in recognising the psychological needs for the child to follow a routine with some semblance of normality about it in the midst of the unfamiliar hospital routine the continuity of the learning process with the presence of teachers lessons and the child’s familiar school books if possible helped the child to cope with this unfortunate situation
The familiar activities connected with school helped to reassure a frightened child and they became aware other children were faced with similar problems to theirs and that their problems could be overcome
Once the child began the process to recovery, they were usually very happy to have an interesting and useful way of spending this time in hospital
In addition to providing academic work and helping the child’s morale it was possible for the hospital school to assist with a child’s physical recovery by providing craft work which encouraged the use of injured parts of the body, helping with rehabilitation
In many burns cases the children were unable to use both of their hands at first and this need not hinder their progress at school, use could be made of calculators and cassette recorders (computers were not invented at that time) to help the child with reading their answers prepared and answered orally during a session with a teacher
Books were placed where a child could see them and there was always help arranged for turning pages
Many children who had been badly burned returned for skin grafting regularly during their school career and so may have spent several months of their total school career in the hospital and therefore the hospital school, in fact, many of them spent months and months attending the hospital school. This gave the child the reassurance of knowing that their school work could continue even when they were admitted to hospital
When a child was fit enough to be discharged from hospital after a long stay, the teacher contacted the child’s school to discuss their progress with their own teacher and to explain any problems which may have arisen during their time in the hospital and issues that may affect their return to school
