Welcome to QEH School

Newhaven is responsible for the Hospital School Room at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich and staff work closely with the school to ensure the same educational and student centred ethos is followed.

The school room is situated in the Safari Children’s Ward and offers teaching to inpatients from 4-17years of age. Attending the school room offers the young person improved wellbeing, distraction, education, support and care.

The school room is a friendly, vibrant learning environment sensitive to the young person’s current medical condition and limitations. The curriculum has been revamped and embraces the practise of education through engagement. Our clientele are unwell and education is sometimes secondary to their immediate needs. We thus have to ensure that our curriculum provides opportunities to engage young people while at the same time ensuring that we strengthen and develop their knowledge.

The school room is staffed by experienced teaching staff and provides access to activities that support or extend the national curriculum followed in schools. School staff work with the medical staff on the ward to support the young person.

Children and young people who are well enough to leave the ward can attend the schoolroom, where they complete their own school work or engage with well planned activities. Patients who cannot leave the ward are offered interesting learning activities to complete on the ward, or can be taught at the bedside by arrangement.

Participating in hospital school life helps to minimise the educational disruption for the young person and plays an important role in reducing anxiety by engaging them in educational activities.

The school also helps with the process of re-integrating young people back into their home schools after they have been discharged, in order to ensure that the young person’s educational needs are met on their return to school.