Evelina Hospital School

Welcome to our school. At Evelina we aim to provide an outstanding personalised education for all pupils, so that they can achieve positive educational outcomes and feel valued, nurtured and respected during their time with us.

We are a thriving school community educating children and young people who are patients of the Evelina London Children’s Hospital. The School was established in 1949 and is proud of our tradition of excellence in educating children who are unable to attend their home schools because of their medical needs. The school has been on a number of different sites, but now you will find us inside a magnificent light-filled building on the Southbank of the Thames, opposite the Houses of Parliament and surrounded by landmarks such as the London Eye, County Hall and Archbishop’s Palace.

We are a Department for Education hospital community special school, and we are funded through the London Borough of Southwark for 40 planned places. The number of pupils we teach will vary, but on average we teach between 60 and 70 children and young people each week. The vast majority of pupils are in-patients of Evelina London Children’s Hospital, though small numbers may be siblings of patients or regular out-patients. Over the last academic year we taught 1,500 different pupils, and we have made a positive difference to each and every one.

The space is divided into Sun classroom for children in the Early Years and Foundation Stage and Key Stages 1 and 2, and Moon classroom for young people in Key Stages 3, 4 or 5. Teaching may be individualised to follow the home school curriculum or pupils may be working on tasks together as a whole class or in smaller groups.

Some children are not yet ready to come down to the atrium school, so they are taught at their bedside. These are generally shorter sessions of between 25-45 minutes, and are entirely personalised to the needs of the pupil.

We work closely with their home schools to ensure that these children are, as far as possible, accessing the work of their peers.

Our motto is ‘School, Family, Community’ and we wholeheartedly believe that working together is the best way for us to support our children and young people in achieving their goals. We work with an amazing range of colleagues, both inside and outside of the hospital, to make sure that we have the information and expertise needed to get the best for our pupils. For pupils who are with us for a longer period, we make good links with home schools to ensure that progress and outcomes are supported consistently. We know that everyone involved in the care and education of our pupils has the shared goal of helping them to thrive and grow, and with that in mind we work as a team to pool our knowledge and expertise.

At Evelina Hospital School we value diversity highly, and all staff, pupils and families are treated with equal respect and importance. We believe that as a school community we gain from the different abilities, languages, ages, backgrounds and cultures we have represented and we aim for our pupils to become active, compassionate and reflective citizens.

We understand the strain that children, young people and their families are under during their time in hospital, and we work to make continuing their education a central part of their recovery process.

Pupils are given stimulating and challenging tasks and activities that will build skills that they can transfer to their home schools and beyond. We work flexibly to respond to the changing needs and abilities of our pupils as their health and wellbeing may change. Above all, school is a secure and yet exciting place to be, and we want our pupils to enjoy their educational experiences and become resilient learners.

We value training and development highly and are examples of the lifelong learners that we hope our pupils will become. We believe that by developing ourselves we will be better placed to ensure an outstanding educational experience and positive outcomes for the pupils of Evelina Hospital School.

Our first priority is to motivate pupils to engage in learning either by the bedside, by their dialysis treatment stations or in the atrium classrooms.

Since we have small groups or one-to-one teaching, we are uniquely placed to help children develop social, moral, spiritual and cultural awareness (known as SMSC). In particular we have opportunities to allow pupils to express themselves and engage in debate. Click on the link British Values to read our statement.

Our school has different learning areas for early years, primary and secondary classes. We also provide teaching and school services in the hospital Dialysis Unit and on the wards. However, we always tailor the curriculum to address the particular needs and interests of the pupils we are teaching so that each child makes excellent progress and has a positive experience in our school.