As well as working alongside a range of NHS colleagues within the Royal Free Hospital and Queen Mary House, the school also works closely with a number of partner agencies from health in the local community and beyond...

“I believe that a multi-disciplinary approach to healthcare that responds to a child’s holistic needs is vital to improving health. The work the hospital school do is integral to this approach. They support patients to continue their educational programme while experiencing ill-health which avoids compounding the impact of ill-health on a child’s life. They provide a sense of normality and structure to a child’s hospital experience, and much needed stimulation which improves their well-being. Teaching staff are expert on observing and feeding back appropriately re a child’s mental and emotional state which is especially useful when managing children with mental health issues such as eating disorders which the Royal Free Hospital specialises in.

Inter-professionally my team and I have benefited from engaging the teachers in an education project whereby they observe CPEs teach or facilitate and give us verbal and written feedback. This helps to maintain the standard of our teaching and to improve it, which is especially useful when we are not trained teachers by background and often receive little training in this area. They have also been instrumental in creating and delivering education packages for children self-managing chronic complex illnesses which have been proven successful.”

RFH PRACTICE EDUCATION  

“I worked closely with members of the RF hospital case to support an adolescent girl with significant anxiety difficulties. Sharing of information and joint sessions, allowed me to have a greater understanding of how she presented at school, which facilitated development of a formulation that captured the severity and complexity of her difficulties. An understanding of the safety behaviours, avoidance and coping strategies she used at school, helped to create a realistic exposure hierarchy to ensure she was encouraged to challenge her anxieties in a meaningful way and at an appropriate pace. It was also particularly helpful to hear school members sometimes different viewpoints, and to hold onto the personality and strength of the child behind her anxiety difficulties which sometimes were hidden in individual therapy through her self-report and presentation. Joint working, also helped to try and provide a coherent message across health and education to mum, who also struggled with significant anxieties.”

RFH CAMHS 

“The school is an excellent resource for children at the Royal Free.  Both in terms of longer term school pupils, and ward patients with rapid turnover, school staff are able to provide a stimulating and varied curriculum.  In complex children who are in-patients for longer periods, the liason between RFH school staff and the regular school is really vital in putting together both an educational package, but also contributing towards assessment and evaluation as part of a multiagency approach.  The school is an integral part of the care package we provide at the Royal Free.”

RF Paediatrics

“The Royal Free School have been pivotal in driving our Diabetes Education days forward and embedding them as part of Diabetes care. Steve Green has been an amazing addition to our multidisciplinary team and has meant we have a proper educational expert present. We have learnt from each other and decided together how to take these forward and alter the PDSA( plan, do, study, act) cycle. Steve has secured funding for us, by approaching various organisations, and this means we can tailor the education days even more to the needs of our patients and make them as young person friendly as possible.

Thank you to the whole school for working in partnership with us both with diabetes and other ward improvement/SAFE projects.”

RFH Paediatrics

“In my work managing young people with severe mental illness (including psychosis, schizophrenia and bipolar) I have found the Royal Free Hospital Children’s school to be invaluable. The high quality of support delivered by the school staff has significantly contributed to patient recovery and on-going care and the open and honest communication between our services has resulted in excellent patient care. There have been a number of instances where I would have been lost without RFH children’s school help in managing tricky situations and their ability to support, and reflect afterwards, has always impressed me. Above all, I believe they offer outstanding care to their students – and to those involved in their student’s lives”

CAMDEN CAMHS Early Intervention Service

“The Royal Free Hospital has offered an incredibly valuable experience for our patients. They are highly professional, efficient, and provide added value to assessments and treatment plans in the community for young people with mental health difficulties. It is a very much appreciated resource as far as we are concerned. In particular, their ability to offer education for vulnerable young people in a safe environment is remarkable. I am sure they have prevented many lengthy admissions to T4, as well as provided education for young people that otherwise would have most certainly been lost to any meaningful engagement”