The purpose of Sutherland Hospital School is continuity of education so that students are not disadvantaged by illness or misadventure.
Sutherland Hospital School has a high turn around of students with an average stay of two days. Therefore learning is highly individualised and responsive to individual student needs at the time of their stay.
There are six categories of educational delivery for students attending Sutherland Hospital School.
Classroom
- This student is well enough to come to class. They may need a wheelchair organised or a wardsperson ordered for transport to the classroom in their bed.
- This student will be able to engage in the classroom learning and receive explicit learning.
- This student's learning will be reported in the Individual learning record daily.
- A copy of the students work will be sent to their census school.
Bedside
- This student is not in isolation but is not well enough to transport to class.
- This student will be provided with interactive resources from the classroom to engage with in bed. A teaching staff member will explicitly teach the purpose and use of the resources to the student and parent/carer.
- This student's learning will be recorded in the individual learning record daily. Their completed work packages/assessment data will be sent to their census school.
Isolation
- This student is in isolation due to their illness.
- This student will be provided with updated and stage-appropriate worksheets and additional curriculum based resources.
- This student's learning will be recorded in the Individual Learning Record as "worksheets" daily.
Recurrent
- This student attends the Hospital school on an intermittent basis. This student has an Individual Learning Plan collaboratively constructed with the census school.
- This student completes work sent from the census school in the hospital classroom or bedside when possible.
- This student's learning is sent back to the census school and is recorded in the hospital school's Individual Learning Record.
Long-term
- This student is hospitalised for 5 weeks or more. The census school will be contacted as soon as possible to send through the students work/assessment tasks for the period of hospital stay.
- This student completes work from the census school in the hospital classroom or bedside when possible.
- This student's learning is documented in the Individual Learning Record; a portfolio of their work is created to send back to the census school and a student report is prepared for parent/carer and census school.
Other wards
- This student is not in the children's ward. They are a school aged student in another ward within the hospital. Teaching staff will visit the student in their ward to assess their individual learning needs.
- Teaching staff will liaise with the nursing unit managers to arrange suitable access to education through the services of the hospital school. This student may receive the same provision as any of the above categories dependent on their individual circumstances.
Sutherland Hospital School has a focus on Literacy and Numeracy ensuring that every student has the foundational skills necessary to access all other learning. We provide accessible and rigorous learning that is transferrable to the student’s census school and/or future.
The Sutherland Hospital School also has a focus on future ready learning. Students are given the opportunity to learn through an integrated curriculum of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) and are provided with challenges to problem-solve using creative and critical thinking, collaboration and perseverance.