HOSPITAL EDUCATION
Small group and one-to-one mentoring for young people in hospital education
When a young person is referred to Gloucestershire’s Hospital Education Service, they may be in hospital, or unable to attend school due to illness or emotional difficulties and mental health problems such as anxiety, stress, self-harming and eating disorders.
Our one-to-one and small group mentoring helps to engage them in learning, build their confidence and self-esteem, reduce their anxiety and help them cope with the challenges they face
Our weekly sessions take place either in the hospital education classroom, on hospital wards, or in young people’s homes, and can make a difference in small but significant, or quite profound and long-lasting ways. Read the case studies and quotes on this page to find out more.
We are currently working on a robust programme of impact evaluation to enable us to more effectively monitor and understand the impact that our work is having. In the meantime you can read more in the case studies below, view Our Stories or read more about our impact.
CASE STUDIES
Michael finds confidence, self-belief and a route back into education
Michael is a 15 year-old who was referred to Gloucestershire Hospital Education Service because he had stopped attending school as a result of an anxiety disorder. He was painfully shy – saying he was ‘afraid’ to meet people. He was unable to leave the house, experienced extreme mood swings, and was unpredictable. Struggling with day-to-day life, he couldn’t see a future for himself, and his parents didn’t know what to do to help him.
By working with one of our specialist music leaders, he gradually built trust, learned music technology skills, and his parents said that quite quickly “there was a change in how he saw himself” and he was a “different person”, coming home after sessions happy, talkative and more sociable. As a result, Michael was able to play in front of a live audience at a competition, attend classes regularly, and has volunteered in a recording studio.
His support worker said: “It’s having an impact on all areas – he’s doing better in other subjects, and is now planning his future. Before, he wasn’t thinking about tomorrow.” Michael is now studying BTEC Music Technology at a local college.
Charlie learns she can achieve and cope
Charlie was a 13-year old who’d been excluded from school and had been attending a Pupil Referral Unit. She had learned extreme tactics for avoiding learning – from swearing at teachers and physical violence, to running away and climbing on top of furniture. After working with one of our music leaders, she has found a new passion for and confidence in singing, and has completed a Bronze Arts Award. At one stage she said to the leader “You’re one of the few teachers that believes in me”. With his support, she put together a portfolio of work, carried out independent research, and taught him a skill that she had learned. She has shown qualities of patience, determination, creativity, and produced high quality work.
Now 15, Charlie has since continued to attend sessions with The Music Works team – her only education – for just over a year, in a new off-site Alternative Provision setting. It has been a long and complex journey, but the team report that there has been a complete transformation of her behaviour, her self-motivation, her engagement in English and Maths, her social skills and her resilience. She is expected to achieve a level two AQA qualification in Functional Skills English which will enable her to attend an FE course.
In a recent evaluation meeting she said “[This] has helped me feel like I can achieve, I have matured and am able to cope better with other people being annoying. It has been important having adults I can trust, staff here support and challenge you but don’t wind you up. I can talk very openly about things that I am struggling with”
Find out more about the way we work and the impact it has by downloading a case study:
WHAT PEOPLE SAY
See what people have to say about their experience of working with us.