Inside the WA school where teachers are ‘just as important as doctors’

Jessica Sharma’s world was turned upside down when she was admitted to Fiona Stanley Hospital during her final year of school.

But a sense of normalcy returned when, three days into what would become an extended stay, she was visited by someone she least expected – a teacher.

The School of Special Educational Needs Medical and Mental Health operates teams throughout WA Health settings, including at Perth Children’s Hospital, Fiona Stanley and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, and helps children continue their education when they otherwise would have fallen behind.

For those like Jessica, in their final years of school, the support and guidance provided by the teachers was vital in their journey to recovery.

“They were really encouraging because at the time, I didn’t believe that I would be able to finish school or anything. I didn’t believe that I would get into uni as soon as I did,” she said.

“But they kept on encouraging me and believing in me.”

Jessica had individually tailored sessions with different teachers, studying English, chemistry, human biology and maths.

“Learning gives students a break from the relentlessness of everything else going on. When you focus on that it shuts the other stuff down.”

Gemma Slater, SSENMMH Program Coordinator

School program co-ordinator Gemma Slater said providing education was crucial in establishing normalcy for children from Kindergarten to Year 12 who were otherwise dealing with situations alien to many others their age.

“Even if you don’t love school and you don’t love education, there’s something containing about trigonometry. You can look at it and go, ‘this is familiar’,” she said.

“Learning gives students a break from the relentlessness of everything else that’s going on. When you focus on that it shuts the other stuff down.

“Just having individualised learning can make them realise they can actually do it – that can be really, really empowering.

“Even when we have kids who are terminal, there’s something lovely about still making sure they achieve those benchmarks, those milestones, those rites of passage.”

Slater said students coming to hospital were vulnerable, which sometimes meant the first reaction from patients and families was to keep school at bay.

“But education can be a crucial part of recovery,” she said.

“We make our priority students who are here for longer than five days because we know that’s where we can make the most difference.

“The idea is that when a student comes to us, we keep their programs going, keep them connected to their enrolled school so when they go back, we can transition them to make it as seamless an experience as possible.”

Teachers first get a referral from doctors, who clear their patients for school, and then reach out to get consent from the parents before finally reaching out to the schools.

Often they will only teach each student for a week to a month, depending on the case, but there are children who stay for much longer.

“We get students like Jess that we see a lot of and that’s really lovely because we then do develop a relationship, and that’s the closest thing we get to mainstream education,” Slater said.

“Jess is as special an experience for us as perhaps we were for her, which is lovely. It’s a two-way street.”

Jessica’s science teacher Lisa Price said one of the biggest challenges was students who were in hospital during exams.

“You have to make very quick decisions about whether they can and should sit them, and whether waiting will make things harder and more stressful, or better,” she said.

“They’re coming in during a really vulnerable time, in a vulnerable state, it’s hard to make those decisions.”

Jessica said the teachers had been just as integral as the doctors throughout her recovery journey.

“The doctors and nurses are more focused on your health, while the teachers are interested in your life, what you want to do when you finish school, what your interest in hobbies are,” she said.

“While they’re teaching, you have these little conversations and it just makes it more enjoyable – you actually enjoy coming to school here because the teachers know you and know something about you.”

While Jessica had always enjoyed school work, she said she hadn’t liked the mainstream school environment and wished schools would implement some methods practised by the team at the hospital, which she said were vital in her success during year 12.

Now, Jessica has just finished her first semester of nursing at Notre Dame University.

“I wanted to do nursing before I came here, but being here in hospital definitely confirmed that. I knew that was what I was meant to do for the rest of my life,” she said.

“When people come into hospital, they’re in a very vulnerable state, it’s probably going to be one of the worst days of their life, they’re probably going to remember it forever.

“I just want to make that experience a bit more bearable for them.”

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