Hospital or home teaching if your child is ill

If your child is an inpatient at Royal Preston Hospital or Royal Lancaster Infirmary, education will be provided in the hospital classroom. For children who are housebound, due to ill health home teaching will be provided.

Hospital classrooms

Staff in the hospital classrooms will work closely with your child's school to ensure as much continuity as possible. They will link with your child's doctors, nurses or any physiotherapists or specialists to ensure a smooth transition back into school.

Our aim in the hospital classrooms is to minimise as far as possible, the interruption and disruption to a pupils schooling by continuing education as normally as their illness allows.

We have hospital classrooms at Royal Preston Hospital. The classrooms are friendly and provide an excellent environment for learning.

We also arrange education for children while they are in Royal Lancaster Infirmary or Ormskirk Hospital.

Your child will attend the classroom if they are admitted to the children's ward for longer than three days.

Experienced teachers, support staff and nursing staff will work together to ensure your child has access to education. Work will be requested from your child's school if appropriate.

Classroom hours at Royal Preston Hospital are 9.30am to 11.30am and 1pm to 2pm. We provide up to 15 hours a week teaching if pupils are well enough to attend. At Lancaster and Ormskirk a teacher will be provided when required.

Specialist mental health units

We also provide education in the context of:

  • the East Lancashire Child and Adolescent Services (ELCAS) Day Unit based at Burnley Hospital
  • the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) in-patient unit The Cove in Heysham.

They provide a daily timetable of education beginning when your child is admitted, if they are well enough. Education staff will work alongside clinical colleagues and your child's usual school to plan for their return to school.

Home teaching

If your child has a consultant's referral and is house bound they may be recommended to the home teaching service.

The service will visit your home to assess your child's needs. They will work with you, medical staff and the school to plan the teaching programme and identify the most appropriate teacher.

The teaching is 1 to 1 and very concentrated. The number of hours provided will depend on your child's medical condition and needs.

Contacts

Hospital and home teach co-ordinator, Royal Preston Hospital

Tel: 07815 997 932

ELCAS Day Unit, Burnley Hospital

Tel: 01282 803431

The Cove, Heysham

01524 550397