Abstract

This project aimed to offer schools within the local catchment area and opportunity for the Hospice to work collaboratively alongside them with delivery of the National Educational Curriculum of Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education.

A resource pack was produced and posted to 29 secondary schools and 1 college in the catchment area to offer a tailor made programme for their school curriculum focusing around Personal, Social, Health, Economic education and Sex and relationships Education related topics.

The initial response from secondary schools was poor so the project had a second phase and this was to target 123 junior/infant schools in the catchment area.

The delayed response to the project was due to postal issues and not being able to identify a key worker in each school who leads PSHE. Schools curriculum planning and demands on teaching staff also affected the timetabling of additional educational sessions. Many schools showed an interest but never progressed to planning sessions directly.

From a further redesign of the project we have established direct links with 32 PSHE leads in our area and delivered training sessions to them high lighting areas of education which we are able to offer as bespoke sessions, developing interest already. One school has had two sessions delivered in the Hospice enabling staff and students to meet patients and learn about the Hospice and other topics. Another school has had sessions delivered in the school working with the Duke of Edinburgh students enabling fundraising for the Hospice. Two schools have had assemblies with question and answer sessions enabling us to dispel the myths of a Hospice.

The findings indicate that schools are satisfied that the Hospice is able to support them in delivering individualised programmes. The collaborative working has had a positive impact on the schools and Hospice.