Four members of our staff visited and presented at the 8^th HOPE Congress in Amsterdam from October 8^th-13^th October 2012. 

 

HOPE (Hospital Organisation of Pedagogues in Europe) www.hospitalteachers.eu held their 8^th congress recently in Amsterdam. The main themes of the congress were hospital teaching in changing times and educating children with a medical or mental health need in relation to active ageing. The incidence of chronic illness in children and adolescents has not decreased over the years but medical advancement has meant that there has been an enormous improvement in the outcomes for these pupils. Our role as hospital teachers is evolving as we develop even wider collaborative working relationships to ensure that we support children and adolescents with a medical or mental health need to become:

• Independent
• Successful
• Have engaged lives

There was a range of opportunities to gain insight about how we can support this, with a full programme of lectures, workshops and discussion groups, as well as the invaluable opportunity to discuss and share experiences and good practice with our European colleagues. In fact there were colleagues from Australia, Brazil, New Zealand, The Congo, Togo, Israel, Mexico and Comoros.

Three members of staff, Steven Crawford, Joanna Eaves and Helen Williams had all submitted proposals for presentation which were accepted. All their presentations were very well received. A huge thank you to them for all the hard work and effort they put in to making their presentations so interesting and informative.