Illawarra Hospital School's focus on wellbeing, education and continuity

This is the place where lives are saved, miracles happen and heartbreak strikes more often than anyone wants.

But, take the lift up to level three at Wollongong Hospital and you'll not only find the children's ward, but also Illawarra Hospital School.

It's welcoming. It's filled with colour, learning, good smells and smiles as big as the hearts they help heal.

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"Come in," school principal Skye Gray said as she opened the door. The ward's nursing unit manager Julie Haines is there, and so is regular Friday student Ivy Brown, 8.

Ivy, who's wearing a pointed, silver party hat, said today is special, it's Meadow's eighth birthday. Meadow is her beloved soft toy that accompanies her to hospital.

The Year two student has mucopolysaccharidoses (a growing disorder, her dad Grant said), and she attends the school each week when she receives enzymes replacement therapy.

The school is for K-12 students, some are there for a few hours, some a day, others for much, much longer than their families would like.

The aim of the school is to provide continuity of education and a fun environment, that helps children escape from the ward, if only for a moment.

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"Every day is very different. Today we've got two students in and they're both Year two students," Ms Gray said.

"Some days we'll have a kindergarten student, a Year three student, a Year six student, a high school student.

"We go around each morning and do a song and a dance to get them down here. It's just a beautiful space, it's a completely educational space not a clinical space."

Ivy said the school is amazing because "we get to do art in the afternoon"

"We have to get our school work done and then we can have a brain break at lunch, and then art. That's one of my favourites," she said.

Morning sessions are filled with literacy and numeracy, high school students often continue with their own work from their regular school.

"After lunch is when the fun happens, it's when we start to do our STEM or CAPA (creative and performing arts)," Ms Gray said.

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"We will do jewellery making, painting, macrame - we're fortunate to have two staff members who are exceptional at that stuff."

The former Keira High School principal has been at the hospital school since term two 2022, and said when the opportunity came up to move she grabbed it.

"I always valued the aspect of wellbeing, but here wellbeing is overarching - you've got to have that before any learning's going to happen," she said.

A good day for her is when a child comes in with a smile that "they can just escape from whatever's happening". Tough days are when students are too sick to come to the school room.

Ms Haines works closely with the school, and sees how the benefits to patients, especially those in hospital for a while.

"School is essential in the care of these children," she said.

"We're not just here for health, we're here for their emotional needs, and also their educational needs and wellness. Some of these kids are here for a long time, and they get quite anxious because they're not at their normal school."

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Regular contact is made between the hospital school and the student's regular school, so similar lessons are being taught, and the connection is maintained.

"When they go back after a week, two weeks, a term, they are up-to-date and they can just slide back in and that takes anxiety away from kids," Ms Haines said.

"That's connection and that's continuity, and that makes that child feel exceptionally valued."

In 2023, hospital schools celebrate their 100th birthday and the Illawarra Hospital School is one of just 10 in NSW.

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