Many people wouldn’t have heard of Hospital School SA. We caught up with principal Matthew McCurry to hear how it’s helping thousands of sick kids keep up their learning.
Back in 1930, the South Australian Education Department did something pretty groundbreaking – they hired the very first teacher to work with school-age kids getting treatment at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital, now the Women’s and Children’s Hospital (WCH). Fast forward to now, and things have expanded in a big way – instead of one teacher, there’s a whole school dedicated to educating SA children in hospital.
Today, Hospital School SA/Kukuwardlingka Tirkanthi has three different campuses located at WCH, Flinders Medical Centre and Lyell McEwin Hospital. In Kaurna, kukuwardlingka Tirkanthi, means ‘place of learning and education’, and the school welcomes thousands of students each year.
Who are the students?
Hospital School SA Principal Matthew McCurry says the school’s primary role is to work with young people who are inpatients in each of the hospitals, often with acute and chronic health and mental health needs.
However, outpatients who are unable to attend their own school can also enrol, as can school-aged siblings of country and interstate patients, and children from rural areas whose family members are in hospital. There are even international students who have travelled here for specialised medical treatment. Last year, Hospital School SA provided education to 3609 individual young people from around 500 schools.
Just like any other school (kind of)
Like any government school, Hospital School SA adheres to the Early Years Learning Framework, Australian Curriculum, and SACE. As well as teachers for early, primary, middle and senior years (including specialist English and maths teachers), the school has a principal, school leaders, support workers and a pastoral care worker.
“As soon as you walk through the door, it looks like any other school – it just happens to be in the hospital,” says Matthew.
However, its unique environment demands adaptability and personalised learning, connecting with each student’s enrolled school to ensure a seamless educational journey.
The school follows regular hours, offering morning and afternoon sessions, and tracks the progress of each student. Despite the challenges, Hospital School SA provides term reports, maintaining a sense of normalcy in the learning process.
Same, same … But a little different
One small difference is that the midday break is called “lunch cover” and not yard duty, because they don’t have a yard.
Then there’s the constantly changing student population. “Every single day is different,” Matthew says. “We’re probably one of the only schools where students arrive fresh and new on a daily basis… It is a privilege to work with these young people and their families, because every young person and every family that comes through our door is impacted by trauma.”
Because of that trauma, and the various medical conditions of the young people, Matthew says first impressions are all-important for gaining students’ trust. “My dad joke is that we’re like Eminem: We only get one shot. That means we have to listen. The young people might come back with questions. We’re not going to redirect them; we’re going to answer their questions… It’s just really important to meet the kids where they’re at.”
For students who can’t make it into class there’s ward teaching, and for students with long-term medical conditions being cared for at home, there’s also an online learning program.
Book buddies and cuddly connections
Hospital School SA also runs some special programs that you won’t find in an ordinary school. These include the ‘Book Buddies’ program run with the WCH Foundation, where volunteer retired teachers and librarians read to children in the wards and outpatient areas of the hospitals each day – improving their literacy and engaging them in learning while they’re entertained.
Matthew also highlights the crucial ‘Connecting Kids’ program. This helps Hospital School SA students undergoing cancer treatment to stay connected with their friends and community using identical soft toys. The kids choose a special friend from Build-a-Bear, and two toys are bought. One stays at their enrolled school, while the other is with them in Hospital School. The toys share their adventures on the Seesaw app, bridging the gap between Hospital School, enrolled school, and the student.
Want more? Principal Matthew McCurry joins Hot Topics and takes us behind the scenes of Hospital School SA:
The “stingy eyeball” moments
For Matthew, working at Hospital School SA is full of emotional “stingy eyeball” moments – both good and bad. He says there are “the beautiful, fun, happy, exciting moments” when a student takes a big step forward in their recovery or the joyous occasions of farewelling kids and families when they’re well enough to leave hospital.
“Then we also have those hard-hitting moments where some of our young people pass away,” Matthew says. “It’s a factor of working at Hospital School SA you can’t avoid. There’s that semi regularity to it. We’re all emotional beings and we have to factor that into how we work together.”
Matthew says he and his “crew” of school staff sat down together and decided on the exact conversation they would use when a student passed away. “The conversation I have with them is word for word, line by line, pause by pause identical every single time.” He says the predictability of the conversation offers the comfort of knowing what’s going to happen next.
Last year Matthew had 13 of those conversations with his staff, and he’s already had three in 2024.
But he says his job is ultimately very rewarding, and no matter what the journey of each student is, the chance for him and his Hospital Schools SA team to be a part of it is always a privilege.
Read more about Hospital School SA here.
