Hospital Teacher

Andrew Wieland is a Hospital Teacher at Barts and The London Children’s Hospital. He works with children from as young as 4 years old all the way up to 16 years old in the two main children’s wards in the hospital.

Andrew starts his working day by doing the registers on the wards. Unlike registration in schools, Andrew doesn’t call out names. He goes around the ward and talks to the nurses about which children are on the wards today, why they are in hospital, finds out any important health information about his pupils. After talking to the nurses he meets with new patients and their families to talk about how the hospital school works. Most of the children have their lessons in the school room on the ward. Only the ones who can’t get to the school room because of their health do their lessons in bed.

Some patients are in hospital frequently so Andrew liaises with their schools to find out what school work they should be doing and what they should be working towards. He needs to consider the pupil’s illnesses to make sure that their school work is appropriate.

Andrew became a hospital teacher after training and working as a teacher in schools. His favourite part of his job is “The children, without a question. They are incredibly resilient and they deal with things with a great sense of humour.” He also enjoys the fact they he gets to know the children and their families much better than teachers in schools.