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In most cantons, schools take a few weeks off in April – except in the hospital. The kids are happy about that.
Most school children in Switzerland are currently enjoying more relaxed times than usual: They are either still in the Easter holidays or will soon be rushing off to spring break.
With Hanna, who will soon be 14, it’s different – her lessons take place normally. But instead of getting angry about it, she says without hesitation: “I think the school is good – because sometimes it’s really boring in here.”
School is a distraction from pain and boredom
In here: This is the Lucerne Children’s Hospital. About a month ago, Hanna was brought in after being bitten by a dog. To this day, she still cannot move her right hand properly. She’s in pain, she says, but the doctors don’t really know what to do.
The young patient is visibly happy that there are school classes here – and with it a bit of variety. Classes start at 9 a.m. each morning and last two hours.
Legend:
Lessons in the Lucerne Children’s Hospital: For the young patients, the school hours are a welcome fixture in everyday hospital life (picture was taken during the Covid pandemic).
ZVG/LUKS
There is a classroom and a studio space for free, creative work. Three teachers look after up to 20 children in the two rooms, from kindergarten teachers to high school students. They trundle in after breakfast, with their arms or head in a cast, and if there’s no other option, they’re also in a wheelchair or in a hospital bed.
“Teaching these children demands a certain amount of flexibility from the teachers,” says Aline Kiser. She is the head of the patient school at the Lucerne Children’s Hospital, as the school is officially called.
In larger hospitals, such as the Inselspital in Bern or the University Hospital in Zurich, the teachers are only responsible for certain departments – in Lucerne, on the other hand, they teach all the children, regardless of whether they are here because of an appendix operation, a chronic illness or a psychological problem.
Children should not miss out on school material
“Our people have to be able to adapt to new situations spontaneously,” says Kiser. “They also need experience at all school levels – it may be that they first teach French and then an hour later they have to have an idea of what to do.”
Our people have to be able to adapt spontaneously to new situations.
But how important are school lessons in the hospital anyway? “Some people say: Let the children get well first – but that’s too short-term,” says hospital school director Kiser. Because some children are in the hospital for several weeks or even months. “It’s important to make sure that they don’t lose touch with the school material.”
Legend:
In the Lucerne hospital school, the children can also be creative – despite handicaps caused by injuries.
SRF/Evelyne Fischer
And that works well in the hospital school, even if there are fewer lessons here and they take place under special conditions, says Kiser: “The teachers at the hospital school get the current status of the lessons from the regular teachers of the children and can continue with them that there are no large gaps.»
Hospital school provides structure – and a touch of everyday life
But another component is also important at the hospital school: “The lessons give the children back a trace of everyday life, a bit of normality in an environment that is very much characterized by illness.”
Legend:
Rabbit masks against boredom: children in the studio of the patient school at the Lucerne Children’s Hospital.
ZVG/KSLU
A mother, whose daughter is repeatedly in the children’s hospital in Lucerne because of chronic intestinal inflammation, also feels this. “She doesn’t like being here, it makes her sad. But the lesson is the highlight of the day – it immediately improves her mood.”