“I get to go home tomorrow already!” Milan is sitting cheerfully and upright in bed. Two days ago he was in a very different state, recovering from his abdominal surgery. “Shall we prepare your test for next week then?”, I try tentatively. Milan gets out of bed, grabs his schoolbag and, accompanied by his drip pole, walks with me to the classroom.

In the modest nine years that I have worked as a consultant in the Emma Children's Hospital, I have already seen how much has changed. Children with cystic fibrosis, for example, were still regularly admitted back then, but now I hardly ever see them in the classroom. That does not mean there are fewer sick children at school. On the contrary. Because treatments are becoming more optimised, hospital stays are getting shorter, and healthcare as a whole is improving every day, we are seeing sick pupils less and less in the hospital.

Meanwhile, fortunately, they are largely going to school ‘as normal’ and nevertheless encountering inconveniences there. This means that the work of the Educational Support Consultant for Ill Pupils is becoming increasingly extramural. The focus is then primarily on how to organise school life with a chronic illness. That does not alter the fact that hospital school remains enormously important for a very large target group.

Also for Milan, who is admitted for only a short time. But also for all those children in day treatment, paediatric dialysis, the MPU and at Levvel. A little later, Milan and I are sitting at the table. After half an hour of doing practice assignments, he packs his bag again. “I'm ready.”

Tim Kallenbach
Teacher at the Emma