St Mary's Schools Project, in partnership with Penny Bridge School

We recently completed a pilot project, following a model devised by St Christopher’s hospice in London, which sets out to work with local schools: over a period of four weeks, year 5 pupils from Penny Bridge came to the hospice to meet and work with daycare and out–patients on a collaborative art project.

During the first session pupils and patients met and got to know each other, and the following two sessions were spent on an art project, based on ideas contributed by everyone and worked on together. Our patients were delighted with the contact with youngsters and enjoyed their company and enthusiasm.

The 4th session consisted of a presentation/celebration to which relatives, friends, staff and others were invited – they were able to see the colourful backdrop and painted eggs produced by the participants and listen to the children reading out their thoughts and messages, as well as impressions of the hospice. The children also sang a beautiful song. This was followed by tea and cakes in the orangery.

There were many positive comments and everyone seemed delighted to be involved. The children were respectful and a credit to the school and their parents and many thanks to their teacher, Jane Thedham without whose enthusiasm and hard work the project would not have been possible.

It was a true communal effort with contributions from staff, volunteers and others and will hopefully contribute to hospice efforts to widen our profile in the local community and help others to a better understanding of our work and what a hospice is all about. It certainly dispelled a lot of misconceptions the children had.

Jane, one of the teachers said, “they learned that just because people are ill, they can still lead relatively normal lives and enjoy things... From a teacher’s perspective, the project was one of the best things I’ve been involved in. I am sure the project has had an enormous effect on the children (not just their learning)and it will be something that they will always remember.”

There is a short CD available which gives a flavour of the project. For further information please contact Jaini Hadley on 01229 580305 or email info@stmaryshospice.org.uk

We are hoping this will be the first of many such projects with many local schools taking part.