Introducing physical education to hospital learning – can patients participate?

What is it about?

Children and young people with chronic health conditions are at greater risk of school absence and poorer educational achievement than their healthy peers. A range of strategies are implemented in home, school and hospital settings to improve the connection of these children and young people to their educational pathways, yet gaps in provision remain. Physical education (PE), while widely recognised as bringing important educational, social and health benefits to students, is not often included in hospital-based education support. This is due to a range of factors which result from the unique confluence of students with health conditions, use of generalist rather than specialist teachers in hospitals and the physical constraints on learning in the health care setting. This paper reports on the evaluation of an initiative to introduce PE for students in hospital.

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