Over the past 5 years the INSCHOOL project has explored the school lives of secondary school pupils living with long-term health conditions (such as diabetes, epilepsy and asthma). This work, which involved working with over 400 young people, their parents/carers, healthcare professionals and school staff members, has shown that the UK school system is not currently meeting the needs of this group of young people. Additionally, many of these needs are shared by all young people regardless of which health condition they have.
The findings of the INSCHOOL project are now being used to create a new healthcare planning system for schools, which will offer clear guidance on how to best support pupils with long-term health conditions, as well as providing resources to support this new system.
The ‘creative resources for school staff training’ involves working collaboratively with a group of young people and Buttercrumble creative design studio, to create illustrated and animated examples of some of the powerful stories emerging from the INSCHOOL project.
These co-designed animations will be used as part of a teacher training package, which will bring young people’s stories to life and help teachers to connect with the issues faced by these pupils. They will form an essential component of the INSCHOOL teacher training.