Students & Parents

For 16 years, Ellern Mede School has provided a safe and therapeutic community learning environment for children and young people who, for health reasons, are unable to attend their usual school.

Founded in 2001, the school originally served a particular student group – people receiving inpatient services for eating disorders and associated mental illness at the Ellern Mede hospitals. Now the school is able to serve a wider student group including children and young people who are at school but experiencing difficulties such as bullying, trauma or illness and who may be receiving medical care from any organisation. They may be referred to us by parents, carers, local authorities or other funders.

Office of National Statistics (ONS) research indicates 13% to 20% of children of school age are diagnosed with a mental health illness. Young people who have illness-related school absence need short-term, flexible, therapeutic educational support.

How Ellern Mede can help

Ellern Mede School historically met the needs of Ellern Mede hospital inpatients – people with eating disorders. Now Ellern Mede School has expanded its offering to meet the needs of young people who will benefit from its therapeutic programs, and flexible educational support during a time when they are receiving medical care and finding it difficult to attend their usual school.

We don’t believe young people or their parents should feel a fear of judgement in such situations. We aim to reduce the impact of such disruption, and do as much as possible to maintain educational progress and help the student return to their usual school with improved attendance.

Our dedicated teachers help every young person to recover lost academic ground, get back into studies and prepare for the next step in their life. We support each student’s individual wish to pursue their own future goals.

Students at Ellern Mede engage in personalised health and education based recovery plans. We offer a broad curriculum of academic, personal and social education. Our broad curriculum spans English, Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geography, History, Music, Drama, Spanish, French and German. An Inclusion Lead supervises student engagement, assessment and identifies future learning pathways.

Personal development is as important as educational development. We believe that feeling safe, respected, supported and relaxed is essential to their ability to learn. Our teaching staff are expert in helping young people to achieve this. We engender in each child an enthusiasm for learning.

We want to hear from you. We will do everything we can to help.

Adel Shirbini
Headmaster