“The war continues, but so do the lessons”: the Zhytomyr Superheroes School has turned three years old

Three years ago, on October 11, 2019, the Superheroes School opened in the the V.J. Bashek Zhytomyr Children’s Hospital – a space where there are no grades and usual rules, but everything is there to educate the children who have been in  inpatient care for a long time.

It all started with a room that was arranged on the 4th floor of the medical building. It didn’t have a lot in common with a normal classroom. A few desks and an interactive whiteboard were it. Yevgenia Smirnova, the founder of the Superheroes School, emphasizes that: “Our classrooms should be a portal to childhood, bright, modern and comfortable for everyone, so that everyone wants to learn and be creative here. Children who have already been sitting in wards for a long time need this place, where the magic of childhood comes to life, where there is time not for procedures, but for a journey to find interesting knowledge.“

And thanks to the strong support of the Zhytomyr City Council, in particular the Department of Education, the School was opened and equipped exactly as the children needed it. Because in the hospital, they fall out of the usual educational process: some may undergo procedures for months, others for years. But each of them has the right to education. That is why hospital-based Schools of Superheroes operate in Zhytomyr and other cities of Ukraine.

Of course, this year the war made adjustments to the work of both the hospital and the School. According to the teachers: “We were still working on February 23 and did not believe that the war would begin.” But after the full-scale invasion, it was only in August that the Superheroes School at the children’s hospital could be restored and continue its work. It was then that the coordinator Viktoriya Mykhaylenko started conducting master classes in origami, quilling, drawing, and safety lessons for kids in  inpatient care and taught preschoolers letters and numbers. Apart from the program, they managed to conduct Dream Lessons — special lessons of the School, where children literally learn to boldly fantasize, dream and desire.

Already in September, it was possible to resume basic lessons. Because although this school is unusual, the subjects taught in it fully correspond to the national education program. From the very opening of the School in Zhytomyr, the teachers of Lyceum No. 33 agreed to teach little superheroes in the hospital. To this day, more than 1,300 children were able to catch up with the program and return to their regular classes without any problems after hospitalization.

“Not only children but also parents attended classes. Some have mastered how to hold a pencil correctly, while others have only recently learned to read and count. The war continues, but so do the lessons,” shares Viktoriya Mykhaylenko, coordinator of the Zhytomyr Superheroes School.

In total, they study 12 school subjects and have additional classes in art, drawing, technology and design. The peculiarity of studying at the School is that children here can attend classes that are interesting or currently important to them. Of course, there is an age division, but as Viktoriya Mykhaylenko notes: “Preschoolers can come to the class for senior students and ask, ‘Can we sit quietly?’ And they really sit quietly and catch something new. This is a common story here.”

Every day at the School is a new story: children eagerly await their teachers, choose books from the modern mini-library, get acquainted with modern technologies and learn to their own satisfaction. Grades are not a priority here, but if necessary, teachers can issue a “report card”. As the founders of the Superheroes School, a Small Heart with Art NGO say: “Childhood is a time of opportunities.” Therefore, children and their needs are at the centre of everything here.

The Superheroes School expresses its sincere gratitude for the continuous support to the Zhytomyr City Council and personally to Maria Misurova and Serhiy Sukhomlyn.

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