Reframe Pain Conference: Flippin Pain Goes to School

Queen Anne’s School in Caversham welcomed aspiring healthcare professionals from Edgbarrow School, Kendrick School, Alton School, Leighton Park School and Reading Boys’ School to join a conference on the important topic of pain, an issue that affects 1 in 5 school children.

Hosted in partnership with The Department of Pain Medicine at the Royal Berkshire Hospital and public health campaign Flippin Pain, the extensive programme delved into new advances and the complexities of pain medicine and the latest physiotherapy, psychology, and neuroscience research. The students explored challenging topics including Researching Pain: Psychology and Neuroscience, Psychologically Informed Practice, The How: The Pain-free Mindset and The Why: Do You Need to Know Pain?.

Many of the students in attendance had ambitions of pursuing a medical career, including 17 year old Owen Tuoblic, a student at Edgbarrow school, who said; “I am studying Biology, Health and Social Care and Business Studies and hope to become a Paramedic. I have found today really useful and hope to use the learning in my future career.” His fellow Edgbarrow student Suzanne Perry aged 17 hopes to pursue Medicine at university, while younger pupils Adnaan Khan and David Awittoo, both aged 15 from Leighton Park School, were using the conference to help inform their future career paths as they complete their GCSE year and look ahead to A Levels. Queen Anne’s pupils share a variety of career ambitions in the medical area including Molly Skeil aged 17 who plans to study Medicine at Oxford and is considering the option of working in military healthcare and Joanna Adeoye who has been offered a place at Cornell University in the US and ultimately wants to work on eliminating race and gender bias in healthcare.

The school was honoured to welcome Deputy Mayor of Reading Ayo Sokale to present prizes for the Reframe Pain Challenge 2021. The challenge saw students submit creative forms of media to help communicate the best pain management techniques to patients. From songs and Tik-Tok videos to leaflets and posters; Dr Deepak Ravindran was overwhelmed by the innovative responses to the challenge.

“I am so grateful to the schools for supporting me with the Reframe Pain Challenge. The judging has been so difficult given the quality and variety of creativity that has come through from our students. They have really demonstrated how much they understand and care with the time they have taken to create the various projects.” said Dr Ravindran

Queen Anne’s pupils Tabitha Morgan, Gabriella Hortopp and Hettie Walker received a highly commended award for their trifold leaflet that will be shared with patients at the Royal Berkshire Hospital. Hali Antoni, Grace Harris, Alex Hourihan, Alex Yau and Noa Merzer also received highly commended for their entry. First prize was awarded to Padmanaban Arunagiri from Reading Boys’ School who created a sophisticated, informative and eye-catching animation for patients.

Deputy Mayor Ayo Sokale addressed the conference and talked about how inspirational she found the students and how it gives her hope for the future saying; “With minds like yours that are passionate, enthusiastic and that show such ability, I know we are in good hands for the future.”