Essex pupils design posters to promote importance of clinical research
A group of pupils from an Essex school have designed a suite of striking posters to encourage people to take part in NHS research.
The sixth-form pupils at Shoeburyness High School have produced the posters following a design project which has run since the turn of the year, showing how research can help families stay together.
The posters have just gone on public display in the main corridors at Southend University Hospital, following a link-up between the school, hospital and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), England’s largest funder of health and social care research.
The sixth-formers studying either biology, art or media studies, have been working on the posters since January under the guidance of deputy headteacher, Mark Smith. They carried out some research and then created some outline ideas, before choosing their favourite designs in collaboration with representatives from the NIHR.
The project idea began last year when Graham Reeder, from Leigh-on-Sea, who taught in Southend before he retired and is a former trustee of the school’s academy, approached Mr Smith, with the idea of asking the pupils to help design posters promoting research.
Graham, who is a Patient Research Ambassador for the NIHR and was a patient who took part in a clinical trial at Southend University Hospital, said: “It’s great to see the pupils from the school embracing this project so wholeheartedly. Research saves lives and the posters show evocatively why continuing to improve healthcare is so important.”
