Thursday, September 11, 2026, marked the official opening of the new school year for the Hospital School at San Gerardo dei Tintori in Monza, a moment that underlined the alliance between healthcare and education.
School principals, healthcare and hospital directors, representatives of the Maria Letizia Verga Foundation, as well as students and their families, gathered for the event. The presence of all these people together created a strong and supportive network.
The inauguration represented a meaningful moment where the right to education, medical care, and physical activity through sport therapy came together to ensure the continuity of a normal life for young patients.
The Hospital School is an alliance between medicine and pedagogy, where studying means continuing to plan for the future. For the students, school is not just a pastime, but a daily commitment.
The event opened with a quote by Italian President Sergio Mattarella during the inauguration of the 2025-2026 school year:
“School, by definition, is a place of openness, inclusion, and discovery.”
More than any other, this phrase captures what it means to run a school at the Maria Letizia Verga Center.
Openness and inclusion are the compass guiding teachers every day, because now more than ever, a hospital school is called to open itself up: to the needs of each young person, to their individual pace and possibilities, and to everything surrounding them.
Teaching means building an educational approach that can integrate into the therapeutic path and dialogue with it, ensuring that every child and teenager continues to feel, first and foremost, a student, with the right to learn, grow, be with others, and imagine their own future.
Openness also means ideally stepping outside the hospital walls, forging connections with students’ home schools and the local community, and meeting different people and realities.
And then there is the third word: discovery.
Discovery accompanies every single school day: it means uncovering the potential of the students, even during times of greatest fatigue.
It also reflects the teachers’ readiness to keep discovering new ways of teaching: experimenting with forms of learning that stem from encounters with the Center’s many professionals and resources, and collaborating with Sport Therapy to weave together movement, learning, and the healing journey.
Openness, inclusion, and discovery are therefore not just three words to kick off this new school year; they are the way we strive to experience school every day, alongside the children and young people.
Following this, the school, hospital, and center directors thanked everyone for the invitation, expressing great appreciation for the work carried out by the teachers and offering their full support.
The day also included a creative workshop in which participants made plantable pencils using empty medicine capsules, seeds from the Center’s Healing Garden, and pencils. Bringing together these three elements, the activity offered a powerful symbol of the Hospital School: a place where education, healthcare, and the wider community work together to support children and young people.
The workshop also provided an opportunity to meet the children and young people at the Center and to share a creative experience, while encouraging dialogue and exchange among teachers.
The event concluded with a visit to the Maria Letizia Verga Center and the Sport Therapy gym. Visitors appreciated the innovative facilities and the warm, welcoming environment, making it an enriching experience for everyone involved.
Maria Rosa Maggioni (Italy)
Email: m.maggioni@iccdacquistomonza.edu.it
Federica Lavagnini (Italy)
Email: a.lavagnini@federchimica.it
