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First meeting with secondary school

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NI-Bookworm

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Relationship to Diabetes
Parent of person with diabetes
hi.

I am heading to a meeting at my sons new secondary school this week with my sons DSN. Leaving the safety of the one teacher primary school!! Just wondering if anyone has any tips for asking any questions. Have a list such as asking for a list of carbs for canteen, holding onto extra supplies.

Any suggestions would be most welcome

Thanks
Maria
 
I'm afraid I can't offer any advice Maria, hopefully someone with experience of these things will be along! 🙂 I hope that everything goes smoothly, that the teachers are switched on and ready to play their part to the full, if needed. 🙂

Do you have a JDRF Schools pack?

https://jdrf.org.uk/school-pack/

Diabetes UK also have some resources that might prompt any questions that you may not have thought of or forgotten:

https://www.diabetes.org.uk/guide-to-diabetes/schools/

Good luck! 🙂
 
Thanks.

I got the jdrf pack. It was helpful but I imagine schools are so hard pressed to get through the set curriculum that they wouldn't deviate by integrating the pack. Which is a shame. My DSN is amazing and will take the lead on everything. She takes no nonsense from teachers. but I always end up forgetting what to ask and as soon as the meeting finishes I remember what I was supposed to ask!!!!
 
NI-Bookworm said:
Thanks.

I got the jdrf pack. It was helpful but I imagine schools are so hard pressed to get through the set curriculum that they wouldn't deviate by integrating the pack. Which is a shame. My DSN is amazing and will take the lead on everything. She takes no nonsense from teachers. but I always end up forgetting what to ask and as soon as the meeting finishes I remember what I was supposed to ask!!!!
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Why not make one of the points on the agenda to arrange for feedback from both sides to be sent so that both can ask any questions that didn't occur? I'm sure things will occur to the teachers after the meeting too, that they wished they'd asked about! 🙂
 
NI-Bookworm said:
Thanks.

I got the jdrf pack. It was helpful but I imagine schools are so hard pressed to get through the set curriculum that they wouldn't deviate by integrating the pack. Which is a shame. My DSN is amazing and will take the lead on everything. She takes no nonsense from teachers. but I always end up forgetting what to ask and as soon as the meeting finishes I remember what I was supposed to ask!!!!
Click to expand...

Perhaps write a list of questions so you don't forget.......... That's your homework before term starts :D
 
The school will need to write a plan for your son which will go on his file so that teachers are aware. The ones I have seen are very basic, things like letting him eat in class and what to do if he has a serious hypo, and allowing him to go to the toilet during lesson time. It will probably be his Head of Year who will keep a special eye on him, unless the school has a nurse.
In the 20-odd years I've worked is schools there have typically been one or two children with diabetes in each year group.
I imagine it's very different from primary school, where he will have had one teacher responsible for him all the time. He will want to be a lot more independent at secondary school I should think.
 
It will be important for him to take responsibility to ensure that he has his hypo treatment with him at all times. As a teacher I ended up with a stash in every room that I taught in,as as well as in an office at both ends of school. This was sometimes raided by a student with T1 but she always let me know if she had got caught out and replaced the stock and she helped me out on one occasion too.

PE could be difficult if the teachers are not prepared. They are usually ofay with the issue, but worth checking.

I also kept a spare set of pens in cash hook, just in case I forgot mine. It saved me missing lessons by going home to get them. Once I was on a pump it was a lot easier.

Just keep in touch with the school, and your DSN if any issues arise and deal with them then rather than let them become a problem.

As a volunteer speaker for DUK I go into schools to do talks to staff (including cover supervisors or supply teachers who may not be aware). jDF also arrange these talks. I have also found doing a lesson with his peers is useful. This usually fits in happily as part for PHSE or PSE or the current name for this bit of the curriculum. Failing that I did them in tutor time which is a bit brief but better than nothing. You could contact your local office to see if anyone is available

I hope he has a good start to term and manages the transition well.
 
Well I had the meeting today and it was great. School were very accommodating. There are other T1 kids in his year which I am glad of (not that the poor things have T1) as my son has felt very isolated as he knows no other T1 his age. (We were on holidays the last few years and missed the organised trips). All teachers within the school are aware of any kids with any medical conditions/needs and substitute teachers are handed an info sheet if they have to teach them. He will get a front of the line lunch pass and they are arranging a meeting with the chef to see portion sizes so that we can help him carb count in advance. All in all i am so happy that this school has experience dealing with this. In our primary My son was the first ever T1 and that was a challenge.

So I am relaxing now and just waiting for my sweet boy to transform into a huffy teenager and then the diabetes won't be the only the only thing turning my hair prematurely grey!!
 
Really pleased to hear that things went so well! 🙂 Good that he will have others there his own age, hopefully they will be able to help each other - nothing like peer support! 🙂 I hope all goes well, I am sure he will grow up to be a model son who does his Mum proud! 🙂
 
Brilliant - so glad it went well and that he'll meet other T1 kids, an added bonus.😛
 
Sounds good! We'll be doing all this next year so I hope the secondary school that my daughter ends up at will be as accommodating! She has a very detailed care plan for primary school, it keeps getting added to as things happen and different situations arise. I can imagine that I will have to slim it down somewhat for secondary school as she will have to do almost all of it by herself then (she can now actually). Basically signs of hypo, how to treat it if she can't do it herself, let her do it herself if she needs to which includes eating in class, and lunch time pass. Hospital consultant said that they will do a carb counting course for her and other kids her age in the summer holidays, to help her with that side of things - she's not bad at that already either - hubby was in Germany for a couple of days this week and brought us back some pretzels (big bready ones, not the little snack ones in packets). We had to look it up on the Internet, daughter's guess was closer than mine!

Hope all goes well for your son and that he can make friends with the other T1s, that will be fab for him. My daughter loves it on the rare occasions that we can meet up with others and she isn't the only one any more.
 
So pleased that you are feeling so much happier and it looks as if little people with type 1 are well catered for.
 
What a great outcome. Let us know how things go. It is possible to nominate the school for an award with DUK if you find that all that is promised works out. They use these schools as exemplars for others.
 
SB2015 said:
What a great outcome. Let us know how things go. It is possible to nominate the school for an award with DUK if you find that all that is promised works out. They use these schools as exemplars for others.
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Great idea. I will keep that in mind.
 
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