Funny in a head striking kind of way story

[katie]

Woah that must have been a big shock since you had completely forgotten about it 😱

Yes it probably has happened! I think my head of year was shocked he didnt know, but I never thought it was a big deal. In my final year another type one joined into the same lectures as me and he seemed to use diabetes alot to get extentions. I know he was starting on the pump that year which is difficult, but I really dont think you can use Diabetes as an excuse, there is plenty of time to fit work in.

 

[Gasman1975]

I only told my lecturers during my MSc about diagnosis 1 year earlier, when approaching end of term 1 exams, which were up to 3 hours long, and I wanted to check that eating a few Polo mints or a ceral bar would be OK. These days, 13 years after diagnois, I wouldn't bother - but have absolutely no intention of doing another degree! As I was well over 18, I don't think they have the same duty of care for older students as for pupils aged under 16 years.

Hi Copepod,

Within the educational system you are not classed as an adult until you turn 19. However, the duty of care really applies to all students regardless of age as it also covers vunerable adults i.e. Those with health (mental or physical) or learning needs.

Andy

 

[sasha1]

Hi All ...

Thanks Patricia for sharing the story ... it made me chuckle ... cause I too could imagine Nathan's face if a mars bar was given in on hand and taken straight back .... 😱

Fantastic that E showed his pump as well ... and the class had in depth conversation about diabetes etc ...

Nathan is also taking GCSE Biology but they have'nt come across this question yet .. I do believe there will at some point be a paper to sit on diabetes as part of the coursework ..... So our boys/girls should have no excuse but to pass with flying colours ....

On the down side ... all teachers in any school regardless of primary, junior, secondary, college or Uni .... should be aware of all children with diabetes ... so I agree with bev here ..

Heidi
xx🙂

 

[Patricia]

Thanks Heidi! Love it.

I definitely feel E's teachers should know about his diabetes -- definitely. All of them. And they should know what constitutes an emergency, and how to deal with it -- even, as Bev says, by getting someone else.

What I feel okay about this third day of school is cutting them a little slack for not knowing it all yet!

As I say, I really do wish that I knew about all of my students with any number of conditions. I feel I'm trustworthy, and discrete. However, there are privacy issues -- and if an adult doesn't wish for someone to know, we can't do anything about that...

A paper to sit on diabetes! That's good news of a sort...

 

[katie]

Oh yes talking of privacy... When I was diagnosed aged 18 I was at sixth form and my teacher's were obviously informed as I was just diagnosed. During our leavers ceremony I was given an award (one of my teachers liked me!) and the head of year announced that I had done very well, despite being diagnosed with Diabetes. I was so embarrasses, he told the whole of my year, including all the nasty kids 🙄. I'm shy but I really wanted to go and tell him what I thought of him for being so insensitive and not asking me first. But I was too busy crying my eyes out Stupid man! That was probably the worst experience ive had Diabetes wise!

 

[MCH]

I have been deliberating for a few days how to make a comment on this thread without upsetting anyone
?so here goes.

As a teacher:

a) I am given a list of ALL the pupils in the school (of about 1200 pupils) who have medical ?issues?. I usually check my register and note any in my classes so that if they seem to be having a problem, I at least have a notion they might be telling the truth. (It also means that if anything happens, I will probably remember if the pupil has diabetes, epilepsy, a nut alergy ............ and be able to react and help in some way.)

b) I might well encourage a pupil to tell me all about their ?condition? by pretending I don?t know anything about it. I remember never telling anyone about my diabetes in case they though I wasn?t normal and couldn?t do everything that they could and now think it is good for people to talk about these things if they want to.

c) it is not only pupils who have pre-existing conditions that I have to worry about and people should realise that whether I KNOW about a pupils condition OR NOT, if they give me cause for concern, I will get hold of our school nurse or call the office to get a First Aider if I deem it necessary. I think to imply that any teacher would not do this is very, very insulting.

d) (and here I find myself for the fist time disagreeing with the teacher in question) I would NEVER use sweets as prizes etc for anything because apart from anythign alse, there are now so many pupils who are allergic to nuts etc that I prefer to use pencils, rubbers, rulers etc.

 

[Adrienne]

I have been deliberating for a few days how to make a comment on this thread without upsetting anyone
?so here goes.

As a teacher:

a) I am given a list of ALL the pupils in the school (of about 1200 pupils) who have medical ?issues?. I usually check my register and note any in my classes so that if they seem to be having a problem, I at least have a notion they might be telling the truth. (It also means that if anything happens, I will probably remember if the pupil has diabetes, epilepsy, a nut alergy ............ and be able to react and help in some way.)

b) I might well encourage a pupil to tell me all about their ?condition? by pretending I don?t know anything about it. I remember never telling anyone about my diabetes in case they though I wasn?t normal and couldn?t do everything that they could and now think it is good for people to talk about these things if they want to.

c) it is not only pupils who have pre-existing conditions that I have to worry about and people should realise that whether I KNOW about a pupils condition OR NOT, if they give me cause for concern, I will get hold of our school nurse or call the office to get a First Aider if I deem it necessary. I think to imply that any teacher would not do this is very, very insulting.

d) (and here I find myself for the fist time disagreeing with the teacher in question) I would NEVER use sweets as prizes etc for anything because apart from anythign alse, there are now so many pupils who are allergic to nuts etc that I prefer to use pencils, rubbers, rulers etc.

Well you haven't upset me. I think that if all teachers were like you it would be fantastic. At my daughter's school they are now all very good, some brilliant and others are aware. However before I appeared at the school, we only moved to the area 1 1/2 years ago they did not enough about diabetes. The DSN is rubbish and didn't really say or do anything to help these kids. The parents of the children already at the school were still on two injections a day and didn't know any different so there were no care plans in place etc etc. I say it like it is and now all the children have care plans, all Jessica's old ones but tweaked. I am called in to any diabetes meetings with new parents. The head teacher called me a miracle once which I will always remember. This school will now always (hopefully) be switched on to what diabetes is all about. Our fab DSN from London came to the last inset day and spoke all every single staff member and that is what should happen.

I take my hat off to you and all the teachers who are fabulous. To be aware and make sure you are aware of children in your class with needs is a must for all teachers. I hope Jessica's teachers in secondary school in two years time are like you.

Maybe you are so on the ball because you have type 1 yourself so are more aware or maybe you are just a really kind and good teacher (or maybe both 🙂) Some teachers would look at the list once and think its not their job and that does happen, believe me.

The two children in the Sweet magazine are friends of mine (well one is a friend and one I know through the email group and fb), they have both had horrendous times at schools and speak to Becca, she can tell you a story or two.

Thanks for your message, I think you needed to say it.

 

[Mand]

What a caring and thoughtful teacer you are, MCH. Thank you for your lovely post. I think you deserve a gold star!
Mand 🙂

 

[Copepod]

prizes in school

Interesting point raised by MCH about prizes in school. I'm sure a few teachers, very rarely, gave out prizes of sweets or chocolate at my schools in 1970s - early 1980s (village primary school, suburban junior, suburban comprehensive, suburban sixth form college), but only within classes for consistently good work & behaviour for a whole term. The "prizes" I remember most were the rota held by the headteacher at village primary who took infants for art / poetry in the last period each day so that the milk bottles left over could be distributed at the end of each day and working in teams to create themed murals of African animals etc for the classroom and Christmas decorations for the school hall; teacher at suburban junior giving me her goldfish to dissect, lending chemicals for experiments and wires, buls, batteries etc for electricity and art materials; and and the last day of term in each class at comprehensive when the teachers would create quizzes and games - word search in Latin was especially popular (yes, we really did Latin at a bog standard comprehensive - I was very proud of doing a 16+ exam, so I got both an O level and CSE. If sweets were given out, I can't remember the details, probably because I was given sweets like any child (didn't have diabetes then), but the treats from teachers described above were more "unique".

 

[Northerner]

My English/Music teacher often did competitions and gave out...pictures of old buses! He was a bus enthusiast - I still have some of the pictures in a box somewhere!🙂

In my school, if you were caught eating sweets in class you had to pass the packet round so everyone could have one. I don't remember ever coming across anyone with diabetes during school or uni. There was a boy who suffered from clinical depression who was off for nearly a year, and a friend of mine was affected by thalidomide and had malformed hands, but that's all I remember.

 

[Sugarbum]

First of all Patricia, what a great story about your boy! Even I am proud of him, and I dont know him! Sometimes I get flumoxed on the spot and wished Id said certain things after the event, but your boy seems to have responded so well, what a complete credit to you both he is 😉

Just reflecting on what N has written above me, I clearly remember in my class in junior school (we stayed in the same class for 5 years) who had turrets syndrome. He was very symptomatic and used to shout out swear words in class all the time. NOW I know he had turrets, but in the whole 5 years it was never explained to us. Such a shame. I really hope things have changed for the better now.

Your story P on the health DVD made me gulp...so very sad.

I know its not the same but sometimes things like this scare me somewhat. In my 3rd year at university I wrote my final essay on a subject of my choice and chose diabetes and based it on a case study. Of course I went on to develop diabetes myself 4 years later, and I have read back that essay and its dreadful compared to my knowledge now! Of all the things I could have chosen....or irronically thought I had "knowledge" on and to be quite honest had none.

I completely agree with MCH in your approach to reward (I am so sorry for N who got pictures of buses???!) for the children. I personally wouldnt advocate sweets! I hope this practise has now changed but I remember going the the dentist as a child and then being given a lollypop by the dentist! Ridiculous!

Great story though, Patricia! This has cheered me up!

 

[Patricia]

Hiya

Glad to hear everyone's views on this thread -- great thing about this forum: you never know where you'll end up!

I feel in complete support and sympathy with MCH...My own sense of duty for my students, despite being that much older, is very much like that for my own children. And any child or vulnerable person, actually. At the same time though I do know that many teachers are somehow not able to do as you do MCH. Much to my horror we found this out when my son went to France for three days (see my old thread, New on Pump, I think it's called). Here the care was hugely remiss, fortunately to no horrible end, but it was shocking what was not done even though requested: no nighttime levels confirmed, no checking in with hypos, no reminder to test when swimming. That's all we asked, and none of it happened by the person we had asked to take responsibility. On the other hand, some completely different teacher (no doubt like you!), *did* respond when my son said he needed reminding etc, and also asked how he was after some meals...

So. I know what we wish for and what we ourselves would do, but sometimes it just doesn't happen.

The good news story though to follow on from this is that yesterday my son's brand new DT teacher was completely au fait with his diabetes, and let him 'get on with' testing and treating a hypo without a falter in his class. So that's good!

One more thing: I too want to back up MCH on how teachers like her (and me, I hope) would *make certain* to follow up on anything unusual up with ANY student, regardless of a revealed condition or not. This kind of care is extremely important to me personally, for some reason. Many, many times I've either a) chased down a student for an informal chat, b) gone to my pastoral care chappie and asked if there was anything I should know, or c) gone to same chap and said we need to keep an eye on so and so... And in truth, the vast majority of my colleagues do the same. We care deeply about the overall welfare of our students.

Sugarbum: it's so weird, isn't it? An early interest and part-knowledge then somehow comes true. I do find it a little scary too. And sad, for all of us. But then that's because it was a different life then, that's all...

Sigh.

Rewards: well, I don't know. I like the quirky ones like the bus pictures, and mainly both my children's schools use a merit type system,which is very good and accumulates, etc...Sweets? Occasionally fine. All the time, no!