Peer to Peer Groups in Secondary Schools

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Keef

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I am working with my son's school, he has just started in year 7. They are looking to set up a buddy network or peer to peer group. Does anyone know of a Secondary School where this has happened, and works well? Any tips or guidance?
 
Thank you - I have contacted Diabetes UK to ask if can connect with a school which has won one of their awards. Think it would be useful for our school to connect and learn from their experience! We have offered school these resources! We do seem now to be in a better place since school seems to have admitted that that they have made a mistake, which is why I want to help! A buddy network will help as will learning from another school which gets it.....
 
Hi Keef. It sounds like a great idea. Do you mean a buddy network between type 1s or between a pupil with type 1 and someone willing to take on a bit of responsibility for keeping an eye on them?

I haven’t heard of such a scheme in an individual school, but I know it has been done in hospitals between patients.

I am an assessor for the good care in school award programme and I can promise you, having seen evidence of how the nominated schools support their pupils, that if you can hook up with one of them, they will be able to offer a lot of guidance.

I’d be very interested to know how this develops, so please keep me informed if you don’t mind.
 
Would you know how I can hook up with one of those good schools? I am keen in fact to encourage my son's school to hook up with one of those good schools. I work for Business Disability Forum - i know that good Disabled Employee Networks are those which are lead my a senior "sponsor" so that the network supports it's members but can also have an impact on the workplace. In the case of this buddy network idea, I think that it should be lead by someone at the school who understands Diabetes so can support it's members but can also report back to the school if some process or provision does not work. Members then have a secure environment in which they can speak if something is not right or if they need support - in the knowledge that they will get the support needed and that something will be done to fix what does not work. Secondary Schools also say that they are so large that they cannot keep an eye on all their students with diabetes - if the network also had friends of those with diabetes who could alert a member of staff if intervention were required or simply say "do you need to do a blood test" and sit with that person until ok. My son had 2 or 3 friends at his Primary School who knew him well enough to offer that initial support. I also think that the Buddy Network could help raise awareness of diabetes by creating resources such as videos. Our school seems to be receptive to the idea of a network, I would be delighted if they agreed to connect with a "good" school but I fear that there may be some reticence - they should want to learn from others experience! Perhaps those schools winning awards might be encouraged to reach out to other schools, or perhaps record blogs, podcasts or vlogs talking about that experience and how /why they won one of your awards.
 
You said in a previous post that you have contacted Diabetes UK about connecting with an award-winning school. I imagine your enquiry would have been passed to the manager of the scheme. I’ll contact her for you to see if she is aware of your enquiry. If you don’t mind me asking,

Secondary schools do give more responsibility to pupils in all sorts of ways. Would your idea involve some friends receiving some form of training?
 
Spoke to son's school, seems to be receptive to idea of the buddy network - the idea that his friends could also support him. Friends being trained or at least having awareness training so that they kind what to do and find support is clearly a good idea!
 
Hi. I’m a teacher in a secondary school and would like to try and set up better support for our diabetic children, we have a few. There’s help and reasonable support for them (and me) but I think it could be better. Any suggestions as to how I could go about it would be greatly appreciated.
 
I have a son with Type 1 in Secondary School and am trying to link his school which excels in diabetes care vis Diabetes UK through their Schools award scheme....
 
@Keef Your enquiry has been passed to the person I thought it would have been. She is on leave at the moment, but will deal with it when she returns.
 
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