When you meet with your child’s school, make sure you’re talking to the right people. At primary school, it’s vital that the class teacher and the head teacher attend, plus any relevant classroom or welfare assistants. At secondary school, meeting with a form tutor or the head of year will probably be most practical, as your child will have several different teachers for various subjects. They can then pass on any information to the rest of the teachers. Whether your child goes to primary or secondary school, the school nurse should also attend.
Depending on their age, your child might want to talk about their diabetes on their own. But do offer for you or their PDSN to go with them.
Every child is different and you or your paediatric diabetes team may have alternative or additional things you need to bring up in the meeting, but here are some things you might want to cover:
- Does your child need to take insulin during school hours? If so what level of help will they need?
- Do they need help with blood tests? When will they need to do it? What levels are you looking for?
- Will your child need snacks/lunch at a particular time? How will that fit into the school day?
- Does your child need help with carb counting?
- Will your child need an extra snack before/during/ after PE? If so what do they need and when?
- Which hypo warning signs should school staff look out for? How should they treat a hypo?
- What should school staff do in the event of a high blood glucose level?
- Who’s going to help your child with the practical aspects of diabetes? It’s sensible to have two people trained up in case of sickness. And all staff should know how to recognise and treat a hypo.
- Does your child want to have their injections in a quiet, private place? If so where would that be?
- Who should the school contact in case of a problem? Try to provide contact details of at least two people.