Type 1 diabetes: Make the grade campaign aimed to make sure all children with type 1 diabetes get the support and care that they deserve at school so that they are safe, happy and have equal opportunities at school.
With your help we campaigned to raise awareness to make sure that all schools make the grade for children and young people living with type 1 diabetes.
We awarded 230 schools with the Good Diabetes Care in School award to celebrate those schools that work with parents and healthcare professionals to ensure children with diabetes have as easy an experience at school as possible. See which schools have won the Award on our Honour Wall and check out our interactive map of winners.
Together we changed the law and now schools in England have a legal duty to support children with medical conditions, including type 1 diabetes.
Useful resources:
Our schools pages are packed full of practical tools and templates that we know you’ll find indispensable.
Free School Packs
There are four key things that schools need to have in place to make sure a child with diabetes is safe and able to reach their full potential at school.
- Medical conditions policy
- Individual healthcare plan
- Working together
- Training and support
Find out just how you can get these procedures in place with our popular free schools packs which are full of practical tips to make caring for children with Type 1 straightforward. Over 30,000 packs have reached schools and parents.
Practical help for school residential trips and exams
Schools and parents have often told us that planning school residential trips and exams are stressful at the best of times, let alone when the needs of children with type 1 diabetes come into play. We say that there is no reason for children and young people with Type 1 to miss out on residential school trips or not achieve their best at exams. And in England it’s also been a legal requirement since September 2014.
To make sure children with type 1 diabetes get the best out of school residential trips and exams, we’ve designed interactive tools that outline good practice and rights and responsibilities. They can be fully personalised and will guide you through the planning to in-practice stages of school trips and exams. We encourage your school to download this tool and put it into practice.
Talking about Type 1 diabetes in school
Supporting a child with type 1 diabetes is not just about day-to-day care, it is also important to educate staff and students so that they understand the condition. Dispelling myths, fears and misconceptions is often half the battle.
Ensuring that staff and other students understand and are supportive can make a huge difference to a child living with diabetes. We’ve made it easy for schools to raise awareness with our three bespoke presentations for schools. These come with easy to follow presentation notes and you don’t need to be an expert on diabetes to use them. They are perfect for use at school assemblies, staff meetings or PHSE lessons.
