Your turn to teach them
Of course it's up to you who you tell, but you really should let your friends, teachers and school staff (that includes people serving food) know that you have diabetes and what this means.
Telling teachers – your turn to teach them
Your teachers probably won’t know too much about diabetes unless they’ve had other students in school with diabetes. And even then, they won’t know how it affects you. So they’ll need to know about:
- what having diabetes means for you on a daily basiswhat having diabetes means for you on a daily basis
- what help you might need to look after your diabetes in schoolwhat help you might need to look after your diabetes in school
- what hypos and hypers are and how to treat themwhat hypos and hypers are and how to treat them
- whether you need any special arrangements around eating at schoolwhether you need any special arrangements around eating at school
- doing blood tests and insulin injections or using a pump.doing blood tests and insulin injections or using a pump.
And when the time comes:
- what allowances will need to be made for examswhat allowances will need to be made for exams
- what extra help might be needed on a school trip.what extra help might be needed on a school trip.
Looking after your diabetes in school isn’t just down to one person, and it certainly isn’t down to just you.
You could ask your teacher to hold an lesson in class, or school assembly all about diabetes. You can downloadschool presentationshere.
Before you go back to school after being diagnosed, or before you start a new school, your Mum or Dad and nurse should meet up with some of your school staff to talk about all these things.
You can go along to that meeting too if you like – after all, it’s you who’s got the diabetes and know best what it means to you. But if you don’t want to go that’s fine – just make sure your Mum or Dad or your nurse know what you think about looking after your diabetes, and what help you might need.
Telling friends
You might also want to think about telling friends and classmates. OurTelling friends page has some useful advice and tips on how to tell your friends.
