Teacher Nick talks about the success of including kids with diabetes at school.
I am a primary school teacher and had a child with Type 1 diabetes in my year 1 class last year. She is now in the year 2 class with whom we work closely.
During the last two years we have taken the children on numerous trips off site and included the child with diabetes in everything. We are very lucky for two reasons:
Although she is still very young, she is able to tell us when she feels low or high and can rectify this quickly.
We have a very close relationship with her parents, which allows us to communicate with them whenever we feel we need to.
The trips have ranged from walking to the local church to full days out to the theatre. Whenever we are organising the trips, one of our first priorities is to consider how we include the child with diabetes. This will include informing the parents so they have lots of time to prepare. We also consider which adult will take responsibility for her blood tests and medication if needed. That adult is also responsible for making sure the correct equipment and food is taken.
On one occasion, we were able to offer her parents a place on the trip, as they were concerned about the long coach journey (she gets travel sick which could complicate things).
In everything that we do which is different to the normal school day, whether at school or off site, we do everything to make sure that the diabetic child is included, and this has worked very successfully so far.
