school rules gone mad

Did your grandson's parents ask who his TA was at secondary school?

Given the length of time since you retired Jen, perhaps you should avail yourself of some contact time to see what life is like at the chalk face today.

Trisher, I did not say that regular non-contact time should be given up to giving regular injections. I said if a kid has a hypo, which is hopefully not regular.

How do you know I haven't, katek? I do not see why I should have to explain everything to you. When do you think I retired?
It's only for the past year that I have been teaching my grandson at home. I went into the primary school before then. Things haven't changed that drastically over a year.
Of course his parents asked, thatbags. They had meetings with the nurture group. Non-contact time does not always work in secondary schools because that is the time when autistic kids need help to socialise, instead of being left to walk around the playground on their own, having to listen to hundreds of noisy kids shouting and cringing at the noise. They knew who his TA was supposed to be, but three TAs in one class does not mean you have your own TA to help all the time. It also does not mean you have a TA to help if there are more than three kids who need help.

Sorry dj your first sentence was about giving injections and I just assumed this was what you meant for teachers.

Er.....I knew you'd retired from teaching because you said you had. I quote from your post of 13.38 "I gave up teaching a long time ago." Also if you had been in school recently you would have been more au fait of the current demands placed on teaching staff and the bureaucratic nightmare they have to plough through.

As for explaining yourself to me, I neither asked you to nor expected it. How you tick is entirely your business.

It is very unfortunate that kids are noisy and that your grandson's problem means he found school noise difficult to deal with. He is lucky that you were on hand to teach him at home. The thing is, I don't think school's can be blamed for kids being noisy and, however hard a school or a government tries to set up inclusive practices, there will always be some kids who simply cannot manage in the school system. While that is regrettable, I think it is one of those things we just have to accept. In an educational utopia, kids like your grandson would have a private tutor away from whatever makes them cringe.

apostrophe apology

Are you a teacher, Kate?

Have things changed that much in classrooms over the last year, since I was in one teaching reading?

Jen, just a thought but this thread was about someone else's problem. You have highlighted your own feelings and gone into detail about your own circumstances, because of this the focus has moved to you.

This may not be what you wanted but it is not surprising. Perhaps now is the time to move back to the original problem which I, personally, would say was more the OPs issue than the school's, which seemed to be going through fairly standard procedure.

Yes, I agree, gracesgran.
There are over 200,000 type 1 diabetics in schools, so I would imagine almost every school would have at least one. It's not new. However, it might be new in that school, and definitely is with the OPs family.
Schools have coped with it in the past and will continue to do so.

The school is now an academy having been in special measures for two years.
The diabeties team say that they have never met such an awkward school.

If I was the op's DD, I would be finding out exactly which administrators. Not sure what I would do after that though.

What I am is irrelevant. I agree with Gracesgran re OP and the school is clearly looking for time to sort out its procedures. Once these are in place (including the dread risk assessments) there should be no further issue.

I'm not sure why schools are put into a category called Special Measures but I presume it's because things at the school are not working satisfactorily for whatever reasons. Now I'm imagining a scenario where part of the reason for Special Measures is that the school's admin was not good so they are taking extra special care to get the admin sorted out properly before they undertake the special pastoral care that the diabetic child needs, or maybe because the admin is not great it takes them longer.

Is that possible or is my imagination running riot?

It would be good to have some more detail from the OP.

The school administrators are being obstructive. And are now seeking legal advice.
I suspect they dont want to have to do it, and are trying not to have to do it. Not sure they will be able to opt out though.

they dont want to give the insulin injections I mean

That is an assumption on your part, soon.

You are using the word imagining, I am using the word suspect.

Well said KatyK. I made the same points, several times, earlier in this thread, but gave up for obvious reasons.

Yes Bags schools are put in Special Measures as they are 'failing' and 'inadequate'. I'm not sure why the OP used the term 'administration' as it is more likely to be the management of the school which deals with such matters. Administration more usually applies to to secretarial support.

Or might she mean the Governing Body?
Or are words different in an academy?

Anya. I presume you mean KateK?

Words are not different in an OSTED report about academies.

The OP could quite possibly be referring to the Governing Body, or to the HT and other Senior Managers. It would help if she could be more specific in her terminology

I'm also having difficulty with the op's terminology. As I understand it academies are senior schools working out with LA control and taking pupils from 11 upwards-if this is the case then how is an 8 year old at an academy? Are there primary academies as well?

There are some primary school academies as well. I didn't know this until my son-out-law started teaching in one.