Horrible phone call with school😭

Sorry you're going through this. I would keep her home, its what I did with one of mine. I have triplets going through gcses - they have all been unwell and all on antibiotics. One actually missed an exam. He couldn't open his eyes for the pain and couldn't stand steadily. Took a bit of getting to but we finally got a diagnosis and supporting evidence. They have all got to all other exams, definitely has impacted on last minute revision (sleeping instead) and high temps and headaches aren't ideal for revision or exams. What the exam board will do regarding the missed exam I can't say. But if he fails its not the end of the world. He was in no state to go in and that was that. I have done my best to support him and all of them and that is all I can do. I understand your stress totally though, in the end it was my decision to keep him home on the day so I felt responsible. Honestly though I can't see he'd have even written his name on the paper. Equally felt bad dosing up a child with a temp of 39 and sending them into an exam then bringing them home to sleep for the rest of the day. Which I have done repeatedly through the 3 of them. Hope History isn't one she wanted to do for A levels and she improves. The one my son missed isn't one he wanted to continue with. Just this week left to get through.

Plus Boris is making this exam pressure worse by saying that students that don't pass their GCSE Maths and English won't get loans for uni- surely students who can't sit first time around for some reason (bereavement, illness, school refusal) and go back to college and resit are exactly the type of young people we want to be well educated! Just like @Solosunrise 's daughter. More pressure on the young for absolutely no reason (to save money obviously but not for the young people's wellbeing).

I am stating it as a fact, because it is a fact @1000pieces

I am a research scientist, I work in this area.

Have you read the systematic review you linked (and indeed all the studies that are used in it)? Asessed them for quality, risk of bias etc?

Or did you just do a quick google for a study title that fitted your post?

I also had a bad experience on Topiramate, it's an epilepsy drug and had a lot of side effects for me, they are now understanding that there's a strong connection between epilepsy and migraines (or rather they show similar 'brain storm' patterning hours before symptoms appear).

As for 'anxiety' I know when I am experiencing stress over the long term, my migraines get worse, but it really isn't as simply as calm down and they go away, long-term things like meditation and relaxation can help reset the pathways, but once a cluster has started, they seem to have a life of their own. It's like saying just relax to treat high blood pressure, yes, there's a relationship but there's no simple connection, plus having migraines makes you depressed and anxious as they end up ruining parts of your life! If you haven't tried the Curable app, that's one way forward for after the exam period for your daughter, alongside medication.

I just want to extend my sympathies to you and your daughter @ArseInTheCoOpWindow

I used to suffer severe migraines (eased only since menopause) and there is no way on earth I could have gone anywhere 'just for an hour'.

I was once bullied into going to work with an impending migraine - they soon sent me back home when I was violently sick within 5 minutes of arriving (and no, I didn't make it to the loo!)

All I can offer is the suggestion that gcses are re-sittable, and your daughter isn't putting her entire future at risk by missing this one. Even though the school will likely say otherwise. One of mine missed all her exams for very valid reasons, was accepted into college where she did 5 gcses on the side (mostly working at home) and still made it to Uni via an access course. A year or two late, but it doesn't impact her in the least.

It was OP who stated that the migraines are stress-related and that the issue is specifically linked to exams. No need to lecture pp who are responding directly to that.

Depends on the head of year IME - some know the child and remember work ethic and medical issues others seem to have no idea who my child is even with prior cause to.

I'd e-mail the exam officer - lay out the situation in writing.

Make very clear it's a recently diagnosed condition so medication isn't stable yet and hampered by her age and prescribing conditions it's a migraine not headache or stress related condition but debilitating neurological condition and see what if anything thing else they think you need for evidence.

Possibly cc the head of school in as well.

@bronzepig apologies... I don't really know much about what causes migraines.

If she is too ill then she is too ill- it doesn’t matter why she is too ill. You have Drs notes and evidence so don’t worry, there are procedures in place for things like this. Just concentrate on your daughter and try not to worry. 💐

unfortunately it is nowhere near as simple as that. Neurologists, psychologists and doctors still haven't disentangled cause and effect of the high co-morbidity rate, so you really can't just state it as fact.

The Migraine-Anxiety Comorbidity Among Migraineurs: A Systematic Review
www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2020.613372/full

Anxiety and depression symptoms and migraine: a symptom-based approach research
J Headache Pain. 2017; 18(1): 37.
Published online 2017 Mar 21. doi: 10.1186/s10194-017-0742-1

I haven’t rtwt but I think a fair number of people, and the school, think a migraine is like a headache. Take a painkiller, bob’s your uncle. It is not like a headache, except that one of the symptoms is pain in the head. That’s only one of the symptoms.

Has she been prescribed triptans? When they work they abort the migraine.

Topirimate was the worst one I had. Eased the migraines a lot but the side affects were so horrendous I had to come off it. I had to sit every one of my GCSEs with blinding migraines after a severe head injury. I'd missed loads of school from hospital appointments so I didn't even have coursework marks to help me. Would they let her sit the exam on a different date at home via zoom? I've just done a few exams that way for my NVQ it's all done to proper exam conditions with no one else being allowed in the room and you can't leave to go to the toilet but it's between the person sitting the exam and the invigilator(s) and that's it. Being in a home surrounding might be less stressful for her

Well obviously they are going to explore all avenues. Stop overreacting.

This is why the whole GCSE system in England is absolutely ridiculous with far too many exams in it. You don't need two or three per subject, one of my friend's daughters had 30 exams this year. Of course people get sick, get Covid (and anecdotally are going in with Covid, spreading it around to the others in the exam hall), get migraines and so forth. At university, we have resits in August for this reason. In GCSE's you don't until the following year, if they are allowed which messes up plans for the next year.

There's no need to make 15/16 year olds take 20-30 exams at this time. Proper teacher assessment, or externally marked reports/projects could be used for 50% of the grade, with the other assessed by exams if necessary.

Exams (in their current form) are pretty pointless and most people's heads empty the second they leave the exam hall.

Our employers are constantly complaining that the school leavers and the university students aren't what they want and don't have the skills we need. We are also short on manual/tradespeople.

The current system is absolutely not fit for purpose, as exemplified by all those people who think a 16 year old should just get up off her bed with a severe migraine and splurt out a lot of useless knowledge about geography instead of getting better, submitting a report/reassessed later in the year.

I hate the educational system in England so much, it's caused so much stress to my children, who have thrived despite and not because of it. They do not love learning, they do not have the skills they need, they are little exam machines because that's what they've been taught. I actually feel guilty at times I've put them through it.

Soon it will all move online anyway, and the Op's daughter could get better and sit home and do a different paper a week later to 'prove' her abilities and we'll look back on this time and think: what was it all for?

School needs educated on migraines as do some of the people on here. They need to be more supportive but I'd be complaining at length to them. She'll be ok once the relevant documentation has got to the right people. Just keep telling her that.

Even the day after one I'd be in no fit state to do an exam. DS often gets them 2 days in a row. I'm pretty sure when DS gets to exam stage we are going to have to deal with this. His are infrequent, unpredictable but can be stress induced.

Your poor daughter, that sounds horrendous. I think the school are being a bit harsh, but I’m sure they’ve only got your daughter’s best interests at heart

They haven't. When the chips are down, secondary schools worry much more about attendance, Ofsted and exam results than anything else at all. Once you've had a child with poor attendance due to anxiety/SEN/poor physical health you find out what they are really like. Luckily the OP has her daughter's best interests at heart and will fight any bullshit the school or exam board come up with.

Of course she shouldn't come in for an exam with a migraine. Not sure what planet some people are on. It is really clear cut. She is ill, she can't do the exam. You have evidence. That can be presented to the exam board who will have a process for these situations. If she did somehow struggle in, how would she even write her name on the paper! Clearly some people don't know what a migraine is!

This might sound rude but is doing A levels the best path to go down if exam stress is causing this?

@Needmorelego

As in my previous post, stress (from exams or otherwise) does not cause migraine or migraine attacks.

Theyll all go away after the exams. They’re stress related and she’s got bad anxiety.

I don’t blame the school for asking if she can just come in for an hour or trying to find an alternative solution.
They obviously care about your DDs education and know how important her history exam is to her.

Some students can manage to come in just for the exam and leave again so it’s good she gave you that option.

Obviously if none of the options are appropriate and you think she can’t go in then she can’t go in. But I don’t know why you’d be so annoyed that people are trying to help her.

Yes, this was a horrible phone call.
It won't help the stress and the feeling of rocking the boat, then falling in the lake.
But it is going to be ok.

The illness and migraine has been going on, for you, as something you've seen in progression over several weeks. It hasn't been fine for all exams so far, but she functioned. Since it was too bad to be able to do this exam, she was not 'fit to sit'. For the school, though, they will be judging on the ones they've seen her do, and will be assuming that was a similar thing, not a worse situation. The student being unable to sit an exam should be something exceptional for them, so I'd agree that most except the exams officer will not be familiar/ tactful with all the advice (or able to be well-versed in exactly what will happen), and will probably be preoccupied with the management of the overall exam process for those who are in school instead. Speak to the exams officer.

Get the medical advice and evidence. Take one day at a time and don't try to fight on all fronts; pace yourself with the interactions with school.

A levels, undergraduate degree, masters, doctorate, and now an academic

All done with chronic migraine. Disability does not need to prevent you excelling academically, you just need the proper support in place.

Of course right now OPs daughter is struggling - it sounds like this is a relatively new illness and she doesn't have the proper meaures in place yet to manage it.