Any ideas how I can Make school stop forcing DD to do PE?

Osgood's is caused by over-exercising, no?
2 girls who have/had it/get it recurringly at my dd's school are both very competitive (and pushed by their parents) in several different sports. They have to take time out of PE and games at school on a fairly regular basis and wear support bandages on other occasions etc.

I'm not saying you are one of those pushy parents but I have never seen the point of children doing anything to an extent which causes injuries (my dd is School swim Capt and did ballet for 8 years to a quite high standard and was in shows etc but has never over-trained)

why do they need to know about ballet? dont get it!

think you are complicating things by giving them too much info tbh. no- ones business what she does outside school in my humble opinion.

tell them she can not do it because of her knee problem as diagnosed by medical expert- provide copy of letter/report recommending that she does not undertake pe.

end of!

I had Osgood's as a girl and it was mighty sore. I spent many an hour after dancing with a bag of frozen peas on my knees. I had to stop all excercise for a while.

I think they know more about it now and suggest resting for longer. Although I did rest up for a while, I probably returned to dancing before my joints were fully healed. I still have spurs on bone which bruise when I kneel. Ok, not a big issue but I think you really have to consider that it is to do with growth and how the joints develop and that rest really does help by allowing the joint heal.

If it's any consolation to DD (and to you) I went on to do dance as part of my degree, so a few weeks/months out shouldn't hinder her too much.

I'm thinking they think you are being a bit precious and controlling about her ballet and you want to conveniently skip the bits of the curriculum to suit your own agenda, whilst still insisting she's fit enough to do ballet. Ballet would be less than ideal with OS, and if it's long term damage you wish to avoid she really should refrain from anything that strains the joints, for quite some time, I'd have thought, including a ballet exam. So I suppose they think that you are either:

a) laying it on a bit thick about the extent of the problem, and she's well enough to do ballet and PE, or,

b) if her knees are damaged enough to miss PE they expect her also to stop ballet.

Sounds fair enough to me to be honest.

Yeah, but the basic stages are not hard on the joints. In fact, with dd's condition, they were very similar to the physio she was ordered to do, so hospital agreed that she might as well do it in ballet class as travel up to physio department.

But it seems like with Osgood Schlatter you
really do need to rest, so sounds like you're going to have to break the sad news, Eccentrica.

Cory, that is pretty much what I was trying to say too! My last paragraph about the professional dancers was just to give an idea of how hard it can be for the joints, in general.

Poor you, I would talk directly to the games staff. when my Ds had a broken arm in plaster to the shoulder, they had him running up and down the touch line refereing until I stopped them as he kept falling over on the arm (also in his uniform as he couldnt get changed). They didnt seem to connect the plaster he was wearing and the painkillers he was taking, with the need to be careful with the arm so it would heal properly

What a shame for your dd, she must be so upset about ballet. Hope it's the sort of thing that she can make a recovery from, or that it can improve in some way...

As for the school, I believe you! Had a teacher try to make me do PE with a broken wrist once - I wasn't keen on PE generally and she just didn't believe me (A&E hadn't plastered it, reckoned a sling was enough). She actually had the gall to stand there and say 'I've phoned the hospital and they say it's not broken' which was a downright lie - and ruddy stupid because I was a reasonably intelligent teenager who knew about medical confidentiality.

That was years ago and I'd vaguely hoped things had changed for the better, although various threads on here suggest not.

Hope you can get this straight with school so the message goes out loud and clear to ALL teachers. And that dd has the confidence to explain if anyone doubts her.

My dd doesn't do PE. Like JJ she has an alternative timetable. You need to write a strongly worded letter regarding her not being able to do PE under medical advice and get a letter confirming it from your GP or whoever diagnosed it.

You do need to bite the bullet though and speak with her about the ballet.

No no, Quint, I did say that maybe it is best for this particular girl not to do it, if it's going to muck up other things.

even at the cost of schooling, Cory?

Quint, not everybody has to do ballet to the standards of famous Russian ballet troupes. When dd did ballet, it was always on the understanding that everybody did the best they could; girls who could go up on pointes did pointes; the rest did something else. The ballet school prided itself on its inclusiveness; they had children with SN and found a way of including everybody in their shows; they just organised the dance routine to fit round everybody's abilities. ( I miss them). It didn't mean the children were set up for disappointment: most of them were quite level headed enough to enjoy dancing for its own sake without thinking it would automatically turn them into Darcey Bussell.

You can still enjoy something even if you are only a mediocre performer. This is something that we need to recapture as a society: the fact that you are allowed to be an amateur and still try your hand at things. (after all, I don't stop ds from playing football with his friends just because he is not showing any signs of talent)

Though possibly there are medical reasons not to dance in the present case.

oh seeker they can.

I damaged my back when I was 16. My gp wrote a letter to the school explaining I could not do PE for the current term, the only exercise I could do was swimming, as this would strenghten my back.

The school did not have a swimming pool. There was a public pool 5 minutes walk away. I had one our free after PE. I suggested I get dispensation to go to the pool instead of gym, as I would just make it back and forth due to my free hour after the PE. The school refused. As there were no pool on the premises they could not let me off to go swimming. I failed PE that year.

But really, is ballet such a good idea? By the sounds of it, she is going to be a pretty mediocre ballet dancer, if she already now cant do jumps etc. Do you really want to set her up for disappointment? Isnt it better to build all round fitness, let her walk and do PE than insist on ballet?

I read a behind the scenes article, written by a woman who followed a Russian famous ballet troup. She wrote about how they all howled with pain, and massaged their aching joints and muscles behind the scenes between their performance times, wiped their tears, put a straight face on and went out to perform. I cannot watch the beatuy of ballet anymore when I know the pain it inflicts on the performers.

Seeker, I don't quite know how to break this to you:

Schools don't always do what they are supposed to. They are run by humans and humans can make mistakes.

Teachers don't always do what they are supposed to, either. Long after dd was been diagnosed, she was still coming across individual teachers who took it upon themselves to decide that they know best.

And then of course there are cases when communications break down and teachers simply have not been given information they should have been given: not all teachers will listen to a teen in such a situation. (In dd's last school, medical information was never passed on to teachers and meetings with SENCO/head never involved teachers in any way. New school much better)

Best plan in the latter case is for child to carry copy of dr's letter: but there are teachers who don't want to be interrupted.

Some children find it really hard to contradict a teacher too; dd is in this category and has now been issued with a red card as the school recognises the problem.

I find this completely baffling. If a school has a letter from a child's doctor saying that he or she can't do PE, they don't over ride that and make them do it, do they? If they do, you should go straight to the Chair of Governors.

My son was out of pe and games for about a year due to Perthes disease. The school, on my suggestion, arranged for him to do alternative classes during those times - I think he helped out with a younger class and sat around playing with computers (ie "did IT" ). They were utterly fantastic with it all though and the headmistress and teachers couldn't have done more.

I knew of one parent who called her child from school at start of Pe lesson and brought him back at end. She took him to a swimming pool which was the only exercise he could do which wasn't possible at school.
Don't know if this is helpful or not

I googled too (cos I'm nosey) and found this.
I thought the bit about relieving the pain might be useful as it advises using compression bandages. If your dd had her knees bandaged they couldn't make her do PE could they?
Otherwise what other people have said about having a stick makes sense because this article says crutches might be necessary.

Just googled Osgood Schlatters and sounds to me like you may well have to break the news that she can't do it. It is very hard when they have to give up something they love- dd had to give up ballet last year and was devastated- but sometimes needs must.

Definitely sounds like she shouldn't be doing PE though; give her a letter from her GP to wave under the teacher's nose. And using a stick might well help her image; dd takes a wheelchair to school every day even when she doesn't use it, and I think that helps to rub it in.