I think I’m disabled 1 advice for work and new job- teacher

[nutellacrumpets]

I have always had a ‘bad back’ but usually had periods where it wasn’t painful at all and the flare ups of agony. Usually there was some type of mild ache managed with paracetamol and ibuprofens

8 years ago I injured it (don’t remember what) and the pain has been getting worse since. I fe had scans and injections and pain clinic and nothing works. I had amitruplylone for 6 years but then that stopped working and went in to codiend and a course of diazepam (physio recommended as I also had a a spasm) had another scan one year ago and that diagnosed facet arthritis. I take slow release tramadol am and pm and this effectively manages the pain although I do have pain flare ups still. I do not want to be on tramadol for the rest of my life.

I am a teacher in a secondary school. I have to put up displays, carry boxes and piles of books and exams, pick things from the floor, walk to the top floor of the building and stand at the front and walk around teaching.

depending on how bad my pain is depends on how mobile I am. I cannot stand still for any length of time. I can walk and exercise and can be active. On Friday I did a day of meetings and had to sit in a conference style chair instead of my office chair and Saturday was agony (I went to bed with a heat pack for a few hours) I cannot carry things up or down stairs, I cannot walk up and down stairs multiple times a day. A can’t always pick things up from the floor.

I have suffered prejudice with people making “banter” about how I am lazy for using the lift and get some exercise that will sort you out. Inhave lost 5 stone on Mounjaro to help with the back - reader- it didn’t-and I cannot reasonable ask my colleagues to move piles of books and things. So my current school were good in the end- a company came in fitted me for a new chair which they bought and a foot rest. I have a dolly (flat bed trolly) in wheels to move things and lift key and a stool at the front of my class to perch.

my main concern is that when I was interviewed that they told me they want to see you teach from the whole room. I mean I can try but some days I won’t be able to. I will be marked down in lesson observation if they see me sat at my desks. There will be multiple people doing lesson observations. I can see the feedback now “was sat down, not dynamic or engaging” it even be a non negotiable.

I didn’t want to leave but have been redeployed as part of restructure. how can I communicate my needs with out sounding demanding or lazy. Who do I send it to? The HR link who did the redeployment from HQ, the new head? The new HR contact? My current head?

I believe if fit the criteria under the equality act 2010 and believe I am entitled to reasonable adjustments.

finally I am a teacher and there may well be typos and incorrect homophones. But it’s Sunday morning and I have a tiny phone screen. I cannot proof it and I don’t want to. I am very good at my job.

Have you had an occupational health assessment? If so what do they recommend?

No. When I started my current post I did a questionnaire that goes to occ health. When I was redeployed I didn’t. I asked for an OH assessment three years ago and they said I didn’t need one as it would help and that I could self assess my desk set up.

I found this baffling.

You need an OH assessment so they can make recommendations for adjustments. Your employer decides if they are reasonable and can be accommodated. Ultimately an employment judge will decide whether you are disabled under the EA2010 for the purposes of work and adjustments but if your employer knows you maybe they should consider them. Your employer would need to be clear why they can’t accommodate them. It would help if you could also think about what you need and how it would help you. It really should be a good two way discussion to help you do your job. Not a formal set of demands, working together helps everyone.

What’s wrong with using the perching stool? Wasn’t that the reasonable adjustment? To effectively teach you do need to be visible so a stool seems a good solution

Have you been redeployed to another classroom role?

I think she's saying she doesn't have that, nor the other informally agreed adjustments, anymore (or won't in September) as she's being redeployed to a new school.

I’m assuming the redeployment is either in the same school or academy trust? Can you get a new job at a school that isn’t going to tell you wanky nonsense like “teach from the whole room”? I’m not sure how many sane schools are left in the UK. I’m at an international school and they would never dream of expecting my colleague with a similar condition to move around or pick up heavy things, and the rest of us help her out with lifting and shifting eg moving desks or books. No one would dream of telling her to get some exercise.

Your job sounds toxic on several levels and I feel like a better school is out there, if you go for reasonable adjustments on interviews to ensure they know you can’t be moving around the room much.

I second the idea of looking for work at a school which is able to assess whether your teaching is good or not without having to have you follow a tick list of random criteria. I’m a teacher and do exactly what I need to do for the lesson to go well. Sometimes I can teach a whole lesson from one seat, sometimes I’m constantly on the move. If an observer marked me down for the former lesson just BECAUSE of that, without any connection to the progress of the pupils, that’s a failing in them as an observer not in me as a teacher 🤷🏻‍♀️

I can’t comment on your back but as a teacher trainer I can assure you that movement around the room isn’t some ‘wanky’ fad. It helps behaviour, engagement, allows instant feedback on written work, encourages better relationships, lets students lead from the front …I could go on and on. If I observed a lesson where, without good reason, a teacher sat at the front and ‘lectured’, I would feel a bit concerned.

But your case is obviously exceptional OP and needs thought. Firstly the workplace agreement says teachers should not be doing displays - that is a admin task, not one that needs teacher time. Please don’t pile in primary teachers - thems the rules.

I never had a classroom of my own so bagged cupboard space and would send students to collect books st the beginning of each lesson. I’d have a starter task on the board to occupy those first few minutes. Same at the end of the lesson.

You always have to submit a lesson plan for an observation so right across the top in bold write ‘Moving around class will be limited by disability’.

And see OH to get this written down. Good luck.

Thanks for all the ideas. I can’t reply individually but as follows

my current school have no issue with my work or whether we sit or stand. I agree that move to and teaching from around the room is good practice but it isn’t always necessary and is absolutely knackering to give a bafta winning performance 6 hours a day.

My new school seems really nice. The conversation about teaching from around the room is that the is a wireless mouse in each classroom to facilitates this. I do not know if it is a non negotiable or if there are non negotiables. But I do know it is all about results.

I am taking my chair and foot stool with me I can’t really take the stool from the lab (or can I?)

it was a caretaker who “bantered” “bad back? Give over, get up those stair and get the exercise”. When I told HR contact he said “it just John, you know what the is like.”

I completely agree it is a two way professional discussion (but I have learned that school leadership rarely want to listen or take on board anything you have to say and you need to be prepared to fight you case).

Who do I approach and how when I don’t know them. Line management in schools is weird. Usually LM does not do the usually HR things that would be done in any other job. It is all done by the head as a way of dissuading people to do it - ringing in sick, return to work, overtime requests, expenses all signed off by the head.

legally I fulfil the description of significant impairment for more than 12 months. I never take time of for this reason.

I am concerned I will have so many lesson observations. They can say what ever they want and even though it is qualitative their judgments are always defended and back up.

I do not want to leave my current role. My friends look out one another and I have good relationships with the students developed over 12 plus years but I have been redeployed in a technicality. It was either that or go into a pool outside of my qualification.

yes I should go and work in a nice school but they are few and far between, I want a short and stress free commute and I live in an rural area with few schools.

Oh and it is a great idea about putting it in my lesson plans but we don’t do them. We do have seating plans though for the observers so I might put it in there.

I had a similar experience to you back wise I have disc issues and arthritis. It’s bizarre I can go to a gym a lift weights but I can’t stand still in one position for more than a handful of minutes. I work on customer service for LA I had three years of requesting a OH assessment, asking for a ergonomic chair/ adjustments and being fobbed off. then I had a bad experience of my back seizing ended up in hospital and on long term sick. I had to have a oh assessment before returning to work and they listed out what I needed and I refused to return until it was in place. My gp did fit notes so saying I could return to work once I had xyz reasonable adjustments in place. It actually took them 4 months to get what I needed in places but I don’t think they would have bothered had I have gone back immediately.

Yes it’s crazy isn’t it. I had codiene and diazepam and still people just think it’s all ok. I am going to apply for a disabled blue badge but I am not sure if I am eligible.

”I don’t look disabled” as someone once told me and “we all have bad back” and “I though you had a bad back”

i cannot stand for 20 seconds. As soon as I got a chair my back improved day to day. I was surprised how much it helped

"I found this baffling"

You can say that again.

Hi op,

I taught from a wheelchair for many years.

firstly, many schools are really not clued up about disability etc for staff and as a result you don’t get stuff which is a basic legal requirement.

yes, moving around the room is an ideal but as you are disabled then reasonable adjustments need to be made. And frankly we all survived teaching during covid when we weren’t allowed to move outside the little box at the front of the class.

i’d suggest emailing the new head and the new HR person stating that according to the equalities act 2010 you are disabled and you’d like that fact on record. That way they know and you know everyone knows this.

my school were very wary and did actually try to do the right thing because they’d lost a tribunal to a previous teacher who had become disabled.

you can also insist on seeing an occupational health specialist to recommend reasonable adjustments. Then if school try to get you to do something that OH have said not to you can push back on it.

i had to push back on a number of things during my time teaching - in general as I said SLT aren’t aware of the laws on employing disabled people.

i did find that if I emailed and said clearly I was disabled and doing X and Y was very difficult and could I have a reasonable adjustment they generally did the right thing though - it was just they didn’t think (eg assigning me to walk with my form group on a sponsored walk that wasn’t on a wheelchair accessible route).

@Octavia64 thank you.