To find teachers a bit bloody defensive / precious

[SweetFanniAdams]

Just find myself feeling the need to pussy foot around issues so as not to offend dc’s teachers. Not just isolated to the odd one over the years, but seems to be a theme that when ever I try to interact, understand what’s going on (with a view to support their work at home) that I get very defensive responses, like I’m questioning their teaching or decisions or something.
Bloody exhausting.
I’m very direct and find I have to spend a huge amount of time planning and thinking about what I want to say so as not to be offensive or misunderstood. I wish I could just communicate freely.
Is this just something that happens to me?

sweet
Knowing something vs knowing everything are different.

I know about a number of conditons some of my students have had, it doesn't mean someone goes through their meds with me. I've taught students where illness = immediate ambulance, send child to nominated staff and office code red. Honestly, we didn't get the full intricasies. Sensitive material is not routinely shared in school.
Equally, I have some students with needs where they flash a card and I know what to do but don't know everything about why they have a card.

So a briefing of basics, totally reasonable. A plan on what to do should X Y Z occur, reasonable
Expecting all games staff to be comprehensivly briefed on a child they may see once every 6 weeks, unreasonable.

Plus neurological condition could mean any number of things which will affect advice. (E.g. child recovering from a brain tumour or brain injury is very different to a child with ADHD)

PinguDance

I think if your child was in a controlled drug that could cause sudden cardiac issues you may be less relaxed about just trusting that the school have informed those who need to know. Especially when there is no protocol in place and it seems most people have no idea he even has the condition (very clear classic diagnosis) and just think he is being a pain . And one of his lessons this week has been evidence of this.
Sometimes schools don’t get it right
Sometimes a parent can help make things better
Shock
Horror!

I think the best thing for you to do here is to get a pgce qualification and take over the games job yourself. All the students and parents will love you and all will be well. You will be fab.

Ticksheet haha.. 😂😂😂😂

Take him out of pe then? If you don’t trust them get a doctors note to get him out of games. Sounds like he’s got adhd or ask which isn’t being dealt with by the school - totally see why that’s annoying - but the medication thing is a bit of a weird one, They should have a protocol but don’t see why teachers would need to know inns and out of his medication

Sounds like he really does need a medical ID card that he produces at the start of every lesson. I’m suprised the school is permitting him to play if he’s at serious risk of collapse or something - it’s a risk for them, you could ask for an assessment.

Anyway I’m not sure I understand but it’s bedtime.

No ins and outs needed
It’s very simple
They need to know if he has a racing heart beat or palpitations then he isn’t joking or being silly. He needs to be accompanied to the school nurse immediately. The school nurse knows exactly what to do.
Ds has been told what to look out for and how it may feel.

If this is a private school (small classes etc) staff should know these issues. Withdraw from games if it's such a serious concern, and ask for meeting with SENCO

Tbh though blaming/chucking accusations that all teachers are defensive just makes you look very ignorant and biased.

Essentially DS may experience a medical issue in PE which clearly the PE teachers need to know about - the fact that in his case it’s triggered by medication rather than the condition itself is really just a detail.

I’m not sure why this school has so many PE teachers when there are only 12 to a class - it can’t be a very big school?

Why are the school finding it so hard to communicate with their PE faculty?

Xpost - quite.

The school goes from age 8 to 18
It’s a reasonable size but small classes / form groups in each year.
Sporting academy school also so lots of sport.
Some form of PE or games every day

You sound really worried about the potential cardiac side effects of the medication. I hope that your paediatrician has explained to you that it's extremely rare and very unlikely to be an issue in a healthy child. I don't think it's something your son needs to be worrying about every time he does games to be honest. I realise that as parents we worry a lot.

On the other hand, if you don't feel they are managing his ADHD appropriately then you have every right to go back and insist on a certain plan for information sharing, behavour management etc, especially at a private school.

Thank you
The SPC doesn’t say ‘very rare’ unfortunately

You could take him out of games until they assure you they have a process in place to brief all staff.
(In passing, I'm surprised earlier posters were annoyed by using words like process and protocol!)

What's the SPC?

It is very rare - in fact there is ongoing research into whether there is a proven link between the fact that the meds raise blood pressure and pulse and any negative outcomes.

SPC states cardiac issues I refer to as ‘common’ side effect.
I may have to keep him out of games, he’s hate me for it though, he doesn’t want to stand out and try’s hard to be seen as ‘normal’

Sorry meant to say
He’d hate me for it

Is a sporting academy the optimum place for a child with these issues?

They don’t seem very switched on.

Summary of Product Characteristics
Produced by the drug company regarding the drug
They rank side effects based on
Very common
Common
Etc etc

It’s a regular school too, just they have several sporting academies there

And actually sport is very very much the right kind of thing for such kids

Cardiac issues rated as occurring between 1 in 10 to 1 in 100
Based on occurrence within clinical trials

Well I can see that as a general principle - but if he has issues caused by medication when he does sport and he does it every day - then it will be an ongoing issue.

One of the top Olympic gymnasts in the US has been medicated for the same condition.
Is it too much to ask for the school to have an awareness of it and have a clear plan of what to do if it occurs?
No?

Well I agreed with you in my first post but now you’re just being irritating.

I understand that you seem very scared and hope your paediatrician can reassure you a bit better as there's no way you should have this much fear about your child's medication and side effects. I also think if you have him on red alert for symptoms like palpitations and racing heart you're risking him developing anxiety around these things (he's likely to have a racing heart whilst playing games, for example!) Stress can trigger palpitations too regardless of what meds you take. The serious cardiac side effects are listed as very rare. Studies show that the children really at risk are those with pre existing cardiac conditions and the risk period is highest during the first few days after treatment starts. All medications have very alarming side effects listed.