Broken leg and schooling

[polkadotelephant]

How much would you expect a school to adapt for teaching a child who has broken their leg?

Girl (aged 9 in Yr4) has broken her leg in half term holidays and is in a full length cast. Currently can’t use crutches, manage stairs or toilet on her own but is likely to get better at that.

Three main AIBU questions:

1 - toilet use. My thought is that a parent would have to go in if she cannot use the toilet on her own but after that I would expect her to be allowed use of the disabled toilet and be able to go during lessons to avoid crowds.

2 - staying in classroom (or other indoor space) at break/lunch with a couple of friends so she isn’t vulnerable to be knocked over. The school have allowed this previously for an epileptic child.

3 - classroom (this is the big one!). Her current classroom is upstairs. There are no lifts or rescue devices for an emergency. She cannot manage the stairs safely anyway. Should the school swop her class with another class so that she can attend lessons safely? I feel this is a reasonable request. I teach in secondary school and have definitely been asked to move rooms to accommodate short term injuries and long term disability. Is this also a reasonable ask for primary schools?

Thank you

What age children are in downstairs classrooms?

I think use of disabled space is absolutely fine; parent in to assist, probably fine, but would need some boundaries ( what does parent do between loo breaks?)
staying indoors at break - would probably be reasonable to ask
Moving classroom - for a primary school - probably not for a temporary injury to one pupil. They are likely resourced and set up for their age group.
No lift?

My then 6yo DD broke her leg. The best thing I could do for her was to get her moving on crutches. She was scared at first, but was whizzing around in about a week.

her school was on one level so no stairs, but they moved her to a slightly quieter area of the classroom. She used the disabled toilet, she stayed in at breaks and lunch, with a rota of friends staying with her. School did do everything they could to support her and she was back full time straight away. she broke her leg in the summer holidays so had two weeks of getting used to crutches/ getting around before starting back).

Id lead with that you are expecting her back full time, and ask what they are going to put in place to aid that.

completely non school related, get a limbo wrap if you haven't got one yet. It was perfect for showering/baths.

I wouldn't have thought that you'd need to make the suggestions. They will surely have dealt with the situation before.

All those suggestions are reasonable, but in my experience all you need to do is say "she's broken her leg" and they'll make adaptations that suit their school.

My DD broke her leg and quickly she got on and was fine on stairs, loo etc - full cast hip to toes. The leg has a bend so it was a bit easier than if straight I guess.
What did the consultant say, mine said she'd easily get used to it... and she did.

Unlikely to move entire classes - room set up for the class that lives there. Far too much to move around.

Agree with anothernameanother. But my DD was the first child to have had a broken leg and attend school, so they have to get stuff thought about quickly.

toilet she will be fine with, skirt or loose shorts all the way. It feels like theyll never get it, but I've got a pic somewhere of DD on a trampoline, doing a full handstand in a leg cast. She was like lightening on her crutches in the end.

Unlikely to move classes but everything else doable. There’s a girl age 10 in my sons class who needs crutches to walk they still assigned usual upstairs classroom to that year group. She has a TA who helps her up and down stairs. She goes to class a few minutes late and leaves a few minutes early to avoid her being jostled on the stairs.

She needs to practice using crutches up and down stairs at home. Home stairs are probably steeper than school stairs so once she is confident at home school stairs will be a doddle. She will either need supervising or be allowed to use the stairs when other children aren’t, so before lessons start for others, or slightly after.

One thing the school will need to do is to make sure she has and knows about, a safe space to go to in case of fire or a fire alarm, similar to the safe spaces for wheelchair users in a fire when lifts are unavailable. It is unlikely that she will need to use this, but it needs to be built into the current H and S fire drill procedures ( should already be there, but the school fire marshal, your dd and her class and teacher will probably need reminding)

The child stays home until safely mobile. Work is sent home.

Everything but moving the classroom I'm sure the school agree very quickly too. If she can't use the stairs safely she stays at home and has work sent home. Hope she better soon x

why isn't there a lift if there's multiple floors, that's not on

I am reminded of a child I taught in my first school, he was frankly a nightmare, as was his mother, but he was also the healthiest child on the planet so I never had a days respite. One morning the class were all full of the story of how the previous night child x had been playing out ( at 11.00 o clock) , had fallen off a wall and broken his leg . I managed to put my face into sympathy mode. Then just after playtime, on the very same day, guess who was brought into class, complete with plastered leg and crutches.

“Bet you didn’t think you’d be seeing x today did you miss?” smirked his mother. “Am I too late to order him a dinner.”

My DC's primary had a couple of upstairs classrooms. It was a Victorian building so no lift.

Or she joins in in an alternative classroom downstairs to do her work

If she isn’t able to use crutches, surely she has a Zimmer frame?

Whole classes swopping rooms is an unreasonable expectation, but they could make plans so that she only has to go up and down once a day.

I was in a full-length cast after a knee injury. If her cast is straight, like mine was, a low stool to rest her foot on while on the lav will be a great help.

Our primary would move the child into a downstairs class. They would not move a whole class.

They have other constraints like other kids with mobility needs, toilet access needs, and primary classrooms have a lot more set up by the teacher as the same 30 kids are in there every time. There will be children who are autistic or anxious and can't just be uprooted without distress and planning - primary classes stay in their classroom for a reason.

At our school there would be a quick meeting with the parents to draw up a care plan for the child.

Toilets: It would be very unusual for a parent to come in and take on that role. If a child genuinely couldn't manage to use the disabled toilet, then staff would be asked to help in whichever way allowed the child as much dignity and privacy as possible.

Staying inside at break: That's standard at our school. A child would usually be allowed to have a friend with them too.

Classroom: It's unlikely that everyone would move for the sake of one child breaking a leg. The usual classroom would have all of the teacher's resources, and the children's trays, books and equipment. If the child couldn't manage the stairs at all they would probably have a workstation downstairs in another classroom.

The school will do a risk assessment before she is allowed back to school.

I had a broken leg at 11 (first year of high school)

Managed toilet, various classrooms on different floors etc fine. Adaptations were that I missed PE (obvs) and got priority queueing for lunch with a friend to carry my tray (bonus popularity points for me). I dont remember anything else being an issue, honestly.

Did your school have lifts? Mine definitely didn’t!

I didn't think this was a thing. I was off for a whole year (year 8) when I broke my leg. I did have a tutor come to my house for some of it, can imagine that the tutor thing might not happen these days.

Ours didn’t either. I think in old buildings it’d be very tricky to fit a lift.