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Original poster

Can school insist she stays home?

39 replies

Oakmaiden · 08/09/2019 14:02

I'm in tow minds about this, in honesty, and even if they can't insist I may well keep her home anyway.... However...

My daughter (year 11) has broken her ankle. She is on crutches and supposed to be weight bearing, but is still finding it very painful to put any weight on her ankle. Her school is very big and has lots of stairs - they have said they are only prepared to have her in for lessons where she is on the ground floor (which actually works out as the first 2 lessons each day, mostly - english and maths). I have to drop her off before lesson 1 and pick her up after lesson 2. This is awkward with working, but that is another thread, really...

Part of me is fairly content to do this - she finds using her crutches very tiring, and I am concerned about her going up and down the steep stairs all day, particularly when the corridors get crowded. I am also aware there might be issues in an emergency (such as fire alarms).

On the other hand - daughter is going out of her mind with boredom. She is a keen dancer and athlete, and obviously is completely out of action in those respects and is distraught about missing her dancing and the work she is going to have to do to get back to where she was. Her (obsessive?) focus on dancing has meant she has drifted away from her friends a fair bit in the past year or so, and now she is asking them to hang out with her they are all too busy. And she just wants to go back to school properly.

Are the school actually allowed to insist on shortened days for her? I haven't questioned it with them so far, as I can see the practical reasons why it is better for her, but on the other hand her mood is getting so low I am starting to think on balance she might be better at school...

OP posts:
LIZS · 08/09/2019 14:08

How long will she be on crutches for? The school could make "reasonable adjustments" such as allowing her to leave a lesson early to move around to next before the bell goes, perhaps with a friend in tow. It may not be reasonable to retimetable all her lessons to ground floor or a single classroom. Is there an accessible library she could study in?

nicknamehelp · 08/09/2019 14:12

what would they do for a child in a wheelchair? my dc school has a lift for less able bodied and they leave class 5 mins early. should be easy to sort. Surely had other kids in similar situation

Comefromaway · 08/09/2019 14:12

I don’t know is the answer but please do tell your Dd not to worry about getting behind in her dance. The best thing she can do is not try and go back too early.

I’ve known numerous dancers who have come back even stronger after serious injury. Has she been given exercises. Maybe she can do floor strengthening and flexibility exercises.

With regards to school I have seen numerous children on crutches or in wheelchairs at the three schools my kids have attended over the years. Ds’s school has a flexible learning area. It’s often used by autistic children who need a break from noisy classrooms but can be used by those with mobility issues for some lessons. (It’s not a punishment area there is a separate isolation/inclusion area).

LemonRedwood · 08/09/2019 14:12

Are the school actually allowed to insist on shortened days for her?

No, they're not. She's entitled to a full-time education. And they are discriminating due to (albeit temporary) disability. You could contact your local authority attendance team for some support in addressing this with the school

Original poster
Oakmaiden · 08/09/2019 14:13

I don't really know how long she will be on crutches. We will probably know more after she goes back to fracture clinic on Wednesday. She isn't in a plaster cast, but is in some sort of air cast splint. Apparently it is a very unusual fracture but they couldn't do a scan as well as an xray as it was so swollen they didn't think they would get useful information from it.

OP posts:
MrsPellegrinoPetrichor · 08/09/2019 14:13

They're being unreasonable. They need to make reasonable adjustments so your daughter doesn't miss out on her schooling. Did has has mates in similar situations and they have just worked out a plan so everyone is happy.

blackcat86 · 08/09/2019 14:13

Does the school have a lift that she can use? Could they identify a quiet space for her to go and rest if she's tired or in pain?

Comefromaway · 08/09/2019 14:14

If you are anywhere near Bath or Birmingham and she takes her dance seriously it might be worth asking for a referral to the NHS NIDMS clinic.

Anasnake · 08/09/2019 14:16

It's a health and safety issue and they'll be worried about her getting hurt. At my school any child on crutches is kept downstairs (we have no lift). Work is emailed down for upstairs lessons and pupils work in the support base or library. We're a big high school and we always have the odd one on crutches.

Cathpot · 08/09/2019 14:17

Pupils on crutches with us are let out early as has been suggested, with a friend to open doors. We also have a lift as we have some children in wheelchairs. At the very least she would be better off spending the rest of the day in the library doing work that has been set by her class teachers. This seems an odd way for the school to behave - I wouldn’t want a year 11 pupils in my class to just be absent, much easier to check in with a pupil set and collect work if they are on site. She could then manage her day herself and adjust how many lessons she was coping with depending on pain/ tiredness levels?

Original poster
Oakmaiden · 08/09/2019 14:18

The school is not at all wheelchair friendly. My understanding is that on the couple of occasions they have had wheelchair users they have timetabled all their lessons on the ground floor. Obviously this would be unreasonable for a temporary injury.

I know they have H&S concerns about her being in school. I understand that, and obviously don't want her in a situation where she might injure herself further, but on the other hand she already struggles with MH and low mood, so I don't want that getting worse either...

OP posts:
Neolara · 08/09/2019 14:18

School should have a medical needs policy. Look on their website. I think if they are saying she can't be educated on site because of a medical condition, they (or the local authority) have to come up with a plan within a certain number of days. But I can't remember the details unfortunately.

hormonesorDHbeingadick · 08/09/2019 14:21

I would say it is entirely reasonable for classes to temporally swap rooms.

Fuiseog · 08/09/2019 14:22

Surely the school have a lift and a plan in case of fire. This is nonsense. Our lift is operated by key only and students on crutches or in wheelchairs can have one temporarily issued each morning to facilitate movement around the school. To account for potentially having to wait for the lift and potential struggles with the crutches/speed etc, they are given a couple of minutes leeway about arriving to the next class on time. In the event of a fire, there are designated safe areas to wait on each floor for anyone whose mobility is compromised; I don't know about the science of it all, but they are designed to be fire-proof as possible until rescue can get in.

Her school should already be able to accommodate these things easily, and to be honest, they need to get themselves sorted out if they can't. The school I attended over a decade ago had similar arrangements!

Original poster
Oakmaiden · 08/09/2019 14:31

Hmm.. they don't have a "medical needs policy" as such - though they do have a "health care policy" which may be the same thing. Interestingly it links to a Welsh Govt document with the following line: It is not acceptable practice to: prevent learners from attending an education setting due to their healthcare needs, unless their attending the setting would be likely to cause harm to the learner or
others". I guess it would be easy to argue that going up 4 flights of stairs to the drama studio does increase the risk of causing harm to herself... you would then have to debate the precise meaning of the word "likely".

Looking at the responses here it looks like I would be within my rights (or supporting my daughter's rights, I should say) to insist they make provision for her to remain in school, to be supervised and to have appropriate learning exercises set. I will probably wait for her appointment on Wednesday and after that decide what to do.

OP posts:
cauliflowersqueeze · 08/09/2019 14:35

They need to know they could evacuate her within 2 minutes from her classroom to a place of safety if the fire bell went off.
I would say the other issue would be supervision - if she can’t get to a classroom and goes to another area to work, is there a member of staff who could supervise her.

Tricky one.

userabcname · 08/09/2019 14:37

Sounds odd to me. I'm a secondary teacher and we definitely have kids in on crutches quite regularly. They either are allowed to leave lessons early if they can navigate stairs along with a buddy to carry their stuff so they avoid the crush of transition times or they attend all lessons on the ground floor and for other lessons they go to the library or inclusion unit where teachers have the work sent down. For a GCSE student in the past, I have been temporarily moved to downstairs classrooms so that she could continue to attend lessons. I'm surprised the school is happy to reduce a Year 11's timetable to such an extent given what an important year it is and I'd definitely be querying it with them.

blahblahblahblahhh · 08/09/2019 14:37

What happens for a permanently disabled child?

Original poster
Oakmaiden · 08/09/2019 14:41

@cauliflowersqueeze yup, that seems to sum it up.

However, I am fairly sure my daughter's predicament is not unique - they must have had hundreds of children in before on crutches etc. So you would have expected it to be no big deal.... Of course, it could be that if I say "Actually, I want her to be in school all day" they will resolve it with no problems. They could genuinely be trying to think what is best for my daughter at this moment in time. I just wanted to know where we stood so I could decide what is best for daughter before talking to them again.

OP posts:
Original poster
Oakmaiden · 08/09/2019 14:43

What happens for a permanently disabled child?

I guess they know before making class allocations and timetable everything accordingly.

OP posts:
noblegiraffe · 08/09/2019 14:50

Weird. My school isn’t wheelchair friendly and we have at least one kid on crutches at any given time because kids are kids.

They get let out of lessons early to avoid busy corridors.
Lessons which are upstairs are switched temporarily into downstairs rooms if necessary (not normally necessary as kids usually make it up the stairs).

Keeping her at home in Y11 is bonkers.

stucknoue · 08/09/2019 14:53

At my kids school they simply let them sit in the learning support area with their work if the stairs were too much, permanently disabled (or longer term) were transferred to the school across the road which was in a modern accessible building (both same trust)

cauliflowersqueeze · 08/09/2019 15:50

True.

We normally get the student to come in and in front of the parents get him/her to make his/her way up the stairs without assistance so parents can see for themselves how manageable it is and we make a decision together about what’s best. It’s hard and depends on the school as they have to risk assess. If they don’t have supervision (and cuts mean that a lot of support staff have been cut who would previously do this) then they may feel that it would endanger her to be walking up and down stairs even with plenty of time allowed between lessons.

It’s the fire evacuation which is the tricky part. If they knowingly have a student who takes 10 minutes to get down a flight of stairs then this would pose a risk to her as well as anyone trying to help her. And at year 11 size it’s not like a 5 year old who you could carry down if you needed to.

underneaththeash · 08/09/2019 15:52

My son is currently on crutches and he's going back in tomorrow. They are making reasonable adjustments, so any upstairs classrooms are out of bounds for him at the moment, so he'll sit in the school nurse office and work will be brought down to him for any lessons which he can't attend.

MollyButton · 08/09/2019 16:01

I would contact the LA - I wish I had when my DD broker her ankle at 7. The school has a legal duty to provide education, and "alternative provision" I believe will cause them hassle and cost them money. However that is not your problem or your DD's.
Put pressure on them to provide a proper provision.

In my DD's case they didn't really want her back until she could walk 1/2 mile so could get herself to and from the senior site by herself. In the end they had to transport her by car - there was no reason the infants had to visit the juniors site, it was just something they like d to do...

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