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

[EccentricaGallumbits]

Her knees are knackered (Osgood Schlatter) and has a Ballet exam in March.

She has stopped playing football and I have to drive her to and from school for a while until she canwalk it again.

Bloody school (I know I'm moaning about them again but.....) have ignored the letters I have sent in for the last couple of weeks and tell her she'll be fine to do circuits . And street dance

She won't be fine. She needs to stop and let them recover if she has any hope of doing her exam.

I'm going to try to get the GP to write them a letter but last time she had a flare up it took weeks to persuade school to listen.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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)