Support for teacher with disability

[KaliOMalley]

I have a friend who is training to be a teacher. She has ADHD and dyslexia, and during her years at uni has had extra support such as step by step instructions recorded by her tutor for each task, weekly check lists created by her tutor, extended deadlines, reduced timetable when on placement, break out times when on placement, and other support. She was talking about her NQT year, and how she isn't used to working full days or full time, and will need the same support through her NQT year as she has had at uni.

I tried to gently explain that this kind of support could be tricky for schools to provide, as her IT/ mentor will most likely be a full time teacher themselves and not be able to spend that time on everything. She said that as she has a diagnosed disability she is entitled to this support, and if they don't provide it she can sue for disability discrimination.

I asked her how she would cope if she did pass her NQT year, with all the support, then the support was withdrawn once she was in her second year of teaching, as there would be no expectation for the support any more. She seems to think the check lists, step by step instructions, extended deadlines etc will continue indefinitely through her teaching career, as that's what she needs in order to teach without becoming overwhelmed.

She has applied for an accessibility grant that could give her a laptop and she thinks she could get a TA, which she already plans to use as a PA by the sounds of it, getting them to do all of her marking and planning.

I am really concerned for her that she is being mislead by her uni. I've never heard of support such as this being offered beyond the NQT year. Does her diagnosis ensure this support will be permanent/ as long as she needs it?

Reasonable adjustments in order to be able to do the job do not generally include outsourcing a major part of the job to someone else whose job it isn’t.

Have the uni told her that she can get someone else to do her marking and planning?

Teaching is generally a very fast-paced environment, how does she actually cope on placement? What does a ‘breakout time’ mean? Does she leave the classroom when she is meant to be teaching?

I have never heard/seen a teacher get this level of support at any stage of their career no. I can’t imagine it really working.

Why does she think that she will get a TA? these are for the support of children not the teacher.

She could do her NQT part time with all that entails, but I am fairly sure that she has no idea what the role of mentor is.

And she won't be able to get extended deadlines because the class happens when it is timetabled to happen it won't change.

Seriously, this is bizarre. Her uni is setting her up to fail once she gets a job. It would be far kinder for them to have said within the first year, that this is a profession that isn't suited to her.

No school is going to allow her a reduced timetable on a full time salary. And ffs, most of a teacher's job is planning and assessment! There's no way that can be outsourced to a TA.

No head would take her on, to be honest.

She needs to read and be fully clear what reasonable adjustments actually are in law.

If she can't manage FT she could work PT. it would be a fair RA to allow job share.

A RA would be a private space for PPA if she can't work in a noisy environment and stay on task.
A coloured overlay or printed copies of policies due to dyslexia. Maybe an anti glare screen on laptop.

It might be a specific type of seating in class for her class chair because it's good for her sensory needs and posture does help focus.

It maybe she has an end classroom or something.

But RA under the equality act are not employing someone to do a significant part of the role for you.
There is a part in the law about reasonable costs and I doubt this would get past it.

This is what I am worried about, the misdirection by the uni of what would be realistic when she gets a job. It's really difficult to get my friend to see my view point, as part of her ADHD means she becomes overwhelmed easily, and she cries or panics.

On placement she has been allowed to leave the classroom when she gets overwhelmed. She also gets angry easily, and this has happened in class, where she snapped at a child and was very sarcastic. She shrugs it off as how she gets when she's annoyed, but I have massive concerns about her professionalism.

It seems so wrong to allow her to believe that she can have this support past her NQT year, as this isn't feasible.

Swap teaching for another career such as astronaut, surgeon, chef etc. Reasonable adjustments can only go so far, you have to be able to do the job in the first place. You can't announce I will sue if you don't employ me on the next space mission!

It doesn’t sound like she is capable of meeting Teacher Standards even with reasonable adjustments.

But if she is talking about suing people for discrimination, the uni will probably pass her, then pass the buck onto someone else.

Good god. I’ve never heard of anything like this!

hmm - I wonder if she would be offered a job - & that's the difficult bit & it wouldn't be up to her to decide what support she would get - & for her to obtain this support & sue workplace for not providing it wouldn't she have to inform them beforehand? (trying to remember how this works) its far more complex than she imagines. However -in education (including uni) they have to be inclusive & cannot exclude someone with disability, ie checks & balances re interviews & gaining work is often geared against disability access is hard to quantify when the equality rules are bypassed

Not a chance!!! She is kidding herself!

On placement she has been allowed to leave the classroom when she gets overwhelmed. She also gets angry easily, and this has happened in class, where she snapped at a child and was very sarcastic. She shrugs it off as how she gets when she's annoyed, but I have massive concerns about her professionalism.

This is madness. It’s not RA to allow her to abandon the children and emotionally abuse them.

If she leaves the room where she gets overwhelmed, who is going g to keep the children safe?
You NEVER leave a class if children unattended! What if there was an incident of some kind? What if some got hurt?
Shes mad if she thinks this will work.

The needs of the children come into the decision. If she can not cater for their needs then you wouldn't employ her.

I think the uni are setting her up to fail too. When she has a job, unless she is part time, she will need to be teaching the same 90% timetable as any other NQT. If she isn't doing this, then she'd be part time and paid as such and her NQT year would take longer.

I think she has to be able to stay in the room with the kids - even if she has a TA, what if they are absent or have left the room for some reason? She can't then leave a room of students if she is overwhelmed. That's a basic safeguarding thing, surely?

Also where does she think she will find a TA who will take on this level of responsibility and do all her marking and planning for TA wages? I can't imagine there are many people who would be willing/capable of doing that.

However, given what you've described, I'm not sure she'd cope with a teaching interview that well anyway. To be honest, I would probably just smile and nod whilst being inwardly annoyed at the uni for failing her so badly.

The crucial point is that adjustments need to be reasonable. Having to hire an additional member of staff to support her is not reasonable. Tolerating angry outbursts wouldn’t be reasonable either.

She may well get a job because the law is she doesn’t have to disclose her disability. It’s likely she would lose it quickly and there’s no way she could sue them successfully - the school would only have to demonstrate that the adjustments she’s needs aren’t reasonable.

I'm going to be blunt and say that I don't think people with ADHD and dyslexia are cut out to be teachers.

One of my DD's teachers had dyslexia. It was galling to see notes in the homework diary and letters sent home full of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. I appreciate that some people have difficulty with spelling and grammar and that's fine if they are good technically or have some other skill such as carpentry or plumbing, but this woman was supposed to be educating my DD!

After a few weeks of this I took it up with the head, who was very protective of his member of staff and her dyslexia, so I didn't get anywhere. However, from then on I corrected EVERYTHING in the homework diary and on slips that needed to be returned because I didn't want my DD thinking that the teacher was correct.

It made for a difficult parents' evening and I am sure I was regarded as the horrible parent who wouldn't make allowances for the teacher's dyslexia but I did stop short of telling her that she shouldn't have become a teacher in the first place.

To be fair, we had the most amazing maths teacher at grammar school who had dyscalculia - she was the only maths teacher who ever helped me to “get” maths, after a lifetime of figuring out her own ways to understand it. She was head of maths by the time I left.

These conditions don’t necessarily preclude you from teaching, it really depends on how they affect you. The barrier here is the extent of the support she would need to do her job.

In my student days I worked in a cinema and because I’m allergic to nuts I couldn’t work the ice cream counter. There were plenty of other jobs for me to do so it wasn’t a problem. I couldn’t have worked in an ice cream shop though.

We have teachers with dyslexia who have learned managing technical and do the job without additional help.

There is a difference between supporting a person to do the required job and creating a new job to suit her needs which appears to be what is needed perhaps? If she is snapping at children then this is a safeguarding risk.

I once worked with a teacher who was a wheelchair user with a form of osteoporosis. She had a part time timetable, (taught .7) but honestly, I don’t know if she was paid PT or FT. She was in every day 8:30-16:00 ish. She had an assistant BUT this assistant was paid for by her using her PIP payments and certainly didn’t plan or mark. She helped her move stuff around and get herself around the building etc. Excellent teacher, sadly left because she got a better offer working for a charity in London!

Bless her, it does not sound like her expectations have been managed at all.

A TA is there to support the children, not to act as PA to a teacher.

Hahaha no TA would plan her lessons for her...that's a big part of being a teacher
In fact not many TAs would want to work with her if she was leaving the classroom for breaks during lessons, or if she treated them like a PA

It's not fair that the uni are setting her up to fail

She seems to think the check lists, step by step instructions, extended deadlines etc will continue indefinitely through her teaching career, as that's what she needs in order to teach without becoming overwhelmed.

No one will provide her with this - if she’s teaching secondary, there isn’t time for extended deadlines when marking assessments etc. Staff rarely have time to eat during the day, let alone structure someone else’s day. That’s not reasonable. And if she gets overwhelmed so easily, how would she cope with parents evening etc? TAs are leaving in droves and not being replaced. A school won’t give her one to do the nasty bits of the job. She’s unfortunately a liability and I can’t imagine a school employing her, no matter how desperate.

Is she in an in demand subject?
I've never seen a teacher supported like that, although it was primary.

I cant see how that will work at all.