Low IgA and school

[jpd]

Hi!
My child suffers from low IgA.I have just received a report from school and my child's attendance is 82%(colds,coughs,stomach bug,severe allergy reaction).I wonder whether I should speak to the teacher about my son's health problems.I have already mentioned it in his papers but is it worth to give more details?What is your experience?Do your children miss a lot of school days?Thank you:)

[s162216]

Hi,

Perhaps it would be beneficial to initially just talk to the teacher about the reasons for the absences, and be clear to them that its not just a 'fad' or over protectiveness. If they still don't/won't understand then an official letter from your sons GP (or immunologist etc if they have one) should rapidly clear this up and make them see the reasons. Have they ever offered to provide 'catch up' sessions, or work for your son to to do at home if he feels up to it? I'll ask my mum about it as she's a lower school teacher and has lots of experience with this sort of thing. You might want to talk with prickles as I know their daughter has had a lot of absences from school because of her PID condition.

Sam

[prickles]

Hello.

Welcome to the board, you will find lots of people able to help you. My daughter has Hyper IgE Syndrome, I can't offer any advice on your son's health issues but I can about school.

Caitlin has just left school, and her attendance was down to less than 50% during year 11, and between 75 and 80% for the previous year. Unfortunately the school she attended was not particularly good when it came to children with health issues - especially ones that couldn't be seen!

If you have a good SENCO at the school arrange a meeting with them and discuss all the health issues that your son has, explaining that he is likely to miss chunks of his education, they may be able to arrange extra funding for him to enable him to catch up what he misses. My daughter ended up attending 2 schools for the last 6 months of her education, after I kicked up a fuss about her main schools lack of help, I also got her Consultant to arrange an MDT (Multi Disciplinary Meeting)this was invaluable and enabled Caitlin to go part time to a medical education unit. This unit also kept in contact with her main school and the hospital school department with meetings in her main school every 1/2 term. The school your son attends should be able to arrange for work to be sent home when he is ill, or give you suitable work to keep at home for such occasions.

I don't know what year your son is in, but the nearer he is to leaving school the more you may have to push for help, if he is in infants I wouldn't worry too much, the last year of juniors is important as it often decides what set children go into in senior's, my daughter missed most of year 6 so was never given the chance to show what she could achieve, seniors saw her medical issues and decided that if they put her in one of the bottom sets they won't have to worry about her - consequently she didn't achieve what she was capable of and because of the schools attitude she has been diagnosed with depression and told not to go to college or start work (she wants to be an undertaker!) until she is better.

I don't want to sound negative, I am sure your son's school is far better than the one my daughter attended, if you include the school early on in any problems it is more likely that you will get the help your son deserves and needs. My daughter had a rough time, but the certainly doesn't mean your son will.

Sue

[jpd]

I am really grateful for your advice.Thank you very much!

[john]

Hi dpj,
Welcome to our forum from me too!
As you can see, there is lots of help available here from ordinary folk who just happen to underrstand how you feel!
Ask away, we're always here!

[magister]

Hi. As a former physical disability specialist advisory teacher with Ig A deficiency and other complex medical conditions I can understand the problems you are experiencing.
IgA deficiency is also often not taken seriously by doctors. Please ensure that a full immunological assessment has been done to make sure that a full diagnostic picture exists. In theory the SENCO is the key to getting additional help. In secondary school, things get more complicated when pupils want to be become more independent and not different to other pupils. Any help has to be a team effort with your son being an essential team member. He must be involved in any decision making and learn to be his own expert patient. Problems can be alleviated by trying to minimize infections e.g. getting vaccinations for lung and flu infections, trying to keep some distance from infection, treating any infections early on, developing positive relationships with key school staff etc. If you have serious concerns please contact your local education authority to get advice and do not leave problems to become worse. Try and identify what causes infections etc. I found as a teacher that stuffy hot classrooms were very bad for my health and I always ensured good ventilation existed, by opening windows and turning down heating. This all sounds very easy but in a secondary school it s often very difficult to achieve.Schools can be very unhealthy places or with limited adjustments not too bad.The school has a duty to make reasonable adjustments for pupils. In short find out what works for your son and try to use that information to help him.