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When your child is diagnosed with diabetes, it’s important to tell his or her teacher so they know how to support your child. It’s impossible to know how much experience the teachers have had with diabetes, but it’s essential to talk things through with them so they know what having diabetes means to your child.

Ask your child’s diabetes nurse if they will come to a meeting with you and your child’s teacher, so that you can discuss key subjects, such as:

• insulin injections – when to do them, how much insulin to give, and whether your child can inject themselves
• blood glucose testing – when this needs to be done and whether your child can do it themselves
• equipment – where your child’s medication and testing equipment should be stored
• school nurse – whether the school has a nurse and if so, what role they will play in your child’s care
• snacking – how to tell when your child may need to have an extra snack, and the fact that this may happen during a lesson
• mealtime – what your child should eat and when, including the flexibility to let them go to the front of the queue sometimes
• hypos – what a hypo is, how to help your child avoid them, and how to deal with them
• school trips – how to plan for these in advance; what information is needed from both parties

The My Diabetes Information poster provides details on how to deal with a hypo and also gives basic information on diabetes. You can give the school an electronic copy which can be printed and kept in a safe place and used to help classroom assistants and other adults involved with your child’s care.