Your school should name a link teacher (often your head of year or form tutor) who will be your contact at school. It will be their job to support you and supply you with work from your teachers. They will need to contact all of your teachers and arrange for appropriate work to be sent home. This does not need to be every bit of class work, but the important tasks and topics that need to be covered in each subject area, including coursework.
what your school/college can do:
- Any other resources that you may need should be made available to you, including textbooks, art materials and ICT resources. Some schools are even able to loan laptops and software which is helpful.
- The school/college should make every effort to help you return to school as soon as possible. This may mean making certain allowances for you, such as allowing you to wear a hat or bandana at all times, not tucking your school shirt in if it restricts your Hickman line, leaving classes early to avoid the crowds in the corridors, having a 'buddy' to help carry your bag or books, making a place available for you to rest or lie down if you feel unwell, and allowing you to have a reduced timetable, and place to study during your 'spare lessons'.
- They should not take you off roll without your permission, and it remains their responsibility to pay for all exam entry fees and to enter you as a candidate for all your chosen exams.
- The school should also arrange career interviews for you or link you in to the local Connexions service.
what I can do:
- Let your school know what is happening as soon as you feel comfortable so they are able to support you.
- Attend school as much as you can, even if it just means going in for lunch breaks or a few lessons to catch up with friends.
- Ask your school for work you have missed and work you can get on with when you are in hospital or at home so you don’t fall too far behind.
- Bring all your work with you when you go into hospital and try and do a little bit each day with your teacher, even if you are not feeling too well.
- When you are at home, try to give your day some structure by doing some school work in the morning and some in the afternoon - it will help to relieve the boredom.
- Be as open and honest with teachers as you can, they are there to help you as much as you will allow them to.
- You may find it useful to have the course outlines for each subject area, so you can keep up with what they are doing in each lesson.
- It really helps if you can send any completed work back to the school for marking and comments.
- If you are doing AS or A2 subjects you could have a look at what options are available to you, especially if they are modular based. Some people extend their courses over three years because of the increased workload and amount of exams.
