Type 1 at School
Reviewed by CDE Mehandi Sharma · Updated
Schools tend to respond to Type 1 in one of two unhelpful ways: treating the child as too fragile to participate, or not taking it seriously at all.
What staff actually need is short and specific. The child has Type 1 diabetes and takes insulin. They must be allowed to test their blood sugar and to eat fast-acting glucose whenever they say they need to — in class, during an exam, on the sports field — without permission being negotiated. And staff need to recognise a low: shakiness, sweating, pallor, confusion, irritability, unusual quietness or unsteadiness.
The response to a suspected low is sugar first, questions afterwards. Never send a child who may be low to walk anywhere alone.
Put it in writing. A single page with the child's regimen, what a low looks like, what to give, who to call, and when to call an ambulance is worth more than a conversation nobody wrote down. Keep a copy with the class teacher and one in the school office.
Exams deserve specific arrangements agreed in advance — permission to test, to have glucose on the desk, and to stop briefly if needed.
If a school resists, it usually helps to bring a letter from your doctor. And a child should never be made to feel their condition is an inconvenience to the institution.