Action for M.E.

Getting back to school

When you're feeling well enough you can start to think about getting back to school, even if it's just for very short periods. It'll help you to keep up with your work and keep in touch with friends, classmates and teachers.

If you have been away for a long time, it doesn't necessarily mean that you will be kept down a year. Most schools look at the individual case and assess what would be best for you. Head teachers can make special arrangements, so you do not have to start with the full range of the National Curriculum, and can adjust slowly to being back at school. Ideally co-operation between either the hospital or home tutors and the school should take place well in advance of you returning so that appropriate plans can be made.

Your Local Education Authority is responsible for ensuring that:

There is an individually tailored plan of how you are going to manage this transition back to school, before you start
The plan should include scheduled meetings to discuss reintegration, responsibilities and rights of those involved, possible mentors, programme of small goals and follow-up procedures
Educational support continues to be available to help you to keep up with your work.

So, you and your parents will need to talk to your form tutor and your head of year to make a plan that you are happy with. Give them information from Action for M.E. to help them understand your illness. Ask the Head of Year to explain to your other teachers how the plan is going to work.

If your school has a school nurse it may be a good idea to have a plan with them too, so you can go and have a rest if you feel you need to. Explain your plan to your friends, so they can tell other people if needed. The more planning you do, the easier the transition back to school will be, because everyone will understand what you are doing.

You've done really well to get this far but however much you might be feeling that you want to go right back into it a.s.a.p. you must start gradually. Remember how long it has taken you to get to this point. You don't want to throw it all away in a mad catch up. It's better to start going back to school in bite-size chunks.

Other things you need to think about are:

Getting to and from school

You need to think about the best way to get to and from school without exhausting yourself or wasting your precious energy, when you could be using it to chat with friends later or to think about your work. Talk to your parents or carers to make a plan of how you can save this energy.
Carrying heavy books

It's not a good idea to carry all your books around with you, as you will be using up your energy. Try and think of ways around this. Could a friend carry them? Or could you leave the ones you are not using at home?
Eating and drinking

When you are at home you can eat and drink when you feel like it. This may not be allowed at your school. However to maintain your energy levels and to keep well hydrated it's important for you to eat and drink regularly. Talk with your teacher about making a plan to tackle this. Many schools allow students to drink water in lessons, because studies have shown that if your body is de-hydrated, you do not perform to your best ability.
Sport, dance or athletics

Don't feel under any pressure to take part in these activities. Ask your doctor for advice and agree what you think would be the best approach. If you think that exercise is inappropriate at this stage, it is important that you talk with the sports teachers so you can make a plan (if necessary) to do another type of activity when the rest of your class is taking exercise. You could rest in the medical room, work in the library or whatever, but make sure you do not use up all your energy. Obviously once you have built up your energy levels and you are getting stronger you may be able to do some of the sports lesson.

You also need to think about the subjects you're going to tackle. It may be better to decide which subjects you want to start with. It would be slightly scary to go from no study to taking loads of GSCEs, AS or A levels. You wouldn't recommend this to a friend that had just gone through what you have, so be kind on yourself. Starting with one or two subjects and building up your stamina slowly makes more sense than taking on a whole load of subjects and then crashing again. So choose these subjects that you enjoy the most and that you are good at, as these will be easier to tackle.

At GCSE level, you will have to include English and Maths, so as not to restrict your employment opportunities at a later date. One way to think about your return to school might be this….

Imagine a small wooden boat bobbing on a lake (you are the boat), now imagine bricks being placed into the boat (the bricks are your subjects eg. Chemistry). Each brick is placed in slowly and we wait to see if the boat is strong enough to carry the weight of this brick. If it is still floating we can add another brick and so on. The trick is to stop adding the bricks before it sinks.

Maybe this is not the best example (sure you can think of better ones for yourself), but you get the idea. It would be crazy to just throw in a whole load of bricks…far better to take it steady.

Remember you are bound to be a bit anxious or worried about going back to school after you have had this time off. Everyone gets worried going back to school after they have been poorly, so you're not alone. Just make sure you think about what your limits are before you go to school and stick to them. Don't let anyone push you into doing something you feel is bad for your M.E.

Read how other young people with M.E. managed their return to school in Reality Bytes.

Information produced February 2004