Work think they can take Libs, but I aint aving it!!!

Hi Sci - suddenly aware as I read your blog that we haven't heard from our American buddies for a few days now - Loret if you read this please let us know you're okay? I don't think the wrist op is 'til March is it?

Re your work - that's the problem with RA isn't it? - it comes on suddenly and is invisible for the most part so if it takes a walking stick to help you up the stairs as well as demonstrating how you've been affected by it then that's probably doing them all some good. Perhaps if you do have a very swollen knee or ankle or have visibly swollen wrists or fingers you should show them to your colleagues - maybe pull off socks and put feet up in the staff room when you're having a break.

I'm self-employed of course so don't really have this problem but I do have many friends who are teachers and also spent a year working in a large school as an artist-in-residence a few years ago so am very familiar with the way things operate in these places.

As a parent of teens with important exams coming I do despair sometimes when heads of department take on a job knowing they are bi-polar or are given a Higher (A'level equiv) year class when they know they will be off work with SAD every year. I think there's a certain amount of irresponsibility that goes on with some teachers where they seem to forget that their pupil's are at critical stages and it is the rest of their lives that can be affected detrimentally by a teacher who is off sick regularly.

But you took the job on before RA of course and now my main thought is that if staff are sympathetic and prepared to learn more about RA and the way it might impact on you then you will probably not have to take so much time off work - so these educators need educating about RA methinks?

Good luck - I think it will get better with time as you say when we learn to manage it better and pace, pace, pace. TTx

HI Sci

Thats not good, the pressure of going in when you feel unwell will do more damage in the long run but then what can you do? Are you still on the arava - did the side effects settle down?

I can't imagine the pain having to go up and down stairs - it must be really difficult even with a stick.

Are you on full time or part time at the minute? Do you know what I think that everyone is just running around so stressed at the minute that they don't think beyond the inconvenience we cause and we as a person don't feature.

I really hope things settle down a bit for you.

Mads, I could not ever do steps like that, sticks or no sticks. Wasn't there some plans of having you moved to the first floor? Or does that still require you to go upstairs throughout the day. Isn't HR supposed to accomodate, like, maybe they could arrange to have a student courier to pick up and transfer paperwork for you?

OH! What did you decide about that interview? Did you go, or decline? Think I recall you thinking it might be better to stay?

Educating your peers would be a good plan, if they would take to it. Maybe during a regularly scheduled teacher's meeting, you might ask to explain some things. I think, if they heard the way things affect you, surely to goodness, they would be more understanding and helpful It could be any one of them too.

Goodnight !! L.xxx

Oops I think you're so overtired you've got in a muddle Loret - easy enough to do. To clarify this is Sci's blog and she's a science teacher - then there's Mads and she works for a charity and stairs would have been an issue re the job she was being interviewed for (yes I want to know how it went too!) and then there's Williby who was supposed to work as a teacher on ground floor but they kept making her go upstairs. Think that's right anyhow but I might have just made things more confusing by being wrong?! TTx

Hi Sciqueen

Sorry to hear work are being unsympathetic/unhelpful. I just asked to go part time because of the fatigue, and now pain - I teach in a primary school. The head carefully didn't respond to my request until it was too late to resign this term, then he said no on the grounds it would be too disruptive for the children. I only asked to drop one day a week and other people have been allowed far more awkward arrangements.

I was told I could write to the governors and appeal, but I just want out now. I've struggled into work with splints and even crutches rather than disrupt children's learning. Today, for the first time ever, I've taken a day off to rest. Pain has kept me awake for hours every night for a fortnight so the time has come to give in. I propose to take time off as and when I feel like it from now on. No one else will look after me so it's time to stop being a martyr.

I'm looking for a different job, possibly away from education, that I can leave behind when I go home. I'm very happy to forgo the holidays which are encroached on by loads of work anyway and I can take a reduction in pay for the sake of my health.

Does anyone have knowledge of early retirement on health grounds? I believe there are different levels.

Sorry to rant -

Susan

Oh dear. Teaching and RA. They just don't go together at all.

I struggled on for about 12 years from diagnosis. Like most teachers, the needs of the students were my priority, and I used to struggle on, take painkillers, avoid any time off. I was one of those really dedicated ones. Believed I was indispensable.

As the years went by, the government created more paperwork, the authorities cut staff, the job got worse and it was hard enough for the fit-bods to cope.

In the end I was treated so unfairly that I took time off, gathered my wits and took out a grievance.

That was when they started to obey the rules, "reasonable adjustments", classes on the ground floor, etc etc.

It was only then, with a reduced timetable and limited activity that it dawned on me. I wasn't ever going to get well again, and the job was "bad for my health".

So I applied for ill health retirement and got it.

And looking back, like many people, I think: Why didn't I quit sooner?

Susan, if you can make your bosses make as many adjustments for you as you can, and go part time and show evidence that you have genuinely tried to stay in work, then you should be able to get ill health retirement.

And Sci, if you aren't already in a union, it will be a valuable support for you to join one. I always got a bit more respect from the SMT if a union rep sat beside me in meetings. And my union were really on the ball when it came to insisting on "reasonable adjustments".

I don't miss the stress of the job. I don't miss the Senior Management. I miss a few colleagues, but mostly I miss the students. It was an amazing job for a long time.

Hi Phoebe - one of my sons gets extra support for maths from the retired head of maths at school. This chap just really likes to keep his hand in and because our oldest son had special educational needs the maths teacher felt he needed on to one as was getting too lost in a big class. The school paid for his police disclosure too so he could take referrals as and when he felt like it.

Now he's carried on with our middle son who was getting equally lost. He does it for free at his insistance so it doesn't affect his pension - and we try to bake him a loaf or cake most Sundays. It has made a huge difference to both boys maths learning. The chap suits himself so if he's under the weather or wants to go fishing etc he just cancels, sometimes at very short notice as us his right.

I'm sure you have your hands very full already but as you said you missed the students I thought I'd just mention this? There are always kids who struggle in larger classes but are really friendly and rewarding one to one. TTx

You go girl and keep kicking I am well that's when I can move my swollen knee to kick

xxx