School Life

School Life | Which School? | Home School - V - Mainstream School
School Activities |  Social Inclusion | Cross Infection

Before we enrolled Hannah, we met the principal or príomhóide, Dónal, to discuss how CF would impact on Hannah and others in school. This new element within the school affects everyone, but the person who handles the practical side of it would be the school secretary or runaí Lorraine. She keeps a small supply of Creon in her office in case of emergencies. She also handles all the additional paperwork that goes with having a PWCF (person with Cystic Fibrosis) in the school. Every time Hannah misses a day it has to be recorded, and so far that’s a lot of days! She also processes a lot of paperwork that’s involved in applying for the tutoring as everything has to be copied and filed. So get to know your school secretary because after the teacher, she’s the person you’ll see a lot of. Lorraine is worth her weight in gold and the school as well as our family would be lost without her.

Obviously, Hannah would have to eat her lunch at school. This would involve taking Creon, which would expose others to the responsibility of handing out medication. This element was explained to Dónal and to each of the teachers she’s had so far. We also had to explain how she can pick up infections quite easily, and how much time she would potentially miss from school. This was the school’s first exposure to CF, and they embraced her with open arms. The staff were extremely compassionate and understanding of her, especially when she may have been developing an infection and would have been tired and coughing a lot.

When we applied the Dept. of Education for Home Tutoring for Hannah, Dónal and Hannah’s teacher in Junior Infants, Doireann, were of great assistance in the application process. We were incredibly lucky in that Doireann offered to do the home tutoring with Hannah, which meant it was one less obstacle for us to overcome. Last year, Angela also kindly offered to do the tutoring and it made Hannah’s life a lot easier. She did 2hrs per week after school. That arrangement remained in place until June of Senior Infants, and she did the tutoring when she was well and also when she was sick. Finally, this year, Hannah received 4hrs tutoring from the Dept. These have been allocated based on her absenteeism last year, and are in place until June of 2010. Unfortunately, due to personal commitments, Hannah's teacher Múinteoir Monica is unable to the tutoring. However, Michael's teacher Múinteoir Seonaidh is tutoring her in the afternoons after school, and this is going really well.

This is Múinteoir Angela, Hannah's teacher from Senior Infants. As stated above, Angela did the extra tutoring with Hannah last year. This year, she was also unavailable as she is teaching 2nd Class and is getting married in the summer. Comhghairdeas!!