school

Dealing with OCD during school

September 5th 2015

About the author: Rachel is sixteen years old and has just finished GCSEs. She lives in London and has had OCD for about 2 years.

A significant amount of your life, if you are under 16, is probably spent in school, so telling your teachers or the school about your OCD can help you greatly.

IN SCHOOL:

Telling your teachers can help as then people in the place you spend most of your time will be aware of a significant problem in your life, and might be able to accommodate things for you, for example, giving extensions on homework assignments.

A quote from a teacher support website says: “… identifying OCD is not something you will always be able to easily pick up on in a classroom environment.”

However, where a pupil or parent identifies Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) to you, it is vital you help them in two ways, first of all to ensure they receive support and treatment through internal counselling/school nurse, but also through the NHS. The treatment we recommend is a talking therapy called Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) which is available through the NHS. CBT is sometimes used in conjunction with medication. The other thing you can do is to ensure that that reasonable adjustments are made where appropriate, but be careful not to be sucked into the ‘OCD’ game of allowing too many adjustments, it will vary case-by-case and often the level of adjustments needed will vary as treatment progresses.”

(Quote from this article)

If you tell your teachers/school about your OCD, you may be able to ask for accommodations like choosing where you sit in the classroom in order that you are the least anxious possible in school so that you can concentrate on your schoolwork.

IN EXAMS:

Most exam boards can give special consideration or arrangements for exams. Some special arrangements e.g. extra time, rest breaks etc. They need to be requested a while before the exams, and I think the exam organiser at your school must organise this. You will probably need a medical note declaring why you are requesting the special arrangement, and why you think itwill help you achieve at a fair level, rather than give you an advantage over everyone else. Special considerations can also be awarded after an exam, but this is usually for short term injury, traumatic incidents, bereavements etc. While I couldn’t find details for OCD, or any other mental illness specifically, I have heard of people with long term illnesses eg narcolepsy gaining special consideration for the disruption caused in the exam and throughout their education.

The closest I could find to information regarding specific mental illness is that for “stress or anxiety for which medication has been prescribed”, 1% allowance is given.

(Quote from this document)

If you want to learn more about applying for access arrangements and/or special consideration, you should probably speak to someone at your school, and/or call the exam boards you are going to be taking exams with.

To sum up: Telling your school can help you throughout your school career as teachers can make small accommodations if you apply in advance, you may be given access arrangements, and after the exam, you can apply for special consideration if you think you are unfairly disadvantaged due to OCD.

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