Tymes Trust Alert 2012-05 Message from Jane 23 May 2012 ====== Follow Jane on Twitter @JaneCColby or read her tweets at www.tymestrust.org ====== STATEMENT ON VIRTUAL EDUCATION presented at the House of Lords ====== As part of our ME Awareness work, on 14 May our Founder Patron the Lord Clement-Jones hosted our Education Commitment Awards with the Nisai Virtual Academy in the House of Lords. The event was full with education and medical professionals; four of our Young Officers managed to attend, together with other young people with ME and their families from all over the British Isles. The Countess of Mar came along and lent us great support, along with Ian Swales MP, joint vice-chair of the APPG on ME, and John Whittingdale MP from the Trust's constituency. Before the presentations, I launched the following Statement on Virtual Education. Printed copies are available for all to use, and I thought you would like to be among the first to read the text. ---- VIRTUAL EDUCATION FOR CHILDREN WITH ME : STATEMENT BY JANE COLBY, FORMER HEAD TEACHER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE YOUNG ME SUFFERERS TRUST As a former Head Teacher, I was author of the first specialist article on ME in schoolchildren (British Journal of Special Education, 1994). I also co-authored the largest ever study of ME in schools. This 5-year survey comprised 1098 schools, 333,024 pupils and 27,327 staff - the largest epidemiological survey of this type made to date. It revealed that ME is the biggest cause of long-term sickness absence from school in both pupils and staff (Dowsett and Colby, Journal of CFS, 1997). My personal and professional experience and also my research have shown that for young people with ME the most effective form of education is home-based, with interactive virtual education producing grades equivalent to, or higher than, healthy students at school. Social contact is provided by online student groups, and where possible, interaction with the local school. Such a protocol enables very sick students to achieve, when otherwise they are typically condemned to a recurring pattern of school attendance and subsequent relapse with little to show for it. They often feel they are failures, when in reality it is the educational system that has failed them. Such a protocol has also been shown to promote the student's health and recovery, in contrast with misguided pressure to get back to school too early in what is a chronic, seriously disabling disease. Pressure of this kind is counterproductive, typically producing further illness and further interruption to achievement. Finally, such a protocol is usually far less expensive than traditional home tutoring. It has, over time, not only produced success, but enabled many to get back to school or college again when their physical and intellectual stamina have recovered sufficiently to benefit, with far less detriment to their health. ---- I have also been advising schools, helping them plan the education of individual students with ME within their usual systems. It is good to talk with professionals who are working so hard to assist families, in contrast with the less caring examples I have been sent recently, and of which you will be aware. SPONSOR FORMS For those of you who have been asking whether we have sponsor forms available for fundraising, these can be found at www.tymestrust.org/donations.htm Many thanks to those of you who sent us an ME Awareness donation - without us even asking! All good wishes Jane Jane Colby FRSA Former Head Teacher Executive Director The Young ME Sufferers Trust PO Box 4347, Stock, Essex, CM4 9TE www.tymestrust.org Tel: 0845 003 9002 Holder of The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service: The MBE for Volunteer Groups ====== READ ALL PREVIOUS ALERTS AND SUBSCRIBE TO MY LIST AT www.tymestrust.org To unsubscribe, send an email via the website Contact Us form. ====== You are welcome to redistribute or reprint this email without seeking our permission provided: 1) you do not abbreviate, add to, or change the text in any way; 2) the authorship information is retained; and 3) www.tymestrust.org is credited as the source. Jane Colby is Executive Director of The Young ME Sufferers Trust. She was a Headteacher for nine years, a member of the government Chief Medical Officer's Working Group on CFS/ME and co-authored ME/CFS In UK Schools, the largest epidemiological study of ME to date. She is a life member of the National Association of Head Teachers and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Copyright (c) 2012 The Young ME Sufferers Trust