Coming back to school after scoliosis treatment can be a challenge. Be it bracing, growing rods, or fusion, you’re healing and getting to know the new and different way your body moves while dealing with being thrust back into your everyday activities alongside your peers. There are some things you can do though to make this transition back to school easier. We’ve collected some first-hand accounts from people who’ve been in this position, and their parents, so that you can benefit from their advice. What they all have in common is that it’s so important to reach out to the school for help. Whatever you can do to make yourself more comfortable and confident is worth it.

Maddie Venner

I had my fusion surgery 2 months before starting my first year at college. My advice would be if you are moving between different classrooms all day, try to leave any textbooks, workbooks or anything like that in the classroom where the lesson is taught. Unnecessarily carrying around heavy books all day can be very painful! Make sure that your teachers know that you have scoliosis and make sure that you are allowed to get up and regularly take a short walk. If your wound is still healing, request that you leave 5 minutes before your class finishes so that you can avoid crowds on your way to your next lesson. Trust me, there is nothing worse than being bumped into when you’re still feeling a bit sore. And definitely use a backpack, as opposed to a shoulder bag. Having the weight of the bag on both shoulders reduces the strain on your back, making it a lot more comfortable than a shoulder bag.

Rebecca Jamison

My daughter was diagnosed in November, 2020, and has been able to go to school only for a few hours a day and sometimes she has had to stay at home because of pain. The school has been great and we keep them up to date with what is going on and we send in doctor’s letters. Ellie takes in a cushion for her chair, and they have said she can leave her bag in the classroom since it is so heavy with all the books. She can also have a lift pass and leave class early to go to next lesson.

Angela Winton

My daughter’s school was amazing when she went back after surgery. We built it up slowly with a couple of periods, then a half day, etc. She was allowed to arrive 5 mins late and leave 5 mins early to avoid crowds. She had a ‘bag buddy’ to carry her school bag from class to class. They gave her access to the lift so she didn’t have to use the stairs to other floors and changed her locker so she didn’t have to bend to access hers. We had talked it all through before she returned, so the school had all these things in place ready for her.

I found the first day she went back so stressful because she had been with me every minute of the day since her surgery, so to not be there to protect her was really tough, but kids are resilient and getting back to a normality is good for them.

Joss Graham

I’m in my last year of secondary school and have had a brace for a few years now. Tell your teacher exactly what you need and explain why. Teachers often don’t know or can’t tell a pupil has scoliosis and wouldn’t know how to help anyway, so tell them how to help you. For me with my brace, some combinations of chairs and desks didn’t work because they made my back hurt. I use rest breaks in exams to walk around so no aches set in.

Christine Lampert

What I found most helpful on my return to school was being allowed to leave classes 5-10 minutes earlier than the others. It allowed me extra time to move between rooms so I could go at my own pace and have space so that I didn’t have to walk in large groups of other people where I could get accidentally knocked into. Although it often meant I didn’t get to walk with my friends between classes, and I sometimes felt a little embarrassed packing up before everyone else, I definitely think it helped me. I was quite worried about getting bumped into and falling over for a long time after my operations, so this allowed me to ease back into things.

I let my teachers know that I would probably need to stand and stretch or walk around for a few moments. Personally, I found sitting in my classes, which were often more than an hour, quite taxing, especially sitting in the same spot at a desk. It was a little embarrassing to me at the beginning, because I didn’t want to cause a disruption to the class, but I think everyone got used to it pretty quickly and knew I needed that time.

I recommend asking for anything you think you might need, such as a cushion for school chairs, help with carrying heavy bags, a break room to rest in, etc, because, in my experience, teachers and schools are more than willing to accommodate, they just need to know what it is you need. I had some help carrying my bags at the beginning and was allowed to leave stuff in my classrooms instead of taking it home, which meant that I didn’t have to carry anything heavy.

For those taking exams, I went back into Year 11 and was offered extra time to complete my exams in case I needed to take a walking break, which was incredibly helpful for me, even though I didn’t use it all the time. I think just having the option of it being available was reassuring to me more than anything.

Going back to school was emotionally quite challenging at times because I had to be careful and couldn’t necessarily do the same things as my friends and had to sit out classes like PE, so I felt a little left out. I also felt a little left behind after my time away, but my friends and teachers were hugely supportive, which really helped me feel welcomed back. It wasn’t easy, but it was definitely more manageable with this help.

Charlotte Black

I was home tutored while braced and then after bracing finished, I went to the education room at the local hospital before going back into school. When I returned to school, it was agreed that I could leave 5 minutes early with a friend before each lesson to avoid the busy corridors in secondary school with all the jostling and pushing. I remember the tall science stools being really uncomfortable and so if a different type of chair or stool is available, with a back, then that’d be best. I was exempt from PE for a while, especially contact and team sports. This helped my confidence and made me feel more comfortable.

I found that I needed to switch positions a lot when I first started wearing the brace. Too long standing, sitting, or lying down would result in an awful backache so I would switch positions regularly to build my tolerance up.

Before my surgery, the physiotherapist explained to me about using my stomach muscles to pull and adjust my trunk so that I’d build muscle memory and it wouldn’t feel so strange when the brace was then put on. This was a huge help and helped me prepare for how my body and posture would feel. I still do this now when I notice that I am standing to one side.

Catherine Peck

When I was 15, I had a severe S-shaped double curve and needed two operations to correct it, around 6 months apart. Between operations I had a brace fitted that I wore 10 hours a day.

After the initial surgery and the brace fitting, I found that I got tired very easily, and ended up having a wheelchair for a few months. You can get these for free or very cheap at a Red Cross or through your hospital or GP, and if you’re really struggling with walking then it’s worth doing.

During this initial stretch I was home-schooled since I couldn’t attend in person and would still have friends visit so that I could stay up to date on what was happening and feel like I was still somewhat ‘in the loop’. This helped to make it feel less daunting when I was able to start going back to school part time, and of course it was a great distraction to see people.

Before returning to school, we did two things that really helped – the first was taking a few short day trips where we’d go for a short walk, stop at a cafe, another short walk, etc to get the hang of moving around and confirm to myself that I could do it. The second was a rather excellent shopping spree! It may sound callous, but I really cannot recommend it enough ahead of going back to school. Your body has changed shape, you’re not totally comfortable in your own skin, plus with a brace I struggled to find trousers that I could wear. Buying a  few new sets of clothes meant that I could find clothes that would work with my brace – long, baggy t-shirts hid it very well, and we ended up getting large trousers and just duct-taping them over the brace rather than having them sit under and letting them rub. It also meant that I felt far less self-conscious about how I looked, as well as giving me a fun way to process my worries about having to go back after such a long break.

Once I returned to school, we made a few small adjustments that were really helpful:

The school was aware of my situation and had a dedicated ‘comfy area’. I think it was literally just two chairs next to each other in the school office, but if my back was sore, I could just go there and lie down for a bit which was a big help.

Not carrying a heavy backpack! Really do avoid this at all costs. I just had a friend who had agreed to carry mine for me but having a wheelable pack or leaving a small pack in each classroom also works. Remove anything non-essential.

Take some sort of seat cover/ pillow/ cushion with you. I felt a bit self-conscious doing this, but the chairs in the classrooms were just so uncomfortable that I couldn’t lean back on them and would get tired out very quickly.

Finally, find a pain management treatment to relax your back after school that works for you. I found a sports masseuse who was amazing, as well as having regular physiotherapy. On a day-to-day basis heat was a big help in relieving back pain, so have hot baths or use heated blankets or anything like that. You can get small single use self-adhesive heat pads to use during the day at school as well which are really useful.

Naomi Mutale

Being open about scoliosis and treatment with close friends helped relieve some stress because then I didn’t have to put so much energy into trying to hide it from everyone. Emotionally, it was quite hard trying to figure out who to tell or whether to hide it and the right way to tell people. I was nervous about people’s response to it so I didn’t really want to go through that a lot. For the most part, people took it well but there were some kids that were quite cruel about it and that was hard to deal with.

In terms of bracing and returning to school, I would wear a vest over my brace and then my uniform which I found helped hide the bulges of the brace a bit. I was given a buddy (who I chose) to come with me to the toilets to get changed for PE. I found sitting on a chair during assembly really helped after returning to primary school after treatment.

Stacey Benjamin-Mcfarlane

It was a very nerve-wracking time going back to school. I felt different from my peers and aware of being knocked or bumped into. Some things that helped were:

– I was allowed to use a laptop in class because writing by hand took me longer.

– I was given a locker so that I didn’t have to carry all my books, but I also used a backpack instead of a satchel, so the weight was evenly distributed instead of on one side of my body

– If lessons were upstairs, I would go up and stay in class during breaks to prevent me going up and down, or I had my work brought downstairs and I worked in the library.

– I was also allowed to stay indoors on cold or wet days.