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Training & awareness

Guide for schools

Epilepsy awareness training for school staff

All staff working with a young person with epilepsy should be trained to ensure they understand the young person’s condition and its impact on their life. A structured epilepsy awareness programme empowers staff to recognise seizures quickly and respond with confidence.

Effective epilepsy awareness for schools training should include:

Seizure types and how to identify them
Seizure management including seizure-specific first aid as part of epilepsy awareness
What to record when witnessing a seizure
The impact of epilepsy on learning and behaviour
What information should be included in an Individual Healthcare plan (IHP)
The importance of risk assessing activities and examples of adjustments that can be made to ensure a young person is safe and included at school

Whole school epilepsy awareness training can be delivered as part of the school’s safeguarding training programme, at an INSET day, in a specific staff development sessions or undertaken as online training.

Young Epilepsy has free e-learning courses for education professionals

Some members of staff with a specific responsibility for a young person with epilepsy may need additional training. If the young person is at risk of prolonged seizures and prescribed emergency medication, staff will require epilepsy awareness and medication-administration training from an epilepsy specialist nurse or school nurse.

Schools must ensure that sufficient numbers of staff are trained to ensure a young person’s safety and inclusion across the school site, on school trips and when staff are absent.

Awareness raising for pupils

Much of the stigma and exclusion associated with epilepsy comes from a lack of understanding about the condition. Embedding epilepsy awareness for pupils—and across the whole school community—improves safety, inclusion and peer support.

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The young person affected might want to be involved in awareness raising, for example by presenting an assembly. Epilepsy charities, healthcare workers and other partners may also be able to help with awareness raising. Initiatives may include:

Epilepsy awareness integrated into PSHE (Personal, Social, Health & Economic) lessons
Seizure first aid being taught in life-skills/personal programmes
School-supported epilepsy awareness days

Support for staff and pupils

Watching someone have a seizure can be traumatic even if it only lasts a few seconds. Schools should make sure staff and pupils know where to find emotional or pastoral support after an epilepsy-related incident.

The siblings of a young person with epilepsy may be particularly affected. They are living alongside the condition every day and may experience anxiety and sleep disturbance. Although siblings may not be registered and receiving external support for being a young carer, the school should be aware of the additional responsibility that these siblings have and support them both academically and pastorally.