Health and Medications

Our website carries a guidance document about the length of time, if any, a child should be absent from school with childhood illnesses. For example, a child should not attend school until 48 hours after the last bout of vomiting or diarrhea.

Children with a diagnosis of asthma should bring any inhalers and (yellow) spacer devices into school labelled with their name. Self-administration is usual practice. If parents request, inhalers can be kept by the supervising teacher. Inhalers should be taken to swimming lessons, to sports events and on educational visits. Children will be added to the asthma register and parents/carers will be asked to complete a consent form for children to use the emergency school inhaler in the event that their own inhaler is not working/not in school etc.

If your child is prescribed emergency intervention medicines such as an EpiPen – a health plan will be drawn up by the school nurse with teaching staff and the child’s parents. All of our staff have recently updated their training in administering an EpiPen.

For a child suffering from an infection that requires antibiotic medication, we suggest that the treatment be completed before your child returns to school. However, should your doctor recommend that the child return to school before the course of treatment is complete, the
antibiotics can only be administered by the Headteacher or named first aider, with written parental consent. All medicines must be labelled with dosage, name, frequency etc.

School nursing team – Parents will be provided with full information as to when the nursing team are due to attend. Assessments are usually carried out in Reception and Year 6

Request to administer medicines form

Request To Administer Medicines Form

A paper copy of this form can be collected from the school office.

Any medicines that are brought into school should be taken to the school office and a ‘request to administer medication’ form should be completed. This will then be passed on to the class teacher.

School will administer medicines but only when this is essential and cannot be done by parents/carers.

If your child needs antibiotics, school will administer these but only if the medicine needs to be administered four times a day or there is a specific instruction (e.g. before/after lunch). If antibiotics are to be administered three times a day, this should be done at home.

If your child has an inhaler, this should be brought to school in a named bag or box and handed in at the office. Your child will need an inhaler that stays in school. Please also complete the ‘consent form for use of the emergency inhaler’. Inhalers should not be kept in school bags.

Inhalers will be sent home at the end of every summer term for cleaning. It is the responsibility of parents and carers to check that inhalers have not expired and are working correctly. We recommend this is done termly.

If your child needs an antihistamine (e.g. Piriton) this should be handed in at the office and a ‘request to administer medication’ form completed. The named bottle should stay in school.

If medicines do need to come home, these should be collected from the school office. This should be avoided wherever possible. All medicines should have your child’s name and class on the bottle/box to avoid confusion with other children’s medicines.

No child should have any medicines in their school bags at any time. Please ensure that the school office is told of any changes to your child’s required medications or their medical conditions immediately. Thank you for helping us to keep our children safe.