Illness and medication
Illness in school
If a child becomes ill during the school day and we consider that it is best for the child to go home, we will contact a parent or emergency contact to let them know.
It is important for children that are too ill to attend school to remain at home. Where a child has regular illness we will work with parents to identify ways to improve attendance at school.
There are a range of childhood illnesses that require us to check on the treatment that your child has received as they cannot return to school until they have received treatment, we can advise you on this when you contact us.
We have to track the nature of illnesses across the school so that we can keep informed of any possible risk to the wider school population. We inform parents if we are concerned that a certain bug or infection is working its way through a class.
Medicines
We only administer prescription medicines in school and these can only be administered once a Medicines form is completed. We administer medication:
- When it would be detrimental to the pupil’s health or school attendance not to do so and
- Where we have parents’ written consent.
Pupils will not be given medicine unless prescribed by a doctor.
The school will only accept prescribed medicines that are:
- In-date
- Labelled
- Provided in the original container, as dispensed by the pharmacist, and include instructions for administration, dosage and storage. If provided as a single dose, the school must see the original container and prescription label.
The school will accept insulin that is inside an insulin pen or pump rather than its original container, but it must be in date.
All medicines are stored safely in the school office, in the medical needs cupboard or medical needs fridge. Pupils are informed about where their medicines are at all times and be able to access them immediately. Medicines and devices such as asthma inhalers, blood glucose testing meters and adrenaline pens are always readily available to pupils and not locked away.
Medicines are returned to parents to arrange for safe disposal when no longer required.
