Medical

Illness – The following is a guide to the normal periods that children should stay away from school after contracting infections or diseases. However, these periods may be varied in individual cases at the direction of the medical practitioner.

 Recommended exclusion periods for childhood infections.pdf
 Guidance on Infection Control in Schools.pdf
 When Should I Worry-Booklet - With 111 Service.pdf

Illness during school hours – If your child becomes ill during the day, we will contact you by telephone and request that you or a named representative collect him/her.

Contact Numbers in the case of Accidents and Emergencies – You are asked to complete a form giving details of telephone numbers and addresses where we can contact you in an emergency. We hope these will be few and far between but it is important that information is current; should you change your home/mobile telephone number or your place of work, please advise us immediately.

Special Medical Conditions – Where children have medical conditions which may require rapid intervention (e.g. diabetes, epilepsy, asthma, migraine or an allergy), it is vital that you make us aware of this. Parents must notify the Headteacher and Secretary about the condition, symptoms and appropriate action following onset.

A Care Plan will be completed detailing this information and the Headteacher will then make all staff aware of this information. Training will be accessed, where appropriate, from the school health service.

Parents/carers have the responsibility to ensure that epi-pens or inhalers are clearly labelled with their child’s name. Inhalers are stored in an appropriate place and are easily accessible so that asthmatic children are able to get their inhaler quickly. Inhalers should be taken to swimming lessons, sports events and educational visits. Most asthmatic children will be able to administer inhalers themselves. Where they need to be supervised, this will be done by the Headteacher or one of our qualified First Aiders. Epi-pens will be stored safely in a central location and will only be administered in an emergency by a trained member of staff.

Arrangements for the administration of medicines – Pupils who are unwell should not be sent to school. However many pupils need to attend school while taking prescribed medicine for the following reasons: they suffer from a chronic illness or allergy, or they are recovering from a short-term illness and are undergoing or completing a course of treatment using prescribed medicines.

At Orchard, it is the office staff who administer prescribed/ non-prescribed medicine, overseen by another member of staff who is a Qualified First Aider.

Guidance on the administration of medication at School:
Staff will not give a prescribed/non-prescribed medicine or care unless there is specific written consent from parents.

An individual care plan should be drawn up for the pupil.

A secondary check must be made prior to medication being taken/given.

The School will not accept items of medication in unlabelled containers.

First Aid – Minor accidents such as grazes or minor bumps are managed by support staff trained in basic first aid. When a significant injury occurs, we opt on the side of caution. Therefore, where we feel there is a need to seek further medical advice, parents will be contacted immediately and together we make an informed decision as to the next steps. Injuries of all types are scrupulously recorded and logged. If a child has an identified bump to the head but is able and happy to continue at school, we monitor them closely and send home a ‘Head Bump’ letter.

Head Lice – Whilst we send out a note to parents to check the family’s hair straight away when we have been informed that a child in that class has been affected, we also advise parents to follow the guidance, as follows, once a week:

• Look through your child’s hair, paying particular attention to the crown where eggs are usually laid, behind the ears and base of the neck.
• Wash your child’s hair and follow with a conditioner.
• Comb the hair through over a bowl of water, with a head lice comb.
• Check the water for any head lice.

If you find any head lice, special shampoos are available from any chemist to treat the hair. Always check the hair again after a week, using the method above to ensure that the hair is clear.