Medical Matters

Illness at School

School is not the best place to be if you are unwell. Work will suffer and the child will feel very dispirited. If your child is or has been unwell please consider carefully when they should return to school, as we do not have facilities for looking after them. If you are in any doubt, ask yourself, 'Is my child too ill for school?'.

In the Health Protection Agency document, "Guidelines for the Control of Infection and Communicable Disease in School and Early Years Settings", the guidance is:

  • Diarrhoea and Vomiting exclusion

Diarrhoea and/or vomiting commonly affects children and staff and can be caused by a number of different germs, including viruses, parasites and bacteria. Infections can be easily spread from person to person (by unwashed hands), especially in children. In general, it is recommended that any staff member or child with diarrhoea and/or vomiting symptoms must stay away or be excluded from the school or early years setting until they have been free of symptoms for 48 hours (the ‘48 hour rule’) and feel well. Personal hygiene whilst ill must be very strict.

If your child is sick at school, we will ask you or your emergency contact to take your child home. They should not return for 48 hours. We appreciate that this is inconvenient in many cases, and you may not believe your child is ill, but you will appreciate that we do this in all cases and it should reduce the risk of infection for all children in school.

Thank you for your understanding with this. Further guidance on infection control may be found on the Health Protection Agency website.

  • Notifiable Illness

If your child has an infectious illness or disease, please make sure that we know as we have to notify the Local Education Authority of certain outbreaks e.g. measles, mumps, chicken pox etc.

  • Medicines in School

Children should not bring medicines into school. If your child needs to complete a course of medicine, please come and discuss the matter with the Headteacher. Children should hand asthma inhalers to the school office. These should be clearly labelled with the child’s name and class. Under no circumstances will medicines be kept in the classrooms.

  • Emergencies

Please ensure that the school has up to date information on how parents can be contacted should an emergency arise.

This can be done while visiting the school, by telephone - 020 8654 3006 or by email.

Supporting Children with Medical Conditions

Full Policy    Individual healthcare plan     Medication Consent Form     School Asthma Card

Policy statement
This school is an inclusive community that aims to support all pupils, including those with medical conditions, in order that they can develop spiritually, creatively, physically, socially and academically.

We aim to ensure that:

  • All staff understand their duty of care to children in the event of an emergency.
  • All staff feel confident in knowing what to do in an emergency.
  • All staff understand that medical conditions should not be a barrier to learning.
  • Parents/Carers of pupils with medical conditions feel secure in the care their children receive at this school.
  • The school aims to include all pupils with medical conditions in all school activities, where possible.
  • Staff receive training to support children with medical conditions, where appropriate.