Our Welfare room is a friendly area to enable children to feel comfortable if they are hurt or unwell. Our welfare officer is Martina Tanner, and she can be contacted via the school office.

First Aiders

We have a number of First Aiders in our school who are trained to administer First Aid in addition to our welfare officer.

Medications

We can administer children’s medications in school providing a 'request for medication' form is completed beforehand. We follow our school’s guidelines for administering medication, see our ‘First aid, managing medicines and supporting pupils with medical needs’ policy below.

If your child has a medical need, we will ask you to come in and see our welfare officer to complete a care plan to support your child in school. Our welfare officer also needs to see parents/carers if a child is returning to school from an operation or has an injury, e.g. a fracture.

Partners

We regularly work with other NHS professionals. The children have medical checks, e.g. hearing tests, height and weight checks and dentist visits during their time in school, which are organised by the NHS. Parents receive a letter before these checks take place.

Illness

Sometimes it is difficult to know whether to keep your child off school or send them in. Always try and send your child to school if they are a little ‘under the weather’, for example, with a runny nose, headache, mild tummy-ache. The school will always contact you if your child is unwell, which is why it is vitally important that we have your correct contact details. HOWEVER, please do not send your child to school if they have any infectious illnesses like Chicken Pox, Measles etc. If your child has been vomiting or is suffering from diarrhoea, then they should stay away from school for 48 hours from the last bout of illness. This is to ensure that any infection does not spread through the school. Please do contact the school office if you need any additional advice or support and we will be happy to help. The NHS has a handy guide to the most common childhood illnesses and what you should do: NHS Advice - Is my child too ill for school?

Health and Safety

In accordance with its obligations under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, the School has a duty to ensure the health and safety of pupils and others affected by the School’s operations, so far as practicable.

The school will do so by taking a sensible, proportionate and holistic approach to the management of health and safety issues in accordance with the school’s obligations and its health and safety policies.

Care plans

If a child has a medical need or is recovering from an operation/injury, the school will request a care plan to be completed with the parent/carer.

• Staff are appropriately trained to deal with pupil welfare issues
• Where concerns about a pupil’s welfare are identified, the risks are appropriately managed through a care plan /risk assessment written up with the parent/carer
• Staff, pupils and parents and others are consulted, where appropriate, to find practical solutions to welfare issues
• Where a concern about a pupil’s welfare is identified, the risk to that pupil’s welfare will be assessed, appropriate action will be taken to reduce the risks identified. This will be recorded and then regularly monitored and reviewed.
• Care plans will be stored securely and confidentially. The information obtained through this process and the action agreed will then be shared, as appropriate, with other staff, in order to safeguard and promote the welfare of a particular child or of pupils generally.

Medications - At Chesterfield Primary School, we support children needing certain medications and administer/support administration according to our guidelines. The following guidelines are based on advice from the Enfield Local Authority Health and Safety team and from Government guidelines:

• Where clinically possible, medicines should be prescribed in doses frequencies, which enable them to be taken outside school hours.
• Schools do not have to administer medication.
• Schools only accept prescribed medicines that are in-date, labelled, provided in the original container as dispensed by a pharmacist and include instructions for administration, dosage and storage. The exception to this is insulin, which must still be in date, but will generally be available to schools inside an insulin pen or a pump, rather than in its original container.
• We will only administer medication when a parent completes a request for medication form available from the school.

For any welfare concerns or questions please email: welfare@chesterfieldprimary.org

Head lice (nits)- Head lice are common in primary schools. They are not caused by dirty hair and are picked up by head-to-head contact. If you find head lice in your child’s hair, you should treat it straight away, following the guidance on the NHS advice page: www.nhs.uk/Head-lice

You do not need to keep your child at home if they have head lice. Please contact Martina, our welfare officer, if you would like further guidance or advice.

NHS advice line: www.nhs.uk/NHS-111