Health & Wellbeing

We take great care to ensure that all children at our school are happy and healthy. To ensure that we respond appropriately to your child’s needs, we would appreciate being told of any medical condition that your child has suffered from or is currently experiencing. The same applies to anything that might affect their wellbeing, e.g. issues with sleep, behaviour, or significant changes in the family.

Sickness

Any illness that requires your child to stay at home should be reported to the school office by 9am, each day that your child is unwell. Children must be kept at home for 48 hours after the last instance of any vomiting or diarrhoea, in order to prevent other children and staff being infected.

Medicines

We do not normally administer medicine to children in school, unless it is required as part of their daily life, e.g. allergy / asthma medication. If this applies to your child please contact the school office. If your child is prescribed medicine that needs to be given during school time, and you are unable to attend the school to administer this yourself, please speak to the school office. You will need to complete a consent form giving full details of dosage, frequency and storage. Medicine should always be handed to a member of staff and collected again by an adult, even if the container is empty.

Medical appointments

Wherever possible, please try to make medical or dental appointments out of school time. If your child does have a medical appointment during school hours, please contact the office.

First aid

Children who have minor accidents in school receive immediate treatment. All staff are qualified First Aiders. In more serious cases parents will be contacted. It is essential that your emergency contact information is up to date at all times.

Personal care

Occasionally we may have to change a child’s clothing or clean a child due to soiling etc. We always ensure that there are at least 2 members of staff in the vicinity and that the child is in agreement with our actions. If a child refuses to let staff assist them we will contact the parent/carer to attend to the child. If you do not want school staff to change your child’s clothing etc. please contact the school office.

School Nurse

Our school nurse, Tracy Torrie, can be contacted for advice regarding childhood illnesses or other health concerns, including mental health issues. Please contact the school office for her direct phone number or call the Essex Child and Family Wellbeing Service on 0300 247 0014.

NHS Mid-Essex Clinical Commissioning Group’s A Parent’s Guide to Common Childhood Illnesses and Wellbeing is an extensive and informative handbook for anyone who cares for a child aged from birth to 11 years old. It gives advice on how to spot signs of illness and what to do for minor conditions such as coughs and colds, fever, dry skin and rashes, chicken pox, bumps and bruises. Information on mental health and wellbeing, healthy lifestyles and advice on some more serious conditions like meningitis and sepsis is covered in the booklet. There’s also a handy section on when you should keep your child home from school.

We are a Children’s Health Project Partner

At Writtle Infant School we are striving to put children’s health and wellbeing as a priority. Working with the Children’s Health Project we have created a vision of educating children to have respect for their bodies and minds and to make healthy choices with confidence. We want to encourage all children to understand the importance of being healthy and happy and what support we can give if this is difficult. We aim to make every child at our school a healthy, active child who is ready to enjoy all aspects of learning.

• Childhood Obesity is ‘a major public health challenge of the 21st Century’ (WHO) (30% overweight or obese in the UK)
• Diabetes in children is rising (31,500 in the UK)
• 90% of the children we’ve worked with say they have trouble sleeping
• In the UK, 1 in 4 seven year old girls has tried to lose weight at least once
• In the UK, 1/3 of boys aged 8-12yrs are dieting to lose weight

Our Mission

We want to make changes in our health education by working with teachers, parents and the community to take action that leads to every child eating healthily, participating in physical activity and promoting a healthier school where children thrive.