Student Health Care

ACCIDENTS

 

If your child is injured or becomes ill, all care and attention will be given and you will be contacted. Minor injuries or illness during the day are attended to at school and children are then returned to class. In an extreme emergency, the school will seek outside medical assistance. If you have a change of address or telephone number it is important to inform the school, so there won’t be a delay in contacting you.

 

ALLERGIES

 

We have some students in our school with severe and potentially life-threatening allergic reactions to all nuts and nut products. Traces of nuts left on other children’s hands and close contact during eating, laughing, spitting, sneezing or coughing after consuming nuts or nut products can cause these children to have an allergic reaction.  We would ask you to be aware of this and to try and help us to provide a safe environment for these children by NOT sending nuts or nut products to school.

 

ANAPHYLAXIS/ASTHMA

 

If your child is anaphylactic/asthmatic you will need to notify the school upon enrolment ensuring that you complete all of the necessary emergency action plans. These plans will need to be signed by your General Practitioner. You will also be required to provide a prescribed adrenaline auto-injector which can be used at school, if necessary.

 

All relevant forms are available from the office and we suggest that parents/carers obtain a copy of these before going to the doctor with a sick child. Alternatively, most doctors will have a form which they can use.

 

 HEAD LICE

 

What will the school do if head lice are found?

  • Notify the parents of the child with head lice.
  • Treatment must be commenced and all head lice removed before the child is permitted to return to school. Confirmation of treatment needs to be in writing to the child’s teacher.
  • Notify the parents of students in the child’s class that head lice have been found so that hair can be checked.
  • Under the School Education Act 1999, the Principal may exclude a child with head lice from school until treatment has commenced.

INFECTIOUS DISEASES

 

The following diseases require exclusion from school:

Chicken Pox                 
Conjunctivitis
Covid-19                                         
Diarrhoea           

Impetigo                      
Measles                                                 

Mumps                        
Ringworm, Scabies, Lice 

Trachoma

Rubella

Whooping Cough

Worms

Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease

 

Please check with the Manager Corporate Services for the length of exclusion in each case. If in doubt, consult your doctor. The school will contact parents if it is suspected that a child may have an infectious disease. Please notify the school of any serious infectious disease your child may contract.

 

IMMUNISATION

 

Immunisation is organised through the School Health Nurse who visits several times a term. Students who are not immunised or who have not provided proof of immunisation will be excluded in the event of an outbreak of a communicable disease such as measles, or chicken pox. The School Based Immunisation Program will involve students in Years 7 and 10. Permission forms for immunisations will be sent home with your child when necessary.

  

MEDICATION AT SCHOOL

 

The Education Department has established guidelines about the administration of medication to students.

 

Except in an extreme emergency, e.g. unexpected anaphylaxis, medication can only be administered by school staff if appropriate documentation has been completed by parents/carers. This applies to both prescribed and non-prescribed medication.

 

Short Term Use of Medication (up to two weeks)

 

For administration of short term medication such as a course of antibiotics, our school requires written authority from parents/carers.  This authority can be provided by completing an Administration of Medication form. These forms can be obtained from the front office.

 

Note:

The medication must be clearly labelled with the child’s name and provided in packaging from the pharmacy or the manufacturer.

Documentation must be signed and dated by a parent or carer and provided to the school with the medication.

 

Long Term Use of Medication

 

If you require the school to administer medication to your child for a period of more than two weeks, and if you have not already done so, you may need to complete a Student Health Care Summary and a Management/Emergency Response Plan for your child’s particular health need.  In most instances, this documentation will have been completed when you enrolled your child or as part of the school’s process for updating student health care records.  If this is not the case, please discuss with the Principal, Deputy or classroom teacher.