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Health and Wellbeing

STUDENT HEALTH AND WELLBEING IS A PRIMARY CONCERN AT PLENTY PARKLANDS PRIMARY.

FIRST AID

First aid at school is the initial care of the ill or injured. The school provides basic first aid facilities and first aid kits for excursions, sport and camps. School staff are rostered to provide first aid assistance each recess and lunch break.   Staff are not expected to diagnose or medically treat illness.  This can only be done by a doctor or ambulance officer.  Staff are expected to provide a duty of care within the limits of their skills and expertise.  Basic procedures are explained to all staff at the beginning of each year.  Designated staff members hold Level 2 First Aid qualifications.

ILLNESS

Sick or injured students who are unable to return to class will normally be sent home with parents/guardians or emergency contacts.  (Ensure your contact details are up to date at the office.) Students who are obviously not well should not be sent to school.  There is an exclusion list for contagious diseases.  Check with your doctor or phone the school.

ASTHMA MANAGEMENT PLANS

If your child suffers from asthma, parents need to complete an Asthma Management Plan and lodge it with the office.  This should be completed in consultation with your doctor and outline the dosage and frequency of asthma medication for your child.  Children should carry their own clearly named asthma puffers and spacer with them at all times.

SERIOUS LIFE THREATENING MEDICAL CONDITIONS                                             

Parents are expected to notify the school if their child has a serious medical condition to see what support the school is able to offer or if outside medical agencies need to be involved. A Student Health Management Plan will be agreed to and documented by the school and kept in the classroom and the First Aid room.

DRUGS AND MEDICATION AT SCHOOL

Regulations require that any medications supplied by parents/guardians should be stored in a locked cupboard or drawer separately from First Aid supplies.  Schools are not permitted to have supplies of over the counter medications.  Medication is dispensed from the First Aid room, not in classrooms.

If a student needs short or long term medication to be administered at school, the following process is to be implemented. 

  • Parents are to provide the school with a signed Medication Authority Form completed by the child’s medical practitioner with instructions for dispensing medication. (This applies both to prescription and over the counter medicines.) Parents/carers can contact the First Aid Officer for a Medication Authority Form or get a copy from Compass or the school website.
  • If advice cannot be provided by a student’s medical/health practitioner, the principal (or their nominee) may agree that written authority can be provided by, or the Medication Authority Form completed by, a student’s parents/carers. This is for short term use of the medication only.
  • A Medication Authority Form must be completed for long term or ongoing medications.
  • We ask that the dispensing of medication be timetabled for 1.00pm, the start of lunch break, so that children do not miss out on teaching and learning time. If this time is impossible, please contact the office to organise an alternative time. Because of legal issues concerning drugs, the school cannot dispense medication to students without approval from a medical practitioner.
  • Parents are to provide up to, but no more than, one week’s medication at a time. Parents/carers need to ensure that the medication a student has at school is within its expiry date. If school staff become aware that the medication a student has at school has expired, they will promptly contact the student’s parents/carers who will need to arrange for medication within the expiry date to be provided.
  • The medication must be in original packaging clearly labelled with your child’s name, home group, name of medication, the dosage required and the time the medication needs to be administered. 
  • If your child requires long term medication, please provide new Medication Authority Form from the medical practitioner whenever the dosage or the type of medicine changes.  The school will file this information.
  • Student/parent is to bring the medication and the Medical Authority Form to the First Aid room/office at the start of the day so that full details can be entered in the Medication Folder, the Medical Authority Form filed and the medication stored in the locked cupboard or fridge as required.   
  • All medication administered will be recorded in the Medication Administration Log.  
  • Parents are asked to check daily with their child that they have gone to the First Aid room for their medication.  We are unable to go looking for children who do not attend. Parents can ask the First Aid Officer to view their child’s Medication Administration Log in the First Aid room anytime before or after school. We ask that parents speak to their child if they are not going to the First Aid room to take their medication.
  • Students are not to bring medication to school and keep in their bags and self administer because all medication and drugs are to be stored in the lockable cupboard to eliminate access by other students.  Students are however, to carry their own asthma puffers, diabetic medication.
  • Parents can come to the school and administer medication at 1pm if they would prefer to do it themselves.
  • Excursions, sports carnivals, swimming etc. - Parents are to provide one day’s supply of medication in a sealed container with child’s name, name of medication, dosage and the time the medication is to be taken to the classroom teacher to take on the excursion or sports event.  A Medical Authority Form from the medical practitioner is required if the school hasn’t already got one.
  • Camps - There are very comprehensive forms and requirements specific to camps.   You will receive full details prior to each camp.

NITS AND LICE IN THE HAIR

Whilst these do not cause illness they do cause discomfort.  We urge all parents to check their children’s hair weekly.  As per our dress code, all children with long hair are expected to tie it back so that it does not touch other children’s hair. Parents of students discovered with live head lice will be notified and given the opportunity to collect their child. Any student with head lice will be given a notice “Examination for Head Lice” and cannot return to school unless the declaration has been signed that treatment has been applied.  Students will not be able to attend the Out of School Hours Care Program that day. Hair must be treated that night. Contact Whittlesea City Council for further advice.

If a teacher is notified that a student in their class had head lice, a letter will be sent home to all students in the class asking families to check their child's hair.