Infectious Diseases

I want to inform parents that we have a high number of pupils ill with gastrointestinal complaints such as abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea, as well as flu type symptoms We are increasing our emphasis on hand washing in school, which we hope you will reinforce at home as its effectiveness at reducing spread of infection is proven.

Updated guidance from the UK Health Protection agency advises that children should stay away from school for 48 hours from the last episode of diarrhea or vomiting and that children with flu type symptoms and fever should not return until better. We will follow these recommendations in our advice to parents. Thank you in advance for your support on this matter.

Advice on other infectious disease and time away from school can be found at
www.hpa.org.uk/infections/topics_az/schools/default.htm

Staying in at Break Times

We have had a number of requests from parents for their children to stay in at break time because of the weather and colds, in spite of the fine sunny weather this week. Although we try to accommodate parent’s wishes, the fresh air and exposure to daylight is important for health and unless we have a doctors letter explaining the exact medical reason that the pupil needs to stay in, all children will be sent to play outside. If your child is not well enough to go out, please do consider whether they should be coming to school.

Garden

There has been some interest in the possibility of a garden within the school grounds, especially for growing vegetables, which we are sure would be of interest to our pupils. In order to take this idea forward, we would like some parent interest and support, especially from anyone who is skilled at setting up gardens and perhaps willing to help us maintain one.

If you have any interest and experience in this area, please do contact me.

Nut Containing Foods

Please could I remind parents of infant children again to remember not to send food items containing tree nuts to school (peanuts are fine), as some children are still bringing these in. Although nuts are a very nutritious part of most people’s diet, we do have some children who have varying degrees of nut allergy and one who has had life-threatening reactions.

Okulumuzda çok ciddi (hayati tehlikesi olan) fıstık alerjisi olan çocuklardan dolayı fıstıklı (antep fıstığı ve fındık gibi) yiyecekler göndermemenizi rica ediyoruz. Ama yer fıstıklı yiyecekler gonderebilirsiniz, Göstermiş olduğunuz hassasiyete şimdiden teşekkürler.

Medicines

Winter infections often mean we have more pupils taking medicines. The school nurse is happy to administer medicine but it should be brought to school by an adult and not the child. An adult should hand the medicine along with a form fully completed by the prescriber or parent. Please see the website to obtain further information and forms. Also, parents are welcome to see our full medical policy if requested.

Spare Uniform

I would appreciate donations of small trousers for use in emergencies. I would also be grateful if parents would return trousers sent home from school as we frequently run out of them. Many thanks.


Yours sincerely

Glynis Ozcan
School Nurse