Starting receptionn

[kay3]

Hi. Following on from mumat39's thread,I also have a dd starting reception in september. I am happy with the school although I will go and talk to the teachers before she starts, but I am really worried about the lunchtimes. How much supervision can I expect ? Ideally I would like someone to keep a close eye on her for the whole hour, but I'm sure they will be too busy. She had a near anaphylactic eisode this time last year after having a little bit of cheese ( she is allergic to milk), and since then we have had epipens but thankfully never had to use them. She has come out of school with hives on her face if someone has kissed her after drinking milk or splashed her with milk but they have always gone after giving cetirizine. My worry is,if anything happened at lunchtime would the dinnerladies notice. I mentioned it to the SENCO a few weeks ago and she said to go and see her 2 weeks before the end of term, but isn't that leaving it too late. My dh says I am worrying over nothing. Oh I wish I could be a fly on the wall! Thanks to anyone who has read this far!!

Hi there, I would go into the school and speak about your concerns, Im sure they can get someone to keep a closer eye on her for you.

This was me last year, panicking about how DS would manage in YR, he is allergic to kiwi and nuts. When he was at nursery he had close supervision so I never had to worry.

IIRC I spent a while chasing up the school nurse and when we did speak she said the school would get all the info from the peadiatric allergy team at the hospital in time for DS to start school. I also told his teacher when we had our 1 to 1 meeting in the July.

In the first week of school they didn't stay for lunches anyway and the school knew he wasn't to have the fruit he was allergic to. And the epi-pen kit was in place in the school office. During that first week the nurse went to the school to train all the teachers and all staff and update their allergy training for DS. And he had to have packed lunch for a month until the school caterers and kitchen had got everything in place for him and checked the menu but from October he was on school dinners. Although I don't know how close he is watched when he is eating. I have told him that if he feels poorly after eating to tell a grown up, I think he would be quite capable of doing it as he is very aware of his allergies.

When the reception class do cooking or eating special food for celebrations they always give me the packet to check the ingredients first. They also know to not let him eat any sweets or cakes the other children bring in for birthdays, and the rest of the class know about his allergies now so I feel a lot more confident than I was 12 months ago.

Thank you both so much for replying. Yes when I meet the SENCOiwill askif maybe there could be one particular dinner lady who my dd would be able to go to if she feels unwell. It is good that she has only ever had one bad reaction but I am wondering if she would remember what that felt like to recognise it again. I think she does remember the horrid feeling in her throat she had :( she is quite quiet so it would be really good to have one person that she felt comfortablegoing to. Thank you again. Any more advice welcome :)

Anyone else around? :)

Hello again Kay

In Reception, I'm sure the children are supervised quite closely.

When DD started at the school nursery, I tried to deal with it myself, but I found it really difficult as I just got the feeling that the staff didn't quite believe me. I mean DD has a really long list of things that are an issue and so many are normal everyday foods, that I think the staff were just a bit overwhelmed by it.

I wish, I had asked for the allergy nurses help then as it would have made such a massive difference. So if your DD is seen by an allergy specialist and an allergy nurse, it might be worth asking for their help.

Also, I'm not sure if this is possible, but alot of schools are always looking for parent helpers and sometimes even have vacansies for playground or lunch assistants. It might, depending on your circumstances, be possible for you to be one one the 'dinner ladies' on duty during lunch. Maybe until you are confident that your DD is ok.

I'm not sure if this is at all helpful, but I tried to offer to help with being a general helper, but I couldn't as I have a 2.5 year old and wouldn't have been able to take him with me.

xxx

you may be asked to fill in / write an allergy page for a staff eyes only medical info folder. Its REALLY helpful if you include an up to date photo of your child in school uniform on that sheet. As an MTA ( dinner lady) we are expected to have read the medical/allergy file but some parents give more useful sheets than others. an old photo in holiday clothes doesn't help us to KNOW which annabel it is who needs to be taken very seriously if they complain of feeling unwell. Nor does a photo that is unchanged since the child joined the school age 5 when they are now age 10.

A primary school may have a large pool of MTAs who work different days, please make it easy for them to identify your kid.

you will fill in a medical form at the start.

dc's school has an 'allergy' table for the children with allergies. seems to work well. don't know how other schools deal with this, though.

Thank you all for your advice. I like the sound of an allergy table, but I don't think there are many children with allergies in the school. Thanks for reminding me to keep an up to date photo in school. She has her photo on the yellow cross bag that her medicines are kept in, in school. Good point about volunteering. She is my youngest so that would be no problem and it would put my mind at rest! :)

I was in the same position last year worrying about my DS starting school in September (allergic to milk, wheat, eggs, nuts). In his case, one of the classroom/teaching assistants keeps an eye on him at lunchtime. I personally didn't want him sat on a different table to his friends but worried about him touching/eating something he shouldn't so we agreed that he would sit on the end of the table with an empty space next to him just to avoid contamination from other children's food. The school have been fantastic and no disasters yet! He has had to have Piriton a few times but he does at home too so nothing new there. I felt much better after sitting down with the Head, his Reception teacher, classroom assistant and school nurse to discuss his care plan and describe the symptoms to look out for and what needed to be done in certain senarios. Just remember to check epi-pen expiry dates and ask about what will happen on school trips. Whenever the teacher is planning on doing cooking or anything that involves food she speaks to me first and I find alternative ingredients to bring in for DS in a box clearly labelled with his name. He does his cooking/preparation on a separate table from the rest and really enjoys it.

Thanks freefrommum. I wouldn't want her sat at a different table than her friends either so sitting at the end of the table sounds a good idea. She is in the nursery of the primary school at the momentand they are good about letting me know what they are cooking that weekso I can provide alternatives if needed. That is a good idea to have a teaching assistant to keep an eye on your ds . I might see if our school could do that. Thank you again.