Advice please

[insanityscratching]

Dd 10 has a pretty severe allergy to animal with fur in so far as she gets hives, eczema, swelling in her face sneezing and coughing and generally feeling ill. Obviously we avoid all contact and she is fine but she doesn't visit the homes of family and friends who have animals or who have had animals as she will still react even if (in the case of a neighbour) the cat that lived there died six months previously.
Next term the school is having a selection of rainforest animals come into school so that they can be handled and observed by the children there.This is obviously going to be an issue for dd who of course won't be included but my concerns are what about the hall where the animals will be shown which is also where she will be expected to eat, do sport and assembly in and the children who will have handled the animals? If she reacts six months after an animal was in a house then I suspect dd will have problems in the school too.
What can I expect from school and how should I approach this?

I would think the animals brought to school are most likely to be reptiles frogs snakest ect (yuck) ? The only furry animals in the rainforest are chimps Little monkeys( maybe in school) oranGutans gorillas Tigers and jaguars ( no likely to come to schools !). I would check first with the school as to which animals are coming, but im not sure what to suggest if it is furry ones coming :(

The general letter asks to advise of allergies to feather and fur so I'm assuming there will be at least one of each of those. School is aware of her allergies in so far as she has a severe fish allergy as well and they are very good at keeping her safe there it's just I didn't expect that animals in school would ever happen and I'm pretty sure they won't be accounting for the sort of reaction dd has to fur.

Ooh tricky then :( bugger i hate reptiles but at least you wouldnt have had a fur allergy reaction

Just a thought maybe they will hold the session outside. If not you def need to tell them how your daughter will suffer at the time and longterm

have you asked these questions of the school? its their duty to be inclusive and provide a safe environment for the children. ASK THEM how they PLAN to remove the dander !

your concerns are valid, push them for reassurance. I wouldnt except exclusion as a given, esp if she is able to explore reptiles. Perhaps they can change the animals to suit yr child btw.

Have emailed the HT now who wasn't aware of just how severe dd's allergy is. He is contacting the person who would be bringing the animals to establish what animals he would be bringing. He suggests that any animals with fur aren't brought into school whether that means that they aren't brought to school at all or whether it means that the animals with fur are only shown outside and dd would remain inside depends on the weather at the time. He doesn't want dd to miss out and considering just how sensitive she is then a deep clean afterwards seems impractical particularly as the animals were to be shown in the hall that dd uses regularly. So it appears that dd will be fine, the school will do what ever they can to ensure she can take part but is also kept safe