What happens after the reception/ Yr6 weight checks if a child is overweight?

[Silveroaks]

Do you just get a letter?

Do they refer on to someone else ?

I can’t find any information about what happens if a child falls outside of the normal ranges. Is it possible to opt out ?
thanks

You get a letter regardless of where their weight is.
It would be up to you to follow up.
Why would you want to opt out?

Both my children were overweight at their reception weight checks and we weren't referred anywhere. Just got the letter sent to us.

Because I know my child is overweight and it’s being addressed but I was just thinking ahead and trying to avoid anything triggering for her

You just get a letter regardless of the outcome. It's up to you if you want to follow it up.
You can opt out if you choose, there was an email address on the information we had about 6 weeks before the check that you could contact.

I will admit to being shocked that ds was apparently morbidly obese. Then I noticed his height was recorded as 138cm and not 158cm. So it's not worth the postage quite frankly!

Opting out while everyone else gets weighed and measured, is surely far more likely to shine a spotlight on her?

It's not like they line them up in the hall and shout out their measurements.

I got a letter with a leaflet with a number to call for advice. I called the number and left a voice message seceral times but no one rang back.

She has ASD and the process and numbers are triggering

She won't be told the numbers.

It’s the whole process and we are carefully dealing with it at home the last thing she needs is to go the other way so we are being very gentle and mindful so I’m going to opt out and keep her off on the day . We are making good progress I just don’t want to jeopardise that

Yes you can opt out. There are always a few who opt out so I don’t think it would be an issue.
You’re obviously not in denial and are aware of her weight, and are doing something to address it, so if you think being weighed at school will upset her then opting out makes sense.

You get a letter with their weight & weight/height ratio. Presumably with some diet advice if it's not in range.

A reasonable number of our Y6 class opted out. It wasn't a stigma as such, but like you say it's often very obvious who is overweight and therefore why they have opted out.

Obviously i can see why consent is needed, but from a wider data perspective it's a shame the opt out is available. Makes a mockery of the data when overweight children are disproportionately excluded.

In our case you receive a letter because we had no warning it was happening, but you never mention it to your child and encourage exercise and healthy eating, and the pre-pubescent extra weight falls away. Now aged 18 and no weight problem.
Adding the pain of being labelled as ‘overweight’ to an overly anxious child with then undiagnosed ASD was something I was not prepared to do. It feels like a really cruel policy to weigh and shame at such a sensitive age. I know not everyone has parents that are looking out for them but sometimes I wonder if those that come up with these schemes have ever met a child.

Thankyou this is what we are hoping will happen we’ve already made progress but we are measuring it in knowing we are consistently needing to buy smaller clothes and the fact that dd is managing more physical activity, I just always try to keep one step ahead to avoid anything triggering as it’s such a tricky issue and already having had an older dd also woth ASD who developed anorexia I’m conscious of that as well, food seems to be such an issue self regulation either way is proving really hard it’s all or nothing and a constant worry

You can opt out but really sadly if she is in they have to line up outside the hall and every year there are a load of overweight kids sitting watching their mates go in.
other people keep their kids off school but it’s the same in year six. The other kids know why they are off.
If do decide to keep them off make sure you withdraw consent as they just turn up randomly a few weeks later to catch up with ones who have been off.

I opted out for both my kids. They were naturally very tall and stocky at that age and I didn't want to make it an issue for them. There was no drama, other kids had also been opted out and they were taken in small groups, so it's not like anyone else even noticed.

Do what's right for your child. BMI is bullshit anyway!

Yeah you can opt out. I didn't mind it for my reception age kids...young and don't really understand it....but when my youngest does this year in y6 I am opting her out.

Her weight is fine and I have common sense.

And I know at age 11 girls can be very self conscious about weight so I don't like the fact they do it at that age. I totally get WHY they do it but still opting out. I'm fairly sure she won't be the only one if you decide not to do it.

Yes you can opt out.
It is worth thinking about the bigger picture: the main reason this is done is collect huge amounts of data on children's health which is used to inform important policy decisions, NHS incentives etc. So for example more funding might be allocated to NHS incentives to support healthy weight in children. Or funding towards better school dinners etc. Both hypothetic examples.
It feels personal, especially when they send a letter but they have duty of care to do that.
I was a yr 6 teacher for 10 years and every year the heaviest few children out of 30 (so maybe 10% every year at least) would be opted out. Makes me wonder how it skews the data over time.
Obviously if it would be very stressful for you daughter that's different but it's so fast, they usually find it quite exciting because they're out of lessons for 10 mins, they aren't told anything about the numbers and it's away from other children so no-one else will see. Most kids had forgotten about it by the end of the day.