School medical centre - what is normal at your school?

[Storm15]

Two terms in at a new school and we have found out one of our children has been to the medical centre in excess of 60 times, sometimes up to 4 times a day claiming to feel unwell. The child in question is 8 years old. Said child has regularly been medicated with anything from calpol to nurofen to Tums and Strepsils and given the opportunity to have a 'lie down' or 'chat'. Most weeks this has happened, sometimes several times a week. There is nothing actually wrong with the child. A couple of colds but that is it.

Of the 60-odd times we have been contacted about 5 times. Otherwise nobody has said anything - no notes, no emails, no casual mentions of it at drop-off / pick up. We only found out because I asked after being sent an email for the second time saying calpol had been administered despite being temperature being recorded as normal.

We're horrified, about the unnecessary medication and the lack of communication. We've written to the head and withdrawn consent for any of our children to receive any further medication at school without us being contacted first. Still waiting for a response but thought I'd post on here to see what people's views are.

How often do everyone else's kids go the school medical office? Are you routinely informed when they do?

From what we understand the children are free to go to the medical office whenever they want without obtaining permission. I think this is ludicrous for primary aged children.

What on Earth am I going to do? Apart from giving said child an almighty bollocking obviously. Kid loves school, has friends, doing well academically etc so am 90 percent certain this is just a 'doing it because I can get with it' thing. Not the first time we've had dishonest / manipulative behaviour but never to this extent. Can't believe the school have let it go unnoticed.

The school is a medium sized, co-ed independent prep school, mostly day, a few boarders. Other than this, we've been perfectly happy with it.

*get away with it

I don't know if that's normal or not for that type of school.
At our state primary the 'medical centre' is a softer chair in the main corridor.
Everything is 'treated' by way of a cold compress - I think they are still using plasters, but not sure on that one.
Medication is never given.
Parents are contacted if child is obviously unwell (although I don't think temperatures are taken), child has been sick, or has suffered a more serious playground accident.

I wouldn't leave my child in a school that did this.

sounds weird.
my dc school call us about any bump (good) and ask permission to give pain relief which then has to be signed by the parent when picking up the child.

Our medical facilities are a couple of chairs outside of the secretary's office.

Bumps and bruises are treated with a cold compress (and a cuddle more often than not). Temperatures do seem to be taken (as I found out last week when ds was unwell), medication will not be given without a form signed by the parents and accepted by the teacher (school points out clearly that they are not obliged to give medicine).

I would not be happy that the children can pop along to the medical centre whenever they like, nor that they are given medication without the parents permission.

At our school they will treat minor bumps and scrapes, but always call parents before administering medication, for bumps to head or if they are at all concerned. How do they know that the child hadn't been given Calpol or whatever at home? They could end up double dosing them.

For that amount and frequency of visits, I would have expected the school to have contacted you long before now to discuss it.

We signed a consent form during the admissions procedure which I've dug out. We consented to 'emergency first aid treatment and non prescription medication being given if required'.

It also states that the 'the school nurse will endeavour to inform parents of any medications given'. I can argue that this hasn't happened at least...

Thank you.

ha - ours is a state school - medical care consists of a wet paper towel or a sick bowl on lap.

If it can't be dealt with that way, parents get rung.

Frankly I wish that was the case! Much more sensible approach...

I'm guessing they have to have a medical centre because of the boarders.

Yes, in a primary it's much more likely to be a quiet place to sit, plus cold compresses, wet towels and sticking plasters when needed.

Our secondary has a proper medical room. But even when dealing with older teens who are arguably competent, the staff there always ring before giving any form of medication (and it would be part of a discussion about whether the patient needed to go home or be picked up).

An overdose of paracetamol is serious, and it's really important parents know what their DC has taken.

My daughter's primary (500 students) has no medical centre as such. There is a lady in the office who puts on the odd plaster. If the child is vaguely ill then they phone the parents.

My son's secondary school (1200 students) has a matron who assesses children who claim to be sick. She is quite strict and scares the living daylights out of kids who try to get out of lessons. I think that a child who is going to sick baby so often would be refered to the school councellor at my son's school.

Does your daughter have friends in her new school? She may well being going to sick bay because she wants to chat with matron rather than because she is ill. I am not sure that a bollocking for wasting Matron's time is appriopiate. I think that going to matron so often is a cry for help of a pychological nature.

Yep she does. She absolutely loves school. Honestly she's always laughing her head off when we collect her.

Obviously there is something driving the behaviour and we need to get to the bottom of it. She's a drama queen though. Always has been. And I think it's being encouraged by the school nurses. She's gone out of her way to conceal from us what she's been doing so she knows it's wrong.

The primary school where I taught had the bright(!) idea of asking the school nurse to do a weekly session where pupils and/or parents could consult her about minor ailments and concerns. Consequently two or three girls from my maths group would trot off each week "to see the nurse Miss. I've got a headache." Thankfully the school thought better of the arrangement and the nurse's visits were halted.

At our state primary most injuries are treated with a wet paper towel. Parents are phoned if there is a head injury or if an injury is thought to be more serious.

No medication is given. A first aid slip is completed for each visit, even if it's just to say "Jack fell over in the playground and scraped his knee. Treated with wet paper towel."

At secondary the school will give out paracetomol but only if the parents have filled in a permission slip in advance.

Mine are at a state juniors.

There is a medical room.
When dd1 was there, I didn't know this as she never went.

Then dd2 started there. Tbf to her she suffers from migraine both tummy and head versions.

She has weeks when she goes 2-3 times a day. As she gets cluster migraines that isn't necessarily wrong.
When she goes, they give sympathy, and they give some dextrose tablets (pure sugar) as we found that low blood sugar does bring on her migraines. If she come back they give her some (my provided) ibroprofen. They then discuss with her whether she feels she wants to go back to lessons. If not she sits quietly until the ibroprofen kicks in. If they feel she looks bad and is clearly struggling then they will phone me to collect at that point. If she returns still feeling bad they will phone me to collect her.
If she says she feels sick (she does with migraine) then they ask her if she thinks she might be actually sick, and, if so, they phone me.

We agreed that they would have ibroprofen to give her for two reasons:

1. If she needs medicine straight after school, I then can give her calpol knowing that she hasn't had any.
2. If I did give ibroprofen then the risks of overdose is much less.

I remember going into help with a group at 9:00. (school starts at 8:45). Walking in with a group of other parents, we were slightly joking about the collection of "bumped head" stickers our children had a t home. Cue great amusement when dd2 rushed up to me waving a "bumped head" sticker.

Now with dd2 it is various reasons. One is the staff give her sympathy so she likes going there when things are tough, so she's likely to go there for a minor bump that dd1 wouldn't even mention. Secondly she does suffer from things that do need medication/quiet place-and they are brought on by anxiety, so half an hour sympathy break can actually help considerably. Then she is likely to be found dashing around, which obviously attracts more accidents. And then there have been occasions where I think she has used it to get out of something she doesn't fancy doing.
If I find the latter, I let her know this is not acceptable.

Ds has made use of it two or three times when he's either actually been sick or had an accident that needs plasters.

Do you get notified each time your DD goes DeeWe ? Or only if she's been medicated?

Obviously the fact that she's going so often is a concern. That she's been given medication in our view unnecessarily is also a concern. What I'm really angry about though is that the school didn't make us aware that she was going up to 4 times a day somedays. Surely that smacks of a behavioural issue, and parents should be alerted.

I'm wondering if anyone at the school was really aware though - I think there are multiple school nurses doing shifts and I don't think it's policy to tell parents or the form teachers when they've been so maybe nobody noticed how often she was going which is a problem in itself.

DS1 has had Calpol at school when he fell off a scooter and banged his mouth. They called me first to check it was Ok.

When I was at secondary school I regularly used to feign illness to get out of certain lessons or if I didn't want to go outside in the rain at lunchtime! Matron had a couple of beds in her office which were almost always occupied by someone.

DD also had the wet paper towel treatment and a plaster. We never so far saw an accident form (2 terms into the Junior school).

I know they do ice packs if required and only under constant supervision - DD's friend had a sprain from jumping from a wall. In this case the parents were rung and collected the child and went to the A&E.

Absolutely no medication unless prescribed and administered at home for 24 hours previously or if it is emergency one like allergy one.

Independent school with qualified nurse in the medical room. On arrival at school asked whether we consent to pain relief and anti histamine being administered. Options are blanket consent, blanket refusal or contact parent prior to administration.
There is a note sent home from school every time a child attends the medical room regardless of reason.
Phone calls home are very common.
My DD is also a migraine suffered taking various preventative meds so I have parental contact prior to administration. They also keep small cans of full sugar coke in their fridge to administer with the pain relief as caffeine aids the absorption of the pain relief and dilates the blood vessels in the brain helping to stop the migraine.

I thought schools weren't allowed to dispense medication to children these days. I'm amazed this school has done it. Are you in the UK?

Mine are at a similar sounding school to yours op, have only recently started there. My DC has been to the medical centre a few times with bumps. Each time we get a slip home with a description of what happened/what treatment was. Once I've been called and asked permission for them to give her calpol. The slips come home with my DD though, so if she didn't hand them over I'd be none the wiser. Are you sure that the nurses haven't given your Dd slips that never got passed on?
It seems incredible that she could be out of lessons to that extent and none of the teachers ever thought to mention it?

Yes, in the UK. We signed a consent form for non-prescription medication to be administered when we filled out the admissions forms. It stated that they would endeavour to inform parents when children received medication. We've been contacted about 5 times for over 60 visits. She got 10 doses of paracetamol or nurofen in 16 days one month. If they had contacted us we would have been able to tell them there was nothing whatsoever wrong with her...

The times we have been contacted has been via email but I suppose it's possible that she was given slips and deliberately didn't give hem to us. I'll find out. The school generally emails everything though. Still waiting for a response from the head. Hoping he'll give us some answers as to what the hell has happened here!

"Medical centre"- lol. Knew ia would be an independent school :)

Yy to the wet paper towel, and maybe a sticking plaster. That's it, administered by whichever staff witnessed the accident. They're usually pretty good at putting an accident slip in the Childs pocket.

Actually unwell, as in coughs, colds etc, the child is usually checked and distracted. If they still complain it's a phone call, and a reasonable discussion as to whether the parent/school thinks the child needs to go home.

Thats it, no temperature, no actual medical treatment. If the child needs it, they are deemed unwell enough to need a parent.

viviennemary read the OP carefully. tHis is an independent school with a boarding element. THey'd be stuffed if they had to deal with minor illness via the parents in dubai or what ever!

OP maybe get the title amended to prep school?