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 We've written to the head and withdrawn consent for any of our children to receive any further medication at school without us being contacted first.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.