Our primary school says if children need medicine at specific times 'pop' in & DIY

[wonkywillow]

Surely this penalises busy working parents, with occupations where they can't just 'pop' in? Or a parent who simply has other pressing commitments..

Can schools actually do this? They seem to be negating their responsibilities towards providing education and support for children with long term medical conditions that require regular medication.

Generalising all school and teachers are negligent and not helping as OP does, will not help anyone at all.

I've not generalised at all, irvine. That is just your perception of what I've been saying. The accounts of schools successfully administering medication still stand. I do not have to repeat them. However, I will_vociferously challenge any indication of a discriminatory attitude towards children with additional medical needs or their parents. This does not mean I am generalising.

I guess perhaps if you’ve never been that scared/vulnerable/tired/stretched you can’t understand.

I've had my darker times too. I don't believe it is right to make decisions based on my own irrational fear, though. I also believe people's voices should be heard and their lived experiences not in any way minimised. I am genuinely pleased you have found a school you can trust, zzzzz.

Really? zzzzz

It is irrational to think this thread will do any harm at all.

Wonkywillow, you need to back off zzzz.You are being unnecessarily personal, and digging through someone's posting history is particularly bad form. I'm going to ask MN to take a look.

"I guess perhaps if you’ve never been that scared/vulnerable/tired/stretched you can’t understand."

Yeah, totally true. I really don't know what your motivation is, but I don't need you to advocate for me at least. I wonder if the parents at OP's school may feel the same. Maybe not. Don't know. You are a stranger to the children with life threatening illness, after all. Most of teachers on this thread may actually know better than you, OP.

So what about a secondary school age child who needs over the counter medication. The rule was always that medication had to be taken to the office and pupils could go and take it at the appropriate time. School have now decided that only prescription medication can be on site, so can’t have medication between 9-3.30. They are not allowed to keep it in their bags in case it is stolen. So should dd not go to school while she needs medication to get her over a minor illness? The doctor wouldn’t thank me for taking her to an appointment, it’s hardly worth his time. Is it worth a week of school for a sore throat becasue the school say she can’t have medication in school? (She doesn’t need any help administering it, but is now risking detention by keeping it in her bag when she shouldn’t have it at school). It’s a ridiculous rule imo.

That is ridiculous.

zzzzz your good experience with your school doesn’t mean that there aren’t issues with schools not understanding their obligations though. I’m not anti teacher by the way. I think perhaps the focus on academic results and admin means that the pastoral/care role of schools get squashed. Excluding children (which does happen, I know dozens of examples) isn’t the answer. The responsibility is there and it needs to be met.

Traintrack, if you are talking about AB, you can easily adjust time to take it so it doesn't need to be taken during school time.

t1mum3, yes I totally agree, but like I said, your should really take up with your own school. Just because your school is failing, it doesn't mean all schools are failing, like OP wants everyone to think it's the case.

I haven’t said my School are failing. That’s not my point at all. Lots of schools are though and it is incredibly naive to think that parents aren’t being asked to cover their children’s medical needs. At a local school, for example, a mother had to give up her job to sit outside her son’s classroom all day in case he had a hypo. But there are hundreds of other examples

Long enough. It's not an acceptable solution for any length of time as training is available from specialist nurses for staff before children go back to school post-diagnosis.

Just also to say that I've always been happy to provide significant support to school in the best interests of my child, but I'm privileged to have the time to try to work in partnership with school.

For my son though, there are lots of things in place to protect him (as pp have said) - he has a care plan, he is protected by the Equality Act and Medical Conditions in School guidelines. Parents of children with his condition will get there in the end if they invoke these - the journey is just different depending on the attitude of the school and, as said, I am grateful that our school put in support to ensure his inclusion.

At the other end of the scale, I was grateful when my DD's school said they would be put her eye cream in for her - I was totally prepared to do it as more intrusive than giving a syringe of antibiotics. I saw that they recognised that they were in loco parentis and were happy to take on that responsibility which is great.

The posts on here by teachers alone would suggest this.
Because administering medication is not in our job description. I fail to see how this is an issue.
I also don't do our counselling and mentoring sessions because it's not my job as a teacher, nor do i do the administration for school trips or the equipment orders.

The fact that a newsletter W was able to be published would suggest this. The NASUWT 'Action Short of Strike' would suggest this
A union document outlining action short of strike as well as the fact there are tasks schools cannot direct teachers to do has absolutely sod all to do with it.
Have to say you're clutching at straws now a bit when you start targeting one group of people in a school (who have almost never been the first aiders/medical team because, you know, busy teaching) and trying to argue sector wide failings are because one group of people are busy doing the job they are employed to do.

Out of a teaching team of around 100-150 none of us do the medical stuff at school. A number are first aid trained for trips and oversee medicial things when off site but we don't do any of the medical stuff on site.
In fact, we actually have been told this academic year not to give anything could vaguely be interpreted as medical advice because a parent complained last year. So now, anything which could at all be considered medical = send to the pastoral office.
It means that instead of saying to a pupil before lunch if they feel a bit ill to have a drink of water, stand outaide for some fresh air and try and get some food and see how they feel we now should say nothing. Straight to the office. No common sense applied. Even school leaders said it's a sad state of affairs but they made that decision because of a non issue.

I can't help but feel what a massive drain it is on our pastoral admin team dealing with every tiny thing on top of our arrangements for children with medical needs, but such is the situation. They do all our bullying investigations, attendance monitoring, coordinating access to mental health support, admin for SEND meetings etc. And they have to be interrupted any time a child says thry have a sore tummy because it's before lunch and they're just hungry becauee teachers have been told not to take the risk of some idiot kicking off.

"But you and countless other teachers on here are saying that you would refuse to be trained" perhaps you can show me where I've said I would refuse to be trained?
I've had training with epi pens and for individual diabetic pupils very different needs and I have support these pupils with their medical needs while in my class. I've also administered medication to children with cystic fibrosis and Scleroderma.

Therefore people will leave this thread prepared for what they might deal with and how these issues are tacked in different schools.

That's really very amusing! I'm staggered that you believe that anyone will be leaving this thread with anything other than a severe headache.

It's insane, all of it, and I can't believe it's still going on, to be honest.

we have children with diabetes, cystic fibrosis, several needing epipens, those with feed lines, epilepsy and a wide range of medications required-all of whom we administer medication to. We have children with short term medication needs, principally antibiotics-all of whom receive their medication at pretty much the correct time. But we also have parents who pop in with over the counter medications, calpol, paracetamol, throat lozenges, hand cream to be administered. These we won't do.

Every school I have worked in has had annual diabetes and epipen training for all staff, several staff have had more specific training for individual needs but ALL the staff involved in medication administration have volunteered to do so.

Norestformrz
You didn't. It was me who said if I was asked if I would then i would probably say no. I wouldn't feel happy taking medical stuff on when we've had to be advised to go agaibst common sense because someone kicked off in an unpleasant fashion over nothing.

(But the OP now thinks it's totally awful of teachers to not take on things beyond their job description and has already started digging away and misuing union guidelines/advice to support their latest line of argument).

My post was to the OP Maisy