As a busy school, it is important that we have clear health and safety guidelines to ensure illnesses don’t get the opportunity to spread. Therefore, we ask that all children are clear of infection before returning to school after a bout of illness. If your child has had an episode of sickness or diarrhoea, we ask that they do not return to school for 48 hours after the last occurrence.

Children with life-threatening conditions

Some of the children attending Alphington are affected by auto-immune diseases and certain infections and illnesses can be life-threatening for these pupils. Therefore it is vital that we are kept up to date with all the different illnesses and infections that are currently going around the school so we can inform parents of our vulnerable children. When contacting the school office to inform us of absence, please advise us of the reason for this absence so we can act appropriately.

Please also be aware that we have some children in school with severe food allergies. As such, Alphington is a nut-aware school and restricts the following foods:

• Peanuts and peanut butter
• Tree nuts
• Sesame seeds and tahini

These ingredients are commonly found in the following:

• Cereal bars and flapjacks (nuts, sesame)
• Bread and rolls (sesame seeds)
• Cakes and biscuits (nuts, sesame)
• Hummus (sesame)
• Tahini (sesame)
• Sushi (sesame)
• Pesto (nuts)
• Chocolate spreads (nuts)
• Dried fruit and nut mixes

If you require further guidance around restricted foods, please get in touch.

Head Lice

Head Lice can be a real problem in schools and spreads easily. We ask that all children tie their hair up if it is long enough as prevention is better than cure! If your child has head lice, please inform the class teacher so information can be shared accordingly. Advice on treatment is available from the school office if necessary but please note that the school is not responsible for the treatment.

First Aid

Simple first aid is given at school when necessary. If an accident needs hospital attention, we will make every effort to contact you first. Please ensure information from you is up-to-date so that you can be contacted. Within school, we have several trained first aiders.

We use a system called Medical tracker which enables us to inform parents/carers of any first aid incidents by way of a text message or by email. We will of course call and speak to a parent if a child suffers an injury that requires them to be collected or taken to seek further medical advice.

Medicines

If your child needs a prescribed medication during the day you must complete a ‘parental agreement for school to administer medicine’ form, which you can download here. This must then be sent into school with the medication itself and handed to the class teacher, if you are unable to print this please email it to the school admin address, admin@alphington.devon.sch.uk.

Please note that we can only administer prescribed medication and no medication can be administered without this form being completed.

Parental agreement for school to administer medicine form (doc)

Sun Protection

During the warm summer months, all children are encouraged to have a sunhat and sun cream in school. Please ensure these are named.