Asthma

Next review September 2024

Frenchwood Community Primary School: 

• recognises that asthma is a widespread, serious but controllable condition and the school welcomes all pupils with asthma; 
• ensures that pupils with asthma can and do participate fully in all aspects of school life, including art lessons, PE, science, visits, outings or field trips and other out-of-hours school activities;
• recognises that pupils with asthma need immediate access to reliever inhalers at all times;
• keeps a record of all pupils with asthma; 
• has an emergency salbutamol inhaler and spacer available for emergency use only in the school office.  

We ensure that the emergency inhaler is only used by children with asthma with written parental consent for its use. (The draft letter for consent at Annex A will be used for this), but will be used at the first aider’s discretion if contact is not possible and patient’s health deteriorates. In the event that the school emergency inhaler is used, parents will be contacted immediately and asked to bring medication to school the next day.  Please read use of emergency salbutamol inhalers in school at the end of this policy.

Asthma medicines

• Immediate access to reliever medicines is essential. Pupils with asthma are encouraged to carry their reliever inhaler as soon as the parent/carer, doctor or asthma nurse agrees they are mature enough. 

• All inhalers must be labelled with the child’s name by the parent/carer.

• School staff are not required to administer asthma medicines to pupils (except in an emergency), however many of the staff at this school are happy to do this.  School staff who agree to administer medicines are insured by Zurich Insurance when acting in agreement with this policy.  All school staff will let pupils take their own medicines when they need to.

School policy guidelines

Record keeping

• At the beginning of each school year or when a child joins the school, parents/carers are asked if their child has any medical conditions including asthma on their enrolment form. When this has been established an agreement will be sent to the parent/carers regarding the guidelines for asthma pumps in school.  Appendix 1 will be used to notify parents.

• This information is then added to the Children’s Health Lists which includes all of the pupils in each class of any Medical conditions or Individual Healthcare Plans that they have. Copies of these are kept in each classroom, staffroom and the main office.  The sports coaches also have a copy with them when they are in school.

Exercise and activity – PE and games

• Taking part in sports, games and activities is an essential part of school life for all pupils.  All teachers know which children in their class have asthma and all PE teachers at the school are aware of which pupils have asthma from the school’s asthma register.

• Pupils with asthma are encouraged to participate fully in all PE lessons. PE teachers will remind pupils whose asthma is triggered by exercise to take their reliever inhaler before the lesson, and to thoroughly warm up and down before and after the lesson. It is agreed with PE staff that each pupil’s inhaler will be labelled and kept in a box at the site of the lesson. If a pupil needs to use their inhaler during a lesson they will be encouraged to do so.

• Classroom teachers follow the same principles as described above for games and activities involving physical activity.

Out-of-hours sport

• There has been a large emphasis in recent years on increasing the number of children and young people involved in exercise and sport in and outside of school. The health benefits of exercise are well documented and this is also true for children and young people with asthma. It is therefore important that the school involve pupils with asthma as much as possible in after school clubs.

• Classroom teachers and out-of hours school sport coaches are aware of the potential triggers for pupils with asthma when exercising, tips to minimise these triggers and what to do in the event of an asthma attack. 

Staff also are aware in particular of the difficulties very young children may have in explaining how they feel.

School environment

The school does all that it can to ensure the school environment is favourable to pupils with asthma. The school has a definitive no smoking policy. As far as possible the school does not use chemicals in science and art lessons that are potential triggers for pupils with asthma. Pupils with asthma are encouraged to leave the room and go and sit in the school office if particular fumes trigger their asthma.

When a pupil is falling behind in lessons

• If a pupil is missing a lot of time at school or is always tired because their asthma is disturbing their sleep at night, the class teacher will initially talk to the parents/carers to work out how to prevent their child from falling behind. If appropriate, the teacher will then talk to the school nurse and special education needs coordinator about the pupil’s needs.

• The school recognises that it is possible for pupils with asthma to have special education needs due to their asthma.

 Asthma attacks

• All trained first aid staff who come into contact with pupils with asthma know what to do in the event of an asthma attack.
• There is a copy in each classroom of: - ‘How to recognise an asthma attack’ and ‘What to do in the event of an asthma attack’
• Each classroom has a red card for a child (if there is not another adult in the classroom) to take into the next classroom or the school office to summon first aid help in the case of any emergency.

Also another adult would lead the rest of the class away from the situation.