Health & Safety

Allergic Reactions

In 2009 we have three children (Ruma 2, 3 & 7) at our school who have severe allergic reactions to the following:

  • nuts
  • wheat
  • eggs
  • milk / dairy products
  • dog saliva
  • fish
  • avocado

They do not need to eat/touch these products directly themselves, they can have a severe reaction just by touching a pencil that another child has touched after being in contact with the product. When these children react severely they need urgent medical attention, and in the past have been hospitalised.

These children are pretty good at monitoring what they eat, but they can’t control not touching things contaminated by other children / adults. Therefore we are asking parents to be thoughtful about what they pack into lunchboxes. The key ingredients to be wary of are nuts and nut products (e.g. peanut butter, nutella), and products with lumps of egg in (e.g. egg sandwiches, bacon and egg pie, hard boiled eggs).

Please talk to your children about how they can help to support their school mates by:

  • not sharing food;
  • washing your hands after eating;
  • ask what your friends are allergic to and help them avoid it; and
  • if an allergic friend or school mate becomes ill, get adult help immediately.

Hats

Children are expected to wear their hats when they are outside during the summer terms – term 4 and term 1.  Children who do not have their hat will be asked to sit under the shade cloth.

Personal Safety Rules   (extracted from our 'Keeping Ourselves Safe' programme, copysheet 16 - Home Book Activity)

You may like to talk about these as a family and decide if they are rules you want to follow too.

- Make sure someone at home or at school knows where you are and when you will be home.

- Go straight to school and go home without stopping to talk to anyone you don't know.

- Always walk to school with your mum, dad, an adult you trust or some other children.

- Stand well away from someone you don't know who tries to talk to you.

- Run away fast to somewhere safe if someone you don't know asks you to come close to them or wants you to do something.

- If someone tries to grab you, yell loudly, and kick and struggle as hard as you can.

- If anyone touches you in a way you don't like, or wants to do something you don't want to do, get away quickly and tell your parents or someone you trust, like your teacher, as soon as possible.

Safe Kids (website - injury prevention)

MEASLES OUTBREAK

We have been given the following information from Dr Pat Tuohy (Chief Advisor, Child and Youth, Ministry of Health) to pass on to parents / whanau.

There has been a rapid rise in the number of measles cases reported around the country, with the number of notified cases so far this year already seven times higher than the total number of cases last year. The number of cases in Auckland is growing.

Measles is a highly infectious notifiable disease with serious complications. Case fatalities are around one per 1000. It is important to stop the spread of measles by keeping infected children at home. Immunisation is free, and is the best way to prevent measles. Doctors have begun recalling unimmunised patients to increase immunisation coverage.

The Ministry of Health requires students who have no proven immunity to measles (through immunisation or previous exposure) to be sent home if there is a measles outbreak in their class. Immunisation is free. Once immunised, 90 to 95 per cent of people are protected from measles.

Under the Health (Infectious and Notifiable Diseases) Regulations 1966 (Section 14), a student or teacher with measles must stay away from school for seven days from the appearance of the rash. Unimmunised students, or those with no immunity to measles, who have been close contacts of a measles case during the infectious stages will be excluded from school for 14 days from their last contact. This exclusion also applies to students taking part in sporting events.

You can get more information on measles and controlling infectious diseases from http://www.moh.govt.nz/immunisation

You can also call the Immunisation Advisory Centre toll-free line 0800 IMMUNE (0800 466 863) or going to the IMAC website http://www.immune.org.nz

If you would like to discuss these issues, please contact your local public health service.

The school is required to make sure its immunisation register is up to date.  To help us, can you please check that your child’s immunisations are up-to-date and let us know if there has been any change to the information we have.  Thank-you.