Supporting children with medical conditions

Some of the children at Ashdon have a medical condition – an allergy, asthma, epilepsy, diabetes, a heart condition, or something less common. We want every one of them to be safe in school and to take a full part in everything we do, including PE, clubs, cooking, residentials and trips.

The school has a legal duty under section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 to support pupils with medical conditions, and we follow the Department for Education's statutory guidance. A child's medical condition is never a reason to keep them out of an activity. Where there is a risk, our job is to plan around it, not to exclude the child from it.

Telling us about your child

Please tell the school office about any medical condition your child has – when they start with us, and again whenever anything changes. That includes a new diagnosis, a new or changed medication, a reaction at home, a hospital admission, or advice from a consultant or allergy clinic.

Please tell us even if you think it is minor. We would far rather know and not need it.

How to tell us: phone the office on 01799 584219 or email admin@ashdon.essex.sch.uk. Medical information must come to the office directly – please do not pass it on through your child's class teacher, at the classroom door or in the playground, as it will not reach our records reliably.

Please also keep your emergency contact details up to date on Arbor. If your child becomes unwell in school we will ring you, and out-of-date numbers cost us time we may not have.

Check the office number and email against the Contact page before publishing. The Arbor reference assumes the Parent Portal is live from 1 September 2026 – the same assumption as on the Lunches page.

Individual Healthcare Plans

Children whose medical needs require day-to-day management or an emergency response in school have an Individual Healthcare Plan (IHP). This is a short working document that sets out what the condition means for your child, what staff need to do routinely, what to do in an emergency, who to contact, and what medication is held in school and where.

We write the plan with you, and with your child's health professionals where they are involved. It is shared with the staff who work with your child, kept where staff can reach it quickly, and taken on trips and visits. It is reviewed at least once a year, and sooner if your child's needs change or after any incident.

Your child does not need a formal diagnosis to have a plan. If a condition is suspected and is being investigated, we would rather put arrangements in place now than wait.

If you want the blank IHP template downloadable from this page, add a link here. Worth deciding: some schools publish the template, some ask parents to complete it with the office so it is never returned half-finished. My view is that linking it is helpful, provided the page makes clear it is completed together rather than posted back.

Allergies and anaphylaxis

From September 2026, schools in England must follow new statutory guidance on allergy safety, introduced by section 34 of the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026. The law is known as Benedict's Law, after Benedict Blythe, a five-year-old who died following an allergic reaction at school in 2021.

The guidance requires every school to have a dedicated allergy safety policy, separate from its medical conditions policy, published and reviewed every year. Ours is below.

Insert a link to the Ashdon Allergy Safety Policy here, and check it is also listed under Statutory Information / Policies. This page is not a substitute for the policy – the published policy is the statutory item, and the page is the parent-friendly front door to it.

What we do

• Overall responsibility for allergy safety at Ashdon rests with the Headteacher, Mrs Reynecke-Raybould.

• Our Allergy and Anaphylaxis Leads are Mrs Anderson and Mrs Dowding. They look after the day-to-day arrangements – healthcare plans, medication stocks, staff training and allergen information for school meals – and are the people to speak to if you have a question about your child's allergy.

• All staff – teachers, teaching assistants, office staff, lunchtime staff and our cook – are trained in allergy awareness and in recognising and responding to anaphylaxis. This training is refreshed annually and goes beyond general first aid.

• Every child known to have an allergy has an Individual Healthcare Plan. Where a GP or allergy clinic has issued an Allergy Action Plan, we attach it to the plan rather than rewriting it.

• We hold spare adrenaline auto-injectors on site for emergency use. These can be used for any child showing signs of anaphylaxis, including a child who has never been diagnosed.

• Children who are prescribed their own adrenaline auto-injectors should have two in school at all times, in date and labelled with their name. These are kept [location], not in book bags or coat pockets.

• If a child shows signs of a serious allergic reaction, staff will act immediately, give adrenaline, call 999 and contact you. Staff are trained never to delay while they wait to be certain.

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Food in school

Our kitchen holds allergen information for every dish on the menu and prepares special diets where a child's needs have been agreed with us in advance. If your child has a food allergy, intolerance or medically restricted diet, please speak to the office before they start having school lunches so that we can put the arrangements in writing.

We ask families not to send nuts or products containing nuts into school. We cannot describe ourselves as a nut-free school, because no school can genuinely guarantee that, and we would rather be honest with you than reassuring. What we can say is that our staff know which children are affected, food is not shared between children, and hands and tables are cleaned after eating.

For birthdays, class celebrations, cooking activities and food used in lessons, we check the ingredients against the children in the class first. Please talk to your child's class teacher before sending food into school for the class to share.

The paragraph about not being nut-free replaces the unenforceable claim flagged on the Lunches page. Keep the two pages saying the same thing – if a parent finds one page promising nut-free and another saying it cannot be guaranteed, the second one is the only one that matters and the first one is the one they will quote.

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Trips, visits and clubs

Children with allergies take part in trips, visits, clubs and residentials alongside everyone else. We carry out a risk assessment for any child at risk of anaphylaxis before they go, and medication and healthcare plans travel with the group. We will not ask you to come along in order for your child to take part.

Asthma

Children with asthma should have their own named inhaler in school, with a spacer if they use one, and an Individual Healthcare Plan or asthma card telling us when they need it. Please check the expiry date each term and replace it when it runs low.

We also hold an emergency salbutamol inhaler which can be used by a child with diagnosed asthma if their own inhaler is unavailable, broken or out of date, and where we have your written consent. Older children may carry their own inhaler where this has been agreed with you and the class teacher.

Confirm you hold an in-date emergency inhaler and that consent is collected – usually as a tick on the admission or data-collection form. If consent is not currently collected, this needs adding to the September data sheet rather than being claimed here.

Medicines in school

We can give prescribed medicine in school where it is genuinely needed during the school day.

• Medicine must be prescribed, in date, and in the original container with the pharmacy label showing your child's name and the dose.

• You must complete a medicine consent form at the office before we can give anything. We cannot act on a verbal message, a note in a book bag or an email to a class teacher.

• Medicine is stored securely in the office, or in the fridge where it needs to be. Emergency medication such as inhalers and adrenaline auto-injectors is kept where staff can reach it immediately.

• Every dose given is recorded, and we will tell you if a dose is missed or refused.

• Medicine must be handed in and collected by an adult. Please never send medicine in with your child.

• Where a medicine is prescribed three times a day, it can usually be given before school, after school and at bedtime. Please ask your GP whether this is possible before arranging doses in school.

When your child is unwell

Please keep your child at home if they are too unwell to take part in a normal school day. If they have had sickness or diarrhoea, they should stay at home for 48 hours after the last episode.

If your child becomes unwell in school we will look after them and contact you. For anything serious we will call an ambulance first and you immediately afterwards.

If you want to link the UK Health Security Agency exclusion table for chickenpox, impetigo, scarlet fever and so on, this is the natural place for it. Parents ring the office about this constantly and a link answers most of those calls.

First aid

We have trained first aiders on site at all times, including staff with paediatric first aid training. Minor injuries are dealt with in school and recorded. If your child has a bump to the head, we will always let you know the same day.

Check how head bumps are notified now that Arbor is in – slip in the book bag, or a message through Arbor. Say whichever it actually is; parents will use this line to work out why they did not hear.

Policies and forms

• Allergy and Anaphylaxis Policy

• Individual Healthcare Plan template

• Medicine consent form​

Who to contact

For anything about your child's health, medication or healthcare plan, please contact the school office in the first instance.

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Telephone: 01799 584219

Email: admin@ashdon.essex.sch.uk

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For questions about allergies specifically, please ask for Mrs Anderson or Mrs Dowding, our Allergy and Anaphylaxis Leads.

For questions about special educational needs alongside a medical condition, please ask the office for our SENCo, Mrs Jarmain.