Allergies

Nut Allergy Information - PLEASE AVOID SENDING NUTS INTO SCHOOL!

Dear Parents, Staff and Governors

 

The safety of our children is paramount and as such we have recently been reviewing our health and safety policies and, in particular, how we protect children with allergies. 

 

Although we have many allergy sufferers across the school, a small number of our children have nut allergies that in some cases are so severe that they could potentially lead to loss of life from anaphylaxis or anaphylactic shock. Just a trace amount can threaten some of the children’s lives.  Parents of children with this condition are obviously extremely anxious and as a school we have a duty of care that we take extremely seriously, as we do with all children and their families.

 

 During the Spring Term parents’ meetings, a school survey was completed and an overwhelming 96.4% of parents asked stated that they would support a ban on nuts in the school for emergency health reasons.

 

However, our research has shown that an overall ban on nuts can give out a false sense of safety as children can easily bring traces from outside of school into the classrooms.  Despite the fact that the school can never be risk free, we can cut the risk substantially by avoiding having nuts in the school and asking for your assistance with this.  This is not an outright ban but we hope you will support this request to keep some very vulnerable children much safer in school.  We can confirm that there are no nut products in the meals provided by our school canteen.

 

We therefore politely request that you avoid providing nuts and products containing nuts for your children to consume in school as a snack or as part of your children’s lunch.  Please can you also avoid sending cakes containing nuts for charity sales and sweets containing nuts bought in for birthdays etc.  This will also apply to adults working in the school including Beehive Club and pre-school.

 

Please note that this includes peanut butter and all Nutella type products and, if eaten at home before school, hands must be washed thoroughly to further reduce contamination. 

 

Despite the known dangers outlined above, if anyone still insists on providing snacks that contain nuts for their child, it is absolutely imperative that you inform the school immediately as it is vitally important that we are aware in order to ensure all children’s safety.  The consequences for a child with an extremely severe nut allergy are just too dangerous. 

 

 Thank you in advance for your ongoing support with this request.

 Best Wishes,

 Mr J Lawrenson,

Headteacher