Chiltern Primary School
Parents in The Boulevard community and surrounding areas ofHullface poor housing conditions and widespread unemployment. Those who do work often are holding down two or more low paid jobs to make ends meet.
During the last 5 years the area has seen a significant influx of immigrant workers which has driven the ethnicity of the school up to around 18% and has brought a vast culture mix and 26 different languages to Chiltern. Eastern European countries represent the largest group of newcomers to Chiltern and although the multi-ethnic mix in school often presents many challenges, these children have, in general, had a very positive effect on school life because of their excellent work ethic. Despite its challenges theChilternPrimary Schoolprovides a happy, safe learning environment and achieves just under 95% attendance.
School Health+ Services
The Head, Mrs Lynne Clarke, explained; "I decided to buy in extra school nursing services direct from CHCP CIC because we are aiming for beyond 95% attendance. We believe, with the help of the school nurse, it is definitely achievable at Chiltern. Working closely with my team in school, the school nurse is targeting persistent absentees. She is helping and advising parents in school and doing home visits where necessary offering healthcare support to bring children back into school."
Joanne Robinson, who qualified as a school nurse 5 years ago with a Public Health Degree, is the nurse allocated toChilternPrimary School. The nurse's focus is primarily attendance. Apart from holidays in term time, by far the biggest area of concern for the school was medical non-attendance. The school had noticed patterns of non-attendance where entire families would go off sick together. Also some families were keeping children at home for long periods disproportionate to the nature of their illness – e.g. 3 weeks for chicken pox.
The school has excellent measures in place for managing and rewarding good attendance. Certificates and prizes are given out regularly to children with 100% attendance weekly, monthly, termly and yearly.
Mrs Clark told us: "The bigger the achievement the bigger the prize. We give stickers out in assembly every week to children with 100% attendance and at the other end of the scale, last year, we gave a bike to a Year 6 boy who had achieved 100% attendance for six whole years. But this was exceptional and obviously not the norm. Some parents take attendance very seriously and value education whilst others see us as a child minding service, taking the decision to keep their child off school far too lightly. We do everything we can to encourage good attendance but there is a hard core of persistent non-attenders who often give ill health as their reason for not being in school. This is where the school nurse is a must.
For a member of school staff with no medical training it is very difficult to combat or question medical non-attendance or even to offer advice. We need a healthcare professional in school because not only can she establish very quickly if a child is indeed fit for school, but school nurse is also qualified to advise parents. When Joanne Robinson says it is time to send a child back into school, parents listen and they appreciate and trust the professional health advice now available at Chiltern."
As well as attendance the remit of the nurse at Chiltern is far reaching and although School Health+ is a relatively recent initiative for Chiltern, the Head and the nurse are keen to develop the role further.
The universal, core, school nursing service, provided to all schools as standard, funded by the Government continues as the school nurse does all she can to support high-priority safeguarding issues in school, national health programmes and health promotion but The Head and the School Nurse at Chiltern through School Health+ many great plans for the future.
Mrs Clarke said: "Having a healthcare professional in school gives a more rounded picture of the child when the school nurse attends safeguarding meetings because she is able to give a healthcare perspective as well as an educational perspective. Also some of the prevention and health promotion ideas Joanne has brought to Chiltern are excellent. She is pre-empting health issues and I believe this will make a huge difference not only to attendance but to the overall health of our pupils."
JoanneRobinson (Chiltern's School Nurse) said: "We are promoting School Health+ to parents and they are now able to drop in and see me with issues. I want to give more basic health information to our parents so they know when it is OK to send a child to school. I am attending parents' evenings and assemblies and I also have plans to work more closely with GPs and pharmacies in the Chiltern catchment area to ensure we are all on the same page."
Early Results At Chiltern
Mrs Clarke concluded: "Although it is early days for School Health+ at Chiltern I am already seeing a significant difference in school pretty much overnight. Parents are taking advice well from the school nurse and they have confidence in her. I can see children back in school following home visits, when from the non-attendance patterns I have seen before, I know they would not have been back without Jo's involvement."