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Is your child well enough for school?
Te Whatu Ora has published guidelines regarding when a child should stay at home if unwell. Please connect with the website if you would like more information.
You should keep your child at home from school if they are too sick to learn and need time to rest and recover. What complicates this for our students is that they often are unable to tell us they are unwell or explain their symptoms. Keeping this in mind please err on the side of caution.
Temperature, Sore Throat, Cold
If your child has a temperature over 38 degrees they need to remain at home. Children who require paracetamol or ibuprofen to keep temperature or symptoms of feeling unwell (sore throat etc) under control should remain at home.
Wheezing or difficulty breathing
A child should not be at school if they are wheezing or struggling to breathe (unless they can get quick relief with prescribed medicine, like an inhaler) or if they are coughing or sneezing frequently, and it is making it hard for them to concentrate and learn.
Gastro (also known as a tummy bug, rotavirus or norovirus)
Gastro is an illness caused by an infection in the gut. Symptoms are nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and fever. Gastro can spread easily to others, so your child should stay home if they are vomiting or have diarrhoea. Your child can return to school after 48 hours (2 days) have passed since the last time they vomited or had diarrhoea.
School sores (impetigo) is a common skin infection caused by bacteria.
Symptoms are red sores or blisters, which burst to leave crusty, golden-brown patches. The sores can be itchy and affect the face and hands, but they can appear elsewhere. As impetigo is very infectious, it is important any sores are kept covered until they are healed. For any skin infection, it is important you contact your healthcare provider for advice on whether your child needs antibiotics.Your child can return to school if their sores are covered and healing, it has been 24 hours since they started antibiotics, as directed in the guidance for infectious diseases.
Head lice (nits) and scabies
Head lice (nits) are common in children because of how close they are together at school. Nits are small insects that lay their eggs on strands of hair. Scratching can be a sign that a child has them.
Children with nits should stay at home from school until treatment has started.
Scabies is a very itchy skin rash that is caused by a reaction to a tiny mite that burrows under your skin. Scabies is easily spread between people through close skin contact, shared bedding or clothing. This type of rash needs treatment to get better. If a child has scabies, they can go back to school 24 hours after their first treatment.
As soon as your child is well enough to return to school, it is important that they attend to be with their peers and get back to learning.
