The School Health Team offers a range of screening programmes to children.
Health and development reviews
The Kent School Health Team assess the health and development of children and young people aged five to 19 using The Lancaster Model (TLM) which is an electronic health questionnaire.
These assessments help parents, carers and children identify any factors impacting on a child’s ability to live a healthy life and achieve their full potential. A child may have a long-term medical condition, such as diabetes, asthma or anaphylaxis, be a young carer, or perhaps need counselling to cope with a bereavement or a relationship problem. This can also help to support a child’s transition into primary or secondary school.
Data is confidential and anonymous and can be used by the Whole School Approach Team to develop population based public health reports for schools to help address pupils’ needs. This work supports the Healthy Child Programme, helps us plan services, and make sure children get the health and well-being support they need as early as possible.
Benefits
- Early support and intervention, before significant problems present.
- Capture the voices of children and young people and provide the opportunity for them to ask for help, support and information.
- Increase the visibility and accessibility of the School Health Service to support pupils.
- Use local, live data to direct and evidence your resources, national curriculum, PSHE and Ofsted monitoring.
Reception year
Parents are asked to complete the questionnaire using a link which is sent to them along with an area specific TLM login password.
Year six, 10 and 12
Students are invited to complete the online health assessment (TLM) in school themselves.
If your school have access to Google classrooms or a similar set up, please could you add the following links so that the children and young people can
The School Health Team are always discreet and will do their utmost to work in partnership with school to maintain confidentiality throughout the session. Support is offered at the time of the session to help the children with any questions and no child will be forced to complete if they prefer not to.
One of our school nurses will review each assessment and may invite a child or young person to talk to a member of the team, or we can refer them for specialist help if needed. We can refer parents or carers to sources of support including online ‘Understanding your child courses’ with specific courses for children with additional needs and supporting teenagers.
A comprehensive guide to The Lancaster Model for school staff/governors
Vision (reception)
This screening checks for reduced vision in one or both eyes. The aim is to
If a child is receiving treatment for a vision problem, or already wears glasses, they will not need to have their vision screened. The results of the screening will be sent home within four weeks of the screening being completed. If there are concerns about a child’s vision we will refer them to the Orthoptist for a follow up appointment.
Find out more information on eye tests.
Hearing screening (reception)
Routine hearing screening is offered to reception-aged children to identify any problems as early as possible.
The screening can help identify if your child has any hearing problems, that if unidentified, could affect your child’s speech and language development, social skills and impact on their learning.
Although serious hearing problems remain rare, testing ensures that problems can be picked up early to help ensure that you and your child has access to any specialist services required.
Your child will play a simple game using headphones. If your child fails or is unable to complete the screen we will come back to rescreen them 12 to 14 weeks later. If your child is still unable to complete the screen allowing us to assess their hearing, which may have happened for a range of possible reasons, we will write to you asking if you have any worries about your child’s hearing.
The key issues for parents to consider in deciding whether they are concerned about a child’s hearing are if they:
- don't speak clearly
- don't respond to sounds of interest
- talk very loudly
- ask you to repeat yourself or respond inappropriately to questions
- turn up the volume of the TV very high
Other factors to consider are:
- any family hearing loss or deafness since childhood
- if they didn't receive a newborn hearing screen. This may be the case if your child was born outside of the UK.
The number of children who experience hearing problems are small, however, there is evidence that the following groups may be at higher risk.
- Children not born in the UK (not received hearing screening as newborn)
- Those of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Irish Traveller and Gypsy Roma Traveller ethnicity
- Those who have not received immunisations for Mumps and/or Men C booster under the pre-school two dose vaccination programme.
- Those who had a neonatal illness (first four weeks of a child’s life).
Find out more information on hearing.
Measuring height and weight (reception and year six)
Each year in England, school children in reception and year six have their height and weight checked at school as part of the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP). Height and weight measurements are used to calculate weight status to help parents see if their child is growing as expected. The information also helps builds a wider picture of how children are growing to help plan services for families. Parents can opt out of the programme, by replying to the letter we send before the screening.
Results are not shared with other children or teachers but are sent directly to parents. This will be followed up with an offer of further support and advice about a child’s weight if needed.
Results are not shared with other children or the teachers but are sent directly to parents, which may be followed up with an offer of further support and advice about their child’s weight. We understand parents may feel a range of emotions when they receive the results and may wonder what they can do to support their child. There is more help and support on our website, including ways to help keep the whole family healthy and how to talk to a child about their weight.
Year 3 ‘Keep yourself fit and healthy’ booklet
Kent School Health have worked in partnership with children in year 3 to co-design this Keep yourself fit and healthy booklet.
Supporting healthy lifestyles, resilience and wellbeing
Children in year 3 shared their concerns about their health and wellbeing which guided us to create this booklet especially for them. The images you see in the booklet were drawn by the children themselves.
Kent School Health worked in partnership with KCHFT’s Children and Young People’s Counselling, Dietician and Dental services to provide supportive hints and tips to overcome the concerns raised by the children.
We have created a presentation to be shared with the children when presenting the leaflet. This talks through key points of the leaflet explaining how the hints and tips can be put into practice.