Teaching Staff

What were the outcomes?

Between 2017 and 2019, 216 teaching professionals were trained to deliver emotional resilience sessions in schools. Of these professionals:

• 82% felt confident to deliver the programme. 
• 94% felt competent in their knowledge about mental health, mental wellbeing, and how to develop resilience. 
• 98% felt confident to support students who might be vulnerable in terms of their mental health or mental wellbeing.
• 92% felt confident to follow through with individual school processes around support, referral, and safeguarding.  

For children and young people involved in the programme, a large majority felt that they:

• Felt listened to while participating in the sessions.
• Increased their knowledge about accessing support to help with their emotional health and wellbeing.

Other identified themes from students included:

• Increased confidence to manage emotional well-being.
• Increased knowledge about emotional well-being.
• Increased ability to identify emotions and behaviours that relate to emotions.
• Increased ability to elicit support if needed.
• Positive impact on strategic skills to manage emotional well-being.
• Positive impact on classroom learning. 

In their own words, students said:

• “The sessions are a time to be myself when upsetting things are going on around me at home.”
• “I learned how to be healthy.  I wasn’t always healthy before Head-First.”
• “It really helped me to be in a group and to hear about options to manage my anger.”
• “When there are problems, this has helped me to know how to speak with people.”

What doesn't the training involve?

Teachers can access a web based training module called Head-First to support them to deliver training to children and young people in primary and secondary schools as part of their PHSE curriculum.

You will be able to provide children and young people with the skills to cope better with stressful and difficult situations.

Who to contact to get involved

Please contact an organisation called The Training Effect.

Q2. How does asthma affect children and families?

Sometimes, it can be hard to accept that someone in your family has asthma.

For some people, they can find it stressful. Others may feel jealous because it may look like their family member is receiving more attention.

Q3. What types of medicines are used in asthma?

The majority of children and young people with asthma will have a number of medicines to manage their asthma. These are usually spilt into two different categories:

1. Reliever

These are medicines that are taken to relieve symptoms, or to treat an asthma attack. The most common is called 'salbutamol.' It helps to open up the airways, and can be a life saving medication.

It is important for teachers and school staff to know who in the class has asthma, and who uses this medicine. It is important to have plans in place to support staff and children and young people under your care. You should know:

• Who can help.
• How they can help.
• If, or when, to give salbutamol.

2. Preventer

These medicines come in a number of forms, but the most common are tablets or inhalers (puffers). They are used regularly to help improve the health of the lungs and prevent asthma symptoms.

These are usually given at home prior to and / or after school. It is important when planning school trips to speak to parents and carers to ensure children and young people still receive these while they are not at home.

It is important that all children and young people have an Asthma Action Plan. The plan will tell you:

• What may trigger their asthma symptoms.
• The medications they use to prevent their asthma.
• What and how much medicine to give when they are breathless or having an asthma attack.

Q4. Where can I find more information about how to manage asthma within my school?

All local authorities will have guidance on how to manage health conditions in schools.

For additional information and to ensure your school meets the highest standards, we would recommend reviewing The Healthy London Partnership Asthma Toolkit. Downloading and reading the ‘Schools Guide’ would be a good starting point.

Q5. Where does the school get salbutamol from?

The school should have a policy in place about medicine administration. You can get the policy from your local authority or school nursing team.

Schools are responsible for the medical welfare of children while they are under their care. It good to have access to salbutamol in the school, as it supports early treatment of asthma attacks. It can prevent the need to call an ambulance, attend hospital, and reduce disruption to the child and their education.

We would recommend keeping a register of all children with asthma who attend the school. The register should also note how you intend on managing the child during an asthma attack (i.e. using the child's inhaler, school held inhaler, or no treatment within school). It is important to obtain the legal guardian's consent for all planned actions.

1. Children and young person’s holding their own salbutamol in school

Some children may be able to manage their own asthma, carrying their own inhalers on them, and administer them when needed.

It is important that these are kept on the child at all times, and that school staff are aware of their medical condition.

Click here to read advice from Healthy London Partnership. It describes the legal responsibilities of the school, school staff, parents, and children.

2. Using the child or young person’s own salbutamol which is kept safe by school

We would recommend that the school keeps the child or young person's legal guardian consent, reliever inhaler, spacer device, and asthma action plan together in one place. These should be kept safely and securely outside of the sight and reach of children, but close by if needed.

Additional information and advice regarding how best to manage this system, i.e. requirements for documentation, and informing parents of doses, can be obtained from your school nurse or found within the Healthy London Partnership Schools Guide.

Q.6 Emergency salbutamol inhalers in schools

As many children and young people did not take their salbutamol to school, since 2014, schools are able to hold salbutamol in case of asthma attacks. It can be administered to children who:

• are known to be asthmatic; and
• if the school is aware that their usual treatment for asthma attacks would be salbutamol; and
• if the school has consent from the child's legal guardian to give salbutamol if needed. 

It is important that the school has policies in place to support this, and supplies can be obtained from their local pharmacy.

The Healthy London Partnership Schools Guide provides information on Emergency Salbutamol for schools.

More information about how to get salbutamol from pharmacies can be found on the Healthy London Partnership website.

Q7. How do we tell if it is an asthma attack?

The signs of an asthma attack are:

• Persistent cough (when at rest).
• A wheezing sound coming from the chest (when at rest).
• Difficulty breathing (the child could be breathing fast and with effort, using all accessory muscles in the upper body).
• Nasal flaring.
• Unable to talk or complete sentences. Some children will go very quiet.
• May try to tell you that their chest ‘feels tight’ (younger children may express this as tummy ache).

When to call an ambulance:

CALL AN AMBULANCE IMMEDIATELY AND COMMENCE THE ASTHMA ATTACK PROCEDURE WITHOUT DELAY IF THE CHILD:

• Appears exhausted.
• Has a blue/white tinge around lips.
• Is going blue.
• Has collapsed.
• You are following the child or young person's personalised asthma action plan and it directs you to call for an ambulance.

Q8. I'm worried about a child in my class who has asthma. They seem to be having lots of asthma symptoms, what do I do?

Speak to your school nurse, and let the child’s parent or carer know you have concerns. It is important that the child has an asthma review with their GP or Practice Nurse to assess their asthma control, and to ensure they are on the correct medication.

Q9. Can children with asthma still participate in PE?

Children and young people with asthma should be able to participate in exercise activities with their peers. Teachers should speak to the family or carers to identify any additional needs the child or young person may have; some children may be need additional precautions, limit their activities, or take medications prior to exercise based on medical recommendations.

Q10. How do we ensure children with asthma are safe on school trips?

We would recommend when planning a school trip, to contact families/carers to update your records of any relevant medical conditions the child has. Children should continue to receive their medicines while attending school trips. Please review your school/local authority police on managing medical conditions.

We would recommend that you have an up-to-date copy of the child or young person's Asthma Action Plan, including their preventer (regular medications), and the plan for if the child has an asthma attack. Some children and young people may be able to manage their own medicines and these can be kept on them. If not, the school should ensure these are safe, but kept close to the child at all times. Medications should be labelled for the child with the correct instructions.