My Son's first residential school trip

So, my Son Ben is 10 at the end of the month and has his first proper residential school trip on 26th April. He has fairly severe asthma that is mainly controlled by Seretide 250mcg 2 puffs twice daily, Montelukast paediatric tablet at night and Ventolin PRN. He has fairly regular short courses of Pred 30mg, roughly every other month.

I am really panicking about sending him away with the school who are pretty poor at managing his asthma as it is. I'm constantly in school trying to get them to understand the requirements of Ben's asthma. To begin with they weren't even taking his inhalers out to PE with him and then sending him in on his own to fetch them! Now he wears a man bag with his inhaler and spacer in. I'm still battling with them about running long distance because he has an attack every time.

If any of you have any advice on how to approach the school about his trip. I have arranged a meeting with the head, his teacher and the TA who will be in charge of the meds on the trip. I have ordered some of the Asthma UK publications to arm myself with and we are seeing the asthma nurse beforehand to fill out an action plan.

3 Replies

oldest • newest

  • Hi my Son Matty is 10 and has severe and difficult asthma. My Son's school trip was in November but as he was so ill at the time I refused to let them take him. I took him on holiday with us instead.

    You are in your rights to stop him from going, my Son wasn't at all happy about going as he didn't trust the school, and was going to be in a room with a few trouble makers. There is another trip next year in the Summer and I hope he is well enough to go, but if I don't think the new teacher is watching out for him then again, he won't be going. My Son goes away with the Cubs for weekends loads of times but they really look out for him and I trust them and so does my Son.I don't wrap him up in cotton wool but actions speak louder than words and we were severely let down by the school. It's taking a lot to build up any trust again but we are getting there slowly.

    Good luck

    Kate

  • Residential trip

    My son has been on 4 residential trips, always with a box of medication (including steroids/antibiotics)! The first one was when he was 9, and on the same medication as your son. I typed out instructions for the teachers - medication, to do peak flow day and night, what to do in event of peak flow dropping and at what stage to start antibiotics/steroids/ call me/call doctor/go to hospital. We were fortunate that the primary school had very good staff on the trips and one particularly competant TA was assigned to look after all the medication. I found the secondary school staff last year much less caring. Having said all this, my son enjoyed the trips, coped very well and his health was actually better than normal! It did both of us good - my son enjoyed himself, and I got a break - and it proved he could cope without me! But if you are really worried and don't feel confident about the staff, think about withdrawing your son, especially if he is not well. There will be plenty of other residentials ahead. Good luck.

  • Hello Puff, my heart was going reading your post as this is the kind of situation that I dread but on a smaller scale as my boy's not severe. But regardless, the anxiety generated by your situation with the school is just blo*dy awful. Gut response is just don't send him unless they pull their finger out. Is that a bad thing to say? Maybe by pulling him out and telling the school that you don't trust them will be the kick up the backside that they need? Or will they just not actually give two hoots? It makes me feel so angry on yours and your son's behalf.

    Do you have a good respiratory nurse? Our nurse has said that if we get any nonsense from the school (my boy starts in sept) then I am to be straight back to her and she'll go into the school herself as part of her role is educating schools and teachers. Maybe you could ask the nurse (if you have one) to attend the meetings with school?

You may also like...