The School Nurse, the GP, and the Scary Letter.

nwc389

Well I'm with the OP on this one , they should have tried to sort this out at the school . Aside from worrying the OP all weekend it costs money to follow it up this way when a quick word with her would have sorted it out.
I also think it's crazy using kids to bring home important letters , stuff gets lost or screwed up at the bottom of bags

j.e.j.

Pleaseadvise wrote: »

Here is the letter that came through my letterbox on Saturday -

Dear Parent/Guardian of [my youngest child]

[Child's doctor] would like to speak to you regarding recent correspondence we have received from the School Nurse.

Please contact the surgery to arrange a telephone consultation.

Yours sincerely

[Local doctor's surgery]


That's the entire letter! Not another word!

Of course, this was frightening, since I had no idea what it was about. The GP's surgery was shut, the school was shut, and searching the internet to work out what a school nurse could have discovered that was so terrible they couldn't tell the parents themselves but had to get a doctor to do it didn't get me anywhere. I asked my child if she'd visited the nurse at school - she said not since she bumped her head playing, weeks ago.

I'm quoting the whole letter so that someone else in the same situation may be able to find something reassuring on the internet - because when I finally got to the bottom of it today, it wasn't a life-threatening disease, a serious mental illness or a suspicion of abuse - which were the kind of things I'd been panicking about.

So why did they bother a busy GP and have an ominously vague letter posted out? Apparently I failed to return a form, which they sent home with my 5 year old, giving permission for the school nurse to check her hearing and eyesight.

They didn't post a letter direct to me, send an email, or ring - even though the school has all the relevant details to reach me in any of those ways. They didn't ask the teacher to speak to me, even though I'm at her door twice a day Monday to Friday! No, what they preferred to do was terrify me by not giving even a hint what the problem was, and tie up the doctor who surely has better things to do since she has a 3-week waiting list for telephone consultations. My husband managed to get a phone number for the school nurse from the school office (they don't put it on their website) and kept ringing until they finally answered, or we'd have gone on worrying for 3 weeks!

Do all school nurses do this kind of thing?

Sounds a bit Nanny State.

Don't worry though, seriously, if it was anything urgent or drastic they would have rung you, they wouldn't just send some vaguely worded letter in the post. If it's the school nurse she's probably found some nits or something :laugh: (just joking)

Not quite sure why they have to get the GP involved. Maybe parents are obligated to give the details of the family doctor these days(?) but I don't think they did that when I was at school.

oystercatcher

The school nurse will be busy doing nursing tasks , she's not paid to do admin and chase up parents which could be very time consuming. So she would have passed a list of 'non-signers' over to the admin person who would be based at the GP's.
Teaching staff can't be involved due to confidentialality issues, plus teachers are busy with their own work.

The initial letter should have been posted, I'm sure this is what happened when my boys were at school. I expect it's a cost cutting issue.

OP can't blame anyone else for her own over reaction though, that is her own issue.

carefullycautious

There are a lot of school nurses attached to the GP surgery. I expect she has gone back to base and asked the secretary to write to you.

Jagraf

I have absolutely no idea why schools insist on giving minors important letters which are addressed to adults. The letter is the parents property not the chids.

My 16 year old regularly forgets to give me letters, but we then get an email reminder.

If I had received that letter, I would have been very worried, followed by very p@ssed off.

What other line of business would give a child the responsibility to get a letter to someone else. Next it will be carrier pigeon.

I'm with OP

maman

Jagraf wrote: »

I have absolutely no idea why schools insist on giving minors important letters which are addressed to adults. The letter is the parents property not the chids.

My 16 year old regularly forgets to give me letters, but we then get an email reminder.

If I had received that letter, I would have been very worried, followed by very p@ssed off.

What other line of business would give a child the responsibility to get a letter to someone else. Next it will be carrier pigeon.

I'm with OP

But they're not businesses and so don't have the opportunity to pass the cost on to the customer. If schools didn't use 'pupil post' they'd have to spend a fortune on postage, money that's earmarked for teaching and learning. Most schools use email and text as well now but if that was the only method used there's be complaints about that too.

moomoomama27

Every primary school I have ever worked in uses 'pupil post', normally backed up by text alert (If the parent can be bothered to a) give a mobile number b) update it when the number changes.)

We would always put important letters in their book bag with a text to parents explaining this, of course many parents don't regularly check inside them.

Jagraf

maman wrote: »

But they're not businesses and so don't have the opportunity to pass the cost on to the customer. If schools didn't use 'pupil post' they'd have to spend a fortune on postage, money that's earmarked for teaching and learning. Most schools use email and text as well now but if that was the only method used there's be complaints about that too.

If you did a time and motion study on the cost of sending that letter through the post, I would guess its more than a whole classful of second class letters, or more likely texts and emails. Or even better letters loaded on the school website.

Jagraf

I would send a letter back to the school stating that an issue has come to light regarding the school and that you should be contacted immediately.

The school obviously trusts this method of communication so it should work both ways. Surely all childrens bags are therefore checked each day for letters from home?

Artytarty

We used to cal it Blazer mail. It could turn into sedimentary rock if you let it build up.