Allergy Awareness

We currently have children at St Pat’s who have anaphylactic reactions to nut products. These reactions can be triggered by contact, ingestion or inhalation. It can also include contamination of equipment whether this is play equipment, desks or other classroom materials. For example, if a child ate a peanut butter or Nutella sandwich and touched the play equipment, a child with a severe allergy, could suffer an anaphylactic reaction from touching the same equipment.

This reaction is called Anaphylaxis. It is a severe, rapidly progressive allergic reaction that is potentially life threatening and requires urgent treatment. Our school does its best to be an "Allergy Aware" school. The school cannot guarantee a totally allergen free environment, however as a preventative measure could we please ask you to consider the students in our school who are at risk of anaphylaxis by:

• Avoid sending food to school which has nuts, nut products in.
• Along with our teachers, speak to your child to respect children who have food allergies.
• Speak to  your child encouraging them not to share food, drink, food utensils or containers with anyone.
• Encourage your child to wash their hands before and after eating.
• Ask your child to get help immediately if their allergic schoolmate gets sick.
• The resulting potential life threatening medical emergency could be avoided by minimising exposure to nuts.