Healthy Child Programme: primary school
- Help for you and for your child as they grow
- Primary school
- School health
- Oral health
- Common health conditions in school-aged children
- Staying healthy
- Keeping safe
- Transition to secondary school
See also: Healthy Child Programme: Secondary school.
Help for you and for your child as they grow
The Healthy Child Programme promotes children's health and development by offering support and information to children and families in Haringey.
The section of the programme aimed at 5 to 19-year-olds is led by school nursing services from Whittington Health NHS Trust (external link), working in partnership with Haringey Council.
See the information and support available if your child is in primary school.
Primary school
Preparing for school
Your child should have received their routine childhood vaccinations by the time they start primary school. If they haven’t, contact your GP to get them up to date.
Free school meals
Your child will receive free school meals when they're in reception, Year 1 and Year 2, if they're in a government-funded school.
Your child may be eligible for further free school meals when they move into Year 3 if a parent or guardian fits the eligibility criteria. More information on free school meals.
Thanks to the Mayor of London’s emergency funding, every primary school child in Haringey will get free school meals for the 2023/2024 academic year.
Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
If you have a child with Special Educational Needs or a disability, find out the support available from the Haringey Local Offer support service. This includes information on your child’s health needs, money and preparing your child for adulthood. It also covers their education needs up to age 25.
School health
Haringey Council commissions Whittington Health NHS Trust to provide the School Nursing service to all state-maintained schools in the borough.
Each school will have a school nurse who you can contact if you have any worries about your child’s health. The school nurse will be able to carry out a health assessment on your child if requested.
The School Nursing service can be emailed at whh-tr.HaringeySchoolNursing@nhs.net
Vaccinations at primary school
Vaccination UK provides vaccinations for school-aged children in Haringey, on behalf of NHS England.
If your child starts school and they haven't had all their vaccinations, the school nurse will be able to provide information and advice. They can be emailed at whh-tr.HaringeySchoolNursing@nhs.net.
Vaccination UK also offers catch-up clinics for children who have missed being vaccinated at school. More information on catch-up clinics (external link).
Email the team at appointments@v-uk.co.uk
Flu can be a very unpleasant illness for children, with potentially serious complications. The children’s flu vaccine is offered as a yearly nasal spray to children aged 2 to 10, and your child will be offered this at school or by their GP.
National Child Measurement Programme
When your child starts school, their height and weight will be measured and their Body Mass Index (BMI) calculated. This happens once in reception (aged 4 to 5) and then in year 6 (aged 10 to 11). This is part of The National Child Measurement Programme (external link), which assesses overweight levels in children in primary schools.
The information gathered will help to reduce childhood unhealthy weight in Haringey, which is prevalent in the borough. You will receive a letter from your child’s school with more information about this before the measurements taking place.
Health screening in reception
Vision
Children aged 4-5 years in reception classes will have their vision tested to detect any problems early, so they can be treated to avoid permanent visual impairment.
Vision screening in Haringey is carried out by orthoptists, who are part of the North Middlesex University Hospital (NMUH) Community Orthoptics Service. It's offered to all reception-aged children in state-maintained primary schools. Children attending Free Schools can be referred to the Community Orthoptics team.
As a parent or carer, you will receive a letter at the start of the school term, inviting your child to the vision screening program.
Children who are privately- or home-educated should contact their GP or local optometrist.
Hearing
You should book an appointment with your GP if you suspect your child has a hearing problem. Your GP will make a referral to an audiology department for further tests if needed. Your child’s school nurse can also make a referral following a health assessment. See the NHS Hearing website (external link) for further information.
Healthy Schools Programme
As a borough, we are working to make the healthy choice the easy choice. Our Healthy Schools Programme aims to improve the health and wellbeing of children and young people in Haringey by working with local schools to:
- encourage healthy eating
- reduce sugar intake
- increase water consumption
- improve physical activity
Schools in Haringey which have signed up to the Healthy Schools programme can be awarded either Bronze, Silver or Gold status. This recognises that they have improved health and wellbeing outcomes for pupils and staff, and the wider school community.
Oral health
NHS dental care is free for all children until they're 18. Children should be registered with a dentist (external link) as soon as their first teeth appear and before their first birthday.
You should brush your child’s teeth until they are 7 to make sure they're cleaning them correctly. Children from the age of 7 should be able to brush their own teeth, but it’s still a good idea to watch them to make sure they brush properly.
Establishing good habits can help your child avoid oral health problems, such as tooth decay and gum disease.
See the NHS website for further information on children's teeth (external link).
Whittington Health Community Dental Services Oral Health Promotion team supports residents to help them improve their oral health. This includes providing oral health advice for parents, carers and teachers of children with special educational needs, and practical tooth-brushing advice for children.
If you would like any information about the programmes, call the Haringey Oral Health Promotion team (external link) on 0203 224 4672.
Common health conditions in school-aged children
These are the most common health conditions in school-aged children, according to our school nursing team in Haringey:
- eczema (external link)
- allergies (external link)
- vision issues (external link).
- asthma (external link)
- weight concerns (external link)
For children to thrive at home and in school, it's important they receive the best care and support for any medical conditions they have. This will help keep them healthy, reduce their chances of being off sick from school, and allow them to achieve their full potential.
Be aware of these common conditions and contact your GP if you think your child is affected.
Staying healthy
Healthy eating
It is important to encourage children to eat a healthy, varied diet to help ensure they get all the necessary nutrients they need to be healthy. Children should eat at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day.
From the age of 5, children’s diet should be based on the principles of the Eatwell Guide (external link) and include:
- plenty of starchy carbohydrates (such as bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, oats, couscous and other grains)
- fruit and vegetables
- some protein and dairy foods
When your child starts school, you may choose to send them in with a packed lunch. It's important to know what to include in their lunch box, as hidden sugars in fruit juices and yoghurts may increase their risk of unhealthy weight and tooth decay. We have produced a packed lunch guide (PDF, 6.1MB) to help you decide what to include in your child’s lunch box.
Better Health also has recipe ideas for healthier lunchboxes for your children (external link). See the Better Health sugar swaps (external link) for healthier alternatives to cereals, drinks and snacks.
You can also download the free NHS Food Scanner app to find out the hidden sugars in the food you buy.
As a council, we are committed to increasing the amount of water residents drink. Download the free Refill app (external link) to see where you can fill up reusable water bottles for free.
Physical activity
With easy access to mobile phones, tablets and other devices, children are using screens at a much younger age than in the past.
Sitting in front of screens for long periods may lead to a sedentary lifestyle. This increases the risk of unhealthy weight and mental health problems and may affect their educational attainment.
The NHS recommends that children and young people aged 5 to 18 should be active for at least 60 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a day. This can include things like cycling, walking to school and playground activities.
You can increase both your and your child’s physical activity by choosing to walk to school. Walking Zone maps in Haringey have been created with schools to improve the safety and journey for pupils who walk to school. See our Haringey Walks page for more information about walks around Haringey.
There is a range of sports and activities available for children and young people in Haringey.
Parks and greenspaces are also great places to increase the whole family's physical activity.
Emotional health and wellbeing
Haringey is committed to helping children, young people and families thrive, with high levels of mental health and wellbeing.
In Haringey, key messaging around resilience, mental health and wellbeing is part of The Anchor Approach. This provides education settings with information, advice and support to strengthen the wellbeing and resilience of the whole school.
Contact your child's school's Emotional Wellbeing Lead if you have any queries about their mental health or wellbeing.
See our Children and Young People's Mental Health page for further information.
Keeping safe
Bullying and online safety
Bullying is any behaviour which hurts someone. This can range from name-calling, spreading rumours, threatening and undermining someone to physical violence such as pushing and hitting.
Bullying can happen anywhere, and children are at particular risk of bullying online, known as cyberbullying. Unlike bullying in the real world, children facing cyberbullying are followed by it wherever they go.
If you're concerned that your child may be bullied online or in real life:
- Young Minds has an online guide for young people about bullying (external link)
- Family Lives has a range of online parental resources for support including a helpline (external link)
- the NSPCC also has information and support for parents on bullying (external link)
It can sometimes be difficult to talk to the people closest to you about bullying, particularly when you're young. If your child would like to talk to someone outside the family about bullying, you could encourage them to contact Childline (external link) online or by calling 0800 1111. Calls are free and confidential. Childline has lots of advice about different types of bullying, and tools to help children and young people.
Online safety
The Safer Internet Centre has age-appropriate advice for children ages 3 to 11, to keep them safe online (external link).
The NSPCC has an online safety area (external link) with advice for parents on a wide range of subjects, including live streaming and gaming.
Transition to secondary school
Moving to secondary school is an exciting time in a child’s life. It’s the next step in their journey to becoming an adult.
It can also be an anxious time, and many children worry whether they will make friends in their new school, what their new teachers will be like, what the journey to school will hold for them and what will happen to the friends they've already made.
To help with this, Young Minds has created a film (external link) which reassures children that they're not alone in feeling worried about starting secondary school. Although aimed at schools, you could show it to your child before they start Year 7 to ease any anxious feelings they may be having.
Clothing grant
As your child starts secondary school, you may be eligible for a one-off clothing grant of £60. More information on clothing grants.