Our school health service supports the physical and mental health of children and young people aged 5 to 19 years who live in Enfield.

When your child is born, their care will be supported by the health visiting team and when they reach school age, this support will transfer to the school health team.

A range of professionals make up the school health team, including school nurses — who are specialist community public health nurses — community staff nurses and early years’ practitioners.

The service also works closely with education, social care and other health professionals, to help children and young people to remain healthy and to ensure their health needs are met.

Our team is available to meet with parents, carers, children and young people to provide advice and information on:

  • emotional health and wellbeing
  • behavioural management
  • parenting support with partnering agencies
  • support with building healthy relationships including issues with grooming, child sexual exploitation, keeping safe online and bullying
  • healthy lifestyle and healthy weight
  • healthy eating, weight management and fussy eaters
  • sleep difficulties
  • puberty, self-identity and personal hygiene
  • continence issues day and nighttime wetting and soiling
  • transition into primary and secondary school
  • smoking and substance misuse
  • medical needs and care planning

Information for school children

Wellbeing is about being comfortable, healthy and happy. In this section, you’ll find information that may help you with things that you are experiencing.

Your school nurse can support you to stay healthy and happy. They will visit your class, and you can ask to see them on your own too or visit them at a drop-in clinic.

Your school nurse will talk to you about health and give you advice on how to look after yourself.

They might carry out some tests with you too. For example, if you’re in reception class or year six they might check your height and weight as part of a government programme called the National Child Measurement Programme.

You can also get advice on topics such as:

  • healthy eating
  • eating disorders
  • dental health
  • immunisation and vaccination
  • personal hygiene
  • emotional wellbeing
  • online safety
  • starting reception
  • transitioning to secondary school
  • medical health conditions

Contact information

Tel: 020 3988 7300

Email: northmid.cedarsn@nhs.net

The duty nurse is available Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, excluding bank holidays.

Anaphylaxis

A severe and potentially life-threatening reaction to a trigger such as an allergy. Common anaphylaxis triggers are nuts, milk, fish, eggs, some fruits (for example kiwi fruit), insect stings and some medications.

Bullying

People may give reasons for why they bully others, but bullying is never right and can never be justified.

It can happen anywhere, including at home or at school and online. Bullying that happens online is called cyberbullying. This is when technology, such as mobile phones and the internet, including online games, is used to bully someone.  

If someone is being bullied it can make them feel miserable and can affect them in many ways. It comes in many forms such as teasing, spreading rumours, threatening, physically and emotionally harming someone and name calling.

Useful links:

Emotional wellbeing

Mental health describes the way we think and feel. It can also be called emotional wellbeing.

We all feel stressed out at times, especially when we feel like we’re under pressure and things are getting on top of us. Having a lot of stress for a long time can become difficult to manage and lead to us feeling very anxious.

If you are finding it hard to look after your mental health and need some help, talk to a grown-up you trust or call Childline on 0800 1111.

The following websites can help too:

Handwashing

There are hundreds of germs living on your hands. Some are harmless, and some are not. Washing your hands is one of the easiest ways to protect yourself and other people from illnesses. Head to the NHS website to see the best way to wash your hands.

Healthy eating

Eating the right things is important for everyone to stay healthy. To see what a healthy plate looks like, check out NHS Change4life site for more advice. 

Immunisation — keeping safe from diseases

Immunisation is an easy and very safe way of protecting you. Immunisations are usually given as an injection (by a needle in your arm or leg), a drop that goes into your nose, or sometimes as a medicine that you drink.

You can read more about immunisations on the NHS website here:

Personal hygiene

Personal hygiene is about keeping yourself clean. It’s very important, especially during puberty because there are many changes that happen to your body during this time.

Puberty

Puberty is when a child begins to grow and develop into an adult. The average age for girls to start puberty is 11 and for boys, it’s a bit later, at 12 years old.

Staying safe online

The information you share online can be seen by lots of people and might stay online forever. These digital footprints are a trail of data that people can follow, picking up pieces of information about you.

The following websites have useful information to help you stay safe when you are using a computer or mobile:

Bed wetting

Bedwetting is common and can be upsetting for children and young people. It is not uncommon for children to wet the bed, in the day or night, and is nothing to worry about.

Exercise

Being healthy does not just mean eating healthily. You also need to stay active. Check out the NHS website for advice.

Headlice

Headlice love hair. They are not fussy about it. They like long, short, curly, straight, dirty or clean hair. You can catch head lice from someone else if they have head lice and your hair touches theirs.

Our school nursing team is here to support your physical, emotional and mental health needs. 

They can also advise you on making healthy lifestyle choices and help you manage chronic conditions.

Drug and alcohol abuse 

Drug and alcohol abuse, also called substance misuse, can include alcohol, drugs or glue. Some people who use substances develop a dependence on them which means that they feel the need to use the substance regularly and find it hard to stop using it. The Childline and Frank websites have more information on these topics that you may find useful.

Eating disorders

Lots of young people worry about how they look and their body and weight. However, sometimes this can start to take over your day-to-day life.

Beat is a charity that provides information and support for people with eating disorders.

Smoking

The nicotine and other poisonous chemicals in tobacco cause lots of diseases, like heart problems and some kinds of cancer. You hurt your lungs and heart each time you smoke.

It also can make it more difficult for blood to move around in the body, so smokers may feel tired. The longer you smoke, the worse the damage becomes.

For further advice visit the NHS website or Stop Smoking London.

Testicular care

Testicles are important organs for young men because they produce sperm and the male sex hormones (testosterone) which cause male developmental characteristics, such as a deep voice, chest hair and muscle strength. To learn more about testicular health see the Your Privates website.

School staff, parents, carers, health and social care professionals, or any other person requesting support for a child, can refer school-aged children by completing the referral form below and emailing it to the school health service at northmid.cedarsn@nhs.net.

Download the school nursing referral form

Your referral will be allocated to a school nurse and they will contact you within 10 working days.