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South Yorkshire Asthma Friendly Schools

9th July 2024

Sheffield school first to be awarded ‘asthma friendly’ status

Asthma is the most common long-term medical condition in children in the UK, with around 1 in 11 children and young people living with asthma. The UK has one of the highest prevalence, emergency admission and death rates for childhood asthma in Europe. Outcomes are worse for children and young people living in the most deprived areas. NHS England and NHS Improvement’s ambition is to reduce avoidable harm to children and young people from asthma and improve their quality of life.

NHS England » National bundle of care for children and young people with asthma

Schools and education partners across South Yorkshire are a significant part of achieving this ambition and form part of NHSE/I ‘National bundle of care for children and young people with asthma’. This work across South Yorkshire is delivered through the South Yorkshire Children and Young People’s Alliance.

Benefits

The benefits of becoming an Asthma Friendly School are:

  • Improved asthma awareness and management in schools
  • Improved support to pupils with asthma encouraging an inclusive environment
  • Additional support with the health, safety and wellbeing of pupils
  • Ensures the school are implementing current and best practice asthma management strategies
  • Enables the school to promote its self-evaluated status to ensure that the community is aware of the school's commitment to asthma friendly strategies

Aims

The South Yorkshire Asthma Friendly Schools Initiative aims to improve the care of pupils with asthma by raising awareness through information, training and support for school staff as well as pupils, parents and carers. The initiative builds on the work already undertaken across South Yorkshire by 0-19 Services and Paediatric Respiratory teams over many years.
 

Key Objectives

  • All staff in school to be trained in Asthma Awareness 
  • Each school to have an Asthma Policy 
  • Each school to have an Asthma register 
  • A consistent approach to where and how inhalers are stored in the school 
  • A notification system of when inhalers are due to expire 
  • Each school to have a spare emergency inhaler and spacer 
  • A process in place of when to escalate cases to a health professional and/or parents/carers 

Join us

It is important to start the conversation about asthma care in your school setting. 

We look forward to your school joining many others and becoming Asthma Friendly.

We are also keen to collect case studies of schools who have become Asthma Friendly and what impact this may have had on pupils, parents and carers, staff members or the school community. Please complete the form to start your accreditation.

Asthma Friendly Schools Launch Webinar

How to become an Accredited Asthma Friendly School

  1. Start to work through the key objectives (listed above) using the below documents to support you achieving the objectives
  2. Please complete this form below to register your interest, and a local specialist nurse will be in contact in due course.
  3. Once your school has achieved the objectives above complete and submit this checklist.
  4. You will receive a Asthma Friendly Schools Certificate. 

Sample Policies

Please use these exemplar policies to begin your work towards Asthma Friendly Schools Accreditation

Primary Schools 
Sample Policy

Secondary Schools
Sample Policy

Accredited Schools

Photo of Sandringham Primary receiving Asthma Friendly Schools certificate
“One of the things we want to do here at Astrea Academy Woodfields is to make children feel safe and welcome. To do that, they need to feel well and able to engage with education in the same way as all of the scholars in our school and as someone with a history of asthma as well, I know that can sometimes be difficult.
 
The Asthma Friendly Accreditation process was really easy thanks to the support of our local NHS colleagues and the training was really informative and supported all of our staff to be in the best position to deliver the new policies that we have put in place.
It's going to make a big difference for these young people who will now feel safer, which we hope will enable them to succeed and thrive during their time in school.”

David Scales, Astrea Academy Woodfield in Doncaster

Wendy Simpkin from Barnburgh Academy holding Asthma Friendly Schools certificate

Wendy Simpkin, Barnburgh Academy in Doncaster

Sandringham Primary
"We are delighted to have received this accreditation in recognition of Sandringham Primary School's ongoing commitment to providing the best possible care for our pupils. Working towards the accreditation of being an Asthma Friendly school has enabled us to access high-quality training for staff and to benefit from the expertise of our health colleagues."

Mr Metcalfe, Sandringham Primary in Doncaster

Harthill Primary
Harthill Primary School Asthma Friendly Schools Certificate presentation
"The process is really straightforward. And the training really useful. We have found the most beneficial was having the spare inhalers because we've had a few children now in school whose inhalers have either run out or haven't worked properly and we were able to use the emergency inhalers. The children would have struggled if we hadn't done the training."

Emma Bothma, Harthill Primary School in Rotherham

Congratulations to:

Arksey Primary, Doncaster
Astrea Academy Woodfield, Doncaster
Ballifield Primary, Sheffield
Barnburgh Academy, Doncaster
Brinsworth Whitehill Primary, Rotherham
Harthill Primary, Rotherham
Maple Medical PRU, Doncaster
Rockingham Junior and Infants, Rotherham
Sandringham Primary, Doncaster
Silkstone Common Junior and Infants, Barnsley
Wath Central Primary School, Rotherham
Wickersley Northfield Primary, Rotherham
 

Who have all achieved Asthma Friendly Schools Status

Ballifield Community Primary School, Sheffield

Photo of Ballifield Primary School, Sheffield, being presented with Asthma Friendly Schools Certificate. 2 adults, 2 children featured in front of a mural
"We are delighted to be the first school in Sheffield to have received this recognition of being an ‘asthma friendly’ school. We wanted to improve our knowledge and self confidence so we could improve the care of pupils with asthma in our school.
 
Due to an increasing amount of children being diagnosed with this long term condition we felt it was important to raise awareness. We know this awareness will improve classroom performance and child participation in physical activity.  We are proud of all our children at Ballifield and we would like to thank our new asthma champion, Owen who will continue to support pupils in the school with the condition. Finally, we would also like to thank Emma Sheppard for supporting us on this journey.” 

Molly Rushforth, Ballifield Community Primary School, Sheffield

Asthma Friendly Schools Poster

Where can you get help?

If you think your child is having trouble with communicating and talking to you, discuss your concerns with a professional such as a health visitor, GP, nursery/school teacher who can provide advice and consider whether they may require a referral to a speech and language therapist or GP.

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