Information for young people moving to secondary schools

Moving to secondary school is an exciting time although it can bring along some worries. School Nurses offer support to young people up until the age of 19, even once you have left school to go to work or attend further education or if you taught at home.

Each school has a named school nurse who visits the school regularly. We support the teachers with delivery of personal, social and health education (PSHE) and relationship and sexual health education, we might also deliver groups in your school to help young people build their self-esteem and confidence or deliver information in your assemblies. You might meet a member of the school nurse team when they are offer a height and weight measurement as part of the National Child Measurement Programme(NCMP). In Walsall we measure young people in year 10 and you will receive a letter explaining more about the programme a few weeks before the measurements take place. The benefits of the programme will be explained however you can choose not to be measured.

Your school should have a poster on display which has the name and a photo of the school nurse for your school and details about how to contact the service. You should also have received a welcome letter when you start in Year 7 which is sent out in the school information packs. If we know that you are taught at home we will send a letter to your home address.

If you would like to talk to a school nurse about your health, if you are worried about something or you think you should be having some extra support in school then you can text us on our ChatHealth number 07480 635363. You can talk confidentially* to a school nurse

*Safety notice: “We might inform someone if we were concerned about your safety but we would usually speak to you first. Your messages are stored and can be seen by other health care staff who follow the same confidentiality rules, We aim to reply to you within one working day and you should get an immediate message back to confirm we have received your text. Text will only be seen between 9am and 5pm. If you need help before you hear back from us contact your GP, nearest walk in centre or dial 111. Our text number does not receive voice calls or MMS picture messages. We support messaging from UK mobile numbers only (which does not include messages sent from landlines, international mobile numbers and some ‘number masking’ mobile apps). To prevent the health professional from sending messages to you, text STOP to our number. Messages are charged at your usual rates.”