Year 6 School Measurements Letter

Dear Parent/Guardian

Height and weight checks for children in Year 6

Every year in England, school children in Reception and Year 6 have their height and weight checked at school as part of the National Child Measurement Programme. Height and weight measurements are used to calculate weight status. We collect this information to build a picture of how children are growing to help plan better health and leisure services for families. In most areas, parents receive their child’s measurement data, as this can be useful information about their child’s growth and provides an opportunity to offer support to parents where required. Your child’s class will take part in this year’s programme.

Once the measurements have been completed, we will send you your child’s feedback letter, which will include additional information and advice to support healthy living.

A member of the school nursing team may also contact you to discuss your child’s feedback and to offer further support following your child’s height and weight measurement.

How we collect your child’s measurements

The checks are carried out by trained school health nursing staff. These are conducted in small groups for reception year and individually for year 6 pupils. Children are measured fully clothed, except for their coats and shoes. The programme will be delivered in a safe way, in line with the school and local authority’s safety control measures and national guidance for schools and healthcare.

Maintaining the well-being of children in the NCMP

The wellbeing of children and families is especially important. Measurements are conducted in a sensitive way, in private and away from other children. Individual results are not shared with your child or their school. The weight and height information is shared only with you via a parent or carer feedback letter and/or telephone call. It is your choice to share or not share the information with your child.

The emotional impact of the NCMP has been researched and studies show that body image, self-esteem, weight-related teasing, and restrictive eating behaviours do not change as a result of being measured or receiving feedback. If you are concerned about your child’s growth, weight, body image or eating patterns, please seek further support from the school nursing team on the above contact number or your General Practitioner.

The information we collect and what it is used for is listed below:

• your child’s date of measurement, sex and date of birth are used to calculate your child’s weight category

• your child’s name, date of birth and NHS Number are used to link your child’s measurements in Reception and Year 6. Other data sets held by NHS England and Department of Health and Social Care may also be linked to allow the addition of information from health and education records, where lawful to do so, to understand how and why the weight of children is changing, and how this affects children’s health and education and how the care children receive can be improved. This includes your child’s health data relating to;
  • their birth, hospital care (including time in hospital and out-patient appointments and diagnosis of medical conditions)
  • mental health
  • social care
  • primary care – includes all healthcare outside of hospital such as GP and dental appointments,
  • public health – including data relating to preventing ill health such as immunisation records
  • records for when and the reason people pass away
  • medical conditions such as cancer, diabetes
  • health, lifestyle, and wellbeing surveys that your child has participated in

• your child’s ethnicity and address are used to help understand some of the reasons for the difference and changes in child weight across England
• your address is required to send you your child’s feedback letter. This will include your child’s measurements together with information and advice to support healthy living
• your telephone number is required as we may contact you by telephone to discuss your child’s feedback and offer you further support following your child’s height and weight measurement. 

All the data collected is also used for improving health, care and services through research and planning.

All this information is treated confidentially and held securely. No individual measurements will be given to school staff or other children.

How the data is used

The information collected from all schools in the area will be gathered and held securely by Sirona care & health and North Somerset Council. We will store your child’s information as part of their local child health record on the NHS’s child health information database and share it with their GP.

All the information collected about your child will be sent by us to NHS England. NHS England is responsible for collecting data and information about health and care so that this can be used to monitor and improve the care provided to people across England.

The information collected about your child will also be shared by NHS England with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) which is part of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) but in a de-personalised form only. This means OHID will not be able to identify your child. OHID focuses on improving the nation’s health so that everyone can expect to live more of life in good health, and on levelling up health disparities to break the link between background and prospects for a healthy life.

De-personalised information from the National Child Measurement Programme may also be shared by NHS England with other organisations, such as universities. This is to help improve health, care and services through research and planning. This information cannot be used to identify your child, and NHS England only ever shares information for research through formal assurance and approvals processes, seeking advice from experts, as necessary.

Withdrawing your child from the National Child Measurement Programme

If you are happy for your child to be measured, you do not need to do anything.

If you do not want your child’s height and weight to be measured, or your child has a medical condition that affects their height or weight, please let us know by completing the opt out form at the end of this letter and returning it to [email protected] by Monday 16^th October 2023.

Children will not be made to take part on the day if they do not want to.

Further information

Further information about the National Child Measurement Programme can be found at: https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-weight/national-child-measurement-programme

Information and fun ideas to help your kids stay healthy can be found at:

https://www.nhs.uk/healthier-families/

There is also a lot of useful information about healthy lifestyles on the Better Health North Somerset website: https://www.betterhealthns.co.uk/

Information about how Sirona care & health collect and use information can be found at https://communityequipment.sirona-cic.org.uk/privacy-policy/

Information about how NHS England and Office for Health Improvement and Disparities collect and use information can be found at https://digital.nhs.uk/about-nhs-digital/our-work/keeping-patient-data-safe/how-we-look-after-your-health-and-care-information and https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-health-and-social-care/about/personal-information-charter

Information about the organisations NHS England has shared information from the National Child Measurement Programme can be found at https://digital.nhs.uk/services/national-child-measurement-programme

Yours faithfully,

School Health Nursing Service