If you are happy for your child to be included in the Child Measurement Programme, you don’t need to do anything. If you do not want your child to take part, you need to let your school nurse know as soon as possible. You can also request that your child is weighed and measured but that the results are not used as part of the Child Measurement Programme.
The School Nursing Team will measure your child’s class during the school year. To respect privacy, children will be measured in the quietest available area of the school. Your child will be asked to remove heavy clothes such as sweatshirts and shoes. Your child will stand on the scales to be weighed, and have their height measured.
Your child's information is confidential and will be part of your child's health record. A letter from the school nurse will explain how you can see your child's results.
At the end of the school year, the height and weight results are sent to the Public Health Wales Observatory who will analyse the data and look for trends at a local level, at a health board level and nationally to learn how children are growing.
The data is sent in such a way that your child cannot be identified by the staff who receive the information and are responsible for analysing it.
Anonymised data is also supplied to the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank and may also be used by other researchers. When this happens safeguards are in place to prevent children and schools being identified.
More information is below;
A leaflet, which is available in eight languages, has been produced for parents and carers which can help them talk through the Child Measurement Programme with their children and other family members.