Schools must be
Alert to Asthma

School classroomAsthma UK is launching its Alert to Asthma campaign following the tragic death of Samuel Linton who died after an asthma attack at his school in Stockport.

The inquest into Samuel’s death found that the school’s negligence was a significant contributory factor. 

Schools must act now to keep children with asthma safe

  • All school staff must have regular asthma training
  • All schools must have a policy to support children with asthma

Asthma affects over a million children in the UK and causes the death of the equivalent of a large classroom full of children every year.

Asthma UK is urging every school and local education authority in the UK to organise regular asthma training for all staff and to ensure they have a policy to support children with asthma. 

Schools in England can download a policy, free of charge, from the Medical Conditions at School website:

For schools in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland Asthma UK has produced the School Asthma Pack. 

We need your support

We urgently need funds to enable us to support schools, for example by extending our hugely successful Alert to Asthma Training across the UK, to empower teaching staff to help pupils who experience asthma attacks.

Alert to Asthma Asthma provides information sessions for people who work with children and young people. It currently runs in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland with a pilot scheme also running in North West England.  

Key advice for teachers on how to be alert to asthma

  • ALERT
    Know which pupils in your class have asthma and if their asthma has been getting worse.
  • CHECK
    Make sure you know where a pupil’s reliever inhaler (usually blue) is kept and you are aware of the symptoms of an asthma attack – a tight feeling in the chest, breathing hard and fast, coughing or wheezing, being quieter than usual/unable to speak.
  • TREATMENT
    If you believe a child is having an asthma attack they need to use their reliever inhaler (usually blue) immediately – preferably through a spacer. If there is no immediate improvement they need to continue to take one puff of their reliever inhaler every minute for five minutes or until symptoms improve. If no improvement in five minutes, call for an ambulance. The child should keep using their reliever inhaler every minute until help arrives.

See also