School Age Immunisation Service

• Seasonal Flu vaccination to protect healthy children in primary and secondary schools.
• Seasonal Flu vaccination to protect children in special schools for those aged between 4–18 years.
• Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination to protect against cervical cancer for those in school years 8 and 9 and any young person in Year 10 11 who have missed the vaccination
• Teenage booster and Meningitis ACWY vaccinations to protect young people against Tetanus, Diphtheria and Polio and Meningitis for those in school year 9, and any young person in Year 10 and 11 and additional years who have missed the vaccination
• Measles Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine for those in school years 8-11 who have never previously had the vaccines, or only had one dose.

We are a team of skilled and experienced nurses and support staff. The flu vaccination is a quick and simple spray up the nose.

Step one: The nurse places the tip of a thin plastic tube just inside the nostril. The child can breathe normally whilst the vaccine is given.

Step two: Half of the vaccine is sprayed in one nostril.

Step three: The other half of the vaccine is sprayed into the other nostril.

The nasal spray may not be suitable for some children, for more information visit: www.nhs.uk/child-flu. To access an injectable version of the flu vaccine, call the team on 0300 421 8140 to book into a community clinic near you.

If you have any questions or need support to complete the consent form, contact our friendly team on 0300 421 8140, email: GHC.Immunisation@ghc.nhs.uk

For more information read the NHS leaflet.

All young people aged 12 and 13 are offered the HPV (human papilloma virus) vaccination as part of the NHS childhood vaccination programme. The vaccine helps protect against cancers caused by HPV, including:

• cervical cancer
• some mouth and throat (head and neck) cancers
• some cancers of the anal and genital areas and also helps protect against genital warts.

The HPV vaccine has been part of the NHS routine vaccination schedule since 2008 and is one of the most successful in the world; dramatically lowering the rates of cervical cancer and harmful infections in both women and men, preventing many cancers and saving lives.

In the UK it is available to all young people in Year 8 and Year 9 (aged 12 to 13 years), offered mainly in secondary schools – this includes children not in mainstream school via a community clinic delivery model.

Previously delivered in two doses, the latest evidence shows that one dose provides protection as robust as two. With this in mind, as of this academic year (September 2023), teenagers only require a single HPV vaccination. This follows updated advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

When your child reaches eligible age, a HPV pack will be shared with them at school or posted from your local education authority if your child is home educated. The pack will include a letter, information leaflet and consent form. The HPV vaccine will be given as an injection in your upper arm, so young people are advised to wear short-sleeved tops on vaccination day.

If you have any questions, concerns, additional needs or if your child is absent or unwell on the day or the session, contact our friendly team on 0300 421 8140 or email GHC.Immunisation@ghc.nhs.uk. You can also read more in this NHS leaflet.

The TdiPV Vaccine, also known as the 3-in-1 booster, is given to increase protection against three diseases  – tetanus, diphtheria and polio.

It is given to young people in year 9 as a single injection into the muscle of the upper arm and to those young people in year 10 & 11 who have missed their vaccination. Young people are advised to wear short-sleeved tops on vaccination day.

If you have any questions, concerns, additional needs or if your child is absent or unwell on the day or the session, contact our friendly team on 0300 421 8140 or email GHC.Immunisation@ghc.nhs.uk 

You can also read this NHS leaflet for more information.

The MenACWY vaccine protects against four common groups of meningococcal diseases – Men A, MenC Men W and MenY. The disease is rare but life threatening and caused by the meningococcal bacteria. It is given to young people in year 9 as a single injection into the muscle of the upper arm and to those young people in year 10 and 11 who have missed their vaccination.

You can read this NHS leaflet for more information.

We request all consent forms are submitted at least one full school day prior to the vaccination session to allow time for the forms to be checked and parent/carers contacted for further information if required. If your form is submitted late, it may mean we are unable to offer the vaccination in the school session. The vaccination may then be delayed and an appointment at a community clinic may be required.​

If you need any support completing a consent form, please email us at  GHC.Immunisation@ghc.nhs.uk providing your name and telephone number. We shall then be in contact to help you. Please check that you have the correct Unique School Code. Please don’t copy and paste the Unique Code but type it when requested.

If you have changed your mind and no longer want your child to be vaccinated, please email WithdrawConsentSAIS@GHC.NHS.UK at least one full school day before the session.​

If withdrawing consent on the day of the vaccination session, please provide a written letter to your child’s school reception for the urgent attention of the immunisation team. You will need to provide your child’s name, date of birth and year group. If your child is too young to hand in the letter themselves, please ensure you give it to school reception at the start of the school day.

Young People may develop a runny or blocked nose, headache or general tiredness and some loss of appetite. These symptoms are much milder than developing flu or complications associated with flu. Serious side-effects are uncommon.

Flu viruses change every year, so flu vaccines are updated to protect against the latest strains.

The nasal spray contains very small amounts of porcine gelatine, which is used as a stabiliser in the vaccine. Some people may not accept the use of porcine gelatine in medical products. For these children, there is an alternative injectable vaccine available this year and parents/carers should contact the team on the number below to book a clinic appointment as the injectable vaccination will not be delivered at school-based sessions. 

If your child is asthmatic and in the 3 days (72hrs) before the vaccination session  they have increased wheezing and/or have increased the use of their Bronchodilator and/or if they are currently taking or have been prescribed steroid tablets to control their asthma in the two weeks prior to the vaccination session in school. It is important that you tell the Immunisation Team as we may not be able to safely administer the nasal vaccine on the day. Please inform  the School and the Immunisation Team as soon as you become aware of any changes to your child’s condition. The team will require to know your child’s full name, date of birth, school attending and year group. Please ensure they are given your contact details.  Please inform our team and the school that this is urgent. Please contact us on 0300 421 8140 or email FluImmunisation@ghc.nhs.uk​

For more information visit www.nhs.uk/child-flu  

Won’t herd immunity protect them? Herd immunity does not protect against all diseases. The best example of this is tetanus, which is caught from bacteria in the environment, not from other people who have the disease. In addition, for herd immunity to work properly, most people in the population need to be vaccinated. There are low vaccination rates in some parts of the UK and in some communities, as well as in many overseas countries. This means that if your child is not vaccinated, it is quite likely that many of the people they come into contact with will not be vaccinated either. So if one person gets an infectious disease, it can spread quickly through all the unvaccinated people in the group (this happened during the 2013 measles outbreak in Wales).

Parents often worry that a child’s immune system will not be able to cope with several vaccines at once. In fact, even a tiny baby’s immune system can cope easily. Starting from birth, babies come into contact with millions of germs every day. It is estimated that the human body contains enough white blood cells to cope with thousands of vaccines at any one time. If a child was given 11 vaccines at once, it would only use about a thousandth of the immune system. It is not a good idea to delay vaccinations to ‘spread the load’, because it leaves the child unprotected against serious diseases for longer.

All vaccines go through a long and thorough process of development and testing before they are licensed for use. Vaccines have to be tested on adults and children separately before they can be used for different age groups; this is because vaccines that work in adults may not work so well in children. No vaccines are tested on children before they have been fully tested on adults. Click here for more information about vaccine safety and side effects.

If your school’s scheduled date is late within the autumn term and you wish to vaccinate your child earlier, please contact the team and book your child into one of our community clinics.