Intervention
Training was arranged after school hours and all staff (including teachers, teacher assistants, administrative, catering and cleaning personnel, bus driver etc.) were invited to attend. The training material and teaching structure were developed (and delivered) by allergy specialists, reviewed by schools, and adapted as per their suggestions.
We delivered a 90 minutes training session which consisted of a theoretical and a practical workshop. The training included an interactive presentation covering the overall management of the child with severe food allergy and drills in the management of severe allergic reactions/anaphylaxis. The main thematic sections of the training session are presented in Table 1.
In order to tailor the training programme to schools’ needs, this was first delivered to a group of primary school teachers outside the surveyed area. Upon receiving feedback, the training programme was revised to expand on the administration of the adrenaline autoinjector (AAI) (pupil positioning, restraining etc.).