Poor DS, fractured cheekbone and sprained wrist after child pushed him into a wall, what to do next?

[alfiesmadmother]

...if anything, apart from look after my DS who seems fine now and rather prouds of his bandages!!!

Got a call from school last Wednesday to pick DS up as he was bleeding from his face. To cut a long story short he has a sprained wrist, cut and fratured cheekbone. The school said he was shoved by another child. DS says he was too shocked to see who. After speaking to a few children we know who it is and it the same boy that has hurt many other children. The boy has special needs.

When DS was hurt the children were being supervised. DS was playing happily. DS is 9. The other boy is 8. I am feeling sad every time I look at DS feeling bad that he got hurt.

As they broke up from school on Wednesday we haven't been back to school yet. I need to decide how to approach school. I don't know what I want I just want to protect DS and my other 2 younger children who are also at the school.

[SuePurblybilt]

Oh my goodness, I have no sensible advice but am offering my sympathy for you and DS. Your poor little boy.

[alfiesmadmother]

Thankyou. I know be he just doesn't seem bothered in the slightest and just says forget about it!

[Eglu]

I think since the child is known to have SN, then you need to approach the school about the level of supervision this child has. Maybe he is meant to have one to one supervision.

I understand that you are upset, he must have been puched pretty hard to fracture a bone. Your poor DS

[alfiesmadmother]

He got shoved into a wall that's why he was so badly hurt. And the teacher was watching and saw exactly what happened. That's why I'm not exactly sure about what to do.

[scurryfunge]

The school has to give you reassurance that this sort of incident is not likely to happen again and that the child concerned is not able to repeat that behaviour. Remember that having SN is not carte blanche to cause injury.

[Dracschick]

Im not sure if you couldnt seek recompense in one those 'have you been hurt or injured?' certainly if your child was older he might be able to get recompense through the courts.

It isnt the SN childs fault,although he has caused it,I feel school have been v negligent with regars to keeping your ds 'safe'.

If you dont want to do this and im not sure that I would perhaps you could write to the governors explaining the extent of injury and ask for an increase/maintained level of supervision for the SN boy.

I feel very and yes a bit on behalf of your brave ds.

[TubbyDuffs]

Why did you need to speak to other children to find out who had done the pushing if a teacher saw everything?

I can't honestly say what I would do, but I would be pretty pissed off if my child came home injured to that extent, they do have some duty of care don't they.

Hope your son recovers quickly. x

[alfiesmadmother]

I know that scurryfunge. Most SN children I know are the opposit. This boy is particularely aggresive though and although he did mean to shove, he perhaps didn't know the consequences of his actions. I don't know wether to take the 'these things happen' approach or I am not sending my children to school until I know they will be safe. My other DS has been hit on the head with a ruler before too.

[DanceOnTheDarkSide]

It sounds like quite a shove to have resulted in that injury! I have fractured my cheek before and that took some doing.

The school need to improve on the things they already have in place to prevent this happening to another child. SN or not, other children being hurt is not right!

[NickOfTime]

you need to put in writing that you are unhappy about the level of supervision offered to the child with sn, and that the school have a duty of care under their safeguarding children remit to prevent harm coming to children during the school day.

the level of support for the child with sn is obviously inadequate, and as a result his peers are not being safeguarded appropriately. (you note there have been other incidents of harm coming to peer group)

school will be unable to discuss specifics with you, but need your complaints in order to be able to prove to the lea that they have insufficient resources to support the child with sn and prevent harm coming to his peers.

how school manage this is up to them really - it may be that the child can not cope with the busy transition between classes/ playtime and needs some quiet time whilst everyone else is moving around, or it may be that closer (1-1) supervision and some trained support would help - either way, it is your responsibility to let the school know that they are failing not only the child with sn, but his peer group, including your son.

please don't let it go - you aren't helping the child with sn by pretending it's a one-off and won't happen again. it's very difficult for schools to get adequate funding for sn supervision - you need to help them do so by formalising a complaint.

[NickOfTime]

please copy the chair of govs and the gov responsible for sn in on your letter to the ht.

[alfiesmadmother]

I didn't need to speak to the other childre, he had friends round during half term and of course it came out in conversation. And I haven't had any contact with 'school' at all since I picked him up. The teaching assisitant is a friend of a friend.

Dracschick, I think that would be the sensible approach, thank you .

[alfiesmadmother]

Very very helpfun Nickoftime. I agree, not helping anyone by ignoring this.

And yes it looks like it was a very very big shove, as DS himself is a tall boy, poor DS.

[NickOfTime]

it may just be a case of the child being over-excited and unable to control his actions, rather than anything malicious, but the outcome is the same, and the school need to acknowledge that they are not managing his support effectively, and come up with a workable solution.

[alfiesmadmother]

I think i will go up to school and get confirmation of what happened. Then write the letter great advise thankyou.

[admission]

I would hope that the school will not attempt to sweep this under the carpet but you need to ensure that this does not happen. You need to go to the school next week to get confirmation of what happened.

Assuming it is then as described you need to ensure that the school do consider the lessons to be learned from this. Accidents will always happen but some can be avoided, whch is what seems to be the case here.

To do this you need to put in writing as a complaint the fact that you are concerned that this accident happened, that you understand that the other pupil involved has SN and that they are supposed to be supervised so you would like the school to carry out an investigation to determine exactly what happened so it does not happen again.