Child injury at school

Just wanting to add a bit of humour (I'm not serious so no hate here please)
Did you use the blue paper towel? Seemed to work in the 90s 😂

The only time I’ve been called to pick my son up from school is when he fell over backwards in the basketball court, hit his head and said he felt dizzy and sick, they also suspected a broken elbow. Took him to hospital, he was fine. I do get texts for head injuries but nothing else at all! Don’t think I’d be bothered about a toe injury and I wouldn’t even bother with a&e. Nothing can be done for a broken toe 🤷🏼‍♀️

YANBU

My son broke a bone at school, was told to stop complaining and was given a wet paper towel. Was told to sit still through it all afternoon

Happened years ago and it still makes me angry

Well, indeed. Probably guilt for making him hobble for 25 minutes after he limped out to her, told her he’d cracked his toe and cried at school. No mention of trying to get a taxi, or a lift from someone, or going straight to minor injuries. 🤣

Given you, as his parent, didnt consider r it serious enough to seek medical attention until this morning, i think you have a bit of a nervevto criticise the school!

Self-evidently they didn’t suspect a broken bone and he had no obvious accident if he just heard a click or crack while doing a normal PE lesson, so the teacher had no reason to suspect any kind of serious injury. As for pain - it may have been painful by the end of the day when he had to walk 25 minutes home, but that doesn’t mean it was colossally painful if/when he was initially examined - it could have looked completely normal straight after clicking it, and become swollen by the end of the day. If he didn’t tell anyone it was hurting more later on, they wouldn’t know, they would assume it was a bit of a non-event.

I think the teacher certainly should have mentioned he had clicked his toe in PE, whoever did the first aid should have recorded it somewhere, and if they saw him limping consistently, should have phoned you to ask how he was getting home that day, but to imagine the teacher ignored him hobbling around in agony all afternoon is, imvho, unhelpful, bordering on ridiculous. Sometimes children are hurt more than someone initially expected. Infinitely more often, they have an extremely trivial injury, of which there are scores every day in even fairly small primary schools.

Disagree. I know three separate doctors who missed their own children's broken limbs until the next day.

As a teacher I always err on the side of caution but it helps we have an amazing minor injuries in the same village that we can easily direct parents too. It's very hard to know how serious things are (or aren't as the case more often is). I'm first aid trained and honestly the training has almost nothing about treating common playground injuries - it's mostly CPR and first responses to major traumas. Paediatric first aid is only required for Early Years (reception). We also don't have first aiders just floating around school waiting to deal with accidents - if I am alone with my class and can't pinch a TA from somewhere then I'm dealing with first aid as my class waits. That is the reality of many small schools.

I mean, they can't do much for a broken toe so I wouldn't bother taking him in. Your poor DS, that sounds so painful.

And toe. My dd broke her little toe.

That is the treatment for a broken finger though.

I'm a teacher OP (P2) and sometimes a child falls and as we are dealing with it, another child will say they are sick, one of our ASD children might get emotional over something else, 4 other children are telling tales, a member of staff comes in and asks for a worksheet or can I print something off, a parent has requested a phone call, I've had a message from home to pick up dinner, the student teacher needs help with planning, the teaching assistant tells me 10 things that happened at lunch time etc etc. Yesof course you should have been told. I have 2 kids in primary school myself but sometimes we are pulled in so many directions we don't check properly, we get sidetracked and/or we simply forget. You are correct to be annoyed but just another perspective to explain why we don't always get it right.

They did pick up on the injury though: "He was asked to miss afternoon play and rest it"

The school should still have gone through the official process! “ worked up”” how nasty. I’d have been upset at how this was handled too!

Hi, first aid instructor here (I provide a lot of schools paediatric courses).
Not only have they been terribly negligent, they've opened themselves up to being sued.
All schools must have advanced first aiders on site at all times, it doesn't matter if they're sick/maternity/holiday, they need one available so should have multiple people trained.
Those first aiders should be called to any injury, however minor, to assess and treat it and write an accident report.
Your son should have been seen promptly and given the fact the teacher heard a crack, the toe should have been iced, elevated (never strapped like some have suggested) and you should have been called to take him to minor injuries for an x-ray. It doesn't matter that he wasn't screaming, if he hurt it, had difficulty walking and certainly of they heard the pop, it should be treated as a potential fracture.
Go into the school on Monday and ask to see there and then, a list of who is a qualified and in date first aider (must be level 3, advanced paediatric 18hr course) and see the original accident report form. Ask for a copy. If you want me to take a look, feel free to message me. If they haven't done one, they have been incredibly negligent and you need to email the board of governors immediately. Anything that goes through them must be followed up.

It is the law for schools to have trained paediatric first aiders on site.

I meant a designated first aider in a first aid room.

All teachers are first aid trained where I work and support staff in early years are too.
Myself, and as far as I am aware, none of the other TAs have any first aid training. To be honest I did mention this as an issue as TAs are lunch staff too, meaning that if there was a big incident we would need to hunt down a teacher to check any injuries. We have been told that general first aid you would do at home (cuts, nose bleeds, grabbing ice packs for bumps in the head) is fine to deal with.

Wow you let that go? A bloody broken arm. I'm a teacher and no it is not easy to miss these things

At the very least, something should have been said to you at the end of school. I'd contact them on Monday to find out exactly what happened.

I think criticising the school for not picking up on an injury when you walked him home in pain yourself is a bit much OP

I think you're annoyed at yourself and are trying to deflect a bit by blaming the school

It's very hard to tell the genuine cases from the trying-it-on ones sometimes. I'm not saying the school didn't make a mistake because they did, but it was not obvious because you didn't pick up on it either and you're his mum.

In y5 my son had a playground accident and nearly broke his leg. It was swollen and he was in agony. His friends told the teacher on duty and she said "oh tell him to sit down for a bit". And never checked him. I was never informed. I complained and the school immediately called in the council to ensure their processes were as robust as could be and the teacher involved was "retrained". I received an apology. (Though not from the head, which i am still a bit salty about 3 years later). I think you need to complain and you need to see similar action otherwise they haven't taken it seriously.

School need to look at their injuries protocol - this situation sounds incredibly badly managed.
Make a note of what happened, follow up with any medical information (presumably your son is being x-rayed etc) and file a letter of concern or complaint. Escalate if the school don't take the matter seriously.
FWIW my son fell and bumped himself yesterday. An injury slip was completed but lost, so a TA came and talked to me at the end of the day. More serious injuries have involved a call home. We have had to flag up an unrecorded head bump in school for our son. School followed up and a lunch time supervisor didn't seem it serious enough to record - an older child sorted ice pack etc. School have changed their approach since then!

DS fell over in football a few weeks ago and landed on his wrist, jarring his elbow (secondary school). He is quite stoic usually but was clearly in pain so his PE teacher sent him to first aid. She put a sling on and called me to take him to the UTC. Fortunately it was just a sprain requiring painkillers and ice. Their response is what I would expect if the school knows an injury has occurred. At the very least a phone call or an accident slip.

If it was bad enough that they kept him in at break, then you should have been called and an accident report filled in.

I would email the school to highlight these failures.

The crack and continued pain/ impact on mobility is concerning.

DS had a bruised bone/ suspected fracture from a PE lesson (rugby), and the teacher genuinely didn't realise the extent of the injury as it was continuing pain and decreasing mobility that was the give away for A&E the next day when it wasn't resolving. DS is the stoic, casual "oh that hurts" type too and hard to read unless he's gone grey. I put that down to "one of those things" but a crack and obvious pain and compromised mobility should have had it reviewed by a first aider and flagged up to a parent.

I can vouch that standing all day teaching on a broken toe is not much fun!

When my nephew broke his arm at school his dad was phoned to collect him and take him to A&E. Am certain they didn’t make him wait at school.