What would you expect from school?

[Badgerblu]

Hi!
My DD who is 9 broke her finger at school on Friday morning.
When I picked her up from school friday afternoon she told me she hurt her finger playing netball that morning. It was obviously swollen and bruised. I took her to minor injuries and found out she has broken it and needs to be seen by the plastic trauma clinic on tuesday.
She said she told 3 teachers it hurt and they said as she can move it, it's fine. No one told me at pick up.
She is in the same class as her older sister (school only had 4 classes, reception, yr1&2, yr3&4 and yr5&6. Who said she was in tears most of the day saying it hurt.
On the one hand I'm angry that she has been left all day in pain with a broken finger and no one told me. On the other hand I can see why they thought it might be nothing.
What would you expect school to do/say tomorrow when I let them know?.

I would go in and ask for the incident form and inform them of the break and ask them to update their accident policy.

I would inform them of the break but if you are generally happy with the care your daughter receives at school I would give them a break. Schools are dealing with an awful lot at the minute and no major harm has been done.

My child’s school would have phoned me to let me know she was injured - given it didn’t settle down with an ice pack - and they’d give me the choice of coming and getting her or her staying in school.

To be fair to the school I had similar with ds just before lockdown. He hurt it playing basketball first lesson, was given a cold pack and by the time he got home it was swollen.
I strapped the fingers together and headed down to A&E sure he'd broken them. No, not a sausage of a crack.
It was swollen for two days they went down with no issues.

I am very happy with the school generally.
It's a lovely small school and has been very supportive.
It's just I keep thinking back to her being in pain all day and I just feel so sorry for her.
I've realised I have posted twice by accident.

They'll probably feel terrible when you tell them it's broken.

I would expect a first aider to have looked at it and assessed it. I'd probably expect someone to contact me if my child was obviously in pain so that I could decide what to do - calpol, minor injury clinic etc.

A broken finger is very easy to miss. But swollen and bruised is a sign that something isn't right and needs some attention. And I've done the wiggle test myself - if you can wiggle your fingers you're probably ok. But I wouldn't expect to leave a child crying in pain all day long, broken finger or not.

So in your position I'd probably check with school if their version matches up.

I’m sorry but I don’t think that’s acceptable and I would definitely expect an explanation of why she was left crying in pain most of the day!

Fair enough like others have said it’s 50/50 when a child can still move their fingers after an injury but if it was clearly swollen and she was in visible pain, there is no excuse for them not calling you!

@Chilver

I would go in and ask for the incident form and inform them of the break and ask them to update their accident policy.

Update their accident policy to say what?

@MrsWhites

I’m sorry but I don’t think that’s acceptable and I would definitely expect an explanation of why she was left crying in pain most of the day!

Fair enough like others have said it’s 50/50 when a child can still move their fingers after an injury but if it was clearly swollen and she was in visible pain, there is no excuse for them not calling you!

I agree. Not on.

Update their accident policy to have a better response to a crying, bruised child? I'm sure their accident policy (if there is one?) has some form of first aid policy that involves assessing and injury ; perhaps that policy needs to explicitly say 'if there is bruising and swelling, it needs further assessment by a medical professional', or something similar.

If she had been in pain visibly after a little while despite attempts to distract her and chivvy her along (there ARE kids out there who act like their arm's been chopped off if they get a papercut - DD1 is a prime example) then I would have expected them to ring me to see if I wanted to take her to get checked out.

It's really hard to judge though - especially when they can move it - DD2 had a buckle fracture recently and it was only the fact she visibly was still trying to protect the arm when moving it that made me think a trip to A+E was in order as she's so bloody stoic and doesn't grumble about anything (unlike her sister who would be screaming the place down if you try to remove a sticky plaster)

My DD broke her collarbone in gym which was in the morning. I got a call at 3 pm just as I was parking to pick her up to say she’d had an accident but that they’d iced it and all was ok. She told them throughout the day that she felt a bone crack but they didn’t feel there was anything wrong. She was like a ghost when she got to the car.

Riot act read the following day. Never really did get much more than a sorry.

@Chilver

Update their accident policy to have a better response to a crying, bruised child? I'm sure their accident policy (if there is one?) has some form of first aid policy that involves assessing and injury ; perhaps that policy needs to explicitly say 'if there is bruising and swelling, it needs further assessment by a medical professional', or something similar.

Many injuries cause swelling and bruising though. Kid falls on the floor, knee bruised and swollen.

Not defending the school if child was crying all day though. That is a concern. I'd definitely think you should raise with the teacher and, if not satisfied with the response, the headteacher/assistant head or similar.

With this dd she has a high pain threshold and she really isn't one to complain when she is hurt.
She broke her collarbone and we only took her to a&e as she was wincing getting dressed. So I know how easy it is to miss something.
Both dds said she was seen by the first aider and sent back to class.
I will see what they say tomorrow.
I think its because she needs to be seen by plastic surgeons makes me more upset with the school, had it just been a simple break where she was strapped and seen in 6 weeks I dont think I would be sp upset.
I do think they will feel bad tomorrow when they find out.
She wasnt given an ice pack, just a wet blue paper towel.

I would tell the teachers that it is broken and that she was upset that she'd been in pain all day. I'd expect an apology from someone but then I'd let it go. Especially as you are happy with the care. It's really tricky to devote much time to individuals when you've got 30 to keep track of. Sometimes I have dismissed a child without listening/ looking and I don't mean to or want to. It just happens because of the constraints of the job.

In terms of what you can expect of them - there isn’t very much they can do now to help your child but this should definitely be addressed for future, perhaps the first aider could be given some refresher training or perhaps they can update their policy that a parent should be contacted if a child remains in pain/upset after an injury.

She wasnt given an ice pack, just a wet blue paper towel.

As someone who works in a school i'm shocked. Ice is a basic treatment for swellings. A soggy paper towel is a crap response.

Depends.

Ask yourself what you would have done?

@Ickabog

She wasnt given an ice pack, just a wet blue paper towel.

As someone who works in a school i'm shocked. Ice is a basic treatment for swellings. A soggy paper towel is a crap response.

If she saw them straight after she'd done it, it may not have been swollen.

She was “in tears most of the day saying it hurt”. I would expect school to be concerned about a child who cried for a lot of the day, certainly concerned enough to be contacting you by phone to discuss. In your shoes I’d be wanting to find out what they were thinking!

I'd not be happy that she was left in pain. Did she talk to someone again after the first look at her finger? I know mine would have found that hard, and the slightest jolly along comments would have stopped them mentioning anything again.

DShad a similar sounding injury, in his case with a basketball. Again no one at school was aware of the injury so he was sitting there with it most of the day. I did have a meeting with the head working out how it had been missed.

Try not to worry too much about needing to see the plastics and trauma team, We were told it was standard for them to look at any fracture so close to the joint, which is the sort of break you tend to get when a ball hits a finger and bends it back. For DS it was review of his Xray and they gave him a splint to replace the strapping hes seen given in A&E.

Hoping it's a similar experience for your DD.

I went in with dd this morning and her teacher was very apologetic.
He said that he sent her to the first aider and they sent her back saying it will be fine.
He is going to talk to the first aider and head teacher.
I dont think there is much more I could ask for.
I have said if she is in any pain or wants to come home call me asap and I will go and get her.