School didn’t call me about a broken bone

[Tigerbreadbum]

DS (8) fell at school this morning around 10am, witnessed by a teacher and TA. Was in a lot of pain, couldn’t wiggle fingers let alone write. They don’t contact me at all. We are in an and e and it’s broken and he may need surgery. I’m fuming he’s been in agony all day with no pain relief, and potentially made it worse.

what on earth do I say to school? I’m absolutely livid. He only started there in January due to physical violence from classmates at his old school. We were both so happy with the new school and now I’m fucking furious! Is there someone I should be informing, council maybe?

Oh, the poor lad!! I'm not surprised that you're angry, but I would be icy calm in my initial approach, rather than going in all guns blazing.

Also, what a sweet, lovely friend!

Hi OP Hope your little guy's surgery goes well today and that you get resolution from the school too.

Really?? So it’s ok to break ‘just’ a finger and nothing be done about it?? 🙄

The poor boy struggled ALL day! Couldn’t move his fingers, couldn’t write, couldn’t play, couldn’t carry his bags, was crying on and off … and you think that’s ok?? It’s ok for staff not to investigate any of those behaviours? It’s ok for staff not to call parents? WOW!!

OP has other updated his arm is broken in 2 places .. but early on in her posts she said the break needs surgery .. so no matter where the break is, it’s significant enough to need surgery, so your post of oh it’s just a finger is really stupid!

Raise with the head, as previously said. Also look at health and safety and ask that health and safety training for staff is actively reviewed, first those affected. Eg PE teacher and school nurse? If there is a poor response, escalate to governors.

(When my son was sent home mobile with a head injury and feeling faint after football, that's what the school offered to us, a decade ago.

YANBU to be upset. I would ask to see the HT in the first instance, to ask what the school procedures are regarding injuries and ask why the school didn't do anything about it. They should have first aid assessed it and then contacted you to take him to A&E when they realised that he couldn't move it.

OP, you are absolutely in the right here.

When I was a kid (a bit older than your son, around 12) I had a very similar experience at school with a broken bone and it was awful. I was in so much pain and my friends were really worried and had to help me get around. It was so, so horrible - I was a stoical kid with a high pain threshold but I remember feeling nauseous from it. Parents took me straight to A&E when I got home and I’d broken two bones - and one of the breaks had been worsened by me having to move around all afternoon. Ended up having to have it manipulated and set under a general anaesthetic and spent the whole summer on crutches.

Of COURSE a school can’t diagnose a broken bone - nobody expects them to do that. But they should be able to make a judgement on whether a child might need to see a doctor, and an eight-year-old who is obviously in a lot of pain and can’t do their normal activities like holding a pen or carrying a bag clearly has an injury that needs looking at. Even if it had turned out that your son had just sprained his wrist, if he’d had it looked at earlier it could have been iced and bandaged, and he could have had some pain relief.

So yes, you should complain about this. Go through the school’s own formal complaints procedure first and if you don’t get anywhere with that, you can complain to the Dept of Education and Ofsted.

I hope the surgery goes well op

I suspect when you tell the school that your child is off sick with a broken arm that happened on their watch in a witnessed event that was not noticed, treated or reported it will be taken very seriously. If not, that's the time for guns to blaze.

Mumsnet is a place where you absolutely cannot criticise teachers - even if they have neglected your child’s clear need for medical help.

I just can’t believe that anyone thinks it’s acceptable to essentially ignore a child in so much pain that they cannot move their hand, can’t write, won’t engage with friends or play at break times, can’t carry their own bag and is causing concern for other children.

I’d be absolutely furious too OP, this absolutely should be reported to school, they need to seriously look at their first aid procedures at the very least. Depending on their response I would be concerned enough to speak with ofsted.

Honestly II think somewhere between the two approaches would be what I would do here.
I would calmly ring principal and let her know what happened. Tell her you're disappointed that he left in pain all day despite complaining of pain. -: ask her to review what happened and ask her to come back to you .
You would hope that she willl acknowledge that a) process wasn't followed and apologise and commit to doing better or b) commit to introduce a more robust process on the event that the school needs one. The accident was clearly not handled well and the head should acknowledge this.

I'd be pretty upset too. My first port of call would be the Headteacher to discuss.
This happened to me, a long time ago, I dislocated my shoulder at school for the 2nd time in a few months and the teacher didn't do a thing, and acted like I was being dramatic. We went straight to A&E after school for it to be put back in. This was the 80s though!

What have school said today when reporting his absence? This isn't on, there should be accident forms for everything, not just heads!

Yes I think you’re right.

When a primary age school child is able to spot their friend is unwell with pain, it’s impossible to ask a teacher, esp at the end of the year when they will know them well, to know if the child is a drama Queen or actually seriously hurt.
Also pretty normal fur a child to not go and play at lunch time and stay sat in a bench. Or for them to complain about not being able to move fingers. 🙄🙄

Because clearly, unless a bone is sticking out or the shape of the arm is wrong, then children are just whining.
And a concussion is immediately visible, unlike a broken bone (spolier: it’s not!)

@Tigerbreadbum i hope your ds is doing well with the surgery.
I wish him well and hope he’ll recover quickly.

I agree it's hard to spot which is why I didn't make a big fuss with the school with dd's broken arm. Ds broke his arm at soft play when he was 5, I wasn't there but he came home had some calpol and settled down in front of the TV - he was a bit unsettled at bedtime so I put him to sleep in our bed - I went upstairs and he was crying in his sleep, I knew then - took him to A&E the next morning - it was a compression fracture, not the worst kind but still needed attention. They are hard to spot and some breaks hurt more than others and some kid's pain threshold and whingy nature is bound to come into play too. Leaving a break for a few hours is not going to cause any problems unless it's a really bad one (dd had nerve damage and blood flow issues with a break we were blue lighted to hospital and she was lucky to regain use of her hand, so it can be very serious). In the Op's case it does sound like quite a bad one when surgery is needed - they try really hard not to operate now...so I think she has cause to be upset.

They should have called you if he was in that much pain but no one can tell if a bone in broken without an x ray so it's unreasonable to expect a school first aider to know if a bone is broken.

Why do people keep saying ‘school couldn’t have known it was broken’?

I’m sure the OP didn’t expect the school to diagnose her sons injury but it should have been apparent to them that he was in pain, had limited use of his arm, therefore indicating some sort of injury.

Their lack of communication at pick up is also concerning, surely every potential major injury should be reported to a parent/carer on collection at the very least?

Hope the op goes well.
I am very surprised the school didn't contact you. This is over 10 years ago but my ds, when he was about the same age, hurt his arm at school by falling off some play equipment. They were concerned he had hurt his arm or elbow so called us to take him to a&e. Thanks nothing was broken, but he was in a lot of pain.

I'm super supportive of schools and teachers and think parents are very demanding generally - but this is a serious serious mistake and I would be really very upset 😭

I would be seeking an apology to my child most of all. He has been neglected and that could be quite traumatic for him.

And then reassurance from the school / management about what will be changing or make sure this doesn't happen again.

I hope the surgery went ok OP

DS back and awake. He has 14 pins and screws, some of which will be removed and some will remain.

school have not yet replied to my email advising if his absence for surgery today following the accident at school yesterday.

Oh my goodness OP, that’s some surgery! I hope he recovers well, I hope you get a satisfactory outcome from the school, they need to be held accountable for their negligence.

He has a broken arm not a broken finger!!??!! Read the thread!

I’ve never said it was his finger….

It’s his arm, with breaks in 2 separate places. One of the breaks was complex with fragments.

His old school had several children with additional needs who weren’t getting adequate support and most days the class were being evacuated due to some of these children throwing furniture, hitting/kicking/biting. I wasn’t the only parent to remove this child from my the school because of this, 6 of them left between September until now. The class has had 4 teachers in that time