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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To take legal action against school?

194 replies

SingleNow · 14/05/2012 14:24

My 4yr old ds has had yet another accident at nursery. This time he has taken a chunk out of his thumb, it is quite bad and although it was bleeding a fair amount could not be stitched as there was nothing to stitch together.

He had just gone back to school last Monday after 2 weeks off after falling head first onto a wood flower bed and having a bump from his hair line to the bridge of his nose.

This accident/incident with his thumb I feel is one too many in a short space of time.
It was his fault partly as he put his thumb in the metal plate on the door frame and walked as he walked the plate sliced a chunk off his thumb. My point is that there shouldn't have been anything as sharp as that near 3 and 4 yr olds and also the fact that staff all say the same thing. " we don't know what happened" now whilst I agree that they cannot watch every child due to the amount of pupils (26) there are 3 members of staff and it is always the same they never know how DS gets hurt.

So I have decided to take legal action AIBU???

OP posts:

benjaminandjonathansmummy · 19/05/2012 21:09

I can understand why you are concerned but as many others have said, accidents happen. Any accident shoule be recorded in the accident book with full details of what happened etc. Sometimes though you notice marks, scratches etc and the child hasnt made a fuss so it will still be recorded but with not as much as detail as the child themselves doesnt usually know how they have hurt themselves!
I work in a nursery and we tend to record any marks etc so that we have a record of it. Most nurseries also keep a record of children coming in with cuts, bruises etc so that people cannot say that it happened at nursery.
If a child bumps their head we tend not to call home unless there is a large bump/mark just so that the parents don't come in and wonder what on earth has happened.
Things happen in the blink of an eye and unfortunately there isn't much you can do to stop accidents.
I hope you manage to get a resolution to it all.

Floggingmolly · 19/05/2012 21:47

Your DS is one of the most innocent children the head has ever come across.
I'm sure that was lovely for you to hear . Hardly helpful, though...
And they've fobbed you off with another meeting? You'll probably end up having to take him out, unfortunately. I would be extremely unhappy to be patronised like that.

Hope he's ok.

annh · 19/05/2012 21:53

Did you use to post under another name, OP? Your style of writing is very ...umm... familiar!

MarthasHarbour · 19/05/2012 22:19

so go straight to OFSTED if you have been fobbed off

do not on the other hand take legal action...

NinthWave · 19/05/2012 23:01

What Martha said. My DS's nursery had a complaint about the side gate at their outside area, so they got a visit from OFSTED who checked it out and reminded them to bolt it between 9am-3pm. It's all logged on the OFSTED website - they're very quick to act on concerns around safeguarding children.

manicbmc · 20/05/2012 00:05

So they had been logging incidents?

Original poster

SingleNow · 20/05/2012 09:05

Manic, I only got a photocopy of the latest incident. Never had one before.

And yes I was fobbed off with another meeting.

OP posts:

manicbmc · 20/05/2012 12:36

The thing is, they will probably be logging stuff, but so long as you are informed (verbally), I don't see why you would need a written log of every bump and graze.

Original poster

SingleNow · 21/05/2012 08:16

Manic, I am not asking for a written log of every incident. I know kids have accidents and are not always seen that's not the problem I have.
As I said before my problem is I have never received an accident slip or signed one, until I got given the photocopy last week by the head teacher at the meeting.

I have to have this second meeting, just need to wait for them to tell me when it is.

OP posts:

SarahStratton · 21/05/2012 08:20

This reminds me a lot of the sharp hotel table thread. Is it the same OP?

MarthasHarbour · 21/05/2012 09:03

sarahstratton i thought EXACTLY the same thing!!

Maryz · 21/05/2012 09:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster

SingleNow · 21/05/2012 10:45

Sharp hotel table??

I can assure you I never posted about a table.

OP posts:

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 21/05/2012 10:57

I assume by going on about him being "innocent" she is trying to say he is not streetwise with no sense of danger.

But then surely they should have supervised him better, its a bit like passing the buck IMO.

treadwarily · 21/05/2012 11:02

It may be indicative of the level of supervision. Ratios and supervision don't always add up. The level of supervision is as much to do with ratios as with good management and in a good, safe nursery, teachers will be stationed around the nursery with all children in view. i.e. they will not be clustered chatting, tapping on cell phones, off getting cups of tea etc.

My dd was injured quite badly several times at the first nursery she attended. I took her out not because of this but because we moved house, but she was injured only once during her next 3 yrs at the new place. It was witnessed, possibly by chance, who knows, and dealt with beautifully. Quite quickly it became apparent that the supervision was much better organised than at the previous nursery.

Not in UK but here if a parent or anyone phones the Education Ministry with concerns about safety in a school, they'll be round in a shot to check it out. That would be my choice.

Sorry for the accidents your boy has had, they sound nasty.

teaaddict2012 · 21/05/2012 11:07

I can understand you mental 'aaaaaaggggh' reaction but children do have accidents and that does sound a nasty one btw I;m not trying to minimise.

I wouldn't take legal action, perhaps ask them to inform you sooner if he has another accident?.

Rockpool · 21/05/2012 11:07

Legal action not sure just yet but to be honest I think you have a point.

These are two quite serious incidents not just your average bumps and grazes.I personally think there are questions to be asked re supervision, risk assessments and accident procedures.

If after going through the ra,meetings etc you're still not happy re health and safety then take it to the next level.

Rockpool · 21/05/2012 11:09

I also think if these events were happening with a childminder posters would be baying for blood.At the end of the all settings should provide a safe environment and if you don't follow things up the next incident could be worse.

lou2321 · 21/05/2012 11:16

sparkles281 mentioned about the legal ration for a qualified nursery teacher (which I did mention in my original post as being different to a private nursery) - I still don't think this is always enough adults to properly supervise children of this age properly. If you have children that are unsettled or 'lively' then this wouldn't work, usually these settings are small with the same 26 children every morning/afternoon.

At our pre-school we have children from just 2 and they come to us for between 2 & 10 sessions a week so there is a different mix of children at every session, 1:13 would just not be suitable and of course 2 year olds need more staff anyway.

The number of staff working should obviously meet the minimum requirements but at a good nursery this would also be based on the mix of children in at that session - of course this also has a lot to do with funding but then if a charity pre-school can manage with only £3 ph for 2 year olds then I would imagine a school nursery could?

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