Apparently my dd's school still believe in the miasma theory of disease

[NorthernLurker]

That's the only explanation I can think of for why when my 8 yr old fell over on the playground today and had two bleeding knees they
a) Said they weren't allowed to send kids in for first aid
b) Then said oh she could go in and wash it herself
c) Gave her two huge plasters to stick over the bleeding grazes herself without making any attempt to check the wounds were clean

Needless to say there's no accident slip. But that's fine isn't it. After all school playgrounds are lovely and clean and there's no chance at all of dirt being ground in to this sort of wound. Hey, the plasters will have had special powers won't they?

I am livid. Is it too much to ask that a child with two bleeding knees gets the wound wiped by an adult with half an eye on what they're doing?

I've just updated by first aid qualification for working in school and actually, it didn't cover cleaning minor cuts and grazes at all.

I often give the wipe to the children, because they sting and the children prefer to do it themselves.

I also remember being given the wet paper towel for what turned out to be a broken arm when my parent took me to hospital that night!

It sounds like they were understaffed for some reason. Staff absence? An emergency or very ill child?

If it's normally a good school I would think one of the above. Don't be livid though. It's not ideal but sounds like a one off.

Hope your DD is okay.

YANBU. If that's actually a policy it's ridiculous. The way ordinary human touch has become pathologised makes me sad.

Very surprised to hear this, and don't think it is true.

They should have a supply of sterile gloves for dealing with bleeding wounds (grazed knees).

I went and spoke to the head today. She was horrified (which was immediately reassuring obviously) and is picking it up with the dinner ladies. It seems that every one of them should have a pouch with wipes and plasters in. This is a new thing. The idea is that if the child is walking wounded and could be sorted in the playground then they should do that. If not they should take the child in - which is what should have happened with dd. If something beyond a wipe and a bit of TLC is needed then they call in the first aid trained staff and the child should have a slip to take to the staffroom. This is because they tended to find kids arriving at the staffroom with no clear idea of what was needed and for things that should have been sorted on the spot by the midday staff.

The head said that dd should not ever have been sent to clean herself up. She agreed with me that it was not ok and she herself would never treat a child like that. Her feeling was that somebody had used the new system as an excuse because they couldn't be bothered to mop dd up and that clearly made her quite cross, especially as yesterday she had personally briefed the whole team before lunch checking they had their pouches and were clear on what to do!

So I am much reassured. I have explained to dd that either things should be sorted on the spot by the staff or somebody should take her in to school to get sorted out.

I'm a TA and that is not usual. I am first aid trained. if the skin is broken I always use a sterile wipe to clean the area, apply a clean tissue to stop bleeding and apply a plaster. Probably not an accident slip for a cut knee as it's pretty obvious what happened.

Glad you got to the bottom of it and reassuring to hear the HT isn't in charge of a bonkers system!