To have emailed school

[wheresthel1ght]

Dd (4) is asthmatic, her attacks present as coughing fits. I have told one of her teachers (change part way through the week) and is on the form I had to fill in so they could have her inhaler in school.

This week she is particularly bad as a result of the weather. She had a massive attack at school and ended up being sick. Her class teacher informed the office and asked that I was contacted to collect her or bring in a change of clothes as they only had a summer dress and it has been - 2 at its warmest most of the week. The office never contacted me so dd had to endure the whole day including outdoor play in aa bloody summer dress. The teacher also didn't give her her inhaler although she did say dd had asked for it but they assumed it was just a cough so didn't give it to her.

I am quite cross, I have issues with the office staff which may be tainting my opinion somewhat. But I emailed Friday to say I was not happy and that it was unacceptable in my opinion that I was not contacted and dd was not given her inhaler. I told them I want an explanation tomorrow as to why their own processes were not followed.

A friend who's kids go to the school mentioned something this morning about being annoyed at the office staff and i mentioned I have emailed as was cross and she thinks I have been massively out of order. My email wasn't rude, was stern in its tone but polite.

So wibu?

Call was from the office manager, apparently it was her who should have called me and didn't. She said there was no explanation for why not she just forgot. She has apologised and has updated the info in the class room to state any persistent coughing means dd needs her inhaler. They gave confirmed it is in a cupboard which I will challenge once I have done some reading up and spoken to our gp for back up over timings and where they feel it should be as this will hopefully give me more sway to get things altered.

She admitted she was out of line for not ringing me and I pointed out how dangerous a thin summer dress was in such cold weather especially for a newly diagnosed asthmatic as cold is a huge trigger for her. She murmured along with me. So I asked what the school would have done had I sent her to school in such inappropriate clothing for the weather and she admitted they would have called me in to provide warmer clothing. So I think I proved my point.

I told her I appreciate her honesty and the apology but I was still very unhappy about it and found their treatment of dd unacceptable. I have said I will send in the asthma action plan and that I expect it to be followed and if dd asks for her inhaler I fully expect them to give it to her. Although I will be ordering extras to put in her pe bag and book bag as per your suggestions.

I will also review their policy this evening.

Thank so much for reassuring me ladies. I have been a step mum for years but this whole own child thing is still very new!

I'd complain formally to the headteacher.

I agree. Formal written complaint to the HT is essential to make sure that procedures actually change in the future for your DD and other children. You need to be clear about exactly what errors were made and about the serious potential consequences.
Ask to see their complaints procedure before you do this to make sure that you follow their processes correctly.

Thanks ladies. I will certainly check their policies and follow them when I complain. They break up tomorrow so. I will have some time to read up and compose my complaint appropriately.

Her other class teacher came to find me after school to let me know they had given it to her at lunch etc. She was very apologetic and understanding why I was angry. She was gobsmacked the office hadn't rung me too. I did say to her, I get in the melee it's possible the other teacher didn't hear her ask for her inhaler or it had slipped her mind after getting dd cleaned up but that the oversight on calling me was unacceptable as the first thing I would have done would have been to tell them to give it to her and I would assess when I got there.

I have been through briefly with her again and have said I will write a detailed plan for them and do copies for both teachers, ta, office and one to go in her inhaler bag

Might be worth writing an email to confirm the conversations you've had with them today, including accepting the apology, pointing out that they themselves said they would have called you if you had sent her into school in a thin dress and everything else that shows they failed in their duty to your dd, plus outline what you will be sending/discussing/going into detail about later on, in order to create a timely account of what has happened and to create a paper trail, should you need to refer back to it in the future, particularly anythign they have said they will do but they don't follow up on.

Still means that you get to write them the formal bollocking complaint as a separate letter, this would just be effectively minutes of the conversations you had with the person in the office and the teacher, and is for your benefit rather than theirs.