I am right to be absolutely fuming about this?

[Nurse1980]

Collected my daughter from school last week, her TA (she has SEN) said she had been quiet in the afternoon and not herself.
Got her home and she was complaining of severe of pain in one arm and she had a bruise on her back. She told me she fell over in the playground and she told a teacher. No one had mentioned this at pick up and no accident form in her bag. I rang the school at 4pm, no answer.
Pain getting worse, took her to the GP and he sent us to hospital. X-ray done and it was fractured.
Rang school the next morning. Spoke to the head. She said she would speak to staff and ring me back. Got a phone call an hour or so later to tell me that a student teacher had witnessed the fall and said my daughter had fallen on her back and that would explain the bruise and that she also fallen on her front. Apologised for not informing me at pick up and no accident form. I told her that my daughter said she did not fall on her back and I wanted it clearing up. She said they would investigate further.
Had another phone call later that afternoon to say there had been some confusion and that the fall was unwitnessed, my daughter had told a member of staff she had hurt her arm and this member of staff did nothing. But no one has seen it. They were full of apologises. They have set up a meeting between myself and the first aid TA next week to discuss how she will be supported in school.
But that’s it, case closed!
I just don’t understand how they can tell me it was witnessed and that a member of staff saw how she fell, then a couple of hours later tell me there was no witness.
Plus no accident form. They told my daughter was perfectly happy all afternoon. Yet the day of the fall her TA told me she hadn’t been herself all afternoon
Plus she is supported to have 121 at breaktime, this obviously didn’t happen as it was unwitnessed. She had a bad accident at school last year too which again was unwitnessed despite having 121 via an ECHP.
It’s going round in circles in my head and I don’t know what to do

Of course you’re fuming - they’ve failed in their duty of care, and especially re her 121.
Children can fracture easily, but it’s a bit of a bloody coincidence that this happened and they have conflicting versions of events.
I’d be making several other appts about this if I were you, they need to figure out what happened and why the 121 wasn’t present.
Hope she heals quickly, poor thing.

The head has told me she can’t be at the meeting tomorrow. It’s just the first aider TA.

I wouldn’t be attending the meeting unless the head is there as they clearly aren’t seeing this as the serious issue it is (having my own issues with lack of 1:1 during a meltdown that resulted in my reception DS being excluded for the remainder of the day!). I have an appointment next week with sendiass for some advice they are very helpful and worth looking at, if nothing else they can tell you what is what legally that the school need to comply with and I think they also offer support at meetings but that may depend on your local offering. I’d also be asking for the chair of governors details if a meeting with the head isn’t forthcoming.

‘Ok, can the school governor whose area is either pupil welfare or SEN be present instead please?’

If you’re unhappy with the response from the first aider, follow up with a letter to the Head and copy in the chair of governors. All letters to the governors have to be kept on file and are viewed by OFSTED.

The meeting is just to discuss how they will support my daughter in school with the fracture.
I think I need to request a further meeting with the head. I was told they have obtained witness statements, have I got a right to read these?

i think (not 100% sure though) that if you requested it (and named a specific act - maybe the data protection act) they would have to give you everything they hold to do with your daughter

As I understand it you have a right to read anything that is kept on record about your child. I would be as concerned as you are about this and if this is the second time your daughter has had an accident in school when she is supposed to be cared for 1 to 1 I would be considering whether this was the right school for her.

It's most bizarre that they have changed their story as well tbh. I can only think they didn't want you to know she was unsupervised. How old is your daughter? Is she old enough to tell you truthfully how often she is left alone?

She is five but has social communication disorder and learning disability, so sometimes getting something out of her can be tricky. I have tried to ask her but she gets confused about the times etc.
I am wondering why the story changed. I asked if the student teacher could ring me and tell me what she saw, as my daughters story didn’t match hers. Then a few hours later I got told that the student teacher didn’t witness it and it was a misunderstanding.

I’d ask for the meeting to be re-arranged so the head can attend; she needs to tell you why your daughter was not getting the support she should have in the playground.

Your poor dd, hope she’s ok.

It doesn’t surprise me at all that a 1:1 was not with her at break time. I have been in a similar position with my dd a few years ago but she didn’t fall. My daughter went missing during a PE lesson, she was meant to have 1:1, because there was no TA the teacher could not leave the other students to look for my daughter so a child was sent to look for her. The school told me nothing, I heard the story from another child and then I approached the teacher who tried telling me her 1:1 had pooped to the toilet when dd went missing, then later i was told the TA was actually inside working with another child . A few weeks later my dd climbed the fence and got out of the school grounds during lunch time, again she was meant to have a TA, again the school tried to cover it up.

Make sure you demand a meeting with the head. Yes kids do fall and fracture easily (I broke my ankle at school at sat through the rest of the school day with no one knowing) but the fact is, she’s meant to have 1:1 at break/lunch times so where was her TA?

I don’t know where her TA was. She had a bad fall last November and was black and blue and damaged her teeth. Again it was unwitnessed.

Under gdpr they need to give it to you.

They are failing her massively and it must be hard on you, as you should be able to feel confident that she will be safe in school.

Obviously TAs will sometimes need to go to the loo urgently or a similar sort of scenario, but she shouldn't be leaving your dd without adult supervision since she is required to have a 1:1 at all times. I would suspect that since this has happened previously (though with slightly less serious consequences), it isn't unusual for your DD to be left alone. I'm wondering if they are relying on your daughter's communication difficulties to cover up the fact that they are deploying staff elsewhere when they should be with your dd.

If this was my child, heads would be rolling all over the place. As PPs have advised, I would insist on a meeting with HT, 1:1 TA and CT present. They have a duty of care for her welfare and are putting her at risk by not supervising her. Do you have somebody you could bring with you for support (should you feel you could do with it)?

My daughter has told me that sometimes her TA is sat in class during PE or sat in a different classroom during lunchtime. The hard thing is I have no proof apart from these accidents. It did happen last November when she had another steroid unwitnessed fall.
I have spoken to the local parent partnership and because supervision during breaks is not in section F of her EHCP, it isn’t legally enforceable.

This is horrible, it must be dreadful to feel like you can't trust the place you are leaving your daughter for 6/7 hours a day to keep her safe. i think you should demand a meeting with the headteacher tomorrow morning. Don;t leave your dd there until you have had the eeting, threaten givernors and local press if they won't give you the meeting. Whether or not provision at breaktime is legally enforceable they should be able to deduce that it's necessary for her safety shouldn't they?

so sorry to hear this, I have to say using 1-1 TA with other children and in other classrooms happened to us too
re the section F stuff if the EHCP is not meeting needs you can request an emergency review, (which will get the LA involved, and may be a way to flag up with them what school is not doing,

It seems that the school has failed in its duty of care to safeguard your daughter. I would be suspicious straight away of the Head's original claim that a student witnessed the claimed accident.

No student should be left as the only person able to witness an accident in a school yard. Student's should be supervised. If the Student was the only witness that would surely be a failure of the school's duty of safeguarding.

If no responsible adult witnessed what happened there are serious issues to be addressed.

Why was it first claimed a student had witnessed the issue then this was withdrawn? Seems like a cover up was attempted using vaguely a student who will obviously be moving on rather than a named member of staff. An attempt to put it down to a student's inexperience when the very fact that a student is inexperienced means they should never be the only adult able to witness a playground incident.

I don't know if that's true about a student not being able to supervise alone, but I am secondary so perhaps it is different
They likeliest explanation to ms of the change in story is that the student got your DD mixed up with someone else, who she did see fall. But even if that's all it is, you still need answers about where was her 1-2-1?

Take a piece of paper with bullet points of the issues you want to raise when you go into the meeting.
Download an audio app onto your phone, make sure it's on full charge and record the meeting so that you don't forget anything.
Make a separate appointment to see the Head
I have spoken to the local parent partnership
Can someone from this body come to the meeting with the Head. As the Head can't be there you can arrange a mutually convenient time.

re the section F stuff if the EHCP is not meeting needs you can request an emergency review, (which will get the LA involved, and may be a way to flag up with them what school is not doing
That must be the way forward.

can't be there tomorrow

You can';t record formal meetings in schools: they will have someone there taking minutes but recordings are not allowed (I am a minute-taker for schools).

I’d be wanting to talk to the senco if I were you. As a senco myself it is my job to ensure ehcps and followed and enforced and I am in charge of TA deployment. I agree you need to Head involved but I would expect a phone call if this happened to one of my pupils

Is it a formal meeting??