Holiday club issues - AIBU?

[TheWayTheLightFalls]

Four year old DD was brushing her teeth with me last night when out of nowhere she said, “Did you know that once you eat food, it can come back out again?” Lots of back and forth followed and it transpires that when she was at holiday club last week another kid told her that she could stick her fingers down her throat and make herself vomit. (Another kid the same age, she claims, which I guess is better than an older kid who may mean it in a very different way?)

I can’t figure out whether this is just a “kids being gross” thing but also a supervision issue. It’s playing on my mind.

Other things:
The holiday club (at the school attached to her nursery) didn’t actually confirm arrangements until midway through the first day. Cue panic on the class WA groups and just this weird feeling where no one knew what was happening, where and when. Bit of a nightmare for work though we turned up and it was on and fine.

Repeatedly some of the older kids were allowed to make cupcakes but DD was told x2/3 that they didn’t have any way for her to stand to the counter at the right height - bit shit?

She fell at some point and had a bloody knee, which they told me about at pick-up. At bathtime it transpired that she’d actually hit her head pretty badly too. Seems like no one noticed (was watching?), certainly wasn’t mentioned to me.

One pickup I got (say) Manny instead of Mary when I asked for her by name. Manny knows us and frankly would’ve followed us out, too.

The activities on offer were a bit shit but she liked them, and that may just be holiday club, what do I know.

Anyway - AIBU to say that some of the above is actually into safeguarding territory? Would you say something to the school, who are running this for the first time?

I don’t think you can expect a holiday club to police every conversation the kids have really. I would be concerned about the other child knowing about making them self sick, and would speak to the leader as they may want to mention to the other child’s parents.

Again, they can’t watch every single child every single second. It is possible for children to fall without anyone seeing what happened. Did your daughter tell them she’d hit her head? If they knew, you should have been told for sure. If she didn’t tell them it’s hard for them to know unless there’s a visible bump.

Not great that they tried to give you the wrong child!!

If the activities are shit, use a different club next time. If your daughter enjoyed them though that’s really the most important thing.

I don't think "stick your fingers down your throat" is a supervision issue (you can't be close enough to kids to hear what they're saying all the time somewhere like this), but still something you should pass on to the school.

I'm not sure what you mean by not confirming arrangements, but if it's things like when and where to pick them up/drop them off, then yes, you should have been fully informed about that kind of thing beforehand.

The cupcakes thing is a bit rubbish - if they didn't have a stool or something for her to stand on, they could have at least brought parts of it down to a table at her level.

The bump on the head might not have been noticed (again, you can't watch every child at every second of the day) and they probably relied on your DD to tell them what they've hurt (I'm a TA and when I do first aid I always start by asking them what they've hurt, even if a particular injury is immediately obvious). If you didn't spot the head injury until bathtime then it probably wasn't somewhere easy to see, so they might have missed it. It might be that they didn't check thoroughly enough, but if your DD is fairly articulate and didn't mention anything about her head, I probably wouldn't've checked for a head bump either.

Pickup - I would mention it to them so they can tighten up their pick up procedures. It can be hard if you don't know the children/parents, so it's something they ought to be more careful with.

All in all, I don't think there's anything which is a major glaring cause for concern here, but it would probably be worth mentioning some of these things to them, without going in all guns blazing. If this is their first time running a holiday club, they might welcome the feedback (I do a holiday club at my church and I know we'd appreciate this sort of feedback).

Thanks all - so less significant than I’d read it, basically.

To whoever asked about the communication - we had confirmation of a place the month before and “we’ll email more info soon”, and then the next time we heard from them was about midday on the day the club had started. Some people didn’t turn up because they assumed it wasn’t on.