Child injury at school

[jodie08]

My DS in Y4 came out of school yesterday hobbling. He said during indoor PE he heard his toe crack and so did his teacher. He was asked to miss afternoon play and rest it but no medical intervention took place. Nothing was mentioned by his teacher after school, no phone call, and no accident report.

We had to walk home 25 minutes, but if I’d have known DS was in so much pain I would have taken the car.
Last night and this morning he can barely walk so off to have it checked as I suspect a possible fracture.
Does anyone know what the procedure is for this type of injury at school because I would have thought it’s serious enough to mention to a parent.
AIBU to be annoyed at the school didn’t let me know?

Disagree. I know three separate doctors who missed their own children's broken limbs until the next day.

As a teacher I always err on the side of caution but it helps we have an amazing minor injuries in the same village that we can easily direct parents too. It's very hard to know how serious things are (or aren't as the case more often is). I'm first aid trained and honestly the training has almost nothing about treating common playground injuries - it's mostly CPR and first responses to major traumas. Paediatric first aid is only required for Early Years (reception). We also don't have first aiders just floating around school waiting to deal with accidents - if I am alone with my class and can't pinch a TA from somewhere then I'm dealing with first aid as my class waits. That is the reality of many small schools.

Self-evidently they didn’t suspect a broken bone and he had no obvious accident if he just heard a click or crack while doing a normal PE lesson, so the teacher had no reason to suspect any kind of serious injury. As for pain - it may have been painful by the end of the day when he had to walk 25 minutes home, but that doesn’t mean it was colossally painful if/when he was initially examined - it could have looked completely normal straight after clicking it, and become swollen by the end of the day. If he didn’t tell anyone it was hurting more later on, they wouldn’t know, they would assume it was a bit of a non-event.

I think the teacher certainly should have mentioned he had clicked his toe in PE, whoever did the first aid should have recorded it somewhere, and if they saw him limping consistently, should have phoned you to ask how he was getting home that day, but to imagine the teacher ignored him hobbling around in agony all afternoon is, imvho, unhelpful, bordering on ridiculous. Sometimes children are hurt more than someone initially expected. Infinitely more often, they have an extremely trivial injury, of which there are scores every day in even fairly small primary schools.

Given you, as his parent, didnt consider r it serious enough to seek medical attention until this morning, i think you have a bit of a nervevto criticise the school!

Well, indeed. Probably guilt for making him hobble for 25 minutes after he limped out to her, told her he’d cracked his toe and cried at school. No mention of trying to get a taxi, or a lift from someone, or going straight to minor injuries. 🤣

YANBU

My son broke a bone at school, was told to stop complaining and was given a wet paper towel. Was told to sit still through it all afternoon

Happened years ago and it still makes me angry

The only time I’ve been called to pick my son up from school is when he fell over backwards in the basketball court, hit his head and said he felt dizzy and sick, they also suspected a broken elbow. Took him to hospital, he was fine. I do get texts for head injuries but nothing else at all! Don’t think I’d be bothered about a toe injury and I wouldn’t even bother with a&e. Nothing can be done for a broken toe 🤷🏼‍♀️

Just wanting to add a bit of humour (I'm not serious so no hate here please)
Did you use the blue paper towel? Seemed to work in the 90s 😂

The 25 minute walk home will likely have made it worse... If he was obviously in pain, why didn't you try to get a lift home / call a taxi / ask if you could leave him there whilst you went home to get the car? And then taken him straight to A&E. You could also have asked the teacher there and then what happened. By Monday they will likely have forgotten precisely why they didn't tell you or exactly what happened around the incident.

I am a TA and lunchtime supervisor. There are times when a child falls over and seems ok (no bruises/ cuts and they aren't too upset) so I send them away with a reminder to tell the teacher later if it still hurts, and I wouldn't provide first aid or record the incident. I don't think I've ever missed anything serious which later required hospital treatment but I can see how it happens in a busy environment.

Your DS stayed inside at break time so presumably sat in a classroom for the whole afternoon and could have easily escaped the teacher's attention re the pain getting worse if he didn't tell them he was hurting, or didn't have to put weight on that foot. The teacher may well have intended to say something to you at pick-up, but also had other parents to talk to or other distractions and it slipped their mind / you left before they had a chance to ask you to wait.

In an ideal world they would have called you to pick him up soon after the incident but it's worth staying calm and finding out what happened before getting angry, especially if you as his parent didn't immediately see how serious it was and seek medical attention. You may find they missed a part of the process detailed in their policy, or they may need to change something about their policy if they did as they should but missed something serious. Going in on Monday and demanding immediate access to paperwork and answers will not get you far. By all means calmly email or call and ask if you can see someone at pick up time / someone can call you to discuss the incident once they have had a chance to look into it.

They heard a crack…did an accident happen for it to make a crack? If an accident has happened the teacher would fill in an accident form. If his toe just made a crack, (some do)then you wouldn't fill in a form. As a teacher i would have done my best to catch you at hometime to let you know to keep an eye on it but i don’t have the option to ring parents, i’d have to leave the children which isn't an option

So was it broken when you went to get it checked OP?

God who’d be a teacher these days 🙄. Couldn’t get too worked up about a toe. We’ve had a broken finger and a wrist both at school. Wasn’t called either time didn’t occur to me to get all het up about it. Accidents happen.

Also not much you can do about a broken toe really. The finger was put in a splint. Unlikely a toe would need an urgent operation.

The finger very obviously needed medical attention. It wasn’t a standard break.

YANBU. School should have told you verbally at pick up and there should have been a written accident slip in his bag.

@Kiwi09yes but strapping it up is appropriate first aid.

They will soon learn when he attends with a plaster cast on Monday! Never ignore a child who could have a potentially broken bone - embarrassing and I would ask a few questions.

My son broke his wrist and ankle in primary school (on different occasions). Both times I was called straight away to collect him.

When my DD was 8, she jumped off the picnic table in the playground and ‘hurt’ her wrist. Grandad on usual 330 pick up, Teacher just said she’s hurt her wrist and she’s moaning about it all afternoon… Once home, I took one look at her and said we’re heading to hospital. She had broke it. Next day I take her breakfast club, in cast! (She wanted to be in sch)Asked for head to call me, teacher said “well 1st aider said she was ok!”. Head called me at work couldn’t apologise enough. I did read them the riot act, but teachers are over worked, mistakes do happen! DD now 15, still doesn’t forgive said teacher for not believing the pain she was actually in! X

Did they offer him a wet paper towel?

Yes, strapping it might be appropriate first aid for some broken fingers, but it wasn’t in this situation. If you could have seen the injury you’d understand why.

Providing basic first aid also isn’t where the school’s responsibility ends. They then need to pick up the phone and ring a parent to come and collect the child so that they can be seen by a doctor, not send them back to class. The injury happened at the beginning of the day and the first we knew about it was when I collected the child from school at 6pm. By then it was much more swollen and sore and difficult to sort.

The OPs post asked if she was unreasonable to be annoyed that the school didn’t contact her and I mentioned how rubbish my child’s school was having done the same thing.

So what did they say at a&e when you took said child?

I'm school support staff and all our staff are first aid trained. Did the teacher definitely hear it crack or just him? I agree with a pp who mentioned the amount of children who are constantly saying they need an ice pack, walking about with a put on limp etc.
If I'd heard a crack I be taking the sock off to check but if I didn't I'd probably just be telling him to rest it a bit and keeping an eye out. BUT I would be keeping an eye out. If he was upset or looked distressed, if he was consistently limping etc I'd have referred it to the office. They'd have had a look and decided whether to call. We do log all our first aid incidents but we don't routinely call every parent for every injury. I'd say before you go guns blazing I would find out from him exactly what did happen and how he was behaving at school. But it is hard to tell. I fractured my wrist on yr 6 residential in the 80's and they didn't take me to hospital until 24 hours later when I was still in pain.

I would have expected an injury form if they’d had to intervene, which telling him to rest is a form of intervention. I wouldn’t have expected a phone call or anything and I wouldn’t expect an injury form if my child has just carried on as normal without requiring any support.

What did the hospital say?

…you didn’t think it needed medical attention till 15+ hours later, wtf are the school meant to do.