my 5 yr old son denigrated by teacher after receiving head injury

[givemepakora]

my 5 year old son received a bad head injury in school. When I got a call to collect him, the teacher who claimed to be witness to me in the school reception area that my son is "...not exactly the sharpest tool in the box...". this was while I was cleaning the blood stains from my crying child and tending to the cold compress to allow the bleeding to stop. To this day, i have not received a written report of the accident from the school, nor have i resolved the pain and anger inside me regaerding the comment made in the presence of a member of the office staff. What, if anything, can be done?

Re the wasps-Sardonic comment from LeBof at 14:46.

OP. I am sorry that you feel so strongly about this unresolved issue, but you really don't have a case. Bringing the issue up here isn't going to make it more serious than it was!

To be fair, I think the Op does have a valid complaint in that the school appears not to have identified or punished the perpetrator, which, in my day [dinosaur strolls past] would have been an "everyone stays in at break until someone either grasses or 'fesses" level of incident. Works every time. (is that false imprisonment now?)

But I'm confused as to whether, given that a teacher witnessed it, it was dealt with but the school did just not tell the OP who the perp was in writing or the teacher who witnessed it thought it was an accident.

I doubt they would name the perpetrator to the victim's family and particularly should there be other issues (safeguarding, SN etc) involved.It may indeed have been a pure accident or a case of him stumbling against another child and being repelled. Point is, the OP doesn't know as she didn't see it herself and the general lack of openness has obviously festered.

Unless you think your child has been assualted by a member of staff in which case why is he back in the school or you think the school was negligent then there's very little you can actually DO.

We all kind of accept when we hand our children over to the school system that they will parent our children as they see fit between the hours of 9 and 3pm.
I personally do not think they make a great job of it in most schools, with a few exceptions there are some wonderful teachers out there.
But they either go to school and accept the good with the bad or they don't.

I'm also surprised your son can't name the person who hurt him..
My DD was 4 when she was pushed down the stairs, my DD hobbled out of school surrounded by about 10 other girls who were all more than happy to let me know the details of the incident.

The "no x-ray" is good practice if your child didn't lose consciousness. My dad (paediatric radiologist) was horrified that ds was x-rayed following a fall in which he cut his forehead badly but had not lost consciousness (he was not with me at the time - it happened on an After School Club Outing during the holidays - as I would have refused permission for the x-rays) . In fact he would even have liked me to complain, in order to ensure that the doctors followed correct protocol in that A&E in future.

are you positive the comment 'not the sharpest tool in the box' was aimed at your ds and not someone else close by?

just had the 'meeting' with the 'head'...

refused me access to the school's injuies log book. "...not required to do so..."
claimed the "allegation" i was making about the (remark) she could ..."not believe..."
...so i walked out....

It's like readin alternate pages of two books, I m so lost

Sorry your son was hurt, hope he's ok now, move schools or get over it

I'm completely confused. And you completely lost my sympathy when you said that this incident happened 12 (12!!!!) months ago.

OP - either you are happy for your son to attend this school, or you are not. He has been there for a year since the incident, so I presume you are happy. In which case, you need to draw a line under it and move on. If not, change schools and move on that way.

So what are you going to do now?

Sadly walking out will have lost you any hope of working with the school for the benefit of your child :(

If you are still not happy, then you should make a formal complaint (ie in writing ) to the school/LEA ( not sure what the correct process is in England), including the fact that you wanted details about the incident.

If you are not prepared to do so, then you need either (or both) to "let it go" or send your child to a different school.

Complaining on Mumsnet is going to achieve nothing for your ds who, after all, is the important one here.

Walking out of the meeting because she found your story hard to believe is immature.

We are all finding your story hard to follow, and a story that is told the way you've told yours is hard to believe, because it seems as if you make things up as they occur to you, in order to persuade the listener to your point of view.

The HT had agreed to meet you after all this time. This was your opportunity to get your story heard.

In future, the correct response when someone 'finds something hard to believe' is something like, "believe it or not, it's what I heard".

You really need to let this go now. You know that, don't you?

givemepakora - can you clarify please:

When did the injury to your child occur?

What do you know of the incident - what happened, where in school, by who, what did his head hit?

What was the actual injury to your child?

Who called the ambulance/A&E?

Who took your son to hospital?

What did they say at A&E in terms of the injury, healing, how long to have off school?

Who took your son to the GP, when and why?

How long was your son off school? Who recommended him time off?

Is the incident recorded in the school accident book? What does it say there? You are entitled to know?

Is a solicitor involved? When did you call them and why? What do you hope to achieve - what is your reason for calling a solicitor?

I am very confused!

Did you actually approach the school at the time of the incident, (or shortly after), or not? If you are resurrecting the whole thing for the first time a year later, I can understand her reluctance to take you seriously, tbh.

I think the things the doctor in A&E said to you can be entirely discounted as I bet he just wanted you out of his hair.

Unless of course in RL you are better at understanding that communication is a two way thing.

I am appalled....We have just moved to London and I am scared reading this. My son is about thr same age and I wish we could say the name of thr school involved here...honestly...!

Hope your son is better now. You must ask him what happened, and then go back....just don't leave the school premises before you get to meet the teacher/headmaster.

Old thread, poo. Please don't resurrect it.

The incident was a year ago. But the op still hasn't got round to dealing with it. She's met the ht a number of times, but despite advice, hasn't managed to last a meeting without stomping out. The child wasn't badly hurt. He just 'could have been' if the incident had been different. Hardly a conspiracy theory.

Your child will be safe and fine.

Heh. You said poo.