Child burnt at a forest preschool

[Sugarbaby1]

Hey! Can anyone help? My 3 year old son attended a forest school preschool last week ( for the first time as it was a holiday club) and ended up burning his hand roasting marshmallows in their care. I ended up having to take him to A&E (for the first time since having him) to have the burn treated. How would you go about this as a parent? Because they have said they take risks at a forest school but I am just shocked as to how this could have happened? Advice please! X

I'd be asking to see their risk assessment and accident explanation - risks in childhood should be managed by providers to avoid major injury like this - especially with fire rather than things they may find without adult intervention (eg - falling off a log and breaking an ankle is one thing, and being burnt like that because an adult has put you in that situation without managing risk is another)

(ps - I hope your son is ok!)

I am usually pretty chilled about things like that but Marshmallows are a bit risky, they can get superhot and if a child was to put one in their mouth it would be awful.
I would have a word with staff

3yo toasting marshmallows? Wtf. Did you know this was happening?

Not having a go btw just seems crazy of the school

Agree with this. My DS goes to a forest preschool and they regular cook things on a fire but haven’t, to my knowledge, ever had a burn accident.

What was their explanation around how this happened? In my experience, kids roasting marshmallows on a fire at forest school are given extendable skewers and it is a 1:1 activity with a parent standing behind the child helping them. Children are taught not to enter the fire circle and skewers are placed immediately into a bucket of water. We have never had an accident at forest school. I would also be shocked if this happened to my child. Children are allowed to take risks under guidance at forest schools to enable them to understand risk. It doesn’t mean that they are allowed to burn themselves.

Forest schools will often cook food over a fire. Mine does, and use equipment like whitling knives. It’s about teaching them how to use things safely and have confidence in developing their abilities. Looks like the school/nursery got it wrong here though so it needs to be investigated why.

They must all be different as mine attended and didn’t involve fire

Your poor dc, that must have been so painful. I’d ask to see their accident report and risk assessment.

How did it happen? Ive done this with kids that age at forest school, but very strictly controlled so that it would be very difficult to have an accident. I can understand a child maybe grabbing a hot marshmallow before its cooled down. but that looks more serious than that.

This was my thinking. I do a lot of outdoor stuff with kids in my line of work but I wouldn't be working with hot marshmallows for that age group, firstly because of the risk of burning, but also because the risk of choking is actually really high at that age for marshmallows and also popcorn and very difficult to resolve with emergency first aid.

I'd ask for the risk assessment and details on how this was fulfilled and I'd put in a complaint and request it be investigated so you can get the full picture of what happened.

Obviously there is inherent risk with certain outdoor activities but those risks should be well managed and that often comes down to much higher staff ratios depending on child's age and the nature of the activity.

It isn’t yourself who should be looking at risk assessments etc. you are a parent who presumably will not be using their services again.
The local authority need to fully investigate this terrible incident and the risks that they are taking.

A burn in an early years childcare setting is incredibly serious. So sorry this happened. The appropriate people need to address this incident with the provider, In order to ensure best practice going forward for all the other little ones. You should be informed of the outcome, of course, but it goes beyond you.

That's awful. I would report to Ofsted. Not enough supervision if that could happen. My daughter cut her hand on a potato peeler at a forest school which I also thought was really negligent of them. Hope you child is ok x

Were you also attending? My experience of this age group at forest school is that parents attend too and are expected to supervise. If no parents, I wouldn't have expected there to be toasted marshmallows as I would think it would be too risky, even for forest school.

I would not send my child back there. That burn is shocking.

Or report to Health and Safety executive. Thank god we avoided whittling knives! What child needs to whittle?

I mean, marshmallows are a choking hazard for children under 5 so they shouldn't have had them regardless.. shocking..

They should self report to OFSTED.
I would report them also.

https://www.nhs.uk/start-for-life/baby/weaning/safe-weaning/food-and-drinks-to-avoid/

For you to show preschool

That is a very serious injury that needs to be reported. Did the hospital ask about how it happened? They are able to report and trigger an investigation. I don't work with DC so not sure about reporting protocols in childcare places.

I run a forest school for reception class. We do whittling and camp fire.
Both activities are very safe if properly run and supervised. I’ve never had a child injured in either activity.
Did they explain how this had happened?

I’d want to know how it happened. Our nursery has a campfire and the children do cook food on it etc but it’s all done very safely and there have never been any incidents.

our local forest school makes you sign a declaration to say they’re not responsible for your child’s death if your child fails to follow instructions!

I thought marshmallows were a choking hazard for small children, it doesn't sound risk assessed AT ALL. I get the tolerating minor risks but this was CREATING risks 🤦‍♀️ Hope his poorly hand is better fast ✨️