Should school incidents/accidents be recorded?

[sillyoldmare]

For example if a fight broke out and a child ended up bruised or a member of staff was hit by a pupil would these go into an accident book or report? How do most schools record this type of thing?

Best practise yes. However, some might not record unless first aid was needed so may not for bruises. The member of staff may not record their own injuries unless hospital treatment is needed, I rarely do. There may not be a centralized method for recording fights so may be held in individual children's files but then again, they might not be recorded as such, only the interactions about it with parents.

In short, there are no hard and fast rules. What is it that you need?

Thanks.Was just wondering in general really as a possible issue in the future - no real worries .

We have a "black book" in each class, where any behavioural incidents are recorded. This can be anything from disruptive in class, missing 5 minutes of play for chatting too much to bad language and fighting. Medical treatment is recorded elsewhere ( in a central medical book) but this tends to avoid names ( so " hit on leg by child" rather than hit on leg by Fred") whereas the black book has names and resulting actions!

I don't like it. So much pointless paperwork.

I've no idea how our primary records behavioural incidents.

The first aiders have a book where they note down every child they treat (I saw it when I took DD to them when she grazed her knee in the playground before I'd left), and most of the entries were along the lines of 'Child X tripped in playground (date, time), cleaned grazed right knee, TLC and plaster'. There is a system for additional 'I bumped my head today' notes home as well. Didn't see mention of fights

There are rules- here they are.

IIRC, records must be kept in a bound book (to avoid falsification) and kept at least until the next inspection, with reportable accident reports under RIDDOR being kept for three years.

Guidelines used to advise that reports were kept for upwards of 20 years, I am not sure if this is still the case.