Headteacher used a biscuit in Maths and tried to feed our Coeliac daughter and when told not to, laughed about it

[RLBo]

Our daughter has Coeliac Disease - (the school is well aware of this as she is hyper sensitive). She had a 1:1 Maths lesson with the Headteacher who used a non gluten free biscuit to demonstrate fractions, the head teacher broke the biscuit apart and put it in our daughters face and said 'go on eat it, it's yours' pushing the biscuit towards her. Our daughter said 'no I can't eat it, it will make me ill' to which the headteacher laughed and said 'oh I will eat it then, yum yum yum' putting crumbs all over our daughter and the desk.

I was shocked at this behaviour and made a complaint. To which the reply was; the headteacher said she had forgotten that our daughter was Coeliac and that she wasn't wrong in doing this?

How would you respond? because in my eyes, it's once again a school brushing something that is serious under the carpet and dismissing it.

Interested to know your thoughts

I think the problem is, those who don't experience coeliac or have relatives/friends with coeliac, don't know how ill people with it get when they are exposed to even a few crumbs.

Teacher has been blazee...
Needs educating and hopefully it does not happen again.

People who have coeliac children see 1st hand how ill they get and its a sad situation always avoidable. I totally get ops point of view. The few crumbs are enough to make ops child violently sick and in severe pain for a few days.

It needs more awareness for sure.

Well she’s not happy with the school saying the teacher forgot and she thinks they’re dismissing it. It would suggest she wants some sort of disciplinary response.

The teacher has a legal duty of care, they don't have to remember because they can and should check.

Exactly.

There should be a clear risk assessment for using food in the classroom and it should be clear they need to check the children's allergies every time

Any school that isn't doing this is being profoundly negligent.

Op just read some of the comments - it really highlights the misunderstanding about coeliacs. Lots of people commenting probably haven't a clue what they're commenting on and showing their ignorance!

Coeliacs uk have a school pack- you can print off and give to the teacher and school or email it. Ensure you have a Health Care Plan. I have it written on that no food to be used without checking this us first ( learnt after a few experiences!).

Offering a child a biscuit is not a crime. It was an oversight. As for "putting crumbs all over our daughter" well it honestly baffles me as to how she managed this. Even a crumbly Hobnob doesn't projectile that many crumbs as to result in them being "all over" anyone, even the person eating one.

Agree. On MN it's quite the thing to tell the OP she's overreacting, no matter the details.

I think the op wants reassurance the school is taking its legal duty to care properly for pupils seriously.

Not over reacting at all.

Those saying its over reaction don't understand how ill coeliac children get when exposed to gluten. Even a few crumbs.

People need educating.

It's the child that suffers and parents deal with outfall of lack of education sbout coeliac.

Banana spanner - the op has asked others people's thoughts. I'm pretty sure she doesn't want the head sacked but she wants the head to accept that it was a careless error rather then brush it under the carpet like out doesn't matter.

It should never happen in a classroom environment. Every school should have a clear policy that says no food in the classroom unless all checks have been made. It should be obvious food isn't benign but life or death for some children

@Healingfrommothernarc If it's that bad then shouldn't the school be completely gluten-free? Genuine question

Oh for god sake my dh Has CD so I do know how serious it is and still think you're being ridiculous. Your dd knew not to eat it, didn't eat it and people are fallible. Move on!!

This

Sounds like a great teacher trying to make fractions fun, she made a simple, human mistake and no harm came of it.

If a young child has a recorded health diagnosis and ate the proferred item it very well could be deemed negligent.

To 'forget' a child has a diagnosed health condition is unacceptable.

I'm going to watch dead poets society and see how many things are deemed inappropriate by modern standards. No wonder we don't have inspiring teachers around anymore, why don't we just get robots to do it or better still put them in front of the tv. Honestly you're being ridiculous

In my experience some schools don’t always take food allergies seriously. My son is allergic to sesame and chickpeas, food sold in the canteen not listed with ingredients or food contaminated have caused issues for him, when I’ve reported it to the school it was just brushed off, they just couldn’t seem to grasp the fact he could have died, they only listened when I got other official bodies involved.

The head shouldn't be so careless as to make such a 'mistake'. It's not good enough.

I don't see what is 'inspiring' about being forgetful and not knowing or caring about your pupils.

I am coeliac and this is ridiculous. She has to ingest the crumbs to have a reaction so unless she was sat with her mouth wide open whilst the biscuit shot its projectiles of crumbs, I think she’ll be pretty safe.
mid course, talk to the school and say you are disappointed but it is an over reaction

OP ignore the thoughtless posts. Speak to the head and school and raise your concerns again. I'm sure they can use something other than food to teach the children...

I don't think forgetting and using the biscuit in the lesson is a huge crime, but the reponse afterwards is awful. I think I would complain actually, that's close to bullying, if not actually bullying. Not what the HT should be modelling or professional behaviour on her part.

For children with allergies/coeliac, food is deadly serious, not fun, and I think if someone can't wrap their head round that they shouldn't be a teacher, let alone a head teacher

https://www.benedictblythe.com/safe-schools/

"1 in 40 school children suffer from at least one serious allergy, and 20% of serious allergic reactions to food happen while a child is at school."

Benedict Blythe died from an allergic reaction at school. His mum is campaigning for better training and allergy policies for schools.

This thread, and the profound ignorance displayed by some, demonstrates why her campaign is needed.

Totally out of order. Why on earth is a Head Teacher demonstrating mathematical functions with food when there are plenty of practical ways of doing this. It's a safeguarding and health and safety issue, given the many types of allergies and intolerances which children can suffer from.

The Head Teacher should have been absolutely mortified when realising the mistake too. Trivialising it shows complete unprofessionalism and this should be reported to the Board of Governors too.