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 it’s lucky it wasn’t an anaphylactic allergy.
I think if I was the Headteacher I’d be more apologetic (but that’s probably why I’d never make headteacher 😂).
I’d also be asking if there was anything you’d think would be helpful to prevent it happening again.

You’re very lucky your daughter was getting 1:1 teaching with the HT.

Am I right that your daughter would have to ingest gluten to be ill? Therefore crumbs on the table aren’t an issue.

1. Receiving 1.2.1 support is because its needed. Should we all be grateful for getting things we need?
2. Receiving the 1.2.1 support doesn't negate the fact that her dd deserves to be in a safe environment.
3. Crumbs are pretty easy to cause (and probably the single biggest culprit of) cross contamination. So risk of ingesting still exists
4. The teacher has a duty of care to the pupil to not harm them right?
5. The teacher was not apologetic to the child or the parent when the issue was raised.

But we should all be fucking grateful.

It is absolutely possible and essential for teachers to know what allergies kids in their classes have. My DCs' school manages it just fine (v large secondary).

Teacher shortages are not the result of teachers having to be aware of allergies and other health conditions btw. I think you probably know that though.

Personally, I would still want a paper trail.

(Imagine being cross examined, and having to prove the steps you have taken... ).

Why was the head unprofessional ? They didn't look at every kid's medical history every lesson

If the lesson involves food then they bloody should be checking before it!

Exactly. Theres nothing "lucky" about having a headteacher who is cavalier to the point of negligence in relation to food allergies

I can’t understand posters still coming on to make fun of this/gainsay the OP even after so many are giving the facts, providing links etc - why? Why is it still a big joke?!

Did she try to force feed the biscuitinto your dd after it had been refused? Um, no.

She has a lot of kids to remember dietary requirements of as well as everything else. I think it was a slip and HT recovered without making it into any sort ofissue. So, HT did well.

You could be offended by her memory, or even angered that HT, while trying to make fractions fun, had a small lapse. Did your dd feel bullied by HT? Apparently not.

Sorry ... you mean all the posts from the op with additional facts and details?

My search function myst be broken

But no teacher should be unthinkingly handing food to children. There will be several children in every class with food allergies..

The ignorance on this thread is astounding.

Colleague has a nut allergy, another colleague waved a nut bar in her face as a so-called joke, and colleague 1 had a severe reaction and ended up in hospital. Headteacher was a twat, and so are some of the people on this thread.

Allergies are a huge thing nowadays so she should have more awareness than to start offering food in a school.

@NeverDropYourMooncup

🤣
that advert never gets old

I am a secondary school teacher and yes, it is impossible for us to remember/know every child's allergies - there are over 1000 children in my school. However, that is why we have systems in place to allow us to check the children we are responsible for. At the beginning of the year, I make a note of every child I teach who has an allergy and write it in my planner so I have the info to hand when needed. In a 1-1 lesson, I would certainly expect the Head to know this information about your daughter, and she has been negligent here in not ensuring she knows your daughter's needs. However I will say that the huge push in schools allergy wise is children who have epipens - I know every child who has an epipen, but it wouldn't occur to me to have a coeliac child on my radar in the same way. I have never had any training about coeliac disease in my decade plus of teaching, and thought it was just a problem with ingesting gluten rather than being exposed to it, so this is not something that I would know about either - this thread has educated me.

As such, I wouldn't be calling for her head. I think she probably has no idea that coeliac disease is as serious as it is, or can be triggered without ingesting food, and thought she was doing something fun/enjoyable by using the biscuit. Rather than going in all guns blazing, I would send in some info about coeliac disease and ask for this to be flagged on the school system more prominently. I would also suggest that all staff are given training on coeliac disease.

They were unprofessional because they didn't follow the policies they will undoubtedly have in the school they are the headteacher of.

They don't have to 'read every single thing and remember every detail'. They just have to check for food/health issues before offering food.

Coeliac is a concern if food containing gluten is in the classroom, because the school has a duty of care.

Similar thing happened to my Dd when she was in juniors she has nut allergy and the teacher put cereal on her table I don’t know why but other children were saying no u can’t do that she has nut allergy I only found out throu another parent ! And they tried to sweep it under carpet I made a complaint to school governors because this wasn’t the only thing happening at the time the teacher ended up getting the sack ! Sometimes u have to go with your gut some teachers are just bad ! Not all most are good !
I have nothing but praise for all the teachers I have encountered throu both my kids education so I’m not teacher bashing btw ! X

This is quite a good suggestion. After a near miss that could easily have killed my son his school invited me to deliver allergy training.

I included slides about the various children who have died in school from allergies in recent years and also talked through what kind of questions they would be asked if a child died in their care (helped by a friend who has prosecuted organisations for allergy deaths). They now have a very good paper trail for every activity involving food - they detail all the ingredients and get consent from the parents each time.

With appropriate safeguards in place you can use food safely in the classroom, but good systems protect the teachers as much as the children.

It's worth remembering that skin contact with cheese was enough to kill Karanbir Cheema. He didn't even ingest it. Similarly my son had a huge reaction to wotsits when a child threw some at him.

Children with allergies know the dinner hall isn't a very safe or easy place. But they absolutely deserve to feel safe in the classroom.

@Maddy70
Why was the Head Teacher unprofessional? You really have to ask?

How about not seeing the issue when explained to her? Tormenting a child with a tempting snack she couldn't eat, and then the yum, yum, yum... It's a maths lesson not a cookery one! So unnecessary and yes, unprofessional.

Im quite worried about the fact you seem to know so little about your own illness….

Spot the people on here who have no clue about how serious coeliac disease is….

YANBU. I’m sure people wouldn’t be dismissing it if the head had been eating peanut butter and dropping it on someone had a nut allergy.

The head is an arse and you should complain.

Most people can understand the desire to prevent harm. Once the harm has been caused you can't take it back. So most adults look to prevent children from having to suffer or be harmed. The head laughed at the situation when it was brought to her attention. It already is no fun being a child who has to deal with avoiding foods and having pain , vomiting and diarrhea, but to have your teacher laugh at you when you remind them that a food can make you very ill and cause damage? That is deflating.

@OhcantthInkofaname How dare you?!? I know full well about cross contamination thank you very much! You've no right to declare what a stranger does or doesn't know! I was commenting on the language used! 🤣