toileting at school

[kidsrgreat]

My little girl has just started school in the reception class.
She had some toileting accidents during the first couple of weeks , anxiety over the toilets and fear of the dark.
last week the sch phoned to say she had an accident and I found her left laying on the classroom floor , withdrawn and in all her soiled clothes. Staff said they didn't have the facilities to deal with it.
is this acceptable ?

No! What do they mean- facilities to deal with it??? Couldn't somebody just have mopped up her tears and given her some spare clothes? Every classroom should have a few old clothes out of Lost Prop for emergencies.

For goodness sake, it doesn't take vast facilities, does it? A few accidents are to be expected at this age. Dd was still wetting herself as late as Yr 3- and the teacher dealt with it very tactfully and considerately.

Did noone try to help and comfort the poor little mite?

What sort of accidents are we talking about? At our school they are reluctant to deal with messy poo accidents unfortunately. And if child wont/cant sort themselves out they will call parents. I was unhappy about this as I am not always at home in case of such a call! But fortunately it hasnt been an ongoing problem as DD has not had such any accidents for long time.

If she was just wet then I do not know why they couldnt have helped her. They ought to have spare clothes for this.

DS also has some toilet worries since starting Reception.

He did soil his pants in his 2nd week, which as he didn't tell anyone meant he got a bit yucky before his teacher realised. School has a policy that they won't clean up children themselves so he had to do this, but an adult did check he was ok and had done a reasonable job in cleaning himself up. And they gave him clean pants and trousers and bagged up his dirty ones.

But DS's school has a dedicated nursery nurse in each Reception class, which I think is a REALLY good idea.

I'd be totally horrified that a child was just left.

Message withdrawn

i am horrified

Fearful of dark as the loo light isn't on when the door is opened . it's on a timer thingy , so children have to step right inside before it comes on and no external windows in toilet.

My child had spare clothes, wipes and pants in bag for " Accidents ".

head said staff can refuse to change children as it's not in their job description , but an early years class with full time teaching assistant in each ??!!!

Im a early years teacher and its true that we care advised not to change children for child protection reasons. That said we would never leave a child in a mess, we would either change the child with 2 of us present or talk them through cleaning themselves up.
I would ask that they do something about the light stuation, I would imagine that would worry a lot of young children.

Not changing soiled children goes against the disablity discrimination act.

czone.eastsussex.gov.uk/supportingchildren/childcare/support/Documents/SupportingPersonalDev elopmentcontinenceleaflet.pdf

look at page 3.

"Having admitted a child to your setting you need to ensure that the child is well cared for, including changing a child?s nappy and clothing when necessary. Asking parents of a child to come and change a child is likely to be a direct contravention of the DDA, and leaving a child in a soiled nappy for any length of time pending the return of the parent is a form of abuse."

If you look on page 4 there is no reason why it requires two adults to help a dirty child to change. The old "child protection" issue is just an excuse for being lazy and changing a dirty child.

"Child protection
The normal process of changing a nappy should not raise child protection concerns, and there are no regulations that indicate that a second member of staff should be present to ensure that abuse does not take place ? OFSTED & CRB checks are carried out to ensure the safety of children with staff employed in childcare & education settings. Parents, carers and students on placement should not change a nappy unsupervised."

My son has never had an accident at school, athough he was once violently sick and needed a total change of clothes including pants. Thankfully his school has a kinder policy and are prepared to help a child completely change their clothes if necessary.

Why is it that early years teachers are sympathetic to my son being deaf, but not sympathetic to a lack of bladder control.

Poor little thing, surely thats neglectful to leave a child in that state.

At ds2's school the teachers & assistants are all willing & do help clean up & change the children after accidents.
The first I knew about ds2's accident was when the teaching assistant came out carrying a bag with his soiled clothes.

If a small school with a high ration of children with SN's can manage to accommodate young children having accidents i'm sure they all can.

If 4 yr olds are expected to go to school then the schools should accept that they are going to behave like 4 yr olds & have accidents.

Poor wee mite. I would have been so cross. Perhaps you could have a word with the teacher to ascertain what happened - maybe they tried to help but your DD was too embarrassed? I know my 3yr gets really embarrassed and pushes people away.

And ask them to sort out the lights - get your DD to ask them to escort her to the toilet if they won't sort out the timer.