Whats the protocol around head injuries at school.

[eastendywendy]

DS (5) got hurt at school. He complained of a sore head and when I had a look he has a big lump and graze, he says someone hit him with something and he told the teachers who put some wet tissue on it.

His friends concur.

The teachers didnt let me know. Im pretty annoyed tbh, should I be?

We get a call to go to classroom at end of day to collect child with head bump, rather than usual school gate.

do they not send the "head bang" letter?

I very nearly posted a similar thread to this last week.

My ds, also 5, has had three different head injuries over the last couple of months which the class teacher was not aware of. I mentioned it to the teacher and it happened again. So I went to the head. Basically the teacher denied there was an incident and they have instigated a form in the afternoon register so each child is asked if they have hurt themselves/been hurt or upset at lunchtime.
I know that legally they are suppose to record the injury and pass this message on at hometime but they haven't and the head would not discuss it with me either.

On one occasion my son had sat all afternoon with a bloodied nose, fat top lip, cut to the underside of the top lip and dried blood on his chin. And no one noticed at school. The poor lad couldn't eat his tea his mouth was so sore.

My dcs are moving school at half term.

It has really upset me because I just don't feel confident leaving him there now. That his safety is compromised.

I think the majority of my ds's bumps happened at lunchtime - the first time he didn't tell the lunchtime staff as he is quite shy. But he sat in class all afternoon with a gradually purpling eye and a large fresh graze on his forehead.

If we didn't have the option of moving I would pursue it further but I know it would be a battle.
Fortunately my friend witnessed the bruise and swelling at the time.

Haha. Hollow laughs that sentence provokes, I'm afraid. 6 mid-day assistants split between two playgrounds, two lunch halls AND a field to look after 415 pupils. My DS's ARE constantly getting injuries that I'm not told about (even a severe head injury where he passed out twice in the afternoon and I wasn't contacted) AND I am the parent who can't move them (local schools way over full). There isn't actually much you CAN do if they are providing SOME supervision - did you know that there are no legal limits set on how many DC a single MDA can be responsible for?

And it's useless telling Ofsted when the school lies on the RIDDOR forms.

I think you can complain to the governors of the school and they have to investigate because the school has a legal duty to record head injuries and inform the parents.
The next step after the governors is the local council.

But I agree that it is likely to be too few staff at lunchtime.

Do listen to this recent 'Inside Health' programme on Radio 4 (April 9th, you can access it indefinitely on this link www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/medmatters )
What this programme says is that comparatively mild bumps on the head can damage the pituitary gland, leading to symptoms appearing (possibly years later) which include sexual and fertility problems, and chronic fatigue. The programme didn't mention it but depression and weight gain are also possible symptoms. What the neurosurgeon on the programme did say is that up to a million (yes, a million!) people in the UK may be suffering from undiagnosed hypopituitarism, caused by head injury. There are other possible causes too. The good news is that all the symptoms are treatable by replacing whichever hormones have been affected.
So if your child has a bump on the head, don't panic, but I do think it's a good idea to bear the risk in mind, so that if in adolescence he/she seems unhappy or lacking in energy, you can ask the right questions. Remember there's effective treatment, and it's better to do a check than to risk your child being condemned to a miserable life, with nobody around understanding what's wrong.

If anyone thinks their teenager could be suffering , insist on him/her being referred to a good endocrinologist, don't just let your GP do a short synacthen test and then say he/she hasn't got it. This test is only 60% reliable (Dorin, Testing for Adrenal Insufficiency, 2003)

We think our son's suicide was the consequence of undiagnosed pituitary problems.

To whyme2:

I'm so sorry and horrified to hear of what happened to your DS! Reminds me of when I was at primary school and sat all morning with blood dripping down my leg, having tripped and cut myself running to school in the morning. A head injury is obviously much more serious, though. Good for you for deciding to move your DCs xx

At our school, with any bump to the head that isn't so severe as to send the child home/to hospital, the child has a sticker put on them that says "OUCH" in big letters then "Please keep and eye on me" around the edge - it alerts every adult who is with the child for the rest of the day and the parent will also see it. That is coupled with a 'bump letter' that gets sent home detailing the nature of the injury, what happened, the time/location of the incident, who dealt with it and what action was taken - ie graze and bump to head, fell over at lunchtime, in the playground. Mrs X applied a cold compress and TLC.

Schools should NEVER put wet tissues or those paper hand towel things on grazes. We have done a whole school first aid training sessions recently and the trainer was adamant about this. Tissues and hand towels can both introduce infection, and imbed themselves in open grazes, causing possible scarring. Cold packs in disposable or washable covers while be used.