When should school fill accident form

[MegK]

Hello,

My child joined reception in Sep 2018. Initial couple of weeks he enjoyed going to school, later on every couple of weeks he comes home saying other kids in class pushed him, scratched or punched him. When this was discussed with school, they say it was by accident and they hit each other while playing. Are teachers not supposed to look after them so they wont hit each other while playing or during activity sessions ?

My concern is shouldn't school be filling accident form if a child is injured though it was not intentional.

Many thanks in advance for your feedback.

Regards,
Megan

These things happen. Unfortunately time is precious at school, as I'm sure you are aware, of staff had to record all 'little' accidents no teaching would be done. Serious accidents & bumps to the head should be recorded & shared with parents. But otherwise I wouldn't worry. Children naturally accidentally hurt each other while playing. It's part of life.

What sort of marks is he coming home with? E.g. scratches, bruises bumps? If visible or painful then I would expect a form home otherwise I'm afraid that is just school life. Lots of these happen in the scrum for coats, lining up for playtime etc. Your ds has probably scratched and pushed other children without even realising it. It's nice for the 'victim' to get an apology but I wouldn't hold my breath with YR children!And you'd need 30 adults per class in the playground to ensure no one ever got hurt, these things happen in a nanosecond.

Thanks for your reply. But last week other kid hit him on nose and he was bleeding. Do agree kids hit each other as part of play, i just want to know at what point school takes incidents seriously. As in daycare I used to get accident form for every little accident though it was by accident.

Not sure how schools work.

Thanks

Thanks for your reply. But last week other kid hit him on nose and he was bleeding. Do agree kids hit each other as part of play, i just want to know at what point school takes incidents seriously. As in daycare I used to get accident form for every little accident though it was by accident.

Not sure how schools work.

Thanks

Schools should always report a head injury. Generally they’ll also report more serious bumps and cuts that parents are likely to query. If school had to fill out a form for every bump or graze they’d need a full time team of staff to do it!

I don't think there is a hard and fast rule for this.

Some accidents are reportable by law but more minor things it probably varies from school to school. Certainly as children get older there is an expectation that they can talk which obviously a younger child cant.

How did you find out about the nosebleed - that's the sort of thing I'd expect a school to let you know but not necessarily by filling out a bit of paper.

At our school you get a slip/accident book entry for cuts, grazes, scratches, trapped fingers, bruising - anything that needs cleaning, a plaster, or a cold compress, or might need follow-up at home. Collisions in the playground or PE are the most common thing I deal with. Head bumps and stings/bites get a special letter re concussion or allergic reaction - again, anything a parent might need to be alert for. So yes, I would have expected something for a bleeding nose.

General barging around in the cloakroom is a tricky one to interpret as a parent - it never bothered my sharp-elbowed eldest but noise-sensitive youngest absolutely hates the end of the day and hangs back til the cloakroom empties out.

We have an accident book in which we have to record everything which requires first aid - so a child who bangs their knee but just gives it a rub and it's fine doesn't need recording, if you give them a wet paper towel/ice pack, it does. We also have a separate form for sending home to parents when there's been a head injury or anything major. What counts as "major" probably depends on the parents/child more than anything! Other things I will just verbally mention to the parent at pick up if I think about it - something like a nose bleed, or using their inhailer.

The level of day to day tiny detail you get from a nursery is not something that can be maintained in a school. Where the ratio goes from prob 1 to 8 or 1 to 13 depending on how qualified the adults are, to more like 1 to 30!

As a general rule if a child is hurt enough that I have to clean them up or give them an ice pack, plaster etc they get a note home, also if its head or face, even if i'm pretty sure they are fine and any stings or bites.

Nosebleed would definitely be a note home, general bumps while playing probably not unless they were actually hurt.

I do keep a note of accidents caused by another child though, I don't send anything home but I keep a list, just in case a pattern emerges.

Thanks everyone for the response. It gives a clear picture what should be kept on records and off the records.

I work in a school (not a teacher). For the daily grazes etc we record in a book, showing date, time, child's name, then a brief description including the location (lawn, tarmac etc) and the treatment. eg "Jane tripped over while playing on the lawn and grazed her right knee. Cleaned and applied plaster" then we sign it.

For ALL head injuries and more serious accidents, these don't go in the book, they go on forms which have boxes for date, location, witness etc etc. We have to carefully log EVERYTHING on these forms and parents are phoned immediately. Forms are in triplicate (like carbon paper, but not quite) - parent signs, then there's top copy for them, one for the office and one for the file. For anything head related, even very minor bumps, the child also gets a 'I bumped my head today' sticker which alerts all staff who see them to be on the lookout for sickness, blurred vision etc.