Teacher not reporting a head injury to parent

[mummybug355]

Sorry I'm mainly just after a rant as I'm really angry and know I have a right to be. My daughter went on a school trip today. On the trip she was knocked/pushed over she said pushed but I'm hoping it was an accident and a child stood on her head. She has a heel imprint on her head behind her ear and on her ear. The teacher said it's ok she will be fine!
Are you kidding me she didn't even check her.
And the teacher didn't even bother to inform me of it.
It was hard enough to bruise and it's still swollen and painful it happened at 9am.

Go mad. I would if that was my daughter. They have a duty of care to the children and a head injury whether it’s small or big in a school environment should be phone called to the parent straight away

Check her for what? I mean you should’ve been informed but as long as she was never unconscious, behaving normally, not vomiting I wouldn’t have been concerned however she should’ve been watched due to the injury and it should’ve been passed on to you asap so you could be aware of any issues at home.

I’ve had a similar issue with my son, he was hit with a very hard ball, was sick, saw stars and the pe teacher sent him to the office with another pupil. Instead of going to the office he went home as he was confused, he went to bed and I didn’t realise until I found him about half past 4/5pm feeling dreadful school didn’t know he’d left - was before end of day, pe teacher didn’t know he bypassed the office so thankfully he was ok but I did complain as it was unsafe to be sending a child with a head injury off themselves and not following up/checking they are ok or even asking office staff to look out for him.

It sounds very painful. Your poor daughter.

I hope if it was bothering her she felt able to speak up again at a later point in the day to get help? If not, thats the bit that would worry me.

Just speak to the teacher. I had something similar happen to my DC (came home with a bruise by their eye). Spoke to teacher who was dismissive and said it wasn't a head injury escalated to head teacher who looked into it and fed back to me.

Is she showing any signs of concussion?

Did she definitely report it to her teacher and not another adult? There are often other staff and volunteers on trips.

Did the adult see the incident? Or did DD report it? If the latter, it's very possible that the adult missed the severity of the injury. They shouldn't have, but it's not too surprising, given the millions of things that would have happened that day.

The reason that school staff report head injuries to parents is to keep them on the lookout for concussion. You now know that she has had a head injury, so know to watch out. Your child is safe.

There has clearly been an issue with someone not following the first aid procedure in this case. But please don't follow the advice of @kenstaylor , because that would achieve nothing but causing stress for a poor headteacher who would end up dealing with someone "going mad" when their child is completely fine.

Bring it up with the teacher calmly and sensibly, and perhaps ask for their first aid policy if you want to check it's up to scratch.

Also @kenstaylor no, a head injury is not necessarily a phone call to a parent straight away. Most break times at least one child per class has a head injury of some sort. Parents should be informed quickly about major ones, and in some way (not necessarily a phone call, hence "bumped head" stickers) about minor ones. If lunchtime staff went immediately to phone after each injury, there would be a lot more incidents as there would be insufficient supervision.

Many years ago when collecting my DS from nursery they told me that he had fallen headfirst from a slide. He did look strange, and other parents commented about his appearance in a shocked way. I took him to A&E, who checked him over, and let him go, giving me a leaflet about head injuries. All fine afterwards. However I will never forget the utter panic driving to the hospital when he became drowsy. In my opinion the nursery should have contacted me immediately, bearing in mind he was looking not right physically. I didn't complain to them, but the next day I mentioned the accident book. Accidents happen, but I will never forgive them for their lack of care immediately afterwards.

It’s a tricky one since they were on a school trip, so it is likely that the normal nominated TA/accident book/ bump letter procedure didn’t take place. Having said that the teacher should of course have told you about the incident, but having been in charge of trips myself I know that it is a very hectic experience, and it would be all too easy to forget something that had happened so early on in the day . You might want to raise the issue by asking how they deal with noting and reporting accidents on days out, and whether this is written into their risk assessment protocol since it seems that on this occasion it didn’t get followed through. I hope your dd enjoyed the day even with the accident.

Any head injury has to be told to the parents, I’ve had a teacher call me over a minor hit to my daughter head and told me that because it is on the head they have to legally let me know. Also go mad

I would read the health policy at the school. What do they say about head injury protocol? If they didn’t follow it, speak to the responsible teacher. Don’t “go mad”. Be polite but firm.

If my child came home from school with an imprint of a foot on the side of her head and I didn’t get told I’d “go mad”

And what would that achieve?

Who said I’d be trying to achieve anything? That’s my daughter ahah

So you'd "go mad," presumably at your child's teacher, for no outcome?

I wonder why so many of my colleagues are leaving and why so many children will be without qualified, motivated and decent teachers in September...

If my daughter had a head injury and a shoe print on her head and I didn’t get told best believe I will. If you or your colleagues are one of them lazy teachers then good get rid of them ahah.

School should have a clear protocol set out in their policies (possibly communication?) which covers what to do in case of head injury. In our school it's attaching a bumped head wristband to the child, logging on the internal system, phone call to parent followed up by a message containing the link to "when to be concerned" NHS link. I'm a parent governor and last year when we were ratifying policies I raised the fact that this wasn't happening asI generally just got a message. The Head was surprised but seriously tightened things up, now I pretty much get at least one phone call a week (3 kids!) and am on first name terms with the office staff 😂. I must add that all these phone calls have been for incredibly minor things, none of which have left a mark but because it's their head school have to ring.

Exactly 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

I hope by “go mad” you all actually mean “have a rational, adult conversation with the teacher and escalate it if you’re not happy with the response?”

You don't have to be a lazy teacher to make a mistake.

A teacher who didn't care about children's wellbeing wouldn't care about you shouting at them about this. A teacher who actually cares would be devastated if they have made a serious mistake, and would be equally devastated whether or not you had a go at them at home time.

Still would go mad regardless

You should put your child first. Ranting and raving at her teacher is a shitty way to do that.

Nice.

A great way to treat adults who look after your child every day when you don't know the full story.

I didn’t once say I’d go mad at the teacher ahah. I just said I’d go mad, whether that be vent to someone at home or write a complaint. However this person is obviously jumped to their own conclusion and went off on one so I’m winding them up and giving them what they heard to begin with