Dog Bit My Child This Morning In The Playground!

[Mummatothreecubs]

Hi, sorry if it’s in the wrong category.

This morning my child was bitten by a dog in the school playground by a parents dog. I didn’t see this happen although he was playing near the climbing frame when he dog jumped and clenched his jaw around his arm. Although his skin is not broken he’s been left with bit marks on his skin.

I raised my concerns to the deputy who was In the playground at the time and she said she would have a quiet word with the parent or may put this in our weekly newsletter.

Several parents bring their dogs to school for drop off/pick up, can anything be done about this? The school also has 2 small pet dogs which roam around on a lead.

I’m actually very concerned now and worried this could have again, he already isn’t great with dogs and now this has happened it’s going to take us a while to work on the whole safety around dogs again.

What is the rule around dogs in the playground? If there is one. Who do I speak to about this?

Wow so many responses I wasn’t expecting this.

So I lodged it with the police who have asked for the school to contact them with the dog owners details. If they don’t do this they will reach out themselves I was told.

Deputy Head called me before home time and asked for me to go in. I went in & she explained she spoke to the dog owner and they said the dog is a puppy and isn’t fully trained hence why he got excited. She said when he leaped at the child she pulled away and waited outside the school (no she definitely didn’t as I watched her stand there for a further 5minutes before she left after her child went into the school). She apologised to the deputy and said she won’t be bringing the dog again until it’s fully trained.

Also just to highlight the dog was on a leach as I saw this come up a few times.

Deputy then sort of finished the conversation there & I made it clear I’m not happy and will be taking this further. She said they can’t ban dogs from coming to the school as they’re an animal friendly school & they have a therapy dog on site. The school has: 2 teacher dogs, 1 chicken, 1 rabbit, 1 cat, 3 newly hatched chicks, all of which had caged so don’t come into contact with anyone except the cat & teacher dogs.

I’ve been advised to speak to the board of governors to raise my concern.

It all seems to be brushed under the carpet and it doesn’t seem to be concerning for them as it’s not their child!

Totally agree. Our school had a ‘therapy dog’ it didn’t do anything else apart from sit in the office I said what about children who are scared? No response

Awful OP. Dogs shouldn’t be allowed full stop and if any dog has bitten anyone that’s grounds for the owner to be prosecuted and the dog destroyed. I’m not exaggerating.

Don’t speak to the governors yet.

Ask the school office for a copy of their complaints procedure. They must have one and to give you a copy on request.

That will lay out step-by-step the order in which to escalate a complaint and how to do so, e.g. it may need to be in writing. The danger is that if you jump ahead of the steps, the governors will just bat the complaint back and when it reaches them again through the proper channels there may then not be enough governors who don’t have prior knowledge of the issue to be able to formally investigate.

Before complaining formally, decide what you exactly you are complaining about (dogs being on school grounds, that this dog was able to bite your child or the school's response to the incident) and what you want the outcome to be.

The school sounds amazing.
What do you think animals are? Disney characters?

Dogs are as much part of the planet as humans or any other animal.. Educate yourself about them.

What a joke - should I educate myself about snakes, or donkeys, or goats? ..... which animals am I obliged to educate myself about? Just the ones with irresponsible owners?

There are a hell of a lot of animals on this planet and none should be on school premises - except maybe a hamster.

did you tell the deputy head you had reported the incident to the police? What was their response if you did?

This sounds like a massive underreaction. If the dog is a pup and it was more of a playful nip than a true bite then sure it's less of a safety concern. However, the school still seems bizarrely none-chalant about it. Is this in the UK? Because I feel like something like this would usually send the health and safety department into overdrive tbh. At the very least the dog in question should be banned until it's demonstrably better trained.

PS they absolutely can and should ban dogs from the school ground. Being 'animal friendly' (whatever the hell that means) and having a therapy dog makes no difference. The therapy dog is presumably specifically chosen, well trained and risk assessed. Unless they can make very rigid processes to ensure that every dog bought on the school grounds is equally easy going and well trained then the 2 situations are completely separate. My child's school has a therapy dogs but no dogs are allowed on the school premises. I don't see this as inappropriate at all

an animal friendly school & they have a therapy dog on site. This is ridiculous and clearly missing the point. Animal friendly does not mean dogs should be allowed to roam freely nipping/biting pupils when over exited, that is irresponsible dog ownership. You just know that this dog would be allowed to jump all over people on walks. Hopefully the police can get through to them.

Ask to see watch video footage of the incident with the head and the police. Show them that what she has chosen to believe is incorrect, ie the owner standing around with the dog ignoring the issue. Also point out that dogs on the school ground aren’t just putting kids at risk, but the schools own animals.

@Schoolchoicesucks

The dog is only allowed in the headteachers office and one other toom, which is like a chill out room. If tiu don't give consent, your child won't go to the room while the dog is present in there. The dog doesn't wander the school premises or go in the playground at all. The headteacher has a door out into a small outdoor space so i assume that's where the dog goes if it needs the toilet.

They can’t ban dogs becythey are animal friendly….. what a load of tosh, I’ll just walk my pet alligator to school to pick my kids up then, you can’t stop me cuz you are an animal friendly school. What about the family who walk their xl bully to school then?

I can’t believe the overreactions on this thread! 🙄

Agree that there shouldn’t be dogs on the playground. They’re banned in all our local authority schools.

However - police, governors, ‘demanding’ this, that and the other?!

What exactly do you want from the school? Be very clear about what you want the outcome to be. It seems the focus needs to be on constructive discussions about the safety of dogs on the playground and associated mitigations on the risk assessment, or a total ban.

The poster up thread is correct. Ignore the deputy and find the complaints procedure.
Follow it step by step in writing. It will be first formal complaint to the head and then chair of governors and then governor panel. You can’t skip stages out and the deputy has given you the wrong information.

I don’t know of any schools that allow dogs on site except therapy dogs. Therapy dogs should be properly trained and if you are unsure whether these are teacher jobs masquerading as therapy dogs then ask if they have their proper certificate. If the cat is a therapy cat then then he/she should have been assessed by a charity too - Pets as therapy say very clearly as a teacher you can’t take in your own animal. You can ask for the risk assessment too. (Most schools that use therapy dogs, have the dog stay in one room and the children come to the dog. He/she certainly doesn’t go roaming the school as quite rightly some children will be allergic or don’t like dogs.)

But why do you need to make a formal complaint?

The responsibility for the dog lies with the owner, not the school.

if you feel that dogs should be banned then could you not ask for a meeting with the head to have constructive discussion.

@Mummatothreecubs

Just a heads up - the animal policy in school is down to the head. The governors set the ethos though so it’s a grey area.

Quite frankly, dogs on playgrounds are not acceptable. A dog for therapy is known to be reliable and trained. The school is fobbing you off and they can control who snd what comes into the grounds or buildings. I’m amazed they allow dogs due to dog mess too. Utterly stupid.

You will always get stupid parents too so the school needs to take a lead on pupil safety. They haven’t so they need to take notice of this. Do use the complaints policy, but don’t back off or be fobbed off. It’s not acceptable.

Just to add: the school must risk assess for safety. I assume this is the DHead’s role. The bite incident must be in the accident book and the governors should be told of such an event. There should, in my view, now be a risk assessment of unknown dogs on the premises that can cause injury through no fault of a child. Therefore my complaint would be about what happened but also pointing out the school are remiss in not identifying dogs on site as a potential safety hazzard. They are a hazzard and the risk needs to be managed to eliminate an avoidable risk of injury. Look at H&S in schools as published by the government.

All schools have a H&S governor and they should be doing H&S walks to evaluate issues and risks and possible solutions. Have they done one in the playground at drop off times? They must do this.

Stuff the “animal friendly” school bit. It’s utterly irrelevant.

Our LA has a ban on dogs on playgrounds but we still have a therapy dog and chickens at one school. The other school has rabbits. Having a ban on dogs does not make any difference to keeping animals on site or visits like the animal man or guide dogs. When you have a therapy dog you will have completed a risk assessment. You can check with your LA if there is a PSPO in place. The head should also do a Risk assessment and look at reducing any risk to Staff and children. Should it get to Governors they would be asking for the Risk assessment and any mitigation considered.

Being an "animal friendly" school is now putting their students at risk. I would ask to see their risk assessment around allowing unknown dogs onto the site. As a first step, it would be a good idea to put a complaint to the head in writing about this and how it's been handled.

I'm amazed they have not at the very least banned this dog from the school forever, as clearly the owner can't control it! Yes, it may improve with training, but the bottom line is if it was on a lead and the owner couldn't stop it biting then they can't control the dog.

I would definitely take it further with the governors (there should be one with some kind of responsibility for health and safety). If it's a MAT school, I would also contact the trustees.

It's definitely a bizarre underreaction from the school and I wouldn't let it drop.

Why is it the schools fault and not the dog owners fault? OP why aren’t you taking this up with the dog owner rather than the school?
Teachers are just teachers, they are not police, they have no power over adults.
Put your big girl pants on OP and sort it out with the dog owner whose fault this is.

It’s the responsibility of the owner to keep the dog under control, but it’s the school who allowed the dog to be there in the first place. So both are to blame, really.

@ThursdayTomorrow Because a school has a duty of care towards their pupils. Their premises, their responsibility. They decide who can come into the playground and they decide if dogs are allowed. Schools are legally responsible for Heath and safety on their premises. They allowed the dog to be brought onto their premises because the parent wasn’t subject to school rules preventing this. As the school thought it was ok, the governors should have looked at the safety of such a policy and seen a risk assessment to judge this. How dangerous could it be? It’s clearly for the op to take it up with the school.

On the street, yes, the dog owner. Totally different.

I did indeed mention this to the DHead and her exact reply was ‘I don’t think there was any need of this as it wasn’t a bite and more so the dog was being playful the owner said’
I also informed her that the police want the school to send them the dog owners details, I doubt she had done this either.

It’s not only the dog owners fault, the dog owner is there because the school ALLOWS parents to bring their dogs in on the school run. If they did not allow this then dog owners wouldn’t be there! Dog owners fault too as she was unable to control a dog that is still training so she should have thought about this before bringing it to school!
Ultimately I feel as though the school is liable, they should have implemented a No Dog Policy ages ago!

@Mummatothreecubs it’s not your job to tell the school what the police want. It’s up to the police to contact the school. Not you on their behalf.

You should start a formal complaint via the process on the web site of the school. Along the lines I’ve outlined, H&S and assessing the risk of dogs in the playground. This is very different to having school pets and therapy dogs that are trained. It’s irrelevant that the dog that nipped isn’t trained. It’s a risk from any dog the school doesn’t know but allows into the playground. A risk most schools don’t take as well as the fouling aspect.