Playtime supervision

[breezybeaches]

Hi was wondering if children are meant to be supervised during playtime in primary school?
My dc was pushed and came home with grazes. Just wanted to know that before I speak to the school/teacher so I can ask they keep an eye that doesn't happen again?

Of course they will have been supervised but it is near on impossible to have eyes on every child unless you seriously expect 1:1 ratio. Moreover, accidents happen. I cannot tell you how many times recently a child has told me that they have been pushed over only to find out it was unintentional. Is this your first experience of school settings?

Staff will be supervising, but that doesn't mean they will see everything.

I wouldn't get in touch with the school. Instead I would remind your child that it's important to tell an adult if they're hurt or upset.

You would need eyes in the back of head to see every single minor incident in a playground.
just remind him to tell a teacher/lunch time supervisor if he is upset or hurt.
Do him (and yourself and the school staff) a favour and don’t make a big deal out of these minor incidents, build resilience.

Oh and it will happen again, even supervised. It’s just one of those things.

Thanks for your replies. Yes it is my first experience I. School setting. I know accidents happen. However I know this was intentional, as reluctantly admitted by my DC. And I also know who the other child was. My dc is year 1 and quite shy so I wouldn't want that to happen again. I have always told my DC to tell an adult, her school has taught them to do that too. But DC wouldn't implement this in practice. I don't want to mention the other child's name but they are aware my DC is shy.

I mean I wouldn't want that to be done by the same child, as they actually play together a lot. But my DC wouldn't say anything to the child so I thought if the teacher spoke to the other child to be careful next time please the child would know that adults have been made aware.

If the school is unaware (because no one saw it and your child didn't tell them), then yes , you can inform the school about the incident and ask them to keep an eye on the kids. It doesn't mean nothing will ever happen again, but they'll try to manage it /sort it out.

In the meantime, work with your child to build up their confidence, recognise good ,healthy and safe friendships so she won't want to play with this other kid as much and to ask an adult for help. The sooner a school knows about an incident, the better they can deal with it.

You can definitely make the teacher aware that this has happened. But you can't necessarily expect any action Has this just happened once?

Is it usually an unhealthy friendship or is this a one off?
if the latter I would leave it this time but if it’s an ongoing unhealthy friendship and it keeps happening, then the school staff need to be aware that your child can’t yet manage this themselves and needs an adult to intervene.

Of course they are supervised, but they don't have eyes in the back of their heads. Incidents like this will often be missed if the child gets straight back up and doesn't cry, especially if the staff outside (usually TAs as lunchtime supervisors/"dinner ladies" are a thing of the past in most schools now) were already busy dealing with something else when it occurred.

Your need to remind your child that they needs to report such things. You can indeed report it to the teacher, so they're aware and also know your child needs to be reminded to report things, but it can't be dealt with in retrospect. Young children have very short memories. They're also not the most accurate when it comes to interpreting situations. Your child could have indeed been pushed on purpose, but it's just as likely they were 'tagged' in a game and fell, or clipped legs with someone when running etc. If they report it straight away, both parties can be spoken to immediately to establish what happened and the issue can be quickly resolved with an apology, and first aid/consequences if necessary.