I need help. I’m utterly distraught and upset with my sons school, does anyone have any advice?

[mummytorands]

So I’ve been awake all night with keeping my 8 year old as comfortable as possible and yesterday’s events and I wanted to go to the school today and complain about how they handled things but I think I’m going to write to the chair of governors instead so I want to box clever.

So, I leave work yesterday (I work 10 minutes from the school by car) at 2:45 my children are usually let out at 3:10-3:20. School call at 2:50 telling me my son (8) has had a fall during playtime she explained he hurt his arm, elbow hip and knee. He was grazed seen by first aid but very upset and could I get him early of course I said yes I’ll be 5 minutes. Asked then as it’s unusual for him to be as upset as she was saying as he’s quite a tough cookie has he done any damage. No she said first aid moved his arm but seems ok but he’s very upset and think it’s best you came early and that she would get my daughter for me too (5). I pull up to school a TA is bringing them both out and it was quite evident to me we needed to get to hospital. I could clearly see my son was in pain, he was holding his arm, his wrist and hand were limp. I was given no accident form but didn’t think about that until later as my main concern was to get him medical attention. I called minor injuries they said they had a 3 hour wait and they wouldn’t be able to xray today so off to a&e I went which was heaving but we were dealt with pretty swiftly. Xray and he’s broken both radius and ulna and one of the fractures is going into the growth plate. I won’t know the full extent until we see the fracture clinic in 24 hours however we were sent home in a plaster cast and sling and I’ve kept him comfortable with calpol alternating nurofen. My plan is to go into school tomorrow asking for the accident book copy but I want to see it and not have it done and back dated. I will tell them he won’t be in for the next couple of days until I know more but I’m not disclosing the damage he’s done until I know for definite.

I am furious. He very clearly to me had broken his arm the moment I seen him. She played it down to me on the phone and his arm had been manipulated and it should not have been. They did not contact me fast enough and no accident from was given. Does anyone have advice? I want to complain because I’m just so unhappy about the handling and I don’t want it to happen again but I want the first aid training to be looked into also. My poor boy.

According to the first aid course for teacher in schools, recognising muscle, joint and bone injuries is infact part of the training they should be competent in. So this conversation is neither here no there really, the first aider that saw him should already be trained to recognise a potential bone injury, and clearly wasnt

No, that specific course is outdate, but the updated versions still exist. The current training courses for first aiders in school for children still include muscle joint and bone injuries. So the first aid should already have received that training anyway.

You literally said that the staff should be trained to suspect a fracture because they are trained in first aid. Their first aid training will be basic. You’re expecting them to do the job of a healthcare professional when they are not qualified in that area. As I said, the school contacted the parent. They did not neglect the child or leave the child until the end of the school day and then let him merrily on his way, they contacted the parent. It’s not their place to ‘suspect’ a fracture. They can use their own discretion based on previous training, however they cannot be expected to be at the same level as a healthcare professional or be expected to suspect fractures. At the end of the day the school played their part in contacting the parent. The parent then did what they felt necessary and took the child to A&E. The school are not to blame.

Current first aid training for teachers/TAs in schools working with children includes the recognition and immediate actions for muscle, joint and bone injuries. They should already have the training to know when to escalate. This conversation is literally pointless, its included in the list of what they should be competent in to be a named first aider in a school.

The trained staff could leave, not be there on the day.

I'd suggest the only way to confirm a fracture is by having a X-ray.
Sadly school budgets and staffing by HCPs don't allow for that🧐

Yes the conversation is pointless I agree. And I stand by my point that regardless of what ‘training’ they may or may not have had, they essentially aren’t the right nor the responsible people to be suspecting fractures and that they took the appropriate action by contacting the parent.

An unspecified amount of time after and becuase the child was disproportiantely upset, not because of an injury. But if you are happy acepting that level of care for your children who are left in school 6.5 hours a day for over half the year, then fair play to you. I would not accept that for my children, and if one had been left injured without any adult suspecting it was serious, id be fighting for more training for the adults im leaving my child with in future.

As long as the school contacted me straight away, I wouldn’t expect them to know or even suspect a fracture or have any health professional knowledge whatsoever as I understand their qualifications are in teaching so I certainly wouldn’t be trying to push the blame on them because I’m upset.
My own child has ended up in a situation where she did have an accident at school and the school did advise me to take her to A&E, however, had they not advised A&E then I would not have held it against them either and I would have used my own discretion at that point.

The child was visibly in pain and it sounds very likely that the school delayed in calling the parent. This would be totally unacceptable at our school, my first aid trained teacher friends would be horrified if it happened at their school, and I know , due to the various calls I have had, that it would never happen at my children’s school. There is no way it’s following procedure, and if staff don’t follow procedures at a school then the children are not being kept safe.

My point is that teaching staff are not qualified healthcare professionals and cannot be expected to determine if a child has a fracture. I cannot imagine any school purposely delaying calling a parent if they had any inclination that the child had fractured or broken bones. There may or may not have been a delay in calling but we don’t have a timeline of events to go on but it’s one thing not following procedures and it’s quite another expecting teachers to know or suspect that a child has a fracture.

Be as contrary and unrealistic as you like if it makes you happy.

I shattered both at 13. Just an unlucky fall. 2 of my 4 have had broken arms. Just tearing around being kids.

Lyanna seems to think that just because it never happened to her children, it should never happen to any child!

Many primary schools DO have an afternoon playtime. Mine does, between 2:20 and 2:30, so a call at 2:50 would be fairly soon after playtime and l]a]half an hour before home time.

I looked this up and it was something like only 15% of primary school have an afternoon break in KS2 (which OP's DS is).
It used to be the norm I think and the change crept in sometime in the last 15-20 years.
Our school also used to let them play from 8.30 - 8.45am (gates open to school day starting), but they changed that during DS2's time (he's nearly 16) so they just walked straight into school.
The school day used to have a lot more play time than they do now. And more kids walked. I bet there are some kids who are driven to school, get 15 mins morning play, 25 mins at lunch and are then driven home.

I don’t think they should know the child had a fracture, but that doesn’t change my opinion the school has failed to follow appropriate processes, and also it’s own policy

Dont you think if there had been a long gap between the accident and calling the OP she’d have mentioned it as part of her information at the start of the thread?

Are you aware that even after having an X-ray, medics sometimes can’t diagnose a fracture and often tell the person to return the following day to the fracture clinic for another X-ray?

How do you know what the school’s own policy is and that it hasn’t been followed? The OP hasn’t named the school, given a full account of all the steps taken or linked to the school’s policy.

and it sounds very likely that the school delayed in calling the parent.

i don’t get where you have got this from. Sounds to me like they called straight away.

We don’t routinely. But we do occasionally.
All sorts of reasons.
You have 2 things planned for the afternoon. First one takes longer than you expected and you don’t want to start a new activity with only 30 minutes until home time.
You had one activity planned but they race through it - what to do now?
Its the first beautiful day in a while, the kids have been brilliant and you decide an extra playtime is a great reward.
They had 2 wet plays today and are now stir crazy so you take them out when you notice the rain has stopped just to give everyone five minutes air.
A reward scheme means kids can ‘buy’ an extra playtime.

Unless the school themselves are asked there is no way of anyone knowing whether the playtime referred to was in the morning or lunchtime or afternoon.

What makes you think they haven’t followed proper procedures? You only have the op’s side of the story, who seems hellbent on blaming the school anyway.

Yes but the boy probably didn't display those signs when the injury fist occurred. When they did present, his mother was called...so that's exactly what they did do!

"probably" is doing an awful lot of heavy lifting there. It's highly likely that the child was showing most of those signs from the start, and someone should have been keeping an eye on him pretty continuously.