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.

I understand your anger, they rang you just before school finished stating he was injured at play time, so this either happened in the morning or at Lunch time and they’ve left him for hours in pain.

I’d be bloody furious with them. There may be only so much they can do but they could have contacted you a lot sooner.

As many, many people have already said - lots of schools have an afternoon play about an hour before the end of school. If the OP knew her D.C. had been hours before she was called she’d have said so when explaining why she was angry. Also if they’d already waited hours why call half an hour before the end of school? Assuming he’d been sitting for hours seems illogical. It’s far more likely he wasn’t.

It’s not a pile on - just lots of people with the opinion that the OP IBU.

It’s a legal requirement to record an accident/injury FOLLOWING an incident but not required to provide paperwork to families. I work in a school and our accident/injury recording is all electronic. We would verbally advise the parent of the incident and what actions were taken. Sounds like the school did that here.
The reason to highlight the word following is that during the incident, the staff member/first aider with the child should be giving that child their undivided attention so it’s not unreasonable to complete an incident report afterwards.

I also work in a school. If a student is injured onsite with us, then an accident form is manuully completed before it is added electronically to the system. I am neither Slt or Admin but I understand that if a parent asked to see the form relating to their child, access would be granted. We also complete forms FOLLOWING the acccident absolutely always before leaving the building. Only in very extenuating circumstances can it be completed the following day.

What about the OP is entirely mistaken and instead of owning it has fucked off?

To put it another way, had the majority agreed with the OP would it have been a pile on?

Thought not.

To make it clear, the function of any thread is not just to give info to the OP but to reinforce to other posters what the reality is.

If it was otherwise we'd all be messaging the OP privately.

HTH.

Could not disagree more with comments on here that the school did everything they could, and you should not be angry with them. As an ex-teacher let me tell you there should be at least one member of staff who is qualified in first aid, and, as you say, one of the first things a proper first aider would do after a bad fall would be to check for fractures. The fact that the child was clearly in pain and holding his arm awkwardly would be a clear sign that there was a fracture, which should have been immobilised immediately. If you ask me they failed in their duty of care, quite clearly.
The real question is what you want to do about it. You could go nuclear and complain to your MP/Ofsted whatever. But if I were you a meeting with the headteacher suggesting they overhaul their accident protocols might be the most effective.

To me, the mystery is why the poor child apparently hasn't been able to tell his mother when it happened. If only we knew when it happened, how long he was left... If it had been one of my children, that would have been one of the first things I'd have asked. Yet the mother doesn't seem to know, otherwise why not tell us?

Another person jumping to conclusions about what school did or didn’t do without any information. Where does OP say nobody in the school is first aid trained?
I was convinced my daughter had broken her arm/ wrist from the awkward way she was holding it after a fall, it was a soft tissue injury. Holding a limb awkwardly is not a clear sign of a fracture but definitely a sign a parent should be called to assess and decide what to do which is what happened.

Be angry at the universe OP because in this situation it’s just very unfortunate luck that he’s ended up with a nasty injury.
I agree the school did everything asked of them, they didn’t panic you, you were already on your way anyway. If you had said I’m just going to leave him another half an hour they might have suggested you got yourself there asap but as it was, you couldn’t have got there quicker.
For me, the accident slip changes nothing, at collection a quick verbal “how did it happen?” And “when did it happen?” would suffice, enough to tell a doctor. If you really want something in writing then contact them later, it doesn’t change the injury outcome.
I would be absolutely gutted at my child being in pain and upset when I wasn’t there but none of it was the school’s doing, he’s just been really unlucky

My dd about 3 or 4 att fell off ds back playing horses and hurt her arm. Next day she couldnt /wouldnt move it. We took her to A&E . Doctor was convinced it was broken until the xrays showed it wasnt . Soft tissue injury

The school have called an ambulance so his arm injury could have been stabilised before he was moved.

Have you done a first aid course recently because suspected fractures are now supported in a comfortable position not immobilised.

that would be daft, would lead to a longer wait and is totally unnecessary. DD had a fall in a play park when she was 4. Obviously displaced fracture of radius and ulna. We drove her to the nearest hospital where they stabilised and gave her painkillers before sending her by ambulance to another hospital which had paeds orthopaedics specialists. She was operated on that night. Nobody was surprised she originally arrived by car.

They’d probably still be waiting now for the ambulance to turn up

@BlueFlowers5 unless the bone was protruding through the skin an ambulance would not be dispatched for this!

What on earth do you expect school to do? Start racing around, calling ambulances, sending everyone into a panic? Dealing with the situation calmly and sensibly isn't 'not giving a shit'; it's doing what's right for the child concerned

You're assuming what time playtime was. You don't know when that would be.

I am sorry your son was hurt; this is obviously upsetting. As an ex TA of over 20 years, however, this post reminds me how right I was to get out of the profession. Paid minimum wage and expected to cover the responsibility of having to deal with whatever first aid emergency comes up with only having 1-2 days training. I thank my lucky stars that I never had to perform CPR or get a child breathing again, or deal with a choking child. I hope he makes a speedy recovery.

From my experience, the school would be very limited as to what they can say.
As a nursery worker I wasn't even allowed to write bruise in an accident book as I am not medically qualified to diagnose a bruise.
They did the right thing in calling you to pick up early, but should have informed you on the phone that further medical attention would be needed.
Not giving you an accident from when you picked up, that's not good, especially as it was a serious injury, the accident form should include how the injury happened, and what first aid was given.

God alive. No wonder teachers are leaving the profession in droves.
Imagine if your child broke his arm on your watch and everyone judged you to be incompetent.

I was just about to say I whole heartedly disagree with most comments on this thread.

Someone mentioned they’re not doctors, but a trained first aider would be able to recognise a broken arm if the mother, a lay person was able to do so within seconds of seeing her child.

Not only that, the son was distraught and in tears with an obvious injury and there was no accident report or any protocol that has been followed.

I am sure 99% of the posters saying the school are not blameless would be going nuclear if that were their child.

I would demand a meeting with the head teacher highlighting potential breaches in protocol and asking what can be done to prevent a repeat.

To clarify it’s the lack of protocol such as an accident report that is the real issue. No one is denying accidents happen that result in broken bones and/or egos but the fact they failed to follow a simple procedure such as an accident form is concerning.

Interested in what time playtime was as they called you near the end of the day, so how long had they left him like this? It's common to check movement if there has been an injury, so the school did what they could in that respect. It sounds though, aside from the broken arm, he had quite bad visible injuries. With my DCs school, the rule is that if it's left a mark (bruise/cut) i would definitely get a call regardless of whether they were sending DC home or not, just to notify. When my DC were in nursery, I'd always get an accident form if anything happened, but not in primary school, so I wouldn't necessarily expect to see an accident report unless I specifically requested it. I'm sure your DS was in considerable distress when you collected him, which adds to your own. So like others I would give yourself a day or 2 to process it and see how you feel then. If you still want to complain, then fair enough.