My 5-Year-Old Broke His Arm at School – School Ignored My Warning. What Should I Do?

[Hannuda]

Hi everyone, I’d really appreciate some advice from other parents who may have experienced something similar.

My 5-year-old son is in Reception. At the beginning of June, he had an accident at home and came back to school with his left arm in a cast. I spoke directly with the headteacher and clearly asked that he not take part in any outdoor or physical activity, as I was concerned about the risk of further injury.

Despite that, on 11 June, during class time (not breaktime), he was outside in the play area with his class. He climbed onto a low block and fell, breaking his right arm — with multiple fractures. He was supervised by a teacher, but at the moment of the fall she was speaking to another child and did not see what happened. They claim he had been told not to climb, but honestly, he’s five — when you put kids in front of playground equipment, it’s predictable that they’ll want to use it, especially if they aren’t closely supervised.

What upset me most is that the school did not send me any written report until 21 days after the accident, and only after I repeatedly emailed them. When I finally received the report, it seemed to shift the blame onto my son rather than taking any real responsibility for what happened — even though they had agreed to keep him indoors for his safety.

My son has suffered a lot, physically and emotionally. He missed important football training sessions (he plays for a pre-academy), and it’s been hard for all of us to see him so down. I’m now considering making a formal complaint to the Council and possibly seeking legal advice — but before I take that step, I wanted to ask:

Has anyone experienced something similar with a school? How did you deal with it?

Asking for him to not take part in any physical or outdoor activity is crazy unless there’s a drip feed coming

I'm sorry your son us injured, but honestly, (personally) I'd put this down to these things happen.

How was he going to participate in football training if he can't do any physicsl/outdoor activity?

He broke his left arm on your watch, so aren't you blaming yourself too?

Where was the teacher supposed to leave him if the other 29 children were being taken outside?

Also you know, accidents happen.

So you wanted him to be kept inside at all times until it healed? That's bonkers. He could have just as easily tripped over inside and broke his arm.

I’d be worried he has suffered from multiple breaks. Medically I mean.

But I do think it’s unreasonable to ask that he is kept inside for his safety. Our school would definitely not have the staff levels to facilitate that. They should never have agreed to it.

If his arm was that bad surely you would have kept him at home ?

I think I'd want tests to make sure there's nothing else going on with his bones above anything else.

So he had his left arm in a cast already, and now his right one too? If so, I would be asking the doctors to look at any medical issues that may cause easily broken bones.
If you are saying as I think that he fell and broke his other arm, whilst still in a cast, then my heart goes out to you and him.

If this we're my child, my biggest concern would be why is an otherwise outwardly healthy (unless there's a massive drip feed coming) young child sustaining so many fractures from what seems to be a relatively low level accident

If he wasn’t able to follow the instructions of the teacher and they’re not able to be at school safely he should have been at home. A 5 year old should be able to follow instructions to not climb when they have a broken arm.

Had he had any other accidents/ history or being an accident magnet? Most kids who break an arm do not go on to break their other arm, they tend to be more cautious when there arm is still in a cast.

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Sorry but YABU here. He was outside in a normal play area- I don’t see how the school could realistically force him to stay indoors the whole time. I thought you were going to say they’d let him play football or go on an obstacle course in which case you would be justified in being angry with them.

That sounds really tough for you and him. However asking him to stay inside all the time doesn't feel realistic. Did his first broken arm contribute to him falling and breaking his second arm? It sounds pretty unfortunate to break it that badly from what sounds like a minor fall, but maybe it was worse as he only had one 'good' arm to put out when he fell.

I'd be getting further investigations into his bone density and health because both arms broken in a month isn't right.

I imagine that it’s next to impossible to stop a child being physical in Reception. There’s not enough adults, the curriculum is play based and your son probably did try to resist being physical many times. It sounds like an accident where everybody tried to look after him but couldn’t.

Yabu about the football. He’s 5 and while it’s sad, it’s just bad luck. Hopefully he will be able ti resist temptation and the adults will catch any future slip ups

I assume he's in a class with 20+ others? who do you think would supervise him inside to keep up the ratios for the rest of the class?

You should have kept him at home if you wanted him to stay at home and be fully supervised at all times.

I'd be very concerned at him sustaining two fractures though, especially one from a low height fall.

YabVu.

Even if he had been ‘told not to climb’, he was climbing on something designed to be climbed on so that’s not an inherently dangerous thing to do. If this had caused further damage to the already damaged arm, I can see that you would have grounds to be annoyed, though mostly at your son for not following instructions. But it sounds like he damaged the other one, which is unrelated to the first injury surely? As other have said, 2 breaks from 2 minor incidents seems unusual and I’d be asking doctors to look in to whether there were underlying medical reasons this happened.

I don’t think the school have done anything wrong to be honest.

He climbed onto a low block and fell, breaking his right arm — with multiple fractures.
This is quite worrying.. if he is falling from a low block and breaking his arm, are you not concerned about why?

I think it is just one of those freak things. One of my children had multiple breaks as a child, broke one arm falling off a tiny log! It was just bad luck.
I wouldn’t blame the school.

There seems to be a common theme in the, 'should I complain to school' threads. The poster always expects more from the teacher with 30+ child then the poster can do themselves with 1 child at home.

YABU you can't ask the school to stop him playing in a normal way, that's not fair on him or the school. Accidents happen, it's a shame for your DS but he'll heal and get back to football soon enough.

It was an accident , they told him not to climb and he chose to ignore them , he may only be a small child but unless you were paying for a 1:1 supervisor for him I really don’t think you can expect the school to have their eyes on him at all times . As for the football training if he’s that good a few missed weeks won’t make any odds and of course he’s miserable he’s got two broken arms . I also agree that you need to get him checked , children don’t generally keep breaking bones .

I would want to know why he was outside when you had asked him not to be, if there was a problem with this they should have said so. But most children can join in with activities outside even in a cast and don't have multiple fractures when they fall off stuff. Is anyone looking in to why his bones break so easily?

I would be wondering why he has had two fractures in close succession! Definitely ask to get him investigated.