No Playground Supervision

[HolyCalamityJane]

Hi everyone

Just looking for your advice on how to handle this. DD. 5 has full time TA hours she has dyspraxia and ADHD. Her statement states that she must be supervised at all times including the playground. The teacher has told me the TA is with her for 20 hours and the remaining 5 hours of playground cover is covered by the assistants they have who supervise all the kids. DD has had had quite a few trips and falls and the teacher always states that no-one saw what happened. She has also come home with injuries that the school had no knowledge of.
Today DD had a large bloody scrape on her face and bad bruising. Again the teacher told me no-one saw what happened but when she asked DD she told them she had fallen in the woods. The teacher then said that the woods are out of bounds and DD had been reprimanded!!!!
I really did not want to get confrontational with the school as this is her 2nd one the 1st one was awful. They have been really good about most things but am quite cross they are disregarding the statement and it could have been a lot worse DD could have lost an eye (the cut is right beside it)
Suggestions please?

If she has full time 1:1 that should be 25 hours of lesson time and 5 hours of lunchtime cover. Is that what her statement says? In which case the school should employ a lunchtime supervisor for the exclusive role of supporting your DD, perhaps organising games with other DC to help her social skills. 20 hours TA still leaves an hour a day of lessons unsupported. If the school aren't implementing the statement and your DD is left in a dangerous situation I'd be taking it up with the leadership in the school in the first instance, then governors, then LA, if things don't change.

Thanks for your reply Ellen I ofcourse know you are spot on but am so fearful of creating a bad relationship with the school. The teacher is the VP and soon to be HT. I think I will have to get DH to phone HT tomorrow. Why is everything such a fight

Get your pointy stick and steel toe capped kicking boots out. Obviously, start by requesting nicely...

Take a photograph of every injury that occurs and stick it in a diary with date, time and venue on it. Also email the school everytime an injury has taken place and if a teacher says no one noticed put that in the email too and repeat your concerns that she needs more supervision.

Treat it like a sort of incident log. I am suspicious by nature and am thinking should you need to challenge/contact the LA........if the school can miss facial injuries like that then they could easily say they happend outside of school. Also paper trail will add to back up that you have continuously expressed your concerns. :)

All of the above. Or (and?) phone the school nurse to ask if she can 'help the school to work out how to stop dd being so accident prone, or see if OT/physio is needed cos she keeps falling over'

Logs the fact she's been injured at school, not at home, allows interference from an 'internal' outsider, and you never know, maybe there is a 'medical' cause.

Thanks everyone great advice. Have taken a photo of the injury this morning and DH is all set to phone the HT first thing. The more I think it the more I get! Imagine trying to tell me well she was told not to do it so it's her own fault. Would they say the same if she had been hit by a car? She was told not to run into the road and deliberately disobeyed us resulting in her being run over. So we have reprimanded her!!!!

If they had apologised that might have made it a bit better but to just blame DD!!

Maria DD's dyspraxia means that this is why she falls all the time and needs playground supervision! Bloody school

Since when did TAs get paid lunch breaks an hour long? Her TA is only working 5 hours a day which gives no break entitlement at all iirc, or only 15 minutes for a cuppa which could easily be taken when dd is settled in class!

Another excellent point Purple. I think her TA is used to supervise all the children in the playground along with 2 other grannies who volunteer. Will make sure DH enquires about her breaks. I now have steam coming out if my ears

Sounds like your statement is paying for her to have a cost gossip with her mates for an hour a day

Firstly, her specific TA is to be monitoring HER primarily, and the other children as a secondary thing - in other words, as long as it isn't interfering with her primary duty. If she cannot safely monitor your DD as well as the other children (which it sounds like is the situation), then she should not be monitoring the other children.

Secondly, the 25 hours per week does NOT include her break times. DS2's school has specific people that take over each day when his regular TA has her break. He is NEVER without a TA. Ever.

I agree that you need to log all injuries, with photos if possible. Any time you are told that the injury was not witnessed, I would email the HT with that information and reiterate that DD is supposed to be monitored, and you need to know how she could have been injured without it being seen if she was being properly monitored.

If it helps, we bought DS2 a lightweight high visibility vest (made out of a thin netting so it's not warm, and it fits over his jacket on cold days) and he wears that whenever they go out on the playground. It means that if he bolts, he is easily spotted as it stands out from the sea of uniformed children on the playground. He's usually pretty close to the TA anyway, but he's a runner and is fast, so it's a bit of an extra layer of safety to be able to spot him easily. We got the vest at Wilkinsons for about 69p (we picked up a couple so we have spare).

As far as not being allowed in the woods, do they have any visual deterrent up that would remind your DD that she is not allowed there? DS2's school has laminated "STOP" signs in red in places that he is not allowed to go. Obviously they still have to remind him he is not allowed there, and he is monitored constantly anyway, but I would think it would be important for her to actually SEE something that states it's not allowed IYSWIM. I also think verbal reminders and a simple reproach if she breaks the rules is appropriate as she does need to be reminded it's off limits. Bottom line though is that if she was appropriately monitored, she wouldn't have been in the woods.

Thanks again everyone will report back I could hardly look at the teacher this morning let's hope they resolve things and don't want to start a fight. Now time for a sausage sandwich that always makes me feel better!

Thanks Triggles have just phoned DH with all your points I need to try and remain optimistic but past experiences have made me very suspicious. My glass isn't just half empty it's been knocked over and smashed

Triggles I have to say your school sounds fantastic. They just seem to do the things that all the other schools should.

Hope your sausage sandwich was good HCJ Sometimes a bit of dirty food is what we need to make us feel a tiny bit better. One thing I was thinking was do they not have proper paid lunchtime supervisors? You said that they have volunteers. How many children are these two volunteers supervising in a playground that has forbidden woods etc? Is that allowed?

Ben10 Yes, they have been wonderful. As soon as they realised DS2 had SNs, they immediately put a 1:1 with him FT, and requested outside funding to assist with it. His statement is actually 5 hours short of FT, however, the school provides for those 5 hours because (in their words) "he needs it, so we'll make sure he has it." They helped every bit of the way with the statement, they include me in all meetings, and they actually listen to what we as parents have to say (and act on it). We've had a couple differences of opinion, but they are pretty much up front about it and willing to discuss it, and it all seems to iron out pretty well. They are brilliant. I wish everyone had schools like this. (I wonder how I could get them some type of recognition for how hard they work in this regard?)

and at sausage sandwich being "a bit of dirty food"... I'll never look at them the same way again. yummmm

Well DH made the call and the HT was very accommodating and had a very different version of events stating that the TA never lets DD out of her sight etc . He said that they will ensure that they increase supervision and ensure DD is monitored more closely etc so am so glad he phoned as it has very much had the desired effect. We all know that DD was not being supervised before but I bet she will be now. Hooray another small victory for us Mumsnetters

And may I apologise for my over use of the emoticon

Well done Jane. Just make sure that any slip in that regard is followed up, and they will know you mean business.

Well done Mr HCJ for staying calm! Hopefully they'll make sure that she stays safe now as they should already be doing

I do love an emoticon HCJ. My favourite ones are the ones on Skype which move around and dance

I think we need a baseball bat one or maybe a sledge hammer!

Hiya
we all know that dyspraxia makes dc get hurt more often; sadly a nurse saying that obvious fact is far, far more powerful than a parent.

Well, more powerful than a mother anyway, as looks like the half time score in the proper supervision play-offs is daddy 1-TA 0