Are your office staff responsible for this?

[blondeemily]

Hi all,

I work as a receptionist / administrator in a primary school. At my school, all injuries are sent to us in the office, no matter how small. There are times when this frustrates me, for example when it's a particularly busy day or you are concentrating on processing money but you are regularly interrupted by injured children (I'm talking around 20 a day) as all TAs are First Aid trained and yet they refuse to take any responsibility.

My mum works at a different primary school and says that office staff have no involvement in any First Aid - it's all dealt with by TAs or lunchtime staff.

All reports of blockages/floods/poo on walls in toilets are also sent to us to deal with.

I accept that this is part of my role at my school, I'm just wondering what is the norm at other schools?

No, injuries are dealt with by whoever is on the playground, trickier injuries by the staff who have trained in paediatric first aid (two teachers and a TA).

Toilet issues are dealt with by the Head (small school!)

The only time office staff are really ever involved is if a child is unwell and needs to go home - the office ring home and the child sits outside the office on a chair.

No, that definitely would not be acceptable in my school office. The TAs are all trained to deal with these type of things and also have responsibility for calling parents should the child need to go home etc

20 injured children a day?! Are the other staff injuring them just so they can send them to you and annoy you?

Our school has 2000 students including boarders so we have a school nurse. If the nurse is unavailable (this means dealing with an emergency) then any first aid emergencies go to the office. This doesn't happen very often.

Requests to maintenance have to go via the office so we do email them about blocked and flooded toilets which at the moment is several times a day as the school is having some serious plumbing issues.

No, Office usually will keep an eye on someone waiting to be picked up to go home, but there's a rota of 'First Aid Duty' for TAs (same as teachers are on a rota for 'Playground duty') at break and at lunch the dinner ladies deal, or, if they want reassurance, then they refer to the lead First Aider, who is a TA.
Not that many accidents happen during lesson time so that would be judged on a case by case basis.

A first aid trained TA or lunchtime supervisor is on duty in the first aid room at break and lunchtimes in my school.

I’m also a school secretary at a prep school, and we have a matron to deal with injuries.

Students do come to us if they can’t find matron, but we send them to her room and call matron as she’s on her mobile.

The interruptions are irritating I agree, as our jobs are admin related.

SequinsOnEverything Lol no but staff seem to be extremely paranoid about repercussions from parents so send every piddly bump/knock to us to "cover themselves"

Our TAs have a roster to cover the first aid room at recess and lunch, but any class time injuries that require assistance are dealt with by office staff. Our office staff all have first aid certificates. I don't send to the office for those that just need a bandaid, but do if they need an icepack.

I do have a couple of overly paranoid mummies that I send their child to the office for minor injuries. This was the mother who rang the principal and kept repeating the phrase 'duty of care' when her child wasn't sent to the first aid room and given an icepack for a paper cut.

All our TAs and Lunchtime Supervisors are trained in First Aid so they deal with injuries. Can't you complain to the HT?

Every playtime there are teachers and TAs on duty in the playground, with a small first aid bumbag. They deal with minor scrapes and grazes there and then. Head bumps or injuries needing more focus are sent to the office. However, there is a member of teaching staff on first aid duty to deal with. All staff at school have at least the one day FA training. Anything more serious is dealt with by staff who have had the additional training or specific paediatric training.

Toilet issues and spills are referred to the caretakers.

I'm admin and do all the first aid too, and sick children sit with us (emptied a lot of sick buckers) and we pick up fox poo from the sand pit, unblock toilets etc. The teachers are teaching so they can't really wander about doing all this.

I'm a midday supervisor and we take turns at being 'nurse'. We deal with cuts and bumps and scrapes and all the usual stuff. However, if it's a child with particular requirements or a more serious injury then they are taken to the office because a couple of the office staff are properly trained. I've been there four months and it's happened once.

We fill out forms for all visits to the nurse and parents are notified of head bumps which is done by the office staff. TAs don't get involved at all.

No, I'm school admin and the most we get is a child in the office waiting to be collected (and the vomity ones would stay with a TA )

I'm school admin and it's a mixture for us. I used to get everything coming to the office but we're up to full staffing capacity on LSA's now and so there is an additional one on duty and it's their job to deal with most first aid issues that come up rather than sending to me in the office. I was losing an hour a day to first aid through constant interruptions and it drove me mad!
Everyone is trained so they should be treating - they have first aid bumbags for playground duty and only send inside bumped heads or heavy bleeding or feeling sick. So they patch up simple grazes and knocks and bumps and I deal with anything needing more than quick treatment.
I can tell who's on playground duty though as some LSA's treat less and I see more in the office!

A mix for us. Mostly TAs doing first aid, but we or Head step in if everyone's too busy. Toilet issues are sometimes TAs but usually office. I don't know why your TAs think they're 'covering themselves' by asking you to do the first aid - why are you any better equipped? Sounds like they need to take more responsibility tbh. I'd only escalate to our senior first aider if there's a major incident (serious cut, big head lump, suspected fracture etc).

I'm school admin and I get similar OP. Absolutley ridiculous reasons that some children are sent to the office. We had a word with the head about it and she agrees and will speak to staff about it. It doesn't happen at break or lunchtime though as it is for the people on break duty to deal with.

However I don't have to deal with toilets or anything like that, I just leave a note for the caretaker or cleaners if there is an issue.

In the past, schools would have a “welfare assistant” that was based in the office. Children would routinely be sent down to the office as the welfare was the only person with first aid training.

Now of course we’ve moved on, but some school staff probably haven’t!

At my school we have a first aid box in all classrooms. Minor scrapes are treated by anyone, but more serious injuries are seen by a first aider. All of the early years staff have paediatric first aid qualifications so the rest of the school would send their injured children to them, but it was very disruptive, so now there are designated staff members for each year group.

At playtimes there is always a first aider on duty, and all smsa’s/dinner ladies are first aid trained.

At my school I am one if the first aides but most issues are dealt with by TAs or MDSs.

Blocked toilets, dead fox on the field etc...... they come to me, I sometimes managed to “cone off” until the premises manager comes in but sometimes I just go deal with it to stop the whinging.....

In my school, all teachers and TAs are first aid trained and, as many PPs have said, office staff only become involved if it is necessary to phone a parent (or an ambulance.)

Are you first aid trained, OP?

Yes I am First Aid trained, but no more than the TAs are.

I bet you get a lot of 'my finger hurts' - seems to be the number one complaint in my school!!