School refused to call me after daughter's PE injury

[Pinkbunny333]

Just collected my daughter from school after she phoned in tears from outside the school gates. She had an accident in PE and badly hurt her hand. She went to 1st aid who told her that they couldn’t ring me or send her home as needed 100% attendance with GCSE coming up. My daughter then went to the head of year to explain the situation was told that the teacher didn’t have time for this and get back to class.

My daughter didn’t sign out, she just left and rang me. She left as she felt she had no other option. I rang school, no answer, so left a voice mail and said I was collecting her and taking her to hospital. Her hand is dislocated.

The head of year rings me later to say my daughter has left the premises unauthorised. When I question why no one rang me and explained the severity of her accident the head of year was v dismissive and said I must bring her straight back after treatment.

im horrified at the lack of care and compassion. I doubt they’d treat an adult in this way so why a child! I’m pretty cross right now and wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction to make an official complaint.

That is horrendous, and I would absolutely complain very strongly once your daughter is sorted out.

That is dreadful. Get the school's complaints policy and work through until you get a satisfactory response. Best wishes for your daughter's speedy recovery.

Wow, that is awful. Your poor dd.

Apart from anything else, was the accident book filled in? What does the school's health and safety policy say should be done when there's a serious accident? I doubt it's down there in black and white that attendance and exam results are the only thing that matters and to hell with the pupils' physical and mental wellbeing.

That’s awful and used to work in the school office and deal with such injuries.

Bloody hell. I'd be raging and probably have to let dh deal with it as not sure i could contain my anger!

Really awful.
A Boy DD was at school with almost died of a brain abcess because they wouldn’t let him leave an exam, he was throwing up in a bin , said he couldn’t see and they said it was ‘nerves’ . They finally called an ambulance when he collapsed unconcious. He ended up in hospital for months with half his skull removed.
When I was a school dinner lady in a private primary, I took a boy with obviously broken fingers to the school Nurse, she shouted and said I was over reacting because his fingers would be ‘navy blue’ if broken. They were indeed broken from being shut in a door.

Awful.

As hospital treatment was required (I assume - resolving the dislocation) is is reportable under RIDDOR.

Id start with requesting the accident form, and proof that the incident has been escalated due to the seriousness.

Added to that: is her hand going to be ok for GCSEs in a few weeks? Reasonable adjustments might be needed - scribe? Rest breaks?

That's absolutely outrageous.

Please do pursue a meeting with the Head of Year or Head. As soon as it's clear that a child has an injury on school premises that isn't trivial, the parents should be notified and appropriate medical treatment sought.

Attendance is besides the point - medical needs trump attendance statistics!

If she has GCSE's coming up then don't keep her off unneccessarily (not saying you would, but if it wasn't a crucial time for mine and they had decent attendanve otherwise I might be tempted to see it as they want them in more than I need them to be and be generous on recovery time).

What treatment did she receive and would there have been any complications if she had stayed in school (in pain) until end of the day?

That is horrendous behaviour from the school. How outrageous!!! Well done to your daughter for trying to follow the proper channels and then ultimately advocating for herself by contacting you. That shows such a level a maturity! I would be absolutely not dropping this and demanding a meeting asap, and a full apology to both you and your daughter, and I would want this reporting to ofstead.

It’s quite possibly a reportable injury to the HSE.

You may get a more sensible conversation from
either the person responsible for health and safety, or going the safeguarding route.

That’s awful, my DD is in year 10 and I very much doubt her school would do this

This is awful, your poor daughter not being allowed home with a dislocated hand. My son did this recently and was in so much pain, no way could he have sat in a classroom working and he’s a tough cookie!

I’d be complaining to everyone quoting the relevant policies, safeguarding and general human decency in dealing with injured kids.

Attendance figure are not more important than looking after injured kids.

I hope your daughter makes a speedy recovery.

Not necessarily Reportable. It depends on the exact cause.

Not only is it appalling the general lack of care given in the original instance but for the head of year to then demand you bring her back after receiving treatment for a dislocation is unbelievable. I would be complaining to all and sundry and as PP said demanding apologies and recognition that they have got this very, very wrong.