child broke leg at school....

milliebear00001

It's not a complaint that's needed though is it? You want reassurance that the steps (and any other repairs around the school) are being taken care of and will be safe for your, and other, children.

A simple chat with the Head, making it clear that you aren't seeking to lay blame or compensation, should achieve that while maintaining good relations with the school.

teacherandmum

this is what would happen in this situation in the school/authority i work in
1. child has accident
2. accident form filled in and sent to County Hall
3. County Hall send representative out to look at cause/site of accident and see if there are any ways that situation could be improved by carrying out work (ie fitting railings, relaying slabs, etc)
4. workmen carry out said repairs/alterations
5. hopefully. no more accidents occur in that area

this is what i presume may have happened and why repairs are bring carried out.
What is it that you are annoyed that you haven't been informed of? the repairs? or that they havent communicated with you since the accident?

jellytot79

a bit of both, I feel a bit like because they haven't comunicated or acknowledged to me the steps needed repaired that it was being a bit hush in the hope I wouldn't find out!

CH27

When did the accident happen & when did they start to repair them?

jellytot79

happened last Tuesday, repairs started today

CH27

jellytot79 wrote: »

happened last Tuesday, repairs started today

I'd say they were scheduled repairs.
No schoool/LA moves that fast.

meritaten

If they were scheduled repairs ch27 then the school knew that the stairs were dangerous and should have made them off limits to the children.
BUT - the authorities move much faster since so many of them have been sued!
the way to find out if the steps were known to be dangerous is to ask for (or look online) for the agenda for LEA meetings or even school/PTA meetings.
I am NOT suggesting that the OP sue - I would advise against it actually! her daughter is young - best to wait until she is an adult and any issues arising from the broken bones come to the fore.
I would suggest however, that the OP finds out as much as they can about whether the school KNEW the steps/stairs were unsafe. whether this was scheduled work or not. were the children warned verbally about the steps/stairs. then keep this documented until the child is 18. UNLESS the child has severe mobility problems at the moment! then I would advise seeing a solicitor!

milliebear00001

meritaten wrote: »

If they were scheduled repairs ch27 then the school knew that the stairs were dangerous and should have made them off limits to the children.
BUT - the authorities move much faster since so many of them have been sued!
the way to find out if the steps were known to be dangerous is to ask for (or look online) for the agenda for LEA meetings or even school/PTA meetings.
I am NOT suggesting that the OP sue - I would advise against it actually! her daughter is young - best to wait until she is an adult and any issues arising from the broken bones come to the fore.
I would suggest however, that the OP finds out as much as they can about whether the school KNEW the steps/stairs were unsafe. whether this was scheduled work or not. were the children warned verbally about the steps/stairs. then keep this documented until the child is 18. UNLESS the child has severe mobility problems at the moment! then I would advise seeing a solicitor!

Such a repair at my school would simply be dealt with by our caretaker. It almost certainly wouldn't merit a mention on any sort of documentation!

It seems much more likely to me that the school had no idea the steps were unsafe, and so only realised repairs were needed, when the child had the accident and they were looked at a bit more closely/or it became obvious because of the crumbling.

With the best will in the world, schools are often large environments, and keeping on top of crumbling infrastructure/repairs is difficult - just as it often is in a small, family home.

There_Goes_Trouble

CH27 wrote: »

I'd say they were scheduled repairs.
No schoool/LA moves that fast.

I suspect they do when the steps have been the cause of a serious accident, to make sure it can't happen again!

I would have thought that if there was no visable damage to the steps (which we don't know if there was or not) then the school can't be held responsible as they could not reasonably be expected to forsee the accident happening. After the accident happened, they have taken steps to ensure the same accident can't happen to another child so would be seen to be acting responsibly.

If there is evidence to suggest that the school knew the steps were dangerous and did nothing about it (e.g. a document stating that the repairs were necessary but nothing had been done about it) and continued to allow the children to use the steps, then they could be seen to be negligent.

OP you need to talk to the school and determin which of the two scenarios is the case. If it's the former then I think the school have acted responsibly and the most you can expect is an apology for not keeping you informed as to the cause of the accident. If it's the latter then you may have grounds to take your complaint further.

onlyroz

Unless you are sure that the school was negligent I would just leave it and concentrate on getting your daughter well. Accidents happen.

At my son's school last term a girl broke her arm on the school climbing frame - the school have since introduced a policy that the kids must be wearing trainers when using the outdoor equipment, which is fair enough, but I haven't heard anybody suggest that they were negligent in any way, least of all the girl's parents.