My son fell and hit his head at school but we weren't told, how do i approach this?

fly_dragon_fly

Yesterday my son came into the shop i work in with my dad ( who'd picked him up that day like normal) and had this mark down the side of his face/ top of his forehead and he said that some kid had swung him round and he told him to stop 4 times whilst on the play ground ( i can just assume playing) and when let go my son obviously hit his head but what has annoyed me was that my told his teacher who told him to get a wet tissue and that was that.

After him getting him he feel asleep straight away and threw up so my parents took him to the doctors who told us to keep a eye on him but what i want to know is how do i bring this up with the school? It will have to be over the phone this morning as i am at work again this afternoon and am pregnant and a little bit emotional this morning as it is and don't really want to cause a fuss, who should i ask for when calling?

apesxx

i would talk to the school about it. You should have been told. My DD comes home with a bumped head letter from school near enough weekly lol. The letter we usually get just has advice about what to watch out for and what to do if any of the symptops arise and then it has a bit for the teacher to write how, where and date too.

They have something very similar at DS's nursery too.

fly_dragon_fly

Thats what i expect so what should or who should i ask for? should i just speak to the receptionist or ask for the head to call me back? don't want to seem over the top but if i hadn't noticed the mark on his face i would have just thought he was tired or had a sicky bug which could have been dangerous.

Mojisola

Ask if the injury was put into the Pupil Accident Book. If it wasn't, ask to see the school's policy document on reporting pupil's injuries.

If they haven't followed their own policy, the Head and Chair of Governors should be reviewing the staff training.

LEJC

Most children have small accidents in the playground at some stage in their school life but when they are physically marked the teacher should be logging it in a accident book and at the very least pointing it out to whoever collected your son from school last night as a potential "concern"....the fact that he has subsequently been sick and sleepy could be an indication that the incident was a little more than a knock......

Please speak to the school and tell them what happened last night and that he has been seen by a doctor as their accident book will need to be updated....perhaps its a case that you need to clarify with the school what they believe should happen in reporting head/facial injuries to parents/carers,as clearly any procedure they have in place may not have been followed yesterday

I hope your son feels better this morning,most of the time a knock on the head is just that,but occaisionly even thre most accidental bump can cause more serious problems....my son once fell from a chair,and then as a result had to spend a night in hospital, the school had informed us of the incident and it was only later that evening that we needed to take him to the doctors and hospital, but if we had not been informed we would not have spotted his symptoms and linked it to the fall.

Fire_Fox

If you are too emotional to deal with this verbally express your concerns in writing or an e-mail.

pmlindyloo

Before you ring the school I would make sure you know all the facts. This happened in the playground - break time or lunchtime or after school? Did he tell the teacher on duty (if break time) or a 'dinner lady' (if lunch time). Did he tell his class teacher? Who told him to 'get a wet tissue'?

Not being picky but for the school to make sure that this doesn't happen again then they will need to know when it happened and how it was reported.

If you know all the facts then telephone and ask to speak to the Head. Just say that you are a bit concerned about what happened and want to know why you weren't informed so that you could have 'kept an eye' on him.

Keep it polite and ask her to follow it up so that you know exactly how it happened.

If she/he is a good headteacher then he/she will speak to your child and find out exactly what went on and then can put practices in place so that it doesn't happen again.

Having said all that, children fall over all the time and often don't tell anyone.

Also, have known children to react to questioning by parent i.e what happened? Didn't you tell anyone? what did they say? by saying the first thing that comes into their head, just to stop the parent from going on!

Not saying this happened with your child, just suggesting that you don't blow this up too much.

Is your child back at school today?

fly_dragon_fly

thanks for the replies, he went to school today as he seemed fine but i rang them and just asked them to keep a eye on him but i was a bit concerned i hadn't got a note or anything. She basically said that children leave notes in their trays often but she said she would keep a eye on him, then tried to tell me that him being sick could be a sickness bug but i don't believe that as he had it a few weeks ago and was sick 4 times rather than once and then just wanted to sleep again.

Mojisola

fly_dragon_fly wrote: »

thanks for the replies, he went to school today as he seemed fine but i rang them and just asked them to keep a eye on him but i was a bit concerned i hadn't got a note or anything. She basically said that children leave notes in their trays often but she said she would keep a eye on him, then tried to tell me that him being sick could be a sickness bug but i don't believe that as he had it a few weeks ago and was sick 4 times rather than once and then just wanted to sleep again.

That's not good enough. If a child has had an accident, particularly a bump on the head, a member of staff should tell whoever comes to collect the child.

poet123

Did you ask your son if he had been given a note? It is possible that he left it in his tray, if he wasn't then that was just an excuse.

LEJC

Fly...how old is your son?....I assume hes at primary or junior school....At that age it is not his responsibility to tell you anything about his day at school...but if there is an accident then it is the schools responsibility to make the person collecting your son aware of what has happened.


If the system at that school is to rely on the child giving you a note that he may or may not know is placed in his tray...then in my experience it could be the end of term before he brings it home.
the system of just giving a note clearly didnt work in your case and I would suggest that the school need to ensure that there is also a verbal exchange between the school and whoever collects to ensure that their communication is effective.