A dinner lady has pulled out my child's tooth, am I overreacting?

Scuffer

I think you should be more concerned with the school than the dinner lady. Any head injury at school means your child has to go home. It happened to me twice at school, one was a little bump on my head by hitting my head getting my pen from under the table and the other was getting kicked in the head playing rugby in PE. Both meant i had to go home because of the risk of delayed concussion and the school cant monitor you all day. I think you should ask their policy on head injuries first.

IrishRose12

GobbledyGook wrote: »

At the last schools I worked in any knocks to the head or face had to be reported to the parents.

Not necessarily a system I agree with (lots of unnecessary paperwork imo), but if that's the system in a school it should always be followed.

I suppose it depends on the school. In the school I work in we have to write it in the accident book, and keep an eye on them but if they are OK and there are no marks, we don't send notes home.
In fact we don't send notes home, if it's that serious we will phone the parents. As notes don't always make it into parents hands no matter what you do with it! And we haven't had a complaint yet. I'm lucky enough to work in a school where a lot of the parents are past pupils, know teachers and all the staff and trust us to look after the children. We would only get the odd parent now and again coming up to ask if something happened and once it's explained they say Oh that's ok thanks very much.

If there is a mark we will speak to the parent after school when they are collected, and if they don't pick them up they get a phone call.
If a child falls and scrapes their knee a note isn't sent home etc. Parents expect their children to have some falls/bruises sometimes, and they know if they have any concerns they can come to us at anytime, and vice versa.
If we were to send notes or phone parents because little Johnny fell and scraped his knee or little Katie was messing about at her table and walked into the table, your children would never learn anything as teacher/classroom assistant has to phone home, or write this note or that note, or run down to the office and phone home, then phone the list of other numbers we have been given as your number is out of use, or you won't answer your phone.

onlyroz wrote: »

Permission? Seriously?

I got a call from the school last week telling me that my daughter had been jumping in puddles and had wet socks. Did I want to go into school to bring her dry ones? Er no. Did they have permission to let her spend the afternoon with no socks? Er yes. Did I mind that she'd be uncomfortable in her shoes without socks? Er no - it's her own silly fault for getting them wet. I put the phone down with a sense of utter bewilderment that they'd deemed it necessary to call me in the first place.

I certainly wouldn't expect a call as a result of a "wobbly tooth emergency" unless the child was bleeding profusely and/or howling in pain.

:rotfl: Sorry I know I shouldn't laugh but serious? They phoned you for socks?? I keep spare socks and underwear in the classroom, I would have just changed the socks and not another word said about it lol Never mind phoning you:eek:

sooty&sweep

At my daughters school they have big stickers that say "I've bumped my head today". The type used for address labels etc. These are then stuck to the child's jumper, usually with a note in her bag with time, details etc.
I find this really useful as I don't always check her bag straightaway.
Jen

IrishRose12

Scuffer wrote: »

I think you should be more concerned with the school than the dinner lady. Any head injury at school means your child has to go home. It happened to me twice at school, one was a little bump on my head by hitting my head getting my pen from under the table and the other was getting kicked in the head playing rugby in PE. Both meant i had to go home because of the risk of delayed concussion and the school cant monitor you all day. I think you should ask their policy on head injuries first.

Again this differs from school to school. But it is not law that you have to be sent home because you bumped your head. We hand out ice packs for numerous bumps and knocks every week in school, the children are looked after, they are observed and if things are really serious then parents are contacted.
Again, if you started that in schools then there'd be no point sending your child to school FGS.
I can understand you were sent home for getting kicked in the head, I had 3 different children today bump their heads, one was in a mood and decided to headbutt the table, another was picking up a crayon from the floor and hit her head off the table, and the 3rd was getting her coat and bumped her head off the shelf above her
All 3 were given ice-packs, they were all observed by myself and another assistant, and there were no marks/bumps/bruises on any 3. The child who head butted the table, her parent was informed, but the other two went home happy as larry. I told one parent as that child was picked up early for a doctors appointment and her mum said ah she's fine and never even looked at the area. The other parent didn't collect the child so we'll see if she says anything in the morning, which I doubt she will.
Each bump was written into the accident book however, so we have a record of it.

Scuffer

IrishRose12 wrote: »

Again this differs from school to school. But it is not law that you have to be sent home because you bumped your head. We hand out ice packs for numerous bumps and knocks every week in school, the children are looked after, they are observed and if things are really serious then parents are contacted.
Again, if you started that in schools then there'd be no point sending your child to school FGS.
I can understand you were sent home for getting kicked in the head, I had 3 different children today bump their heads, one was in a mood and decided to headbutt the table, another was picking up a crayon from the floor and hit her head off the table, and the 3rd was getting her coat and bumped her head off the shelf above her
All 3 were given ice-packs, they were all observed by myself and another assistant, and there were no marks/bumps/bruises on any 3. The child who head butted the table, her parent was informed, but the other two went home happy as larry. I told one parent as that child was picked up early for a doctors appointment and her mum said ah she's fine and never even looked at the area. The other parent didn't collect the child so we'll see if she says anything in the morning, which I doubt she will.
Each bump was written into the accident book however, so we have a record of it.

Still a delayed concussion can show no symptoms for hours after the accident took place, so kids could be going home happy as larry and later in the evening start showing the signs of concussion.

Mojisola

IrishRose12 wrote: »

I can understand you were sent home for getting kicked in the head, I had 3 different children today bump their heads, one was in a mood and decided to headbutt the table, another was picking up a crayon from the floor and hit her head off the table, and the 3rd was getting her coat and bumped her head off the shelf above her

Scuffer wrote: »

Still a delayed concussion can show no symptoms for hours after the accident took place, so kids could be going home happy as larry and later in the evening start showing the signs of concussion.

Has anyone ever got concussion from these kind of bumps?

Falling off play equipment or down stairs, maybe, but from a minor bump?

GobbledyGook

Can't quote as I'm on my phone and it's being annoying!

The last school I worked in got around the note thing by having a duplicate accident book. So the parents got a copy of the accident book entry, but it only needed written once.

It was done as they said it wasn't just about the bump the kid had (obviously important), but also because if they bumped their head again that night/over the weekend it was important to know there had been a bump.

It also took away the element of 'what gets reported depends on who seen it'. One of the teachers who was a rugby coach didn't deem it necessary to tell parents about a fall or bump unless their limb was hanging off :rotfl: Whereas another must have spent half of her life telling parents things - I think she had more accident book entries than the rest of the staff combined.

It keeps things simple. Head or face knock = note home. Blood drawn = note home. I don't necessarily agree that there's a need for it, but I can see the merits in not leaving it open to interpretation (I think it makes it easier for parents as well. And to control parents expectations).

onlyroz

IrishRose12 wrote: »

:rotfl: Sorry I know I shouldn't laugh but serious? They phoned you for socks?? I keep spare socks and underwear in the classroom, I would have just changed the socks and not another word said about it lol Never mind phoning you:eek:

Yes, they phoned me asking me to come in with fresh socks. I would have thought they could get some from lost property, but apparently not. When I said that there was no way I'd drive 15 miles to bring in socks they then insisted that I ring the after-school club to inform then that my daughter would be arriving sock-less. I did as they asked but the lady running the after-school club was just as bewildered as I was over why all this bureaucracy was required :rotfl:

I got the impression that the school thought I was being cruel for allowing a five-year-old to remain sock less for a whole three hours, but I viewed it as a character-building exercise. Wet socks = discomfort is not a bad lesson to learn...

IrishRose12

Scuffer wrote: »

Still a delayed concussion can show no symptoms for hours after the accident took place, so kids could be going home happy as larry and later in the evening start showing the signs of concussion.

I know that thanks, but still after working in a school for going on 12 years now, I've not had a problem yet, school has been running for almost 55 years and no problems either, so we'll stick to doing what we do best.

Being paranoid Nora or fussy mother isn't going to change anything, or help anyone. You have to have trust in the school and their teachers/staff. If you don't have that trust then you're at the wrong school!

FatVonD

Haven't read all the replies but I wouldn't have been happy about it either.