So recently I posted about my daughter fracturing her arm at school. Three days later she came home with knees that looked like she had attacked them with a cheese grater. I asked her what happened and she shrugged and through a mixture of words and the medium of dance explained that she had been chasing bubbles in the playground that a member of staff had been blowing and fell over. She then stated she fell in slow motion and only landed on her hands a ‘little bit’. Close investigation with a magnifying glass on her right hand would have revealed a possible mark on her palm, but on her left her splint was frayed.
Sighing and rolling my eyes I shot off a message on the school app to ascertain how badly she had landed on her hands (I was a tad annoyed no one had mentioned the accident at the end of the day) and if I needed to get her arm x-rayed again as her arm was still fractured. I received a prompted message informing me that the teacher knew nothing of the fall. This was not a good start.
I sent her a photo of the damage to her knees, assured her that there is evidence that she did indeed fall in school and asking for her to update me with what happened with regard to her hand and splint. I didn’t feel this was unreasonable as only days before she had been badly injured in school and with a maximum of a 1:2 ratio someone should be able to tell me what happened.
The next morning was my birthday and it was a lovely day to have a condescending conversation with the class teacher that she was sure that my daughter hadn’t fallen in school and that no member of staff saw her fall and was I sure it happened there? If she used the phrase ‘you know what I mean?’ Once more I may have tried to jump down the phone and throttle her.
So lets break it down my daughter had injuries consistent with a fall so yes she had fallen.
She didn’t have them when she was dressed for school in the morning but did have them when I changed her for swimming when I collected her from school so yes I am sure it happened there
If no staff saw her fall that seems to be a problem on the school’s end not mine.
So yes I would like a conversation with your deputy head, who happens to be your safe guarding lead.
So this was escalated to the first step.
This conversation happened later in the afternoon. The deputy head reiterated that not only did no one see her fall but it must had been in a CCTV ‘blind spot’. Again this seems to be a ‘them’ problem. When I pointed out that this was one in a series of unexplained injuries that my child had received in their care she stated she was unaware of the others.
She asked if I wanted to come in and talk to her and the head. This is the head who had already assured me that she would make sure that all injuries on my daughter would be properly reported. So forgive me for not having confidence.
I admit in a first of pique I posted on the private book of faces group for the parents of this class what has been happening and urged parents to chase injuries on their own children. I received the horrifying response that a child in my daughter’s class who should be under 1:1 care as she is highly vulnerable and physically disabled was left in a precarious position at the top of a small flight of stairs, where she fell down and fractured her neck!
What the hell is going on. There are only 10 kids in my daughter’s class and two in a matter of months have received bone fractures due to inattentive staff.
I have now written to the governors and have a meeting scheduled with the chair on Wednesday. I will update on that but this can not be allowed to continue. These children are highly vulnerable, most are non-verbal some are unable to walk and they need more care not less. So I’m brushing off my flamethrower mouth and ability to light fires with emails.
The missile I sent to the governors required me to have a nap after writing because it took so much braining to make it go but I’m sure it will come back to me. In the words of a famous philosopher: This means war.
Raising the Modern Fae 