Your daughter missed out on the trip! That alone is bad without getting into the safety implication of the teacher loosing track of her LITTLE YOUNG students
I would not know how to deal with it. Full on aggressive confrontation might have a negative impact on the way the teachers behaves towards your kid in the future? Her laugh tells me that she was ****ting it. Irresponsible, clueless and manipulative to say the least! Manipulative because she was trying to blame your daughter.
You have to be matter-of-fact (you might need to practise arguing calmly several times with friends). In fact the more rational you sound, the more impressive you become. Also, you will never get a teacher fired. Forget revenge. Go for safety.
So, go to the teacher first and ask her what action she can suggest to reassure you that this will not happen again. (examples: she will always count, again and again, getting on, off and back on bus). She sounds as if she was laughing with relief and if you are rational and serious, but firm, she can sit and think it through and explain how you can be sure it will not happen again. It is probably a first for her that if she forgot to count (which may have happened before), some kid actually didn't make it onto the bus on time. The Swiss kids are probably paying more attention. They are brought up differently. They look out for themselves from a very early age (have you ever noticed those glass tables in the middle of people's living rooms here?)
But in the end you are both interested in safety. No matter what upbringing children have had, she has to count, and she actually knows this. I wouldn't antagonise her by bringing in the heavy artillery. I would get her to take more care.
My daughter is half swiss was born here, and speaks the language she is more swiss than English so please do not say she did not pay attention because my daughter was brought up to pay attention by me.
Laughing with relief i do NOT think so as many others who have been so nice to support me here on this subject they all think it was disgusting that she laught i for one did not appreciate laughter on the phone while i was worried sick out of my mind wondering where my baby girl was.
I do not want revenge i just want to know when my daughter goes to kindergarden she will be safe and looked after by her teacher not forgotten and left alone.
You need to ask yourself whether a fundamental breakdown of the trust relationship between the parent and teacher has taken place. If this is the case you need to remove your child from the school. As a parent you can not send your child to a school where you are constantly questioning their professional judgment.
You as a parent now have a duty of care to ensure that this is reported to the school administration. For all you know this is not the first time. If it happens again and you have not followed up you may feel partly responsible.
In school admin terms this is called a 'near miss' and a system review needs to take place, with yourself, teaching staff and administration present. The school should have an 'Offsite Visits Policy' you have the right to see it. I have one if they dont.
You need to be thankful that the children are safe and do your best to ensure that it never happens again.
Good luck
Will Warren
Bodden Town Primary School
Grand Cayman
Moving to Buchs soon!
I was at the kindergarden last week for visitors day, and this Monday for my daughters birthday party, we had no problems with each other, and she even asked me to bring the rats that Jade got for her birthday into kindergarden for all the other children to see, and i said i would.
It is not a school it is a kindergarden, she will be starting school in August, so i would of thought a kindergarden teacher would of taken more care of younger children when they are in there care.
You should take it up with the school
Is there anyway you can change schools - for something to happen like this once is bad - 2 is unforgivable!
As mentioned by others already in the thread, take this matter higher up the food chain at the kindergarden!!
If you have no reponse or no apology, then copy the letter to all the parents at the kindergarden. It is only right that they are made aware of this dire situation!!
Good luck and keep us all posted!!
I feel bad for Sutter's daughter because she has lost the trust of her teacher. At that age, kids are very impressionable and having a strong adult relationship is important for their growth and development.
BIG THANKYOU TO YOU joslyn
My first reaction is that you should go directly to the police and report the school for negligence but I am not sure that is even possible? A nice "talk" or even a registered letter to the school I suspect will be useless. And be prepared to hear _a lot_ from the school about how your child is "difficult" and "never listens" etc, etc. I bet that will be their defense strategy.
I fully understand your anger and the terror you must have felt when the call came. You have my sympathies in this.
How upsetting for you and your little girl. The teachers in charge of the group should have had the children line up and made sure everybody was there before getting on the coach.
As other people have mentioned, I would arrange to meet the headteacher so you can set out your concerns in a rational way, and to find out what they they plan to do to prevent such an incident from happening again.
Cheers,
Nick
When I first read this, I wanted to say, "if it were me" i'd take my child out of that school. But since I don't have children I restrained myself. Having a kindergarten teacher say the same thing, I feel more confident in saying: Not only should you take this up with the school, authorities, etc; you should consider removing your child from this school!
It's up to you if you want a talk with teacher and authority or if you just want a letter back. Clarify this and also mention last year's incident. Don't expect that she'll be laid off, I assume this would just happen if she had serious negative reports before.
I wouldn't send letters to the other parents though,they'll hear what happened through the grapevine soon. Sending them letters is an unusual step and I fear you could be painted as overprotective parent when you do this.
Sorry that this happened to you, let's hope it doesn't again!
We were very nearly 'muscled' into sending our 5 year old ( 4 and a half at that time ) for counseling , all because he was apparently not listening to what she said . They gave us all kinds of psychological explanations but a year down the track , we now know that it was because he did not understand Swiss German at the time . Experts , you know .....
Not only did I do constant head counts, we walked with partners, and always invited parents and family members on outings. Sounds like she also had no emergency plan in place.
There is absolutely NO excuse for what happened today.