I wonder why that is?
My limited experience with Swiss schools and educators is that they actually have very little knowledge (read: interest?) in how to keep track of a lot of kids safely. Not just on excursions but also in the normal school environment.
Because of the last time she lost Jade i offered to go to every event ,sports day, forest day, e.t.c. just to help out, and keep an eye on Jade. The teacher said no i was not allowed -
Are you going to remove your child from this kindergarden?
I din't want to challenge your experience as that is what you have to go on but at my son's kindergarten & kinderkrippe (nursery) they are both very interested in child saftey. I've joined them on excursions & the teacher's make them always walk in pairs holding hands with their partners & head counts are also taken. I would like to think that this is the norm & that I am not just lucky.....
Im stunned she said you could not go. I had an open door policy when I taught, a parent could come anytime without announcing it beforehand. I had absolutely nothing to hide and in fact I encouraged families to be part of our class. Most of the time parents were a great help, and they always added their wisdom to the class. It takes a village was our motto.
Is this a cultural norm, not involving parents. I have not taught children in Switzerland.
FFS she has lost her before! Do not go to the teacher take this to the school president, I don't care if I am being emotioanl on your behalf this is not acceptable.
No she as only a few months left there, and all her friends are there, but what i am going to do is put her on the bus myself, and make sure she is NEVER left alone again.
I'm not sure about in all kindergarten's, in my son's parents are enouraged to get involved. On forrest days it is normal for a parent to accompany the class. Our KG teacher also has an open door policy at the begining & end of the day to speak to her about anything. She does not appreciate visits during class time as the disrupts the class but any other time is fine, we also have her mobile & home phone numbers.
Lets hope time passes quickly and your worries are put to rest, I would suggest if in near future should the children do go out again, I would just pitch up where ever they are unannouced. Remember youre not married to the teacher and your not the child, so you dont need her permission. She should remember whos paying her salary??????
I have her mobil no, but only because she rang me on hers, and i have caller i.d. Then when i called her once on it, because she was not at home, and i needed to speak to her urgently she was not happy, and asked me to never ring her on her mobil again. It was not a weekend, or night it was in the afternoon.
I agree with Tilla with this one, there is no excuse they, the teacher and the school failed a basic requirement in duty of care.
Myself after receiving the phone call from the teacher my next call would have been to the police, your child + missing for one hour = serious situation in my opinion, that is a long time!
If the school imply that your daughter is a problem, up the anti and make it quite clear this is going to go higher until you are treated seriously!
Send Mr Sutter to remonstrate.
From experience, sadly, mother is not taken seriously & Mrs P is well feisty. We had a problem with our last Kindergrippe & I had to go in & blow my fuse before the problem was rectified.
My "offer" to talk with our local paper seemed to also help.
Great tip there on threaten to go to the press should cause them some concern.
I had a problem a month ago with my son being bullied, he is 5 and Mrs M went to try and resolve the problem which was that they agreed to keep more of an watchful eye on our son. A few days later my son was inconsolable at lunch time, I found he had a deep bite mark on his arm which I noticed from the blood coming through his shirt. He was frightened and did not want to go back, never seen him so scared. I had to talk to him for an hour and assure him that even though I was not there I would do something about it, but in future he had to tell the teacher and also me if anything like this happened.
I went to the school with my wife in tow and got my son to point out who was bullying him which he did after some persuasion, obviously he was a bit apprehensive to this. I confronted one of the teachers there and then, which at first she mentioned that my son was a "problem child" ...! I went ballistic, at which point another teacher came over in an attempt to calm the situation. To be fair she was much better than the first and confronted the bully who confessed to the bullying and bitting my son. He was sent to a corner to wait for dealing with.
I then told them this was just not going to happen and this was going to be resolved, I wanted to talk to the parents of the other child and I wanted to discuss this b£$%^ about my child being a problem.
Result, talked to the other parents who were mortified at what he had done and did not know he had a reputation as being a bully as some of the girls were also complaining he had hit them.
As to the problem child bit, well he does not speak French as he has only just moved here and told them to speak to him in English at first, when it is important. I then took my son in the mornings and afternoon and spent 15 minutes there along with teacher and just showed that if you asked him nicely in English he would do what was asked, I also translated in French to him the simple things so now he has gone from being a problem child to be very good child. Now they can talk to him in French for the simple things and he does it straight away.
Sorry for the long post, not sure if what I did is the correct etiquette here but it worked for us.
Start calling her from random public phones and play my pimp chicken song
Brilliant idea thanks.
I cannot believe no warnings or nothing has been done with this teacher. I would certainly challenge the schools safety procedure and speak with the gemeinde. Priority of safety should be planned with adults involved in the outing, and counting of heads and illuminous jacket etc, are only some of the precautions you should take when looking after children out of school. People should not underestimate the damage a child could suffer when been left like this, young and vunerable. I certainly would not leave it rest there, you could by the sounds of it be protecting another child in the future if you challenge their capabilities (lack of ) If this was England social services would be involved assessing the possible risk of this happening again. Quite High by the sounds of it!
Good Luck and hope your child recovers with the trust again.
I have read all your usefull comments, and thankyou again to you all.
I have realised i should have said it was not a one off day trip to the forest. They do this trip every thursday, which in my point of view just make`s it that much worse, because the teacher as done this trip 100`s of times. So she should know what she was doing, and definately not let 2 little girls behind . I cannot believe she did not notice, and do a head count on the bus, and then not to notice that 2 little girls where missing while getting off the bus, or when walking with them. You could not miss my daughter she is dressed in bright orange ski pants grey jacket, but with a orange glow in the dark thing (sorry do not know the name), bright pink fluffy hat, and a pink rucksack. Anyone who wants to see a picture of her how she was dressed send me a PM please.
BIG THANKYOU AGAIN FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT.
Oh just read your posts. You must have been sick with worry. All the comments have given good advice....definitely go above her straight to the top, this wasn't just a small incident that you want to have a chat about, it was very very serious. When dropping our children off at KG or school, we expect our childs safety and welfare to be taken over by the teacher. Its a bugger that the schools are shut over Easter and you have to wait a few days longer. Write everything down now that you want to say so you don't forget anything. I get a bit flustered sometimes in certain situations and come away forgetting to say something I really wanted to. I just can't believe the teacher left them and as for her trying to turn the blame from herself.....unglaublich!! I hope you're little one has recovered from it too.
Unfortunately the schools, and kg are all closed for 2 weeks now .
O what a pi**er. Schools here only off till Tues. Maybe you could email the Schulleiter or head of the KG & schools documenting everything that happened and tell them you and your husband want a meeting ASAP after the school hols.