Advice needed QUICK!

[butterfly]

I've been collecting a girl (5) after school one day a week for another minder on and off for the last 6 weeks. today i committed an awful sin and forgot her! i brought home 5 others and totally forgot her! school phoned 30 ins later to remind me after already speaking to the parent!
mum collercted her 15 mins later was obviously upset i apolo
gised but she she bustled the child out with out a word! i'm devastated! but what do i do now! i need to make it better with her and i don't want her to make a complaint!!

help please!

[leeloo1]

Eeeek! That was a bit unfortunate, but must be easily done if its an adhoc arrangement. I spend my life head counting children!

I think the important thing to do is to work out how you'd stop the situation happening again (checklist of names of who you're collecting each day? you could have it on your phone?). You also need to do an incident report and then as your 'actions' put that you've reviewed/put in place a policy to prevent a similar situation occuring.

You could then write to the parent apologising for the mix up (and hand deliver tonight if possible - before she has time to get too wound up) and include copies of what you've written.

[Goatgirl]

hi :)
Yes, I would do as above. Nip it in the bud by showing that you have taken steps to prevent a recurrence.

Don't beat yourself up though, its not as if you left her on her own somewhere or she was lost. She was safe with a teacher the whole time :thumbsup: I'd be sure to mention this in my account of events too ;). And where you write what precautions you will take to prevent happening in future, I'd say I will do x, as I do on outings, in case of emergency evacuation etc, as, although this situation causes no harm to the child, just some confusion and inconvenience for the parents, you are not superhuman so will in future carry a list to avoid this ... or something along those lines. Sorry, feeling ill, so a bit incomprehensible :o

Good luck,

Best wishes,
Wendy :)

[nikki thomson]

I have nightmares about leaving a child somewhere, usually in a supermarket trolley and driving off without them, never actually done that though.
These things do happen and I'm sure as long as you show what steps you've put in place so it doesn't happen again I'm sure it'll be fine.
Have to say though from a patents perspective I would be upset too if my cm left my dd at school, just give her time to calm down.
Hope all goes well. X

[Gracie's mamma]

i've done this and left the child in the school playground and realised when i got to my car .

He was fine and a parent had him , it's the worst feeling ever .

I am constantly head counting and always joke with the mums in the playground and say 'don't let me forget so and so'

It happens to us all , looking back , what would have happend if you had had an accident or couldn't get to the school on time and was unable to phone ahead ??? Think that's what i might have said actually :blush:

Happy Christmas

[butterfly]

Thanks everyone! I know she was perfectly safe and it must happen to everyone at one time or another. It could have been so much worse - she was happy and safe.

I do feel devastated though and totally feel for the parent who must have been worried and angry. I know I would have been and she had every right to be cross.

I will write to her and deliver it this evening explaining how sorry I am and how bad I feel.

Hopefully that will be enough and she won't complain further.

[leeloo1]

I'm sure it'll be fine - if you're apologetic and let her know what you'll do differently in future then she almost certainly won't take it further (and you come across as really nice and genuine here, so I'm sure you do in person too).

But if she did, in the worst case scenario, report you to Ofsted then they'll be impressed by your thorough incident report and reflective next steps that show why it would never happen again! Oh and make sure your paperwork is up to date too. :)

[Maza]

Poor you. When I was a teacher this happened several times over the years - it's just one of those things, especially with ad hoc care. The school wouldn't have thought badly of you and I'm sure the parent will feel better once you have put all the advice given into place. Good luck and let us know how you get on. x

[PerkyEars]

It's not just you - I did this the other week with my after schoolie. I felt terrible. Fortunately he's been with me for over a year, never happened before, and mum and dad are friends of the family, so they were ok with it (to my face at least :p )

Not sure what to suggest other than copious apologies!!

[Monkey1]

Great advice given already! Had a similar situation last week. The school was having a fete and the grandmother who he lives with had told me the previous week that he would be collected from school by grandad to go to the fete.....all week he was " im going to buy this and that and see santa etc" what they forgot to do was to actually tell me that they were no longer able to collect him.!....my telepathic senses are not what they used to be! The TA now laughs at me cause i now go round and check hes been collected when they say they are going to! luckily i had written it down the week before on the attendance sheet!
I would def carry a small clipboard (tescos 2 for 99p) with a list on.
sending ((((hugs))))