Mum’s fury as girl, 5, called ‘drama queen by teacher’ after breaking her leg

A schoolgirl was left screaming in pain after breaking her leg - but she wasn’t taken seriously despite yelling “I heard my leg crack”.

Millie Rowe slipped and fell at an after-school club but was left crying in pain after a “lump bigger than a satsuma” arose on her shin. The school didn’t believe she had broken her leg and called her mum to come and pick her up.

The delay in treatment meant she went for three hours without pain relief for a broken fibula (shin bone). Millie’s mum Nicole Schofield, 29, is now furious that the school didn’t take her daughter’s pain more seriously.

Nicole was “disgusted” when she was told by the head of safeguarding that day at the primary school that Millie was known as a “drama queen” - which she thinks explains why her cries were not taken seriously.

“Is that why they didn’t call an ambulance”

Nicole, a mum of three from Wisbech, Cambs, said: “They saw her as a ‘drama queen’ and so didn’t take any notice of her. That comment was not only rude but unnecessary. Is that why they didn’t call an ambulance- because they thought she was exaggerating?

“It makes me feel sick knowing she was in so much pain, and that the school picked her up and moved her which they shouldn’t have done.”

Nicole was called to Nene and Ramnoth School in Wisbech at 3.40pm on 29 March during afterschool club Millie attended each day. The school said there had been an accident and that Millie needed to be picked up. She arrived at the school to find Millie sitting on a chair, crying in pain.

“I head my leg crack”

Nicole was told Millie had slipped on a hula hoop and hurt her leg but she had been examined by a first aider. She had screamed and told the teacher, “I head my leg crack”.

Whilst Nicole was sitting with Millie trying to calm her down, a teacher ran out to Nicole’s taxi and told the driver to expect a little girl to be brought out with a suspected broken leg. However none of the staff told Nicole.

“We know Millie as a drama queen”

Nicole, who runs an events business, said: “They told me I could take her home or get her looked at, that it was up to me. Before I left the Head of Safeguarding at the school said, ‘well, we know Millie as a drama queen.’”

Millie was carried out by a member of staff on a chair and placed in the taxi. At home, she was still screaming in pain on the sofa so Nicole called for an ambulance, which arrived 90 minutes later at 6.30pm.

It was only with the critical care paramedic that someone first mentioned to Nicole it could be broken. Millie was then given ketamine to put her to sleep. At hospital an x-ray confirmed it was a straight break of her fibula.

Millie could have had “treatment quicker”

Nicole, a single mum whose children are 11, five and four, said: “Me and the hospital staff didn’t believe this could have been from slipping on a hula hoop. It may have been a hairline fracture that then became a break after she was moved onto a chair, then into the taxi, then into the house.

“They shouldn’t have moved her and they should have told me if they suspected a break. I wouldn’t have moved her from the school. I could have gotten her pain relief quicker and treatment quicker. It makes me feel sick.

“I don’t believe any staff were supervising when she fell. Half the time when I pick her up from school there’s not one member of staff in the hall supervising the 20 children there.”

Mum wants to enrol Millie in a different school

Nicole said she has now applied to enrol Millie into a new primary school to start in September next year. She also doesn’t plan to return her daughter to the school until they give her an explanation.

Nicole said: “I phoned the school the next day, I was really angry. I cried down the phone to the headteacher, who was apologetic.”

She has contacted Ofsted and the Elliot Foundation Academies Trust, which runs the primary school, to chase up on her complaint. She has since been told an internal investigation into the incident will be launched.

Meanwhile the “boisterous” little girl is getting by with a bright pink cast on her leg which can come off in May and getting up and down the stairs on her bum. The Trust and Nene and Ramnoth School have been contacted for comment.