A mother is accusing a private school of not providing enough supervision after her 10-year-old daughter came home with a broken nose, even if the headmistress argues the unfortunate incident would have happened irrespective of supervision.

Brigitte Pace says her daughter tripped over a stone while waiting for the van to pick her up after school. Despite her nose having been "twisted to one side" she was given a tissue to stop the bleeding and allowed to go home as usual, the mother insists.

Mrs Pace thinks the incident was the result of poor supervision and has in fact decided to take her daughter out of San Andrea School.

When the girl arrived home, her mother rushed her to hospital where, she says, a doctor informed her the girl needed a €1,200 operation to fix her broken nasal septum.

Mrs Pace says her daughter told her that the van supervisor was "somewhere else" at the time of the incident but when she saw the girl's friends running towards her the supervisor went to the girl and offered a tissue and then helped her onto the van, which had just arrived.

"I paid lots of money for my daughter to attend that school, including money specifically for supervision. The least I would have expected is decent supervision," Mrs Pace said.

She also complains that nobody from the school called her to say what had happened and neither was her daughter given any medical care.

The school insists it was not to blame for the incident and that the supervisor was present at the time.

Headmistress Dorothy Lapira explained that parents pay an extra €35 per term for van supervision, something they have always preferred to do to maximise their children's safety.

"At the time of the accident, the girl was supervised by the van supervisor at the ratio of one is to 15, which is well within the limits of supervision accepted by health and safety rules," she said.

She says that, as the supervisor thought the girl was having a normal nosebleed, she decided to put her on the van to be taken home without seeking help from first-aiders, like the assistant-head, who was still inside the school despite lessons having finished.

"It is the school's policy to call parents about any injury and ask them if they would like to call for the child themselves or if they would like them to be put on the van. However, this could not happen as the supervisor put the child on the van without notifying the school."

The school offered to provide support teachers to help the girl make up for the lessons she lost during her week-long recovery. But her mother withdrew her from the school before this could be done.

Ms Pace says that all she wants is for the issue of supervision and safety to be taken more seriously by schools.

cperegin@timesofmalta.com