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We had a vegetarian child with multiple allergies in the class (No nuts, gluten, egg, cow's milk). The child had to consume her own food daily and was not allowed to have school food.

On one occasion, the class teacher received instructions from the mother that she would provide gluten free bread for the child to consume in school. The mother instructed the teacher to spread jam onto the bread and snap photos of the child eating her bread during the tea break.

The teacher misunderstood and gave the child the bread during lunch without any spread. The mother was furious when the pictures were sent and came down to the school to lodge a complaint that we were starving her daughter.

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We have a mixed race child in our class, mum is an Eurasian Chinese and dad is an Indian. The child has mentioned in class before that her mother taught her chinese at home and thus we assumed that there was someone who understood Mandarin at home. Thus when the chinese teacher sent out a message in chinese in regards to an activity she would like parents to participate in, we did not include a translation for the child's parents as we did for children from other races that did not speak the language. The dad was upset and asked why we did not include a translation for him and state that no1 in the family understood mandarin. He declared that the school was being racist and demanded an apology.

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Teacher Z in-charge of the staff-schedule asked if a Chinese teacher was able to help to work late shift on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Chinese teacher asked why she had to do 3 days. She was meaning to asked why the other teachers could not help but did not explicitly say it. She mentioned that she usually had to rush home on Tuesday to bring her daughter for night tuition. However, she will try to make the necessary arrangement.
On the very Tuesday morning 7.30am, teacher Z texted in the group chat indicating that the Chinese teacher to start work at 8.30am (her usual shift). This was not communicated and thus confused the Chinese teacher. The Chinese teacher did not managed to come to school in time.
This upsets the Chinese teacher but she still put on a smile when talking to Teacher Z.

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My centre has 4 teachers in-charge of rostering (2 roster leads and 2 supporting teachers) The roster teams will take turn  with the roster on alternate months, e.g. January 1 lead 1 supporting teacher, February the other lead and teacher.

We have a system that whoever is on MC or Urgent Leave will have to inform the rostering team in charge for the month to make the necessary changes. HOWEVER, there are times when teachers do not inform the correct person and messages were not relayed on time resulting in lack of manpower for a particular class. Due to this miscommunication, the rostering teams need to take the extra time to make last minute arrangements especially when ratio in the particular class doesn't meet for the day/time.

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Language Barrier between Chinese and English teacher.

The child brought TCM medicine to be taken before lunch. The child's parent told the Chinese teacher but when she communicated it to the English teacher, the English teacher misinterpreted and thought he had finished the medicine at home, and he does not have to take it again in school. The child went back home with the medicine and we had to explain it to the parents.

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Pre-covid, a Nursery boy is suppose to take the school bus home on days when there is no enrichment classes and his grandfather will fetch him on days with enrichment classes.

Months back with the changing of covid measures, enrichment classes was stopped and the p and teachers were confused whether the boy needs to take the school bus. The parents kept changing the arrangement till everyone including the bus driver are getting so confused.
One day, the p private texted the mom to ask about it and confirmed on the days the boy will take the school bus and days the grandfather will fetch. The p informed all the teachers so that we are all aware of the changes.

Then come one month when there were make-up enrichment classes. One day, the boy did not go up the bus. Mom called the school and ask why didn't the boy go up the bus. Mom said that she wasn't aware of the make-up class and blamed the school for not informing when the msg was broadcasted the week before. Mom made a fuss about it because she needed to make extra arrangement to fetch the boy. She made everyone confused again about her bus arrangement and grandfather fetching.

Now, the dismissal teacher and bus aunty gets worried when the boy takes the school bus. We often had to confirm with each other first before letting the boy board the bus.

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It was the flu season and with covid we had to send children home if they exhibit any flu-like symptoms (cough, runny nose, fever).

Two children were running a fever and teacher A asked teacher B to inform the principal about it. However, teacher B is a mandarin teacher and might have misheard the information. She mentioned a different child's name which led to the principal calling the wrong parents.

The parents were thankfully understanding and did not pursue the matter. The principal should have also clarified with the respective teachers before making the call. This is the classic example of a broken telephone... information lost in translation.

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A parent asked the teacher if her child attended the enrichment class. The teacher responded the next day by saying that "I understood from the child that she had attended the enrichment class yesterday". The mum was puzzled with her response as she wanted to find out from the teacher and not with the teacher checking in with the child.

After clarifying with the teacher, she explained that she responded in that way as she thought that the mum would have checked in with her child yesterday when she picked the child up. As she only replied the mum the next day, she thought that the mum would already have clarified with the child.

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As Chinese New Year is coming, the teachers will need to plan celebration activities with either the children or together with the parents.
The centre leaders had indicated in the parent engagement plan of the year that the Chinese teachers will be the ones hosting the celebration. In other words, they will also be the one who plan the activity. Many reminders were given through meetings and group messages.

However, on the day of submission, some of the English teachers were the ones planning and submitting the proposal. The Chinese teachers mentioned that they didn't know they need to plan for it.

My principal and I reflected on this incident on what went wrong that causes this miscommunication as some teachers mentioned they 'didn't know' about this. We were thinking that perhaps it's because we didn't check in with the teachers individually whether they understand the instruction or plan.

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There was a new child in the Pre-N class who has serious allergy to egg, which was also informed by the parents to the main teacher, Teacher N. So Teacher N told her partner, the Chinese teacher, to remember that this new child could has egg allergy so any food that contains egg was a nono. All these were communicated in English but the chinese teacher was not very proficient in it. The chinese teacher just replied 'Ok' and Teacher N thought it was understood.

However, a few days later when Teacher N was on leave, there was a child who had a birthday in the afternoon so all the children ate the birthday cake for teabreak. The child with egg allergy was also given a slice of cake, which ended up in a serious allergic reaction and was rushed to the doctor's after the child broke out in rashes. The chinese teacher claim that Teacher N did not communicate properly with her that the child could not consume anything that contains egg and she thought that the child could not just eat egg itself, but otherwise anything with egg added in such as cake or pancakes is ok.

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A parent from Nursery class sent a message in the parent support group (PSG) where only the teachers of the PSG were inside the group chat. The parent informed that the child has hfmd on Wednesday. The teacher in charge of PSG group forwarded the message to the child's nursery class teacher.

On Thursday and Friday, there were cases of hfmd reported for the infant bay and sanitisation was done across the bays.

Following Tuesday, another teacher (a good friend of the Nursery class teacher), informed the vice-principal of the case of hfmd in the Nursery class.

The vice-principal and principal were upset that they were not informed of the hfmd incident in the Nursery class the previous week.

It turns out that the Nursery teacher thought that the teacher in the PSG group has informed the principal since the message was sent in the group chat. The PSG teacher thought that the Nursery class teacher would inform since the child was in Nursery class and she has forwarded the message to the teacher.

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A child in the class I was assisting had a dietary requirement of "No chicken". But she was not vegetarian, and could still consume the school meals with fish, which she loved!

When I was assisting another class during lunchtime for two weeks, I reminded the form teacher not to give her chicken. However, I later found out that the form teacher just gave her the vegetarian food every day because she was "too lazy to care and anyway it's safer to give her that". Unfortunately the child did not fancy having the vegetarian food (she detests mushrooms) and refused to eat. She would go home to tell her mother that she was hungry and there were "only mushrooms" in the lunch serving. The mother was upset and made a complaint to the school, asking why her daughter was not served fish when she specifically only requested to avoid chicken.

When the principal asked the form teacher about it, she retorted with "no chicken means vegetarian what, why the mother so fussy", and refused to accept that there was any wrongdoing on her part. For the rest of the year, she announced that she would have nothing to do with serving the whole class any food at lunchtime to avoid anymore problems.

This issue could have easily been avoided if the form teacher had sought proper clarification with the other teachers, the principal or even the parent herself. If she had also noticed that the child was not eating, she could have given it a bit more thought and made an effort to provide the child with suitable food.

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Early in the morning, One of the Nursery 1 parent wrote in the parental app "My son said he feel down in school, his chin has a blue black, and no one has informed me, why this happened?"

The English teacher who with the boy's group, replied "Hi Mrs. *, I am sorry to hear that **has hurt. He was fine and didn't  feel down in school. "

I was informed by the Chinese teacher that the mum has sent this message, after I read the message, I conducted a investigation with the class teachers, understand the  child feel down in a gross motor activity in the morning, the assistant teacher saw and check and comfort the boy, the boy stopped crying and said he is okay. The Chinese teacher was with another group of Children, she saw assistant teacher go to the child. The English teacher came at 9:40 am but was not informed the accident. so she assumed that the boy did not hurt in school and replied the message without check with other teachers.

The issue could be prevented if
1. The teachers communicate well and don't assume that other teachers would pass the message.
2. The teachers are clear about their responsibilities, for instance, if the English teacher is not in the class, the Chinese teacher has to be informed, the Chinese teacher must hold the responsibility of all children's safety with the help of the assistant teacher.
3. Parents must be informed if the child had fallen and hurt in school, even there was no visible trauma.
4. Check with the class teachers before replying to the parents when encountering such issues.
5. Vice principals or senior teachers must be informed about the accident. the incident needs to be recorded in the class log.

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There is only one assistant teacher assisting my centre and she is usually a floater around younger classes (PG/N1). However, she may be needed in older classes if we are down with staff too.

One day, she was supposed to be helping the routine change for the N1 class right before naptime (the busiest time of the day) but she was not anywhere to be found. The N1 teachers were really angry and felt that she was lazing away somewhere else.

Apparently, she was asked to go for lunch by the Principal. The assistant teacher has informed a teacher to pass the message to the N1 teachers but no such message was passed. This miscommunication could have been prevented if the message was sent in the group chat and everyone would be well informed instead of jumping into conclusion.

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One of the children in the N1 class that I'm assisting in is allergic to milk. We were all very careful when providing her food just so that the food will not cause rashes around her mouth.

However, one day when we were eating oats (with milk) for breakfast and the class teacher said that it is alright for her to eat it and she can take it if its indirect and mixed with other foods.

Prior to this, the child did not consume any foods that contain milk as we were afraid that it would trigger her rashes.

The class teacher should have informed us about the small details and sent it in our school's group chat instead of telling 1 or 2 teacher about it and expecting other teachers to pass the message around.

It may cause a big issue if it's another way around.

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This incident actually happened last year, with one of the children in my class.

Child Z was celebrating her birthday that day but parents did not inform the school. She has bought a cake from a non-halal source. However, our school only accept cakes from halal sources, to be inclusive of our muslim children. I had called the parent, and informed her of this, as well as the need to have submitted a birthday form. Parent said she "vaguely remembers" this during the orientation but was not sure of the procedure/did not communicate this to the school. She only wrote about celebration on the day itself, in the comm book (luckily, I check the comm book daily!)

There was a whole lot of back and forth calls to settle the issue as parent really wanted Child Z to have the cake with her friends. Parent proceeded to take a screenshot from the seller as proof that the ingredients were from halal sources. However, we were not able to serve the cake as it was not certified. Thankfully parent was understanding and said "it's okay" and we cut the cake in school but did not serve it.

This is an example of miscommunication and how information given may not reach the receiver in the intended manner.

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In the second half of 2021, I encountered a miscommunication situation with a parent and lead to a confrontation in the Centre. During the period,the N2 English teacher resigned and only the class parents were informed a week before. I was tasked by the management to take over the class and be in charge of both N2 as well as the K1 children,whom I was currently in charge of. So in the following two weeks,I begin my role as a dual teacher in the Centre. When I asked the management on whether the K1 parents are aware of this,the reply given to me was, "It's not a need for us to tell the parents,you don't be so worried about it,but alright, we will send an email or a notice to them to inform that you will also take the N2".

However, two weeks later,one of the K1 parents,asked me of my whereabouts as her daughter has had mentioned that "Teacher Wiyah is not there during lunch time and nap time,but only Laoshi,I dont like". So,I explained.

The next day,to my dismay,she stormed into the Centre and called out for me. She confronted me in a harsh tone for 15 minutes,mentioning that it is bad company management and that I abandon the children. As I was trying to explain myself repeatedly,my Director stood still and remain silent.

After a while, after I assured her once again, she stomped out angrily.

I began to wonder,on whether the parent actually understood what I have mentioned. She is a Chinese speaking person who hails from a foreign country, and the message which I was trying to send to her might have been misunderstood and the messages might have misconstrued. Hence, caused her anger. I wish help was being rendered to me at that point of time,to prevent such a poor communication situation from happening again.

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The Playgroup class was preparing for story time. Toddler Z was seated on the mat. Toddler K toddled towards Toddler Z from behind. Toddler K lost balance and fell on Toddler Z, causing Toddler Z to fall forward and hit the ground. Toddler Z sustained an injury on her lower lip.

The form teacher informed the mum of Toddler Z regarding the incident. The mum mentioned that she would like to claim the medical insurance as her child was being pushed by someone in school. She asked her child if she was being bullied.

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Recently there's been a new child who has been crying loudly everyday for 3 weeks. Parents of the child have noticed this as well.

The Lao Shi told the parent nicely; "Haiya, cannot like this, you must talk to your child you know, so he will not cry anymore when coming to school." Dad responded calmly by saying "yes, we talk to hin daily".

Parent was a French dad and he went home and told his wife that Lao Shi was very upset and said rudely to him to talk to the child.

Message was misinterpreted, perhaps when Lao Shi said "Haiya" and dad thought that it was a sign/word to mean "exasperated"

In some contexts perhaps it is, but in this context Lao Shi was honestly being nice and asking the parents' help to work togetehr in order to stop the child from screaming and crying in class.

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An unfamiliar person was spotted parked outside the school gates by the teachers in infant bay.

A chinese infant teacher came over to the childcare bay and spoke to a chinese childcare teacher about it before going outside to speak to the person parked there. The person ended up being the husband of the new english teacher. The infant teacher came back to relay the information to the chinese teacher and also asked the English teacher to confirm.

The new english teacher was very angry at the childcare Chinese teacher and shouted at her because she assumed that the chinese teacher had asked the infant teachers to go speak to her husband instead of asking the English teacher if she knew the person and scolded them for being gossips.

Even when the situation was clarified by the Principal, the english teacher still complained about it to the rest of the staff.

The situation could have been caused by a communication barrier between the english and chinese language teachers and made worse by the new teacher feeling defensive as she is unfamiliar with the teachers and doesn't trust them.

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English teacher told chinese teacher that new child was coming in the following month. Chinese teacher prepared materials and was expecting child's arrival following week. She was surprised that child did not turn up.

Misinterpretation of message due to chinese teacher's inability to understand partners English language. English Teacher was not local & had an accent.

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A child came into the centre weeks ago with a vegetarian diet. Mum informed that child can consume eggs, cheese and milk however strictly no chicken and fish.

As the teacher in charge was on MC, the information was transmitted when she returned the next day.

The teachers in the classroom updated the teacher in charge on how they served her lunch the day before. Everyone was clear and aware to only serve her the food from the vegetarian bento however the teacher in charge interpreted wrongly and served her soup too from the meat menu. She later shared that was not aware of it.

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Background information: The incident happened to a teacher who is taking N2 class.

Teacher C had Parent Teacher Meeting (PTM) with J's parents via phone call. During the PTM, J's parents asked Teacher C if J is special. They further shared that J's relatives observed that J is different from other children without providing any other details.

At that point of time, Teacher C did not clarify with the J's parents on what are the observations that led them feel that J is special.

However, Teacher C did notice that J is awkward when socialising with peers. J usually shared 'facts' with peers and teachers. He would avoid initiating conversations. Thus, Teacher C thought that the parents were also aware that J is lacking in his social emotional development and that the word 'special' means that the child may have needs.

So during the conversation, Teacher C shared that J would share lots of information that he read from books and that he would avoid communicating with others.

J's parents were happy and glad to hear that J knows so much information and is able to share it with peers and teachers.

At the end of the conversation, the parents asked Teacher C what they can do to further help J in his cognitive development and if J feel bored in class since he already know so much.

This was when Teacher C realised that J's parents are refering to J having high cognitive level when the word 'special' is used.

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One day, Nursery class teachers were both absent from work (on leave and on MC). I arranged for other level teachers to relief the Nursery class. It was the very 1st week of school, new year 2022. The updated allergy list was not up yet.

There was a common understanding amongst all staff that this particular boy had food restrictions (picky eater) and will always bring his home-cooked food.

During lunch time that day, the relief teacher(A) asked him, "Where's your lunchbox? Did you bring your food today?" The boy shook his head and said no. He queued up for his lunch just like everyone else. So the relief teacher(A) told him to go to his cubby hole to check again. At this time, relief teacher (A) was called to check on another child with toileting needs and left the Nursery children with relief teacher (B). And so relief teacher (B) continued with food serving for all and this boy was excited to be eating the school food, the same as all of his friends. He then went on to finish a bowl of chicken fried rice with egg.

Relief teacher (A) came back when everyone was already onto the next routine of changing clothes. Lunch matters were then passed on and forgotten about.

**Fast forward - Child went back home that day and told his parents about what he had for lunch in school today. (The lunchbox with home-cooked food was indeed in his bag) Principal and parents had a phone call that night and thankfully there were no allergy reactions on the child. Father also joked and said, maybe egg allergy gone already ah? Happy happy eat with his friends haha!

In conclusion, there were a few miscommunications here. Allergy list was not communicated effectively to each and every staff. Class teachers went on absence without informing relief on important things to note. Parents were also not serious in providing the allergy information of their child. Was the allergy even doctor-certified?

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My centre supposed to have sanitization from external vendor. It was arranged by our school admin. On that actual day, the vendor came and but there was no on in the centre. Vendor was very angry and stated that he came before the school closes at 7pm. He even took a photo as evidence.

The next day, the vendor emailed our school admin and she came to realise that she forgot to inform us that there will be a schedule sanitization.

I believe that she might be too busy with work and overlook on informing us about the sanitization.

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A child came into the centre with specific food dietary requirements as she is a vegetarian. Mum informed the school that her child cannot consume eggs on its own, but allowed to have cakes in general.

This message was conveyed across to the child's class teacher and aunty cook with a specific note that states: no egg.

Class teacher was very cautious when administering food to child during mealtimes. During celebrations and events, teacher ensures that child does not take any cakes as eggs are one of the key ingredients. Child feedbacks to parents that school does not allow her to have cakes. Mum was upset and confronted the school about it.

In this case, message communicated was lacking in information, such as no eggs but 'can have cakes in general'.
It may not be much of a big issue, but it resulted in some misunderstanding between the child's parents and class teachers. Should the information have been clarified clearly in the first place, teacher's good intention would not have been wrongly identified.

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Tcher L was telling to Tcher A to print out some reading materials. Prior to this instruction, Tcher A was sharing happily about the new resources she had purchased from Tpt.

After 10minutes, Tcher L asked Tcher A for the reading materials. Tcher A mentioned that she already printed it out.

When Tcher L went to collect the printouts, she was shocked to find out that it was not the reading materials that she had requested for.

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Staff went to my ST to apply advance leave for the husband's operation. My ST told me what she say "i need to take leave on 12th Jan 2022, my husband going GA operation."
So the day came and I ask the staff's dil (working same centre) and the DIL was like, "Huh?!! They didn't tell me about it."
In my head, oh no! Did I uncover something that is not suppose to????
So I went to my ST to clarify and she say, "According to another colleague, she shared that her hubby is going for a scope SCOPE not the operation on the table."

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An accident happen in the classroom - A child was sitting on her knees and she fell forward and bump her chin on the ground. She sustained a cut on her chin and it kept bleeding.

The teacher informed me that "mei mei" had a cut. Then I interpreted it as Child A, and went to inform the principal. First aid was administered but the wound is quite deep and we had to inform the parents immediately.

I took the school phone and called Child A's parent and passed the phone to the class teacher. The parent picked up and the teacher spoke immediately about the accident without stopping.

The principal came to scene and noticed that it is not child A, it is child B that is injured ( another "Mei Mei").

Everyone panicked and the principal took over the phone and apologised to the parents. Following that, we called Child B's parent to inform.

Background - the class has only two girls and both has short hair.