Have you tried taking this up with the school, or just moaning about it on here?

Same rampant over-PC here in the US as well. No dodge-ball, tag or similar activity in many elementary schools-

Same as where? Not the UK.

busydog – Member

First I’ve heard of it—you can deport someone who is here illegally

Well make your mind up. A couple of days ago you were complaining that where you are, they won’t deport someone who is there illegally. Apparently they give illegal immigrants drivers licenses and it’s a case of “come one, come all”.

busydog – Member

Yeah, just ask the 12 million or so illegal immigrants we have running around the country—of course my state,New Mexico, trying to do it’s par,t gives drivers licenses to illegal immigrants—come one, come all!!!

Posted 1 day ago

And since you haven’t heard the the shocking news that illegal immigrants in Britain can’t be deported if they own a cat, have look at this.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15171441

It’s human rights gone mad.

I didn’t post to get into a p*****g contest over liberal vs conservative politics

Here in the UK there is no difference between liberals and conservatives, they now both sing from the same hymn sheet……..more shocking news.

The same as they do at most schools. Which is to hand them out as the kids leave for the day and that way they are eating them off school grounds.

You have experience of lots of other schools then? I’m sure they’d do the same at our local school (somebody I know sent her kid in with sweets on a birthday and was upset at a similar thing happening – she’s a primary school teacher FFS!) If handing them out at the end of the day is the solution, then why not take them in at the end of the day so it’s not the school’s problem?

Though I’m not sure what this has to do with stupid rules limiting stuff kids can do anyway – or do you think the rule on foods they can take in is a bad thing?

You do know that
1) most of these reported “health and safety gone mad” cases are myths – for instance the safety glasses for conkers one was a spoof put out by a headmaster that got reported as fact by the media.
2)Most of the rest of them are nothing to do with health and safety but to do with incompetent people making up stupid rules.

Ask the school for the risk assessments for these things. there will not be any I bet.

Health and safety is about reducing and managing risk for activities done, not banning anything

1) most of these reported “health and safety gone mad” cases are myths – for instance the safety glasses for conkers one was a spoof put out by a headmaster that got reported as fact by the media.

It didn’t stop David Cameron quoting it as fact. Quelle surprise…

had a few instances of “we don’t do that any more its been banned” reports from my kids – sadly including playing basketball (one kid kept pushing over the mobile net thing) and football (too much arguing)
took them up with headteacher in a positive way (sanction the problem pupil – not ban the activity, signed, inclusive contracts for football) – sadly lunchtime supervisors get the blame from parents when things go wrong and its easy to put in a dumb don’t do it rule – possibly the headteacher isn’t aware of some of the dumb stuff that goes on or chooses to ignore to keep the peace

school did surprise me by running an after school parkour classes – now that is wild in the playground!

really schools need to be encouraged to be straight in their parent brochure – something like “we encourage physical play in breaks and at lunchtimes – this includes treeclimbing, jumping off walls, simple gymnatsics, games with balls and may involve your child getting dirty or muddy” Then risk assess and define limits/precautions – eg no climbing over adult head hieght, no jumping near or over people, no back flips, no cricket balls except in a supervised game, no climbing trees if wet etc etc record all accidents (probably done anyhow) and show you’ve reacted if appropriate – basic responsible action and then complaining parents can disappear up their own solicitors backside

2yrs ago when it snowed headteacher allowed kids out 5 minutes early for snowball fight – coats, gloves, hats on

last yr told me decided not to do again – too many complaints from parents that kids went home wet – i took that as a kids got in car wet crime – gridlock outside school this am as was raining and kids really needed to be dropped right outside school gate – ho hum

PS I am against the handing out sweets thing – i reckon holidays combined with birthdays triples my youngest ones sweet intake in any one week

little miss tts was 6 two weeks ago she took a box of sweeties for her class mates to share.. the teacher would not accept them as the school has a clear policy on food consumed on premises ( no sweets soft drinks crisps)

Makes sense, unless you also offered to administer the epi pen to the nut allergist in the class.

Just one example of how careful the schools have to be in this litigious world. Not everyone can be reasonable unfortunately.

Just one example of how careful the schools have to be in this litigious world. Not everyone can be reasonable unfortunately.

It’s not for ligation, you may be right about the allergies bit but that’s to stop a kid getting potentially fatally ill. Schools run a health policy now of having only certain foods. They have to have a cut off point and that’s all it is. Now some are flexible and hand out sweets to kids at the end of the day but they can’t be seen letting kids bring them in as they please.

Your kids should count themselves lucky. Amanda Knox got 4 years for doing cartwheels.

simple thing would be to ban kids from schools, they seem to be the ones causing all the trouble.

actually…. ban adults as chances are the kids have seen adults doing stuff and are copying.

It’s not for ligation, you may be right about the allergies bit but that’s to stop a kid getting potentially fatally ill

Yes, but it’s not just the health concern that drives the policy I’m afraid. It’s the primary driver for the school for sure, but for the LEA it’s to cover their butts – show they made reasonable efforts in supplying guidelines aimed at preventing such a situation. They seem to have to cover virtually every eventuality.

(Mrs B is a KS1 coordinator, and has to write some of these policies, and justify them)

I don’t really see the point in contacting the school as my last experience of this was met with a straight **** off! A few months back I asked if the school would consider having a bike shelter, we could fund it thro exterior channels etc if the budget wouldn’t stretch. It was met with a simple no! Don’t know what’s happening down there, its changed a lot in the last 5 yrs!

We have a school that asks for OUR risk assessments before they let their kids into a show.

Quite what the relevance of working at height in a Genie, or handling steel deck has to do with watching a show we are not quite sure but they obviously don’t read them as that’s what we give them.

There is a building wide generic slips and trips one for the public, but surely they should be doing their own and deciding whether it is safe to come.

Another nursery today was trying to buy them appropriate sweeties and crisps. – I suggested not buying them anything, anticipating parents concerns, but was rebuffed with, “they have to have a treat!!” (No they dont!) Eventually some bananas were sourced.

Look, it’s really really simple.

Schools have a big, strong and sometimes overwhelming feeling duty of care to their pupils. This has not been helped either by insurance companies generating paperwork or stupid reporting in the press or greedy parents suing for ridiculous reasons.

Because of this schools make mistakes. It’s all about acceptable levels of risk. Schools, in the main, try extremely hard to balance safety with managed risk. It’s a tightrope. And so it should be. I would prefer my son’s school to err on the side of caution rather than to blithely carry on without any sensible, thought out policies.

As is usual in most aspects of safeguarding/h & s issues, a simple enquiry to the right person at the right level will tell you what the driver is.

TuckerUK – Member

It shows how some parts of the country are over PC, whilst others don’t even do PC (thankfully)

I love our kids’ school’s approach to ‘fun versus PC’. -They had a “dress up for Roald Dahl day” and in the morning the headteacher was striding round the Infants playground dressed as Miss Trunchbull, bollocking all the kids -presumably they have been prepped with the story, because they all seemed to think it was hilarious. I laughed too but also felt a funny feeling in my tummy I didn’t really understand. 😳

My youngest son dislocated his elbow at school the other day trying to pull a tractor tyre across the playground. “Your son has hurt his elbow. We think you might need to take him to get someone to have a look at it”, “OK” – took him to hospital, got it reduced and he was back at school playing the next day trying to pull trying to pull a tractor tyre across the playground. I like that refreshing attitude. Kids do stuff that means they get hurt – bit kids fix quickly.