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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 - MemberIt 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.