From a school Ofsted report:

“Reception children did their own ‘risk assessment’ for hazards such
as tripping and minor injuries from sharp twigs before setting off on their ‘Autumn walk’.”

😯

Well done that school.

Burdening 5-year-olds with a doom and gloom mentality that they’re going to killed or seriously injured every time they get out of bed.

We’re breeding a generation of pansies.

I counteract this political-correctness-gone-mad, wrapping of children in cotton wool by booby trapping their bedrooms, First Blood stylee

They’ll thank me for it one day

Nah, it’s only the same as someone pointing out to them when they’re walking to avoid stepping in that dog sh*t, don’t scratch yourself on that barbed wire that kind of thing. Except they do it before they go out.

The “H&S gawn maaaaaad” thing should be reserved for more deserving causes!

We’re breeding a generation of pansies.

You cannot call people pansies, did you not get the memo in the late 80’s?

The stupid thing is, surely the children need to complete this lethal ‘autumn walk’ in order to assess the risks … or do they just turn round and go back to school if they come across an unforeseen twig or slightly pointy holly leaf?

Either way, it’s a stupid idea.

I’d rather my school taught common sense and what-not, rather than teaching my kids to treat everything as a threat to their existence.

OP, do you not think the teacher may have been taking the p1ss ?

It could be the kids were taking the piss too- they know what Ofsted is, they’re not daft 🙂

OP, do you not think the teacher may have been taking the p1ss ?

It could be the kids were taking the piss too- they know what Ofsted is, they’re not daft

I fear that’s all just wishful thinking …

😀

My kid was subjected to this as well.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/adventure-in-schools

you want them taught it as “common sense or what not”

sorry but your naming convention is lacking, to say the least.

My kid was subjected to this as well.

If just one ‘Autumn Walk’ near-death tripping-over-a-stick incident was prevented, then it was all worth it …

It must be hell at this time of year, what with all those leaves falling off of trees. Imagine one of those bad boys landing on you from the top of a tall tree. You’d have to be identified from dental records I reckon.

Is (almost) everyone deliberately misunderstanding what a “risk assessment” is? Apart from the people taking the P? 😉

They wouldn’t have said “What will kill you if you go outside?”

“Fresh air and leaves, sir?”

“Yes children, they’ll both KILL YOU TO DEATH! Now get inside this hermetically sealed safety bubble until your parents come to collect you”

It will just have been “Kids, any idea what you should watch out for while we’re in the woods [i]bear sh*t, obviously[/i] to avoid hurting yourselves?”

The kids will have looked around, taken in their surroundings and made their own judgements on what could cause a problem. They would then have been aware of it and the Autumn walk would have taken place.

That kind of situational awareness is surely a good thing. Likewise thinking for yourself, assessing risks quickly and informally. Rather than the “The outdoors is full of knives and peados and murderers and diseases so never leave your sofa” approach. I know which I prefer.

I assume the kids didn’t have to write a 600 page report into the institutional failings of autumn to protect walkers from harm, nor was the walk cancelled because of a stick or a leaf. It was just ‘take a look around and watch where you’re walking”.

What bails said. My daughter’s doing her brownie cooks badge currently. step one is to explain to her assessor about potential hazards in the kitchen; ie: a risk assessment.

I’d rather that she thinks for herself that knives are sharp, stoves are hot, and kettles of boiling water left near worktop edges might be dangerous before she finds it out the hard way, and by making her think about it for herself it’s more likely to actually go in rather than having it spoonfed in a way that will go in one ear and out the other.

Having a healthy sense of self responsibility and self awareness is a long way from wrapping them in cotton wool every time they leave the house (or even stay in it in this case)

‘take a look around and watch where you’re walking’

This is common sense, and most people do this whilst out and about without thinking. Why dress it all up as a ‘risk assessment’?

If you scratch yourself on a stick, it’s only a scratch. Get over it. It’ll heal up and be gone in a couple of days.

If you step in a dog poo, nobody dies. You just clean your shoes and make sure you don’t get it all over your hands.

My 5yo son’s known not to step in poo since before he started school, and we didn’t specifically teach him that. Does this therefore make him a prodigy or something? Or perhaps he just used his own common sense?

What probably really happened:

Teacher takes kids on an autumn walk, warns them to mind their step a bit, watch for dogpoo, don’t slip on the leaves etc (like you do with kids normally).

Ofsted time, the teacher is required to detail all instances where H&S policy has been adhered to and s/he puts that line in to tick a box.

Why dress it all up as a ‘risk assessment’?

A consequence of poorly thought out guidelines and questions from the bureaucrats.

Why dress it all up as a ‘risk assessment’?

because that’s what it is?
near where we are is a beautiful waterfall, especially at this time of year, but to see it you have to walk along a narrow muddy path. It’s great that kids are taken to see it, but they should be made aware of the dangers because, healthy and outdoorsy as it may be, it’s potentially dangerous. Having the kids work out for themselves what those dangers might be teaches them to think for themselves and look for the dangers so they learn to be safer outdoors
Or maybe you don’t believe in knowing how to behave outside. After all “Children not hurt because they knew what they were doing” is never going to make a great Daily Wailo headline is it?

If you step in a dog poo, nobody dies.

You sure about that?

I’m with joao3v16 on this. It’s just another example of why this country is entirely bogged down in bureaucracy and paperwork.

Lol.. have you ever been to other countries?

France, Germany, USA, all worse than here ime.

OK so perhaps not Germany worse than here, but the way it’s administered seems to be.

The teacher is probably having to deal with children whose parents think it’s too dangerous to let them outside.

Getting kids to recognise what’s dangerous means that they can do more cool stuff. That’s a good thing.

Woddy: Where is the ‘bogged down in bureaucracy’ in that situation?

The act of writing one sentence in an OfSted report?

True but at least they seem to apply some common sense to it all.

We set up entire departments/divisions/quango’s to make sure we comply with every bit of small print, then set up another body to check that those departments/divisions/quango’s are doing their job 😉

Bails: It wasn’t referring to ‘just’ that situation, it was a general observation 🙄

Depends what the ‘risk assessment’ was. We do this with kids regularly – it is a discussion, and interactive.

Sooo many kids are isolated from judging danger, or understanding real vs perceived risk. I fell out a few trees, tumbled down a bank, fell in a stream and all that as a kid – so few now do, so we introduce it. We talk to groups about falling down hills, or tripping etc. You would be surprised by how many kids cannot understand why the bottom of our gorge walk is not flat like a pavement…

If however it was a nice form, formally assessed and in nice posh words then = loose.

My daughter:

Climbs on wheeled swivel chairs
Waves sticks around
Pushes doors closed on her little sister
Bounces on beds close to the edge
Puts cups really close to the edge of the table

etc etc.

I explain to her why it’s a bad idea and get her to imagine what’d happen.

Or, I conduct a risk assesment…

It’s just another example of why this country is entirely bogged down in bureaucracy and paperwork.

Is it bollocks. It’s a perfectly reasonable way to get a group of 5 year olds to think about staying safe in the world around them.

This thread’s just another example of people rushing to complain about red tape and beaurocracy without even thinking about what was actually done.

This is common sense, and most people do this whilst out and about without thinking. Why dress it all up as a ‘risk assessment’?

you’ve never seen a grown man loose a hand through just nipping past a machine guard as it’s quicker than turning the process off, have you. “Common sense” is anything but, look at the volume of A&E submissions through DIY, again an area where “common sense” should prevail, but no, frankly people are dicks and will find the best way possible to hurt themselves and seek to blame others, unless they are taught to internally assess the risks and be responsible for their own actions.

If risk assessments are such a bad idea and it’s all common sense we’ll never need to teach kids how to cross a road safely will we?

“Common sense” is anything but

That was exactly my point on the cycling danger thread a few days back.