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Posted By Phillipe
I don't know if any of you caught the article on BBC1 this morning regarding the school that has banned certain playground games, such as Tag, etc. The Headteacher was interviewed during the course of the article and she stated that these types of games are dangerous, children falling over and hurting themselves and others being hurt in the general "rough and tumble of it all".
Whilst she never mentioned (not that I heard) Health & Safety was the reason behind it, she certainly must have been thinking it.
Any thoughts on this approach she has taken? I think she has got it wrong, risk aversion to the extreme in a generally safe environment. One child being interviewed said playtime was now boring....
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Posted By Colin Wallace
The last line is very important; "Play times are now boring"
That's when kids get into serious mischief. You would think a headteacher would be able to equate the occasional risk of a skinned knee with the inherently higer risk brought on through boredom and the loss of stimulous, integration of cultures, and societal experience that play can help develop in a child.
Perhaps the headteacher would be better to take time to assess any physical risks in the playground and address these. Again it would appear to be the case of a little knowledge is dangerous.
Its a wonder I survived childhood.
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Posted By Bill Parkinson
Think this is likely to be another case of aversion to litigation. It may be that some parent has come to school to find that their child has "injured" themselves and complained or even threatened to sue.
Won't stop children falling over though I know as I have two of them!!
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Posted By Richie
I attended a course not too long ago run by RoSPA, entitled 'Safe and Inclusive Play'. It was a follow-up course to Playground Safety Management.
The course would be an eye-opener to the likes of this Head, as it goes out of its way to underline the requirement for challenging play activities.
I feel the real reason is the claims following ripped clothes rather than ripped flesh, ripped clothes being very common, with associated claims.
I have to say that the children will probably be more unruly in the classroom following break, as they have not had the opportunity to 'run-off' their energy. Therefore I suspect the decision is not well regarded by the schoolteachers either, and in the long run the lack of concentration may well show up at test time (who knows?).
All rather sad in my view.
Richie.
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Posted By Crim
I have 2 young kids, 8 year old boy and 5 year old girl, (wheelchair user), both thoroughly enjoy running/wheeling around the playground in games of tag, chase, etc. Their school has a "Play leader" who organises the games for the kids at lunch time play and is very successful. She has lots of toys at her disposal all provided by the school.
I am against the old fashioned type game being banned, however when I was 8 I was playing ball tick and tripped, landed on a concrete step and ruptured my spleen. It was removed the same evening and I live to tell the tale.
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Posted By JEB
My daughter who is a primary school teacher has told me that many children when they start school do not know how to play games mainly due to over use of computer games. This particular headteacher has suspended the playing of these sort of games until the children learn how to play them correctly instead of playing them as they see on the very violent computer games.
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Posted By Tabs
The head teacher made the point that the children were allegedly bringing violence to the games. She named the source of the violence being computer games and TV.
So, stop the activity. Hmm.. some of us might have worked with the children to lessen the violence, to improve their recognition of good and bad behaviour. Tig (tag) has a real place in skills development - not least distance/speed judgement needed on our roads.
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Posted By Debbie S
This story was in the Mail on Saturday (along with a picture of a unhappy child) and in the article the Headteacher did quote Health & Safety as reasons for not allowing these games and basically said that any game involving the children coming into any contact with each other was stopped.
She also said that over the next few months she would re-introduce more suitable playground activities!!
Skipping ropes etc are banned as they cause trip hazards, tag because of head injuries etc etc
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