Posted By Zoe Barnett Hi Like most LEAs we have a no-earrings-in-PE rule and issue a letter every June advising parents that if they must get their kids' ears pierced they should have it done at the start of the long summer break. This is so they are able to remove the earrings by the time they go back to school in September. Claire's Accessories (where most of the world seems to get its ears pierced) is now advising parents that people with newly pierced ears can't remove earrings for - wait for it - 6 months. In families that are not supportive of their child's school this can lead to a situation where a child is denied access to PE for that time, with the attendant risk that parents end up in trouble if they connive at taking their child out of the curriculum. Personally I think the 6 month rule is absolute nonsense and want to write to the company to say that they are causing big problems for schools and parents. What do colleagues think?

Posted By Debbie S At my kids school they make you put plasters over the earings on PE days whether the ears have been pireced recently or for 4 years.

Posted By Robert K Lewis Why concentrate on ear piercings when there are so many other types of self immolation of various parts of our anatomy? I nearly then said "in my young days" - however this has always been an issue for schools and clearly CA are responding to advice they have been given by a professional somewhere - It is a substantial puncture wound and I still struggle to understand the urge to have rings and other adornments placed through bodily perforations. The answer used to be "if you wish to pierce you may but don't expect to wear studs etc at school". The exception was for religious or other cultural reason. Yes we did have minorities even in the 60s. If you have a policy of allowing piercings then the consequence is that some activities are not permissable, these do not as far as I am aware include gym, atheletics or team sports etc, only swimming poses significant problems and I rather suspect that many schools do not pursue swimming to the extent that was happening in schools in the 1960s and 70s. Bob A mere male spectator

Posted By Mr Tony Bish Six months is a long healing time for an ear ring, but even with an established piercing, there may be problems when the ring / bar is taken out - even for a couple of hours. In some cases the hole closes up very quickly and prevents the ring / bar being re-inserted.

Posted By John Webster Interesting double standard. We try to prevent children being hurt at school, yet the same parents who would scream if little jimmy got a cut finger facilitate this strange and rather barbaric form of self mutilation.

Posted By Maggie Atterbury Hi Zoe I do not worry about the advice that companies give about the time that earings should remain in newly pierced ears, as what is important to me is the safety of the children during physical activities. The advice that we give our schools is that they should outline their "no jewelry to be worn during sport or PE" as part of their dress code in their prospectus, so that no parent can say that they are unaware of it. If then the child comes to school with earings that they say cannot be removed for some weeks, it is the parents that are chosing that their child will not take part in the lesson not the school refusing to teach them. The quickest solution to this is to ensure that the child is not given an interesting alternative activity, but has to sit and watch his/her class mates enjoying the physical activity. It is amazing how rapidly it becomes possible to remove the offending earings! Some of our schools do allow studs to be worn, provided that they are taped over for sports, but it is the child that must supply the tape and apply it, as to force them to cover earings could be considered a form of assult.

Posted By NLR Linda, Something else, the mind boggles. Nigel