Forum Topic

This made me laugh, anyhow

On the readers' letters page of this morning's Telegraph, there's correspondence about entertainment, particularly for  children, on passenger ships in times gone by. I loved this one:-"A colleague emigrating with his family to  New Zealand many years  ago noticed a prolonged absence of his children."He finally found them, taking turns to dangle each other by the ankles over the side of the ship. The one  who made the lowest mark with a crayon was declared the winner."

Roger Talbot ● 2260d14 Comments

Can you imagine the Health and Safety fanatics reaction to that? Although clearly extremely dangerous. I do wonder sometimes how mankind has managed to survive through millions of years when you hear some of the rules they come up with now.

Vanessa Smith ● 2260d

I don't think the poor little  buggers are allowed by their schools and councils to play conkers anymore, Vanessa.

Roger Talbot ● 2260d

Can’t blame the schools. Possies of no win no fee lawyers advertising the money making potential of an accident and schools as a public body a favourite target. If you didn’t do a risk assessment they have grounds for a negligence claim.Plus of course our lovely press who love to vilify schools alternately for being negligent when there’s been an accident or for being nannying when they try to prevent one,

Kathleen Healy ● 2260d

Bang on the money Kathleen.  Our nanny state is the creation of the insurance industry, shady lawyers and the tabloid press...

Stuart Kerr ● 2260d

RT > "I don't think the poor little  buggers are allowed by their schools and councils to play conkers anymore, Vanessa."Here is what the HSE have to say:"Realistically the risk from playing conkers is incredibly low and just not worth bothering about."https://www.hse.gov.uk/myth/september.htm

John Whitworth ● 2260d

That's good to know, John. Thankyou.

Roger Talbot ● 2260d

And I hope you don't mind me saying this, Vanessa, because it is said with admiration, I can imagine you as Beryl The Peril on a passenger ship, on the rampage and causing havoc all over the place!

Roger Talbot ● 2260d

RT > "That's good to know, John. Thankyou."You're welcome.Of course it doesn't stop individual head teachers or councils from applying their own local restrictions. It's just that it isn't mandated from the centre...

John Whitworth ● 2260d

I have some sympathy for the teacher involved in the infamous conker incident. Easiest thing to avoid hassle from a parent or a no win no fee claim would have been to just ban it. There isn't a list of things you can and can't do, you have to risk assess, anything that you think warrants it, propose mitigations and record all this. If you get sued, you use the risk assessment as part of your defence that you weren't negligent. A teacher responsible for children, would be likely to be found negligent if they didn't do a risk assessment, just because they didn't do one. And in the very unlikely event that a kid lost an eye, what would the Daily Mail have said, "Well accidents happen, you can't blame the teacher" Doesn't sound like a headline.I think I might have just banned it, as the easiest option, but clearly the teacher didn't want to deprive kids of playing conkers. So in addition to all the other stuff they do, also attempted to risk assess and make playing conkers possible with mitigations. Bet he / she was sorry they did, when it hit the papers. A lesson to others though, just stop stuff happening, safest option. Wonder how the story got out, presumably child shopped teacher to parent and parent went to press. What a lovely world we live in now.

Kathleen Healy ● 2260d

Thats all fine and a Kinks LP track  oh alright ....Dandy....saying hse dont care about conkers but Vanessa is spot on.Many schools have banned conkers as they have banned British Bulldog....

Mick Collins ● 2260d

It's easy to blame lawyers, insurers and "the nanny state", but over-protective parents surely have to take the bulk of the blame - after all, they're their kids, so their responsibility.For example, kids not allowed to play out, or walk to school, for fear of the pervert round every corner, who's just waiting to snatch their kid.Which means that never having played unsupervised, kids have never learned how to "risk assess" for themselves, climbing trees and the like.Worse still, parents now insist on driving their kids to school, in a bloody great SUV as often as not, because it's "safer".Which, of course, completely disregardes the dangers of childhood obesity, air pollution and for those few who still  cycle or walk, being knocked down crossing the road by said "Chelsea Tractor".

Richard Cathcart ● 2260d

I couldn’t agree more Richard. Wrapping kids in cotton wool does them no favours in later life. They’ll grow up to be scared and paranoid. Let them eat mud. Let them climb trees. Let them be kids and explore their world.

Georgina Flint ● 2260d

British Bulldogs - it was always barking mad (pun intended).

Cllr Sam Hearn ● 2260d

Overprotective? Us?

Colin Jordan ● 2260d