11 Plus Exams Forum

Picked ds2 up from school today - and the playground was literally a skating rink. Parents were going flying, kids were landing on their bottoms the moment they set foot outside of the door. ds2 now has a big bruise on his bottom, and ds1 has a scrape all down the side of his face. And they weren't the only ones.

Slithered around to see the head about why there had been no gritting - and apparently they'd been told not to grit on the grounds of health and safety - so the kids had been inside all day. They didn't seem to think it a problem that they'd not even gritted outside the doors. Surely they've just misinterpreted "it's safer to keep them in than to grit and let them out to play" rather than them actually being told not to grit at all!!!

This comes up every year! The Institute of Health and Safety says:

As a general rule, though, it’s sensible for firms to consider the risks and take reasonable steps to prevent accidents from happening.

It even took the Telegraph and Mail on Sunday to task over it a while ago:

http://www.iosh.co.uk/news_and_events/n ... dance.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

But it wasn't outside the school premises - it was the door from the school into the playground. I'd not be surprised if they were closed tomorrow on the grounds that access is dangerous!

We had gritted a path and also went out, had loads of fun and got thoroughly wet into the bargain!

Our school was an icing rink on Monday. One of the parents asked if we could drop kids off at the front door to save having to skate round the playground. The answer was no because it would be too much wear and tear on the carpet. So our school puts the carpet before elf and safety just to balance the rest of the world out

We had to grit our pavement in France. If not, we could have been sued for anyone hurting themselves on the snow. Absolutely hilarious when it was snowing 50cm every hour!

There was nothing we liked better as kids than to skate across the playground during the icy stages of winter. Many's the time we would sit and watch giant icicles forming on the old wooden nissan huts during lesson time, just itching to get outside 'cos we knew it was going to be 'good' outside. We worked up quite a sweat making sure the skid pad was just the right length and just the right sort of skiddiness It was a real competition to see who could slide the furthest. Oh how we had fun, sure there were one or two accidents ( must have been one or two, but I don't really recall any - honest) but so much energy and so much fun was to be had. Kids really lose out these days - it's such a shame.