In being annoyed children were kept in ALL day yesterday?

[Dancergirl]

We live in NW London/Middlesex borders and we had a few inches of snow on Monday night. School stayed open, roads were a bit icy but pretty much ok.

So I was v surprised to hear from my dds yesterday that they weren't allowed out to play at all yesterday. I had a governors' meeting last night and asked the head why and she said the playground supervisors made the decision as the snow was 'too deep' and some of the children didn't have wellies. Plus it was still (lightly) snowing.

FFS - there was barely a covering on the ground! When they finally got out of school at 3.20pm they all went mad after being cooped up all day.

AIBU?

Having had 2mm of snow max here and spent the afternoon with children refusing to work as they were cold/wet/had hurt themselves/been snowballed I sympathise with the school - and this is secondary so I can only imagine what it would be like with a class of younger ones. A real shame but understandable if children aren't sent in properly equipped for the conditions.

So you think you are challenging H&S policies by chattign in mildly outraged way on mn? Crikey.

I live in Switzerland and our DC are sent out to play in all weather, bar really heavy sustained rain.

Some have wellies on, some do not.

Last winter one of DD's friends fell on the ice in the playground and broke her arm. Her mum would not think of suing the school, it was an accident and could have happened anywhere.

DS2 has been going in big boots all week due to snow, with a change of socks and a change of trousers to wear otuside. However, he's still not allowed out because
A) they have to have wellies. boots suitable for clmbing Ben nevis aren't acceptable
B) the change of trousers to wear outside for playing in the snow must be school trousers

saltire that's utterly ridiculous! Talk about cookie cutter rules. Surely the next best thing, if playing outside in the mud is going to become the fixture it should be in primary schools is to ask for children to be provided with waterproof over-trousers, and to leave their outer footwear in the cloakroom. My primary schools both requested that slippers be kept at school for indoor use. That is not too complicated to oversee.

Ds1's school all have wellies so they can play outside, I think if they want to go out they can, or they can choose to play inside so it suits everyone.

Re suing, agree that if a child falls over school shouldn't be sued. Ds1 fell off the monkey bars on his 2nd day and broke his wrist, we never even considered suing! In fact, I said to the headteacher not to even consider taking the monkey bars away!!

At DD's preschool they remind parents to send the DCs in with appropriate clothes because they go out in all weathers. DD would be devastated if she couldn't go out in the snow!

I can remember thick tights sticking to barked knees and having to be soaked off in the bath... Ah me, them were the days...

DDs legs are always scabby and bruised. She is an active girl and I wouldn't want her any other way - in fact her teachers have said how good it is that she's always outside.

Ah, yes, londonlottie and duchesse, but didn't you know? English children are speshull and made of glass, so musn't be allowed to run awound in the nasty wasty cold in case they fall over and mummy and daddy are forced to sue the school/local authority/God.

You would think so, older, given the level of extra supervision and worry they require. Always reminds me of the Secret Garden. Colin is the English children, Dickon and Mary, the children from the rest of the world.

Perhaps I should expand on what I said about my son falling over 4-5 times a week. I get head injury letters and phone calls 4-5 times a week. He is in the accident book more than any other pupil in a class of 30. It was raised at parents' evening how accident prone and reckless he is. A teacher on a school yard can't tell 30 kids to calm down and not slide on the ice, but I can when I take him out myself after school and at weekends. I'm not scared of kids being kids, but in my case, its damage limitation and common sense.

Like a previous poster said, snow being slopped over school floors is also a hazard. Personally I don't keep my son in when it snows, but in a noisy boisterous class of 30 mad 4 year olds, I'm quite happy for the teachers to put safety first.

Nesta, if it's any consolation my son was like that at 4. He seemed to just stop hurting himself of his own accord around 6. It's not that he learned to be more careful (he didn't), he just seemed to get more coordinated.

So why is it that Scandinavian schools do not feel the need to put safety first?

I have dcs who fall all the time (hypermobility syndrome) but I have always taken consolation from the fact that children don't do as much damage to themselves from falling as adults do: also, if a child has a genuine problem, wouldn't it be more reasonable for the school to make an exception for that child rather than treating the entire school as if they had a problem?

'Yes, i fondly recall the pleasure/pain principle of slowing peeling off a large scab on your knee'.

Ah nostalgia....

In my country we had to stay indoors and quite during siesta time so we were counting the minutes for the siesta to end and us go back to the steet to play.
I remember saying to my mum 'but i'm bored' and my mum saying 'fgs just do what the other kids do, sit in the balcony and peel off your scabs'.

a parent once tried to sue because a child in my class had fallen off a bench that the Y6 child had climbed onto at lunchtime. Didn't get very far. I don't know of any schools that have successfully sued for something like that, but I know of parents trying to do so.

I used to teach a boy who could rack up three bump letters a day (morning, lunch and afternoon break) I swear it was a mark of pride for him if he managed to meet his daily target!

I can vouch for the snow on school floors slip hazard, well, my backside can from a couple of years ago when I went flat over on it coming down the corridor after the kids HAD been allowed out to play in the snow.

As for the telling 30 kids to calm down... break duty you're looking at probably at least three classes out there, probably more - depending on how the school's run you'll have a variable number of adults out there - even trying to stop the games of skiddies as your only focus is like herding cats with that many kids - as fast as you catch one bit of high-spirits, another's broken out over the other side of the playground. I probably wouldn't have them out for breaktimes either - might relent and take a single class out for a short time to blow off steam on their own - but not a playtime en-masse to be honest.

And sadly, there are a lot of people out there who'd at the very least come into school effing and blinding if their kid fell over, and at worst be on the phone to whatever no win-no fee firm's adverts they saw first on TV that evening.

LeQueen - Anyone else remember being rather envious of the kids who broke their arms/legs and got to wear a proper plaster cast, and everyone signed it?

Or was that just me (who has never broken anything, and feels the lack somewhat?).

Oooh! Me! Me! I did that. I can still remember her name, it was Jacqueline Berry and she broke a limb if anyone so much as guffed in her direction. Boy was I jealous of all the time she spent in plaster casts (though now I am an adult I can see that maybe it wasn't a bundle of laughs for her) and all those signatures. I'm still slightly annoyed that the only bones I've ever broken are in my toe and hand (which you don't get casts for. Booo!)

I am a primary school teacher and was on playground duty today. I made the decision to keep the children inside for morning break. We hadn't had much snow, but what snow there was, had compacted down and frozen overnight, so the playground was like an ice rink.

I didn't want any broken limbs on my conscience!

YANBU, it's beyond belief that children are stopped from playing in snow. For fear of what? Someone falling over or having wet tights??
Poor teachers too, I bet absolutely no constructive learning went on in the afternoon. Well done to the teacher further up the thread who took the class out and then used the experience to produce work.
I remember being allowed out for EXTRA play time if it was snowing, and then there would be a long line of damp socks on the old painted pipes around the classroom.
FGS it really is sad actually.

YANBU. Insanity.

Kids should have the choice to be in or out in this freezing weather.

Schools should absolutely not be sued for injuries from falling over on the ice. If they are sued then they should counter sue the parents for dressing the kids in inappropriate footwear.