to be annoyed by new school rule?

[tryingnottobeannoyed]

I've name changed for this just in case!

My 2 children (one in infants and one in juniors) have come home from school and told me that the headteacher has told all the children that there it to be absolutely NO physical contact between the children AT ALL.
He has banned Tig and any other chase games because there is touching involved, no holding hands, no high fives and no games like playing families if they touch each other!
I am so annoyed, it's a ridiculous rule to impose and takes all the fun out of playground games and the simple joy of playing with your mates.
The parents have had no information about this new rule at all, no letter or email home, just what the children have told us.

So AIBU to think this is a stupid rule or am I missing the point?

Maybe the united brains of Mumsnet could combine and help tryingnottobe to compose a letter ?

Google "consequences of lack of touch" for plenty of evidence that (appropriate) touching is vital for development.

(If I had an older child at the school I would be tempted to ask them to sit in corners and rock - self stimulation being one of the consequences - but then I'm like that.)

Dob the head in to Ofsted and the DM. Its ridiculous.

I remember one of the joys of being 8 is running round holding your best friends hand and playing clapping games. I'm going to take the weekend to calm down and then email the head, the governors and the lea for clarification

Oh definitely OP, don't let them get away with this. My dd went for a short time to a school that had a postage stamp of a playground, so they couldn't run around and play. She was only five and they used to just stand around and bitch.

I moved her pretty quick.

just finding a quiet corner to watch from

Crazy. How do people who think like that end up running a school?!

Have they given any reason for it? Not that I can think of one I'd agree with, but have they offered any explanation as to why or just announced the rule?
Seems very sad to me.

YANBU. That's just crazy!

This was a rule at a school I attended, in the early nineties. I hated it at the time, my 'rents thought nothing of it.

I still think It's ridiculous.

Do they have a terrible problem with nits?

My dd is in reception and I just don't see how it would work. Generally if one of them is upset going in then the others all give them a cuddle and then they all walk in holding hands. The teacher is going to spend a lot of time comforting upset kids (without touching????) if they can't comfort each other. Plus I think it is good for them to comfort each other - teaches them empathy.

this is the most ridiculous thing I have EVER read on here, yes, even sillier than people bleaching their arse with toothpaste

how can it work? what a miserable place that school will be without all the normal human interaction - a little child holding the hand of a friend who has cut their knee and taking them to the teacher is one of the sweetest most compassionate things! not to mention all the working in pairs, team games, dance, drama etc etc. bonkers!

and no okey cokey or pass the parcel etc at end of term parties if they are allowed parties

I spent 30 years as a primary school teacher, and was also a Tawny Owl helping with a Brownie pack for 20 years and I've never in all my born days heard anything so totally stupid and daft as this. Never. Good grief.

All barmy laws can be repealed if enough people ignore them. When the people are primary school children it won't take long!

What next!!! No talking because it could escalate into slander/ racial abuse etc!!!

Sounds perfectly sensible to me. They will do a Blanket ban on contact games and then allow common sense to prevail. They have probably had too many kids getting hurt and the parents complaining.
It's probably to calm it all down at bit

I'm not sure if this will help but it is the right of all children to be able to play, its right up there and has been since Geneva Convention.
Maybe, you could prove that not holding hands is stifling or even preventing their right to play.

As a side line there were a couple who throughout the 70's catalogued all the hand clapping games and rhymes, they did lots of research too.
They are called Opie and Opie. Well worth a google.

I can believe this is happening, nothing about state education surprises me anymore.

How bizarre - my son's school has gone the other way and is trialling peer massage!

The Opies published the first edition of The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren in the Fifities IIRC.

Not sure the Geneva Convention is the one you mean but in any event the need and right of children to play is built into the human psyche.

Andrew

I'm sure it was Geneva Convention, will double check.
I did my dissertation on children's play and sourced Opie a few times.
There are so many theorists it was so exciting to do. My subject had little to do with children and we only had one unit about play.

Whatever the convention it really is a right for children to play.

It's not the Geneva convention, it's the United Nations convention on human rights (forgotten exact name), but there is definitely an Article about children having the right to play - and play is "freely chosen, personally directed activity", so if the children want to hold hands, or take part in rough and tumble play, they can!

Britain is currently signed up to the UN Convention on human rights, but David Cameron is considering taking us out of it

What BookABoo said.

And the others re human rights.

Get that Strongly Worded Letter written.

Use Facebook to get it out there, what the parents need to be doing.

This is beyond ridiculous.

If you don't get any joy in the early part of the week, start involving your MP etc.

Does that mean they can not even play Football?