Reception children being taught how to use sparklers safely. WITH REAL SPARKELERS

[FrameyMcFrame]

Apparently they're going to be practising name writing and letter formation with sparklers!?!?
Isn't that just asking for trouble?
A permission slip has come home, I really don't want my 4 year old using a sparkler. So I won't be giving permission, but am I being unreasonable to think that it's an insane idea?

[PacificDogwood]

School complain regularly about how their incoming kids don't know how to hold/use scissors...

[edam]

I manage to stab myself with a pencil when I was in reception. Right through the hand.

It has never occurred to me to suggest that pencils should be banned. It was just an unfortunate accident. Heaven only knows what I was doing, but think I might have been running across the classroom and tripped. It's not just scissors you shouldn't run with!

NB it has unfortunately left me with a life-long phobia of having my palm prodded or poked. Which has caught a few massage therapists and manicurists by surprise - it' s the kind of thing you can avoid quite successfully almost all the time, so I forget about it until someone touches my palm and I shoot about three feet in the air! (Holding hands is fine, that's flat palm against palm.)

[Gileswithachainsaw]

Lets not forget the good old compass and glue gun :o

[Talkinpeace]

staple gun ... trying to put poster up .... attached finger to school hall

ow

[ouryve]

I have a lovely scar on the tip of my index finger from the lethal combination of pregnancy brain, slightly stale and hard crusty rolls and brand new bread knife. It still itches, a decade later! And still twinges when I feel the handle of that knife.

Like Sheffield steel bread knives, sparklers are extremely dangerous used incorrectly. All the more reason to teach the majority of kids to use them safely at the very beginning of the age they're likely to be exposed to them, with possibly not much thought from some of the adults caring for them.

[edam]

stapling your finger is mildly amusing but to a wall?! Ouch!

I had a fab chemistry teacher who we all loved dearly. But his demonstration of why we should NEVER blow on a bunsen burner was, um, rather lively... given that he blew on a bunsen burner. I've never seen a row of people leap of their stools so fast, or in such unison!

[edam]

off their ruddy stools, even. Must be past my bedtime...

[Anniemousse]

Friday16 I disagree, some of those injuries you glossed over are horrific and I would not risk them for my child. This was the second one, it is a sparkler injury if you read properly.
I am not sure whether to believe that you don't understand that sparklers can burn through children's clothing (even their gloves ) and that burns happen in the summer because of exposed skin. It has been pointed out that they are not just marshmallow on a stick hot but glass meltingly hot


That's the thing about risk perception though, it's individual.

My risk assessment would go:
Is it likely there will be injury? ( on a scale of v. Unlikely to v. Likely I would say unlikely)

how severe are the consequences should injury occur? (no loss of life or limb but significant painful burn, requiring medical treatment and causing scarring or possibly permanent sight problems)

and weigh up how important or useful that activity is (not at all).

No brainer for me.

We all judge for ourselves and act according to our own perception of risk.

[Oblomov]

I don't think the school are being unreasonable. Most of us think OP YABU.
But OP still can't see this.

[Goldmandra]

and weigh up how important or useful that activity is (not at all).

That's where most of us differ.

The majority seem to understand that it is crucially important to allow children to participate in risky activities as part of their education before they are in a position to do that thing without supervision. The skills and understanding they gain are what keep them safe.

You can wrap them in cotton wool and stop them doing all the risky things when they're little but you can't stop them doing them ever. I'd rather my children learned to do all the dangerous things with proper instruction than in a den somewhere as part of a game of 'dare you'.

[notso]

PIL are overly safety conscious, when they do bonfire night there is a cordon around the bonfire, FIL wears a high vis jacket. No-one is allowed to move off the patio. When I first did sparklers with DC1 aged 2 by holding her hand, they were horrified. Once a sparkler is spent they scream at you to drop it.
DH is petrified of fire, he couldn't light our gas cooker safely when we first moved in together. He would panic, let the gas build up and cause a mini-explosion. He has nearly caused several fires by dropping lit matches because he panics that it will burn him. He has never been shown how to handle them safely.
We are not making those mistakes with our DC, they help to light candles and fires once we decide they are old enough. They are taught how to safely enjoy sparklers.

[Grennie]

You see lighting fires etc I am fine with. I just think sparklers are much more dangerous than most people give them credit for. But I seem to be in the minority here.

[Anniemousse]

FWIW I teach my children how to safely use knives, light fires, toast marshmallows, play conkers (actually not sure how to play with them unsafely...), play in or near water etc.

I also teach them to stay away from dangerous objects like the berries on the path, huge fungus on the lawn, and I put sparklers in this group. I do teach them to be safe, I teach them not to touch.

My DC are 6 and 3 so maybe a time will come, but for now I agree with OP.

[notso]

I don't think anyone on this thread is underestimating the danger of sparklers. For what it's worth I know two children who have been burned by sparklers in both cases they were not properly supervised.

[NiceTabard]

Hmm

I'm someone who seems to allow my children a lot more freedom / lets them take more risk than others. Spend a lot of time with a secret while my kids are eg up a tree and everyone else is saying nooooo ethelbert it's too dangerous stoppit and come down.

However I think this is a bad idea for lots of reasons.

All guidance seems to say 5, as under that they won't definitely understand. That seems like quite straightforward guidance and while families might choose to ignore for a school to do so seems odd.

Many reception children are under 5, some have only just turned 4. Both mine had late summer birthdays and so were just a bit over 4 at this time of year. There is a world of difference between that and over 5.

They haven't said what the ratio will be. Have they asked for volunteers to help out? If not then you're looking at a handful of adults for 30 children or similar. Doesn't seem like enough people.

It seems unreasonable for a school to set an activity for a class which by definition some children should not engage in. And so either the young ones / ones who are not so grown up will get left out, or their parents will say OK and they will join in with something that they shouldn't actually be doing.

Why not wait til year one when at least they are all over 5.

Or just say it's for age 5 and up irrespective of class, and have the little ones do some other fun activity.

Anyway that's my thoughts

[Goldmandra]

I'm not underestimating the danger of sparklers at all.

Children are going to come across sparklers. They are designed to be used by children.

If you go to bonfire parties, even if you don't allow your children to have them, they are likely to be around other children who are using them. They may be given one when your back is turned.

If you don't go to bonfire parties and your children don't come across sparklers how will they know how to keep themselves safe when some other child turns up with them at the park when they are 11?

They are very dangerous and children need to know how to keep themselves safe around them, when using them and when around others them are using them.

Roads are even more dangerous. Our children will come across them so we need to teach them how to manage their own safety around them.

The same principle applies to sparklers.

You don't protect children by keeping them away from dangerous things if they are likely to come across those things at some point when you are not watching.

You protect children by giving them the skills to keep themselves safe.

[NiceTabard]

There is presumably an age under which you wouldn't give a child a sparkler though, Goldmandra.

6 months, 12 months, 2?

All official guidance is 5. They have a reason for that (presumably stats, risk assessments and so on. You have a different cut-off, for your own reasons. The fact that your cut-off is different doesn't mean everyone elses is wrong.

[Goldmandra]

There is presumably an age under which you wouldn't give a child a sparkler though, Goldmandra.

There is a stage of development where it becomes appropriate to teach children to manage danger for themselves. It is generally before the age at which they are likely to have less managed access to whatever that thing is.

If you teach children just before the age of five to handle sparklers safely, they will be safer if adults decide that it's OK to give them a packet when they are five.

Stats and risk assessments on packets are based on children at bonfire parties, not risk assessed and carefully planned and supervised educational activities, the aim of which are to teach them to manage the risks.

I don't recall saying everyone else is wrong . In fact the majority of posters are arguing the same point as me which is that children are safer if they are taught to manage risks before they are exposed to them in less well supervised environments.

[CecilyP]

You see lighting fires etc I am fine with. I just think sparklers are much more dangerous than most people give them credit for. But I seem to be in the minority here.

I agree with you too, Grennie, and I think people are regarding sparklers as a thing for small children, perhaps a bit of a toy, not really a firework at all. I think the school's letter shows a similar disregard, first in their cavalier attitude to the guidelines, when 5/6 of the pupils will not have reached the age of 5; and second with the mention of writing names and letters with the sparklers, almost regarding it as a fun activity like writing letters in shaving foam or chalking letters in the playground, rather than an activity to teach firework safety which they could do with Y1 where all the children will have reached the age of 5.

[NiceTabard]

So you wouldn't say that you would never give a sparkler to a child of X age?

Up to you I guess

Incidentally most reception children will be under 5, many well under, some will be not long since they were 3.

I would have sparklers with my kids at home, they are 4 and 6. For the reasons I gave above though I think this is not a good idea for a reception class at school. Yr 1 would be a different story, at least they are all 5 then and that little bit bigger.

[Goldmandra]

So you wouldn't say that you would never give a sparkler to a child of X age?

No, they are allowed to toddle round the garden with them as soon as they can walk

Stage of development is a more appropriate guide than age.

[CecilyP]

If you don't go to bonfire parties and your children don't come across sparklers how will they know how to keep themselves safe when some other child turns up with them at the park when they are 11?

The majority of them will be able to read the instructions on the packet; something the teachers in OP's school seem unable to do.

[NiceTabard]

Was laughing then (what? not even a 6 month old?!) but thought, no actually, I would never give a sparkler to a child (toddler) who was not steady on their feet and let them go off with it. My niece has just turned one and would I let her "toddle off" with a sparkler? No way in hell.

So that's just a total difference of opinion.

[Goldmandra]

The majority of them will be able to read the instructions on the packet

The will be able to read instructions, yes. Do you really, honestly think they would tell their mates to wait a minute while they do that?

Have you ever seen a child hold back from lighting a sparkler to read the instructions on a packet, even at a family bonfire party, never mind while they are showing off to a bunch of mates?

[Gileswithachainsaw]

But you don't suddenly wake up at 4+364 days and not be able to use one yet suddenly miraculously are fine the next day and all is good.

There's a consent form and no pressure to sign it. There's bound to be something else for those who's parents don't agree.

I think tbh leaving it another year, the novelty would have worn off and the exercise kinda pointless as most would have been using them for years.