Does your DC's school allow conkers?

[LynetteScavo]

10yo DS2 had been told not to take conkers in to school.

Granny and DS2 have been having a whale of a time collecting conkers, stringing them up and playing each other. (Granny seems to be at a advantage...I suspect foul play involving vinegar and baking)

Now DS2 had been told by his class teacher conkers are not allowed in school, which DS is happy to respect.

Is this normal is schools these days? Are conkers a health and safely hazard?

I think it varies according to how 'robust' the Head is, with regard to the inevitable onslaught of parental complaints when their pfb gets a rap across the knuckles with a badly-aimed conker. Yes, it hurts, but it's not exactly life-threatening. We coped, as children. But you Would. Not. Believe the number of complaints the average Head Teacher gets about everything these days, so I suspect that conker-related whinges are something many are pleased to lose.

I'm going to ask for the schools official line on conkers.

I checked with our head the other day and it was decided that yes fine but competing children to be told to tell one of the playground supervisors of impending conker violence so it could be vaguely overseen rather than secret death matches hidden in the woody bit.... sounded fine to me! It is a small school though so fairly easily monitored.

We have a conker competition each year. A young and foolish member of staff "runs" it at playtimes, and makes sure they're all following some basic safety guidelines and rules. It's very popular, unsurprisingly. It'll be why kids have been doing it for years - until the Health & Safety regulations put the fear of God into schools and spoilt all the fun.

We have a great big cooker tree in the middle if our playground!! Great cooker hunting and playing with no fall outs or injuries!!

Yes they allow conkers. They also allow whittling knives. But we are not in the UK so kids are allowed to have fun.

DD's school does, DS's doesn't, although DS's did until the great conker scandal of 2009 where a year 1 got whacked in the nose by a conker because he was daft enough to hold the conker by his face while playing with an older child

Yes, they are allowed conkers, positively encouraged. They are also allowed to climb certain trees within the school grounds, and when it snows there is a reminder on the school website for children to take their sledges with them.

allows and actively encourages

www.hse.gov.uk/myth/september.pdf

Yes there is a school tournament, the HT, TAs and teachers take part as well and supply chocolate bars for prizes.

Infortunately these daft rules are set in place by parents, then other parents complain.

Schools receive so many stupid complaints about stupid incidents, and threats of suing etc, that schools frequently over do it and make a blanket ban, simply for ease and because some Heads have no spines and bend over backwards at any parent's whim

My school have banned running at play time because of the number of crashes hmm We also don't go out if it's cold, wet or snowy. But then parents complain that the activities they do as an alternative are dull.

Unfortunately.

And not hmm

Sigh. Sleep deprivation.

Our local primary sent out a newsletter reminding parents that it's a nut free school ... And pointing out that this extends to conkers.

I've never come across that approach before.

Q1: Are children with nut allergy at risk from conkers?
A1: A few schools have banned conkers because they are worried they will endanger pupils with nut allergy. However, we can find no credible reports suggesting that conkers pose any risk to people with nut allergy.

We have heard a few anecdotal reports from people saying they have skin reactions to conkers when they handle them. Clearly if this happens, they should be avoided. No one should be eating them as they are poisonous in their own right.

From www.anaphylaxis.org.uk/what-is-anaphylaxis/faqs#1

Yes, ds's school is as WorldGoneCrazy describes - children are out in all weathers, climb trees etc. Every winter a note is to be found in the newsletter to tell new parents that the children will be outside in the snow and cold, and that the children seem fine with it

Yes, I found that too Juniper because I was keen to see if it did follow that a nut ban would mean a conker ban. It would appear not though from that statement do you think? There is the issue of skin reactions I suppose. I just had never heard of a ban from that angle before and conkers are an age-old issue aren't they, an 'old chestnut' if you like - ba-doom-tish ;)

Sorry Jupiter9, I missed your 9 off...

We allow them, but only on certain areas of the site so that the split cookers don't make the playground look messy! Never inside. Some children sold them this year and donated the money to our PTA.

Our school allows them but they also let the kids take I'm sledges when we had snow to use on the hill in the playground :)

ConcreteElephant I'm glad you added the 9. There are another 8 Junipers on these boards so I wasn't sure if you were referring to me

I wish I worked at a school with a more sensible approach to this type of thing. Like marble season! That was the highlight of my time in juniors, but would never happen now.

Well, indeed 9, after the great Juniper fiasco of '97 you don't want to be confused with Juniper4 ;)

I work in an infant school. We are allowed Conkers. Like with anything at playtime the teachers in duty check its appropriate play/behaviour.