Schools, Ponds and Parental Panic!

[Blu]

One of the things I really liked about DS's school is that it has a 'nature garden'. A properly fenced off area of wild plands, lots of birds and ducks, and a shallow pond, with fish and frogs in it, with a decked platform, presumably so that supervised parties of children can study the pondlife.

This morning another parent told me that the pond is now completely out of bounds and out of educational use because a child fell in and the parents went berserk.

Can 7 year-olds really not study a shallow pond, under the supervision of trained staff? Something truly freakish would have to have happened for a child to have drowned under those circumstances, for a teacher and the rest of the class noyt to notice, for e.g. The pond is about 2m wide and .75m deep!

A whole generation of children who have never been near a pond?

I agree the world's gone madly overprotective. Surely at some point children will be allowed out on their own, will find open water and need to know how to deal with it? We still have our school pond, but it has a metal mesh cover to stop anyone falling in (if your son's school pond is in danger of being filled in you might suggest mesh as an alternative).

There's still the Palace Road nature garden pond if there's any water left in it. (Yes, I know, it's grotty and so well fenced off that you can't see a tadpole without binoculars, but slightly better than nothing).

Hallgerda...I think our sons go to schools v close to each other.... Not the same one, but I think you have passed DS's school....

Actually, i have never ventured into the Nature Garden - I will!

When I was 3 I fell in one of the ponds at martin mere, a wildfowl and wetlands trust reserve, when I was 4 I fell in a tarn near the top of a mountain in the lake district - my parents laughed at me both times and suggested that perhaps I should be more careful. I'm thinking this is a better reaction than demanding the nature reserve be closed or the tarn covered with wire mesh?

It's a pond fgs - not a raging torrent! I think a polite letter to the head would help sort it out and because it's a school maybe wire mesh but really I thinks it's a complete over-reaction - I used to love going pond dipping when at primary school, there's just something about sticklebacks and tadpoles kids that age find fascinating!

Blu you may want to take a machete....dual purpose appliance....

Yes a complete overreaction. A wet (possibly smelly) child who was a bit embarrassed and annoyed parent is not enough to justify removing a resource from the whole school.

Batters - I will get my PTA and Governor contacts working on it, too!

DS has certainly been on a Central London visit - to the science museum. mature is so much SAFER in museums, LOL!
LOL, JanInLondon. I have wondered about the nature of some of the wildlife in that garden!

DS2 (7) fell in my parents' pond a few months ago. Should I get them to fill it in?

He was (I think) trying to jump from the edge to the little bridge. He claims he just wobbled on the edge. I simply told him off for being silly.

Yes, ponds are dangerous but the world's gone mad.

I know its different, but we have a slide (and a pond too!) at the school I work at and we are constantly fighting the lea to stop them from closing it, because a child could possibly hurt themselves on it!! The world has gone totally mad, accidents do happen and that is how we learn from them (hopefully!) removing any possibility of accident does not allow children to learn.

Maybe this new set of guidelines from the Health and Safety Executive could be brought to their attention? Basically the HSE are really really fed up with stupid decisions being made in the name of Health and Safety so they are now campaigning in favour of more risk

Kathy - interesting! I see there is a consultation process - perhaps all of us who can should contribute to it!

I'd definitely write to head and governors to say how you feel formally- maybe they genuinely think the berserk parents have representative views?

If it is usually fenced off what on earth are these parents fretting about?
Definitely write Blu. How on earth will the future generation of bog snorkellists get their formative experiences if falling splat into a tiny urban pond is outlawed?
Ponds at day nurseries, which I know have been discussed on here before, I have a different view on. But once at primary school, with older children...
liquidclocks, at the same age as blu's ds is now I forded Langstrath Beck with my dad, up to my thighs in freezing water with my boots, socks and a reasonable sized haversack balanced on my head. Ah, happy days

Ridiculous over-reaction. At DS's school they have an "orchard" which also contains a pond. DS's year one class had a trip into it last week. They found a baby hedgehog that needs to see a vet so they are having a bun sale to raise money for the fees. They harvested runner beans and cooked them and even the children who professed to not like them tried them. And I had to cook Asda's runner beans with our Sunday roast. How educational is all that? They have also explored the pond and tadpoles etc whilst in reception.

I think this is a great resource and definitely think you should express your feelings.

DS has already fallen into a fast-running beck in the Lake District (twice) and numerous salt-water creeks in Norfolk, so I don't think his own experiential education is lagging behind, but I worry about the kids who don't go out of the city at all.

It was the done thing for every child to fall into the pond at my primary school at one point or other. My sister contrived to take her turn at it the day a new childminder arrived to pick us up... We both loved said child minder ever after when she spectacularly failed to make a fuss, merely grinning and whisking us home to throw a towel at my sis and make eggy bread for both of us. Don't remember any parents or teachers batting so much as half an eyelid- if indeed half and eyelid can be batted.

Actually someone fell into DS's pond last year when he was in reception and he came all excitedly telling me about it. Rather than the "what have you done today" "nothing" conversation.