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Here's the next class of weapon to be banned, the 50 calibre conker....

Conkers hit by legal fears

Schools are banning time-honoured playtime pastimes such as
conkers because headteachers are afraid of being sued by
parents in the event of an accident. 
A survey by Keele University researcher Sarah Thomson shows
some schools have banned conkers because they fear the horse
chestnuts could be used as "offensive weapons". 
Other schools have banned football on the grounds that it is
anti-social, while another has banned skipping after some
girls fell over. 
The lunchbreak is now in danger of becoming a sterile, joyless
time as schools over-react to an increasingly litigious society,
warned Ms Thomson. 
Her findings, set out in the Times Educational Supplement, are
based on analysis of the playground pursuits of 1,000 children
in Staffordshire, Shropshire and Lancashire. 
Pupils want to play outside but are sometimes stopped because
schools are confused by the health and safety law in relation
to children and worried about lawsuits, the survey concludes. 

Supervision 
Fear of what inspectors from education watchdog Ofsted might say
is another motivating factor in the increasingly tight control
over children's play, it found. 
Parents club together to buy equipment for some schools just
before an inspection so the playground resembled a "well-equipped
hamster's cage", said Ms Thomson. 
"All the schools I visited saw playtime as a time that could no
 be left entirely to the children's wishes," said Ms Thompson. 
"It seemed that many of the children's attempts to play were
extinguished by the same supervising adults who complained that
children did not play." 


Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/education/newsid_1060000/1060708.stm


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It would be even funnier if it wasn't so bloody pathetic.

Kenneth Pantling


Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org

List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

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