What are your pupils allowed to do at break and/or lunch time?
Our Year 11 privilege is a Youth Club that’s a two minute walk away across the school field. In theory this means that they don’t travel out of school and we don’t have to worry about off-site visits, permission etc.
The club provides sweets and drinks with ingredients that the school canteen isn’t allowed to sell (you can tell this from the artificial colour and the hyperactivity of the kids in the afternoon).
For the first time this year, we’ve allowed them (boys) to bring skateboards in and use them in an isolated spot in the playground. We don’t require any form of protective headgear or pads and none of us know who’s using whose board and whether their parents know.
Now the school council are talking ‘ramps’ and the pastoral deputy’s found a convenient spot to build one (visions of half-pipes are not that far removed from reality).
My question is (until we find the legal answer) what are kids actually allowed to do at school without having parental signatures and risk assessment???
Surely at some point we need to start to question whether we’re counteracting the point, in my opinion, of break and lunch – i.e. resting/preparing them for more learning.
