Compensation culture is bad for education

Once-regular activities are being cancelled for fear of parents threatening legal action if their child is hurt.

Virginia Bridgewater spoke to headteacher Tim Barclay at Hove Park School about the importance of school outings and what can be done to keep children safe.

Every month there are reports of school trips being cancelled because teachers fear being sued by parents.

Education authorities dress it up as a sensible course of action to protect their young charges from injury when in reality it is the fear of financially crippling lawsuits stopping them.

The growing compensation culture has seen thousands of children banned from taking part in outward bound activities because schools are concerned they will face legal action for even the slightest injuries.

Worse still, some daily school activities have been banned. Traditional conker matches are no more because of fears children may hit each other, sports days are cancelled or sanitised for fear of broken bones from tripping on a bumpy playing field and even home baking has been given the elbow in some places for fear of food poisoning.

Some risks are justified but many, such as the risk of sunburn to the children on a day out, fly in the face of common sense.

Tim Barclay, headteacher of Hove Park School and Sixth Form Centre in Hangleton Way and Nevill Road, Hove, said parents should trust teachers and the educational benefits of school trips far outweighed the risks.

He said: "While it's really important to do the work on the curriculum, the experience of going on trips outdoors and abroad is also vital.

"What you can learn on trips, visits and activities can change people's lives.

"I went on a sailing trip to Wolverhampton when I was at school which gave me a lifelong obsession with boats which my whole family got involved in."

Mr Barclay said they had an international rugby tour coming up next year while last year a group visited Mexico and an art and history trip to Poland would soon be under way.

He said: "It is the feel, smell and taste of being abroad which is such a unique experience.

"A description of going shopping in France can be very dull but the actual sights and smells and flavours can be a complete sensory invasion.

"I can't describe how much children would be missing out on if these trips did not take place.

"It makes them re-examine their own lives and see things in a completely different light."

It was inevitable there would be accidents on a school trip but that these could just as easily take place on school grounds.

He said: "Every year there is a dreadful tragedy. It is an awful position for a member of staff to be in if a child is injured or killed.

"But when you think about the thousands of activities that take place throughout the school year, it is extremely rare."

Rigorous risk assessments were applied to every trip to make sure dangers were minimised and they addressed any concerns a parent might put forward.

He said: "Children need to experience a certain element of risk otherwise they will never learn.

"When they learn to walk at home they will bump into furniture and fall down sometimes but parents will try to minimise the risk."

Mr Barclay said the compensation culture and the idea that someone was to blame was growing but could be a positive thing. It brought things out in the open when grieving parents needed answers.

However, taken to its extreme, it could also have a long-term detrimental effect on children's education.

He said: "We will always fully support staff and parents in situations like this."

Student Laura Bonifacii, 17, of St Peters Road, Portslade, who is studying languages, went to Mexico with Hove Park School last year.

She said: "It was absolutely amazing. I got so much out of it - so much confidence and loads of ideas.

"We went to waterfalls, up a volcano and worked in an orphanage.

"It has made me want to take a gap year and go back to South America."

A Brighton and Hove City Council spokesman said: "Some high profile cases have made a few schools apprehensive.

"To address concerns we offered a training programme for heads on health and safety on school trips last year.

"Schools sent a representative and received guidance on outdoor and adventurous activities.

"We are confident our schools are in a position to competently plan each activity to be safely supervised."

The council has a school visits advisor who works within the Youth Support Service and also runs the local Duke of Edinburgh Award programme.

Every school has to have a trained external visits co-ordinator and must ensure a risk assessment is carried out on any external visit planned by the school, and that the organisers are trained, qualified and equipped to do it safely.