PDA

View Full Version : Australian grade school bans handstands and cartwheels.




Anti Federalist
09-04-2012, 01:28 PM
Cartwheel ban turns the school rules upside down

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/cartwheel-ban-turns-the-school-rules-upside-down/story-fndo317g-1226459374089

STUDENTS have been banned from performing handstands and cartwheels in the playground of a Sydney primary school unless under the direct supervision of a trained gymnastics teacher.

Parents described the ban as extreme and ridiculous as principals warned more schools would implement similar rules.

Drummoyne Public School said children could perform cartwheels and somersaults "under the supervision of a trained gymnastics teacher and with correct equipment. These activities therefore cannot be condoned during lesson breaks."

In a newsletter sent to parents and posted on the school's website, principal Gail Charlier said it followed consultations with the Education Department's state schools sports unit

A department spokesman said the ban was to prevent, and not in response to, playground injuries.

Have your say below - have the fun police gone too far?

"School playground rules are set at school level, based on work health and safety considerations and taking into the account the terrain and layout of the school and the level of supervision," he said. "There is no departmental ban on unstructured play activities like cartwheels or handstands."

A spokesman for Education Minister Adrian Piccoli said the "operational" policy had no statewide implications.

But a NSW Federation of P&C Association spokeswoman said the decree was extreme. She said: "Parents always have concerns about the safety of their children but they don't want their children wrapped in cotton wool."

NSW Primary Principals Association president Jim Cooper said: "The irony is while parents are aghast, there's a group of parents who, if a child has a little accident, they hold the school to answer," he said. Drummoyne parent Rebecca Chown has collected more than 250 signatures on a petition demanding the rule be overturned. "It's ridiculous," she said. "What's the world coming to when kids can't do handstands and cartwheels at lunch time."

Ms Chown said she understood the principal "felt she was doing the right thing", but the children were playing, not training to be gymnasts.

The Daily Telegraph was inundated with comments after breaking the story online. Mayling Quay wrote on the Telegraph's Facebook page: "This has been in force at my daughter's primary school for a few years now. (It) sucks."

pcosmar
09-04-2012, 01:46 PM
- have the fun police gone too far?

They are running out of things to ban,, so they ban fun.

it is the logical progression.

:(

coastie
09-04-2012, 01:47 PM
I just took apart our trampoline yesterday.

About 2 weeks ago, some friends the kids haven't seen in quite sometime were over, and my daughter does an excited handspring, takes one of "those" bounces right off of it and into the ground at full speed on her neck/shoulder area. She popped right up and wasn't hurt, but the trampoline is now in pieces heading to the scrapyard next week.

I still don't think any of that activity should be illegal, however. What's next, a ban on having fun?

phill4paul
09-04-2012, 02:39 PM
"It's ridiculous," she said. "What's the world coming to when kids can't do handstands and cartwheels at lunch time."

Sigh. Rebecca, it is not "what the world is coming to." It's what the world has become. In bits and measures. You've just finally noticed it in your back yard.