From the Mail article:
Parents were told the decision had been taken after a number of pupils suffered scrapes and broken bones.
The school insisted it was not discouraging children from play, exercise or running, but encouraging them to only do it in allocated areas around the school.
Sounds quite reasonable to me. Scraped knees are one thing, all kids get those, but broken bones is quite another. Who would get the blame if that happened? The teachers, the school.
Kids shouldn't be cosseted but reasonable precautions must be taken to avoid real harm. Not just in school playgrounds but play areas in parks. Years ago such play areas were on tarmac, even those things we used to call ''swing boats'', a big plank that swung between two scaffold-like structures. If a kid stood at each end (& they did) and 'worked it', they could do ''the bumps'' and it went really high. Any child sitting on the plank in the middle could fall off and do themselves untold injury. You don't see play areas like that now, all slides, swings and roundabouts are on grass and no-one objects. In the same way that horse riders always wear riding hats, cyclists wear helmets. It only takes one serious injury or worse for the public to change their minds.
