School bans kids from touching each other during playtime

By ANDREW PARKER
The Sun Online
Feb. 11, 2007

PARENTS were up in arms last night after a headmistress banned kids from playing tag on their breaks.

Other playtime favourites such as kiss chase are also forbidden, with pupils told they can only touch each other to help if one has fallen over.

One mum said: “Kids have been playing these games for centuries. The ban is barmy. It hardly helps children learn to play together.”

Headmistress Susan Tuck ordered the 400 pupils at Bracebridge Heath Primary School, near Lincoln, to keep their distance after a minority “persistently offended” in the playground.

She said she hoped to slowly reintroduce “supervised and appropriate physical contact between pupils”.

She added: “I couldn’t say to the boys they couldn’t play certain games and then allow the girls to go around linking arms. I think on the first day the children thought, ‘How is this going to work’?

“Now I have spoken to some of them and they think the playground has become a lot calmer.

“Pupils are more creative, playing games such as trying to jump on each other’s shadow instead of shoving each other roughly on the back.

“We certainly haven’t had the same number of bumped heads we were having.”

The move is the latest in a long line of playground games, including conkers and football, stopped by some schools for “safety reasons”.