Triangular flapjacks have…
…been banned from a school for being dangerous. We have heard stories in the past about health and safety gone mad, but this one really takes the biscuit!
A triangular shaped flapjack was thrown at another pupil at Castle View School on Canvey Island, Essex, resulting in a trip to the school nurse and a sore eye. The fact that a child was injured is a serious issue, of course, but the response of the school to ban this shaped snack is laughable.
I might be stating the obvious here, but isn’t the solution to ban the rowdy behaviour of throwing food?
The school released a statement to the press saying: “I can confirm that the texture and shape of the flapjacks were reviewed following an isolated accident last week.”
The Telegraph online reported that dinner ladies have been told to make all flapjacks square or rectangle-shaped in the future. Have they also been told to get rid of all the cutlery from the school canteen and to only use paper plates? Perhaps they should ban that school favourite of spotted dick pudding in case it is so solid, it could be used as a weapon.
It’s also confusing why square flapjacks are safer. Surely they have got more corners?
Stories in the past have reported games like conkers, leapfrog, marbles, tag and even skipping being banned from schools due to health and safety fears. Whilst I think this seems a little over-cautious, I can understand the concerns – but really, this latest story is madness.
We are never going to be able to eradicate every single danger for children; surely we just need to teach them what the dangers are and how to live safely? Otherwise they are going to leave the security of school and be confronted by hazardous triangles everywhere and not know how to react.