To: Head Teacher, Dr T Cook, School staff team, Govenors & ALAT

Remove the BAN on running in the playground at Hillfort Primary School, Liskeard

Following the apparent U turn of the school, children WILL be permitted to continue running freely in the main playground, the early years playground in addition to the ball court!
Whilst running in a specific area will be discouraged for safety reasons, to reduce injury of children running into one another, children will still be permitted to run.
The school issued a statement via their Facebook page this evening following the launch of this petition & direct contact from the BBC.
I would like to thank everyone for their signatures & support to bring about this apparent back pedal from what had been outlined in the newsletter that running will only be permitted 'in the ball court', in response to 'bad behaviour'.
The statement can be viewed on their Facebook page.
Our children WILL have the right & freedom to run freely during child led free play!
Well done, fantastic outcome!

Please lift the ban on running in the playground at Hillfort Primary School at lunch time break.
Ensure that there is adequate funding & provision of suitable staff to safely supervise lunch break.
Enable & empower children's right & freedom to run freely through spontaneous, child led play, in the playground during lunch time break.
Stopping children running during free play due to bumping into each other is Health & safety gone mad.
Do not allow 'health and safety' to remove the liberty to spontaneously run in the playground during imaginative & child led play.
Please look at & consider alternative options to reduce risk, as required without removing liberty to move freely during play.
Please consider staggered lunch break times, extending the size of the playground to meet the needs of pupils or other creative alternatives to removing the right to play freely in the playground.

Why is this important?

Children should have the freedom & right to play, as they wish during their lunchtime break.
Children running & freely moving their body, during play are vital to development.
Being amidst a child obesity epidemic in the uk, the school has a responsibility to enable & empower running opportunities.
Running burns 3 times the calories of walking.
Running comes naturally through spontaneous, child led & imaginative play.
These measures, are directly imposing structure & rules on the freedom of child led play.
Exposure to acceptable risks are essential to children's development & enable them to learn to be aware of & manage risk effectively independently.

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Updates

2016-10-04 13:40:41 +0100

Petition is successful with 162 signatures

2016-10-03 12:24:35 +0100

Petition is successful with 158 signatures

2016-09-30 22:26:32 +0100

100 signatures reached

2016-09-30 18:35:32 +0100

50 signatures reached

2016-09-30 16:03:24 +0100

25 signatures reached

2016-09-30 13:36:21 +0100

10 signatures reached