School bans parents from football practice ‘to protect children’

PARENTS have been banned from watching their children practise team sports at a school over ‘safeguarding’ concerns.

South Moreton Primary School in Oxfordshire has told parents they will not be allowed to sit in on football and netball practice this term because of ‘site security’.

The ban has outraged families, with one mother calling it a ‘killjoy policy’ which has ‘taken away all the fun’.

Schools are under increased pressure to protect children from paedophiles. Many are nervous around outdoor activities such as sports.

Responding to parents’ concerns, the school said it was simply following ‘very complex’ Government safeguarding guidelines.

The school, which sits in a leafy middle-class village, used to allow parents to sit on the sidelines of after-class sports training for children aged eight to 11.

But a letter sent out last month read: ‘Netball club will resume on Thursday 20th September … please note that due to site security and safeguarding, parents will not be allowed to wait on-site.’ A mother with a child at the school said: ‘We are a village of 300 houses so there’s a real community feel. We’d be able to identify strangers.

‘The parents love watching training because they can see the kids grow as a team.

‘Barring them takes away all the fun. We can’t be part of the process. It’s a case of safeguarding gone mad and not applying common sense. It’s a killjoy policy.’

The families have now been told they will have to wait outside the school until the clubs end.

In response to parents’ concerns, the school said in a follow-up letter: ‘Safeguarding processes are very complex and it is our duty to respect and adhere to these.

‘I am not able to relax these processes as they come from the Department for Education.’

A school spokesman yesterday said parents were still free to watch their children play in official team matches.

The Department for Education was contacted for comment.