Poll: Do you think schools are too 'risk-averse'?
Coping with risk and danger is crucial to a child's education and should become a key part of the school curriculum, the chairwoman of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has said.
Dame Judith Hackitt, who has chaired the organisation for more than eight years, said that children were suffering under an "excessive risk-averse" culture in schools, which was stifling their readiness for the real world.
She criticised the growing health and safety culture in schools, which she described as "nonsensical", adding that children should be encouraged to climb trees and play games where there might be a risk of injury.
Dame Judith made the comments during a speech to the Royal Academy of Engineering, in which she called on schools to put an end to top-down "bureaucratic" behaviour.
