Teachers in Wokingham, Berkshire are going back to the classroom as pupils, as they are being taught how to climb ladders correctly.
Teachers must undergo the ‘height activity’ training in order to be allowed to hang up pupils’ paintings and artwork.
The move comes as a teacher received a whopping £82,000 in compensation for injuries which resulted from falling off a ladder while hanging pupils work back in 2004.
Manager of children’s services at Wokingham Council, Andy Couldrick, said:
“The council can confirm in October 2004, a ladder collapsed and injured a teacher at one of the borough’s schools.
“At the time, the school, the council and its insurers carried out a full investigation.
“The law is strict in requiring that all equipment should be fit for purpose, be maintained in good condition and that staff be properly trained in its use.
“In this case, it came to light that inadequate training and instruction had been given to the injured member of staff. The ladder itself was not used again.
“The school involved in the incident carried out a post accident risk assessment and lessons learnt were shared with all schools in the Wokingham borough.
“Work at height training is now part of a rolling training programme to ensure that relevant staff are trained prior to undertaking work at height activities.”
Hopefully, the training will now help to significantly reduce the number of accidents involving ladders within the borough’s 60 schools.
