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A TEENAGE schoolgirl has died after falling down a flight of stairs at a Greater Manchester secondary school.
Paramedics were called to Jeff Joseph Technology College, in Sale Moor, Trafford, on Monday morning, after reports that a 13-year-old pupil had fallen down the last few steps of an internal flight of stairs.
The pupil was taken to Wythenshawe Hospital, but she was pronounced dead on arrival.
A post mortem examination was due to be held to determine whether the fall itself was the cause of the youngster's death.
And an inquest into her death is expected to be opened within the next few days.

Police and health and safety officials from the council visited the school following the incident.
But police and education bosses say there are not believed to be any suspicious circumstances surrounding the death.
"Our belief is that this was an unfortunate and tragic accident," said Mr. Pratt.
A police spokesman added: "The girl is believed to have fallen down the last few steps of a flight of steps inside the school.
There are not believed to be any suspicious circumstances. The matter has been referred to the coroner."
(Source Manchester Evening News)
 
 
SCHOOLBOY Steven Commey, who was hit on the back of his head by a discus during a sports lesson, has died.
Steven, 14, of Ramsgill Close, Northern Moor, Wythenshawe, had been on life support at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital.
The accident happened at Barlow RC High School, Didsbury.
Steven was unconscious and in cardiac arrest when an ambulance crew reached him.
It is thought he never regained consciousness and his life-support machine was switched off after doctors could do no more for him.
A coroner will hold an inquest and the Health and Safety Executive is also investigating.
Jeff Hardman, of European Education Consultants, who specialise in health and safety strategy for schools, said the inquiry will decide if the incident was a simple accident.
(Source Manchester Evening News)
 
 
PARENTS OF A SCHOOLGIRL who was epileptic are considering action against her school because the school failed to inform a school trips insurance company of her condition. During the trip the girl suffered an epileptic fit and a resulting fall has left her paralysed in both legs. Because of the oversight by the school, which could have been highlighted in a risk assessment, the girl and her parents are left without insurance cover.
(Source Scottish new report)
 
TEACHERS today  remembered the 10-year-old boy who drowned on a trip to the Lake District as a "popular and clever"pupil. Max Palmer was swept downstream when a group of students from Fleetwood High School, Lancashire were bathing in a small river near Glenridding, Cumbria. Max was on the trip with the older children because his mother Patricia is an educational support assistant at the school.
 She was also swept away by the torrent as she tried to rescue her son and both were later pulled unconscious from the water by mountain rescue teams. Max was declared dead at the scene, while his mother was airlifted to Furness General Hospital suffering from mild hypothermia. Carolyn Thackway, deputy headteacher of Shakespeare Primary School which Max attended, said: "It is a tragic loss of life for a boy who had so much going for him. "Max was very, very popular boy who was very clever," she said.
The police and Health and Safety Executive have launched an investigation into the incident.
(Source Daily Mirror)
 
 
 
A schoolboy was left dangling from a basketball net by his hand after leaping up to score.
Matthew Stenson, 15 was in agony after a metal link in the hoop dug into a finger on his right hand.
Friends held the schoolboy up until firefighters cut him free. He had the link taken out in  hospital.
 
An education authority has been fined £10,000 after a 12-year-old boy suffered a fractured skull when a school basketball post fell on him. Suffolk County Council admitted breaching health and safety laws by failing to ensure that pupils were properly protected as a result of the injuries sustained by Adam Butcher at All Saints Middle School in Sudbury, Suffolk, in October 2000.
Magistrates in Bury St Edmunds, who also ordered the council to pay £5,700 costs, said they regarded the offence as "very serious". The Health and Safety Executive, which brought the prosecution, said the case acted as a warning to any authority responsible for equipment such as basketball posts or football goalposts to ensure that proper maintenance checks were carried out. Adam's parents Jocelyn and Simon, who were in court, said they were launching a civil action for damages against the county council.
 
 
A teacher and his school were fined £27,000.00  over the death of a pupil on a sailing trip.
Paul dove will pay £2000.00 over the drowning of Elizabeth Bee, nine who fell from the boat into Portsmouth Harbour in 1999. It was unstable because a missing ring let water into the hull.
Boundary Oak school in Fareham, was fined #£25,000.00 for health and safety failure, at Portsmouth crown court.
 
 
A top Tyneside school has been ordered to pay more than £5,500 after pupils were hurt when a chemistry experiment went wrong.
Two pupils at St Cuthbert's High School in Newcastle needed hospital treatment after they were sprayed with a chemical during the A-level experiment, a court heard. The school's governing body was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay £3,638 costs after it admitted responsibility for the explosion in the school's science laboratory.
 
It pleaded guilty to failing in its duty to protect its pupils under the Health and Safety Act at Gosforth Magistrates' Court. Health and Safety Inspector Chris Lucas told the bench A-level pupils were undertaking a practical experiment to identify an unknown substance. They were told to use Tollen's reagent, made up of ammonia, silver nitrate and caustic soda, to see if the compound was an aldehyde.
 
Mr Lucas said pupils were "showered" with the reagent and two of them needed hospital treatment after they were sprayed in the eye. The student worst affected, who was 17 at the time of the accident in February 2002, needed a special biological dressing to repair the damage to his eye, Mr. Lucas said. He also suffered post traumatic stress, the inspector added.
 
Mr. Lucas said the school should have realised the dangers of preparing the Tollen's reagent too far in advance as it was widely known it could become unstable within 30 minutes. He added that the pupils affected were not wearing safety glasses. (Source www.bbc.co.uk/news/education
(Risk Assessments:)
 
 
City fined £7500 for school asbestos alert

 EDINBURGH City Council has been fined £7500 after asbestos was found on ledges in a primary school. The deadly fibres were discovered in classrooms after roof repairs. Fears were raised by parents and staffs after tests revealed fallen particles on ledges and around radiators was asbestos. The school had to be temporarily closed down and pupils moved to a nearby site. (Source Scottish News)
 
 
School fined for sexual harassment of teachers by pupils
The Labour Court has ordered a second level school to pay compensation totalling €30,000 to two teachers who were sexually harassed by pupils attending the school. The case was taken by two female teachers with the support of the ASTI and the Equality Authority. The Labour Court determination, which states that the school is directly liable for the harassment to which the teachers were subjected, is the first of its kind in Ireland . It means that schools clearly have a duty to provide  sexual harassment for all teachers and staff.
 
The Labour Court found that having received complaints of sexual harassment by the teachers, the school failed to take sufficient measures to prevent further harassment. By failing to take any additional initiative the school principal and Board of Management "failed in their duty to act reasonably so as to protect the claimants from further incidents of sexual harassment". It emphasises the duty schools have to provide a safe working environment for teachers which is free from sexual harassment by pupils and others."
In a separate case taken by the ASTI on behalf of one of the teachers, the Labour Court found that she was constructively dismissed because she took an equality case against the school in relation to the occurrence of sexual harassment. The school has been ordered to pay an additional €13,000 for the constructive dismissal of the teacher (Source - Irish Press release)
 
 
The parents of a boy who choked to death on a chicken nugget at the school are to sue education chiefs.
The parents are to take action after the judge slammed supervision at the boys special school. The parents claim that staff did not follow instructions to cut the 11-year-old's food into small pieces.
The court said that proper procedures could have prevented the tragedy.
 
A nursery where an allergic child died after eating a milk product has been fined £60,000 and has been ordered to pay £19,000 costs.
 
The firm running the nursery in Browns Wood, Milton Keynes , had earlier pleaded guilty to a series of failures under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
 
Thomas Egan, who was five months old, was found to be allergic to all dairy products shortly after his birth in October 2001. But a nurse  fed Thomas a breakfast cereal, not realising it contained milk. The baby turned blue, struggled to breathe, and died from massive anaphylactic shock - a severe allergic reaction.
 
Nursery admitted failure
The firm had pleaded guilty at Milton Keynes Magistrates Court in August this year but the case was referred to Aylesbury Crown Court. The company admitted a failure in its duty to ensure that children were not exposed to risks to their health. The nursery nurse who fed him had not checked the label, and the ingredients contained dried milk. 
 
 
The fatal stabbing of Lincolnshire school pupil, Luke Walmsley, this week inevitably raised concerns over school security. But, while no-one would want to minimise the horror of this tragic event, does it warrant a rush to action? There are a number of reasons for caution. First, incidents like this are mercifully rare. Yet a closer look at these incidents reveals that fatal attacks by one pupil on another are exceptional, particularly if they occur inside school buildings. Most fatalities have involved intruders, usually with no connection to the school.
Most schools now have better fences, more secure entrances, security cameras and intruder alarms.
There have also been changes in the law making it a criminal offence to carry knives or other offensive weapons on school premises and giving the police powers to search for knives inside schools.
The guidelines on disciplining pupils caught with offensive weapons have also been strengthened.
It is now easier to expel a pupil for a first offence and appeals panels cannot reinstate pupils who have been found in possession of weapons.
 
It is perhaps worth recalling the comments of Lord Cullen after his inquiry into the Dunblane tragedy.
He said that while schools should be as safe as possible a balance had to be struck and "it would be unacceptable to carry measures to the point where schools were turned into fortresses".
(Source BBC News)
 
Your Risk Management Database contains the following assessments:
 
Security and Violence: Handling Violence
Security and Violence: Security Management
Security and Violence: Security Management (Personnel)
Security and Violence: Security Management (Primary)
Security and Violence: Security Management (Head Teacher)
Security and Violence: Violence to Staff
 
A pupil needed hospital treatment after being stabbed in a classroom at a school near Brighton.
The 14-year-old boy suffered injuries to his hand in the assault which happened at Longhill School in Rottingdean. Police were called to the 1,000-pupil comprehensive secondary school in Falmer Road on Wednesday morning.A 15-year-old boy was arrested and questioned by officers from Brighton CID as a result of the incident.
 
The classroom where the stabbing happened was sealed off by police and a craft knife was recovered by officers. The victim was taken to the Royal Sussex County Hospital but has since been released and is recovering at home.
 
Police said on Thursday the 15-year-old had been released without charge on police bail.
A spokesman for Brighton and Hove City Council said that a review of the circumstances surrounding the incident would take place.
 
Source BBC News
 
School safety calls after toddler killed
 
The family of a two-year-old boy have criticised safety in the school grounds where he was killed. 
Counsellors are still at Ysgol Cymerau in Pwllheli, to help staff and pupils after the accident at 0850 GMT on Wednesday when a Ford Fiesta being driven by a supply teacher reversed into the child sitting in a buggy.
The accident happened as parents were bringing children and staff were arriving for the start of the school day.
It has since emerged that the issue of safety at the school's entrance has been raised as a matter of concern in the past
BBC Wales has learned that the safety of the arrangement for getting cars and people in and out of the school has been raised before.
Parents bring children to and from school have to walk through the car parking area to reach the entrance.
He also called the volume of traffic using the school car park "a very dangerous situation."
But Alun Williams, deputy chair of the school's governors, said the safety issue was not necessarily any worse than at any other school.
"We certainly have been aware of issues when parents have been coming into that area," he said.
"But I am sure any school in any urban area has a congestion of school buses, of children, of parents taking their cars as near as possible to the gates of the school." 
 
A boy of 14 was stabbed and left for dead near his school gates. Police said he got into a row outside of the school. He is poorly but stable.
In another incident a youth was jailed for 3 years for blinding a 15 year old boy in one eye. The incident took place within a school.
 
£55,000 chip slip. A teacher forced to quit her job after slipping on a chip awarded £55,000.00 damages. The incident happened whilst the teacher was walking down a ramp near the schools dinning hall. 
In summing up the judge  insisted that the school should have been more aware of the design of the ramp and the real possibility of spillage. He continued: "It would have been reasonable practicable to do so by installing a non slip type of flooring on the ramp and instituting a system of giving priority to the cleaning of the ramp. "Had they done so the accident would probably not happened."
 
A private school has been fined £15,000 after a 12-year-old boy caught fire during a chemistry lesson.
Norwich School admitted three health and safety breaches but was cleared of a fourth at Norwich Crown Court.The boy spent 12 days in a specialist burns unit and needed skin grafts after he caught fire reaching over a candle during an experiment two years ago.
On Thursday Recorder Ian Foster directed the jury to return a not guilty verdict on the fourth charge.
Prosecutors at Norwich Crown Court had said they could not prove beyond reasonable doubt the charge of failing to carry out a risk assessment for the experiment. The £8000-a-year school was fined after admitting failure to make suitable and sufficient risk assessment regarding dangers to staff.
It also accepted staff had failed to assess risks to pupils and the school had failed to ensure employees had health and safety training repeated to them often enough - particularly fire precautions. The school was also ordered to pay £15,000 towards the prosecution costs.
 
Workers were exposed to deadly asbestos at a primary school, Blackpool magistrates heard on 3 August.


They fined Blackpool Council £15,000 for breaching s3(1) of HSWA 1974 in not ensuring the safety of non-employees at the school, after it pleaded guilty to the charge. The HSE was awarded its full costs of £1946.

The court heard that on 15 April 2004, the council had been replacing kitchen equipment at St Cuthbert’s Primary School in Blackpool. Although a full asbestos survey had been carried out, it had not been passed on to the contractors, in a "breakdown of communication," according to investigating and prosecuting HSE inspector, Allen Shute.

Drilling had taken place during the insertion of electrical cabling into the ceiling by contractors, which disturbed asbestos insulation board that had been clearly identified in the survey. Work was stopped when the council was notified of the asbestos and a specialist contractor brought in.

The Council said in mitigation that it had put in a new system for dealing with asbestos since being served an improvement notice in September 2000.

"The council was normally very good in dealing with asbestos but on this occasion it went wrong. It was once too often," inspector Shute told SHP.
 
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Safety call after teacher payouts
A teachers' union wants health and safety rules reviewed after winning hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation for three members.
A special needs teacher in south Wales won £250,000 for back injuries, and a craft teacher in Lancashire £130,000 for asthma caused by wood dust.
A Bristol reading tutor was awarded £14,000 after a bookshelf fell on her.
Their union, the NASUWT, said guidelines on working conditions had not been clear.
'Cold comfort'
Its general secretary, Chris Keates, said: "How many more teachers will have to become too ill to work and their expertise be lost to the profession before all employers take their responsibility for the welfare of their employees seriously?"
"Compensation is cold comfort when you can no longer do the job you loved and your health is damaged."
The union declined to name the teachers or schools involved.
A spokesman for the Department for Education and Skills said it placed great importance on the health, safety and well-being of the school workforce.
"We continue to work closely w ith the Health and Safety Executive on disseminating good management practice and are committed to supporting employers in providing safe and appropriate working conditions."
The compensation awards will have come from schools' insurers, rather than out of their normal budgets.
The NASUWT advises its members to avoid taking children on school trips - for fear of being sued if things go wrong.
Renewing its guidance last year, it said: "In an increasingly litigious society which no longer appears to accept the concept of a genuine accident, our first responsibility must be to protect our members' interests."
 
 
Defendant
 
Summary
Employees exposed to the risk of asbestos fibres by virtue of: failure to identify type(s) of asbestos to which employees were liable to be exposed; failure to determine the nature and degree of exposure which might have occurred in the course of work; failure to set out the steps to be taken to prevent or reduce to the lowest level reasonably practicable that exposure
 
Offence Date
 29/10/1999
 
Total Fine
 £14,000.00
Total Costs Awarded to HSE
£7,390.60
 
Defendant
 
Summary
Chef employed by catering contractor in school kitchen tripped on defective (damaged) floor covering and fell striking head on steel table, suffered head injury and unconsciousness. Damage present and known to school for up to 7 months (although risk varied over time), school failed to take suitable remedial action. Breach of Reg 12 of Workplace (H,S&W) Regs.
 
Offence Date
 14/04/2004
 
Total Fine
 £5,000.00
Total Costs Awarded to HSE
£2,936.00
 
Defendant
 
Summary
Failure to ensure that a partially sighted pupil was not exposed to risks whilst using an access ramp whereby pupil fell into an open manhole and suffered serious leg injuries and failure to undertake a suitable and sufficient assessment..
 
Offence Date
 29/08/2002
 
Total Fine
 £5,000.00
Total Costs Awarded to HSE
£0.00
 
Defendant
 
Summary
Uncontrolled release of Amosite asbestos from kitchen ceiling at St Cuthberts RC Primary School, Blackpool during refurbishment.
 
Offence Date
 15/04/2004
 
Total Fine
 £15,000.00
Total Costs Awarded to HSE
£1,946.00
 
Defendant
 
Summary
Contractors installed overhead projectors into asbestos ceilings. No information re asbestos known to school and therefore none given to contractors.
 
Offence Date
 18/03/2003
 
Total Fine
 £8,000.00
Total Costs Awarded to HSE
£5,894.60
 
Defendant
 
Summary
Section 3(1) of Health & Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. Eleri Davies a pupil at Cwmllynfell T.W. Primary School fell into the sink of a Santon sterilizing unit containing very hot water. Eleri sustained burns from the back of her knees up to her waist. Unit was 30 years old, located in school hall, was left unattended for long periods and access to the sink was only prevented by a thin metal sheet which was not designed to support persons from falling onto it. Use of the sink had been inadequately risk assessed. After the incident it was replaced by a dishwasher. Prosecution proposed as Neath Port Talbot CBC (as dutyholder) failed to prevent injury to persons not in their employment.
 
Offence Date
 08/07/2003
 
Total Fine
 £10,000.00
Total Costs Awarded to HSE
£2,618.00
 
Defendant
 
Summary
26/6/2003 Ratho Primary school held an excursion to the East Beach at North Berwick a Primary 1 pupil was found unconscious in water by 2 other teachers from a different school. Councils procedures had not been followed; event not risk assessed and that adequate control measures not implemented to allow event to be run in a safe manner.
 
Offence Date
 26/06/2003
 
Total Fine
 £3,500.00
Total Costs Awarded to HSE
£0.00
 
Defendant
 
Summary
Accused is the Head Teacher at Ratho Primary School. Incident occurred at beach at North Berwick where Primary 1 pupil was found unconcious in water by 2 teachers from another school. Head Teacher had specific responsibilities under Council's procedures
 
Offence Date
 26/06/2003
 
Total Fine
 £750.00
Total Costs Awarded to HSE
£0.00
 
Defendant
 
Summary
IP fell off the flat roof (2m) unto a 1m high retaining wall. No risk assessments completed before work begun, edge protection not used. Roofing work was ongoing for 8days. No general risk assessments for premises work. case heard at crawley magistrates on 18/08/04. Guilty Plea. MHSWR 1999 Reg 3 fine £1000.00 CHSW 1996 Reg 6 (1) fine £1000.00
 
Offence Date
 24/07/2002
 
Total Fine
 £2,000.00
Total Costs Awarded to HSE
£1,250.00
 
Defendant
 
Summary
IP suffered serious injuries from a toppled Edwards Box & Pan Folder machine whilst the machine was being moved to a new location within the same department. IP was "employed" as a technician by Blackpool & The Fylde College.
 
Offence Date
 01/07/2002
 
Total Fine
 £7,500.00
Total Costs Awarded to HSE
£6,127.00