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Sporting Injuries, Schools and Guidelines - Rupert Beloff, No5 Chambers

12/12/12. Schools have a clear duty of care to pupils who undertake sporting activities under their auspices. A breach of such duty may arise where there has been a failure to provide adequate instruction. In the case of Gannon v Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council a claim succeeded where a schoolboy broke his neck when diving from a starting block at the shallow end of a swimming pool on the basis that his PE teacher had not shown him how to correctly effect such a dive. In that case the schoolboy’s claim also succeeded against the Amateur Swimming Federation for failing to issue appropriate warnings of relevant dangers to instructors.

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