How Teachers' Fears of Allegations Impede Pupils' Physical Education

When Kate, a year six primary school teacher from Southampton, was asked to give an 11-year-old pupil a lift home from cross-country training, she agreed only after gaining written permission from his father, and her headmaster's reassurance that she was not putting herself in a vulnerable position.

If she takes her class swimming, she makes sure they use separate cubicles. And if she has to touch a child during gym lessons, she will do so only after asking their permission in front of the other children. "I would try not to touch a child, but sometimes you have to help them balance and so I'll always ask: 'Is it OK for me to do this?'" explains the 27-year-old.

"It's a matter of course. You're always watching your back because it's their word against yours. You have to protect yourself because it's your neck that's on the line."

Kate (not her real name) has no particular reason to fear allegations of wrongdoing but her cautiousness is a necessity at a time when there is an increasing awareness that paedophiles target professions such as teaching which gives them access to children.

Three teachers have already been arrested during Operation Ore, the ongoing investigation into subscribers to child porn websites, and three swimming instructors have been convicted of child sex offences within the past year. Brian Roberts, a maths teacher from Rotherham, was jailed for five years for indecently assaulting two girls over three- and four-year periods.

But the need for each instructor to be checked by the criminal records bureau means the speed at which specialist tuition can be brought in is being impeded - with teachers waiting as long as four months before they can allow their students to be taught by swimming or tennis instructors.

More crucially, the fear of being falsely accused of child abuse is preventing teachers from taking on extra-curricular activities including sports.

While teaching unions are in no doubt that the national curriculum - with its meagre allocation of two hours of PE a week - is to blame for the poor provision of school sports, the threat of malicious allegations of child abuse is a factor.

"Teachers have become wary of being involved," said Tony Hardman, the former president of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, and now the head of the Archbishop Beck Catholic high school/sports college, one of Britain's 112 specialist sports colleges.

"Malevolent accusations have created a climate of mistrust and our advice to teachers is don't get involved in any out-of-school activities because of the risk of this - though we recognise this is the element that often gives the most job satisfaction. We tell them to be careful about getting involved in any out-of-school activities at all."

Figures collated by the union since 1991 show that the actual incidence of abuse by teachers is relatively minimal: only 62 of its 1,557 members interviewed by the police following claims by children were convicted, while, when false claims dealt with in schools are taken into account, the proportion of true claims is less than 2%.

Yet this, and the knowledge that each teacher has been cleared by the CRB - a check also applied to all parent helpers - before being allowed near pupils appears to offer little reassurance.

"If you look at the number of malevolent accusations and the number pursued, it's a very small proportion," said Mr Hardman

"But, in some schools, teachers are suspended as soon as an accusation is made and, even if it is proved unsubstantiated, they remain tainted by it."