Makara School students Alex Pattison (6), left, and May Grafton (6) with Principal Gail Dewar, who says students at her school can climb trees - for now.

A school says it won't reverse its tree climbing ban, despite the Government's assurances about new workplace safety laws.

Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Woodhouse has hit out at "so-called health and safety reps peddling fear" ahead of Monday's changes.

No school should be worried about banning children from climbing trees out of fear of the new rules, he told Paul Henry on Wednesday.

Hagen Hopkins Workplace Safety and Relations Ministser Michael Woodhouse says don't panic about new workplace safety rules, some people are peddling fear.

"We've all fallen out of trees and skinned our knees."

He says the reform was not intended to constrain people, rather to prompt them to identify risks and manage them.

READ MORE:

* Are we raising cottonwool kids?

* Primary schoolkids banned from climbing trees because of liability fears

* Scared school principals hide homes in trust to escape tough work safety regime

* Editorial: We must not become so constrained by fear of taking risks

FAIRFAX NZ Kids are to be kept out of trees at Greytown School in the Wairarapa - but Minister Michael Woodhouse says there's no need for that.

Some school principals are considering putting their homes into trusts, because they fear being forced to sell them to pay maximum fines of $600,000 under the new legislation.

Greytown School has also temporarily banned pupils from climbing trees because of a lack of clarity about whether their approach to safety contains enough risk mitigation.

"WE DON'T WANT TO BE THE TEST CASE SCHOOL"

Speaking after Woodhouse made his comments, Greytown board of trustees chairman Alistair Plimmer said the Ministry of Education had told the school there was no certainty for anyone because the law had not been tried in court.

"My principal doesn't want to be the test case and we don't want to be the test case school," he said.

Until there was some case law, or until schools were exempted from the new laws, schools were stuck between a rock and a hard place.

"We don't want to wrap our kids in bubble wrap. We're a country school, we want our kids to experience all sorts of things ... but we don't want Wellington to be hanging a Sword of Damocles over our principal's head, Plimmer said.

People had said the school's tree climbing decision was an overreaction but those people weren't the ones facing a potential fine of $600,000 or five years in prison.

WELLINGTON INJURIES: BY THE NUMBERS

Schools can be a dangerous place. In Wellington alone there were 3000 injuries reported to ACC in 2014.

Accidents on school property, including in buildings, on playgrounds and on sports fields, cost the taxpayer $804,629 in medical expenses and weekly compensation in 2014.

The most accident-prone group was secondary school aged children, who accounted for more than half of the injuries last year, 1917 out of 3337.

400 adults were also injured on school grounds in 2014.

PRINCIPALS IN "WAIT AND SEE MODE"

Secondary Principals' Association spokesman Patrick Walsh said most principals were in a "wait and see mode" but there were concerns the new law could affect school camps and other education outside the classroom.

Pakuranga College in Auckland had decided that because of the large cost of using harnesses or scaffolding for work over a certain height, it was cheaper to buy a scissor lift, he said.

Walsh said while WorkSafe's position was that school pupils could continue climbing trees, a spokesperson had also said those trees should be checked to ensure they were safe and weren't diseased or had broken branches.

"That would mean every school would have to get an arborist in because staff at the school aren't qualified to make those judgments," Walsh said.

Schools were dealing with children and teenagers. "They push the boundaries. They take a lot of risks and medical evidence suggests the teenage brain isn't fully developed, so they don't think about consequences," Walsh said.

Extensive activities took place outside the classroom and lots of contact sport was played. "You can see why principals are very nervous," he said.

"The reality is it's in the statute book. The principal is identified as the person in a school who could face fines of $600,000 or five years imprisonment."

The principals' association questioned why the draconian legislation had not just targeted the industries with high health and safety concerns, such as forestry and mining, Education had a reasonably good track record.

If school camps and other opportunities outside the classroom were being removed, the school sector would want to talk to the Government about the issue.

Woodhouse said if schools had sound, sensible policies in place there was nothing in the new law to stop children climbing trees or using playgrounds.

"Anybody who says that (schools should be worried) has been very badly misinformed," he said.

He also said officials have been talking to secondary school principals in a bid to "calm the farm" about the new rules.

He didn't know what a school principal would do about trees, suggesting trees should have grass or woodchips under them so if someone fell they weren't too seriously hurt.

SCHOOLS "DON'T NEED TO PANIC"

Woodhouse said he was inclined to the view "there are a number of so-called health and safety reps who are peddling fear, actually to try and drum up business".

But he also said there were good health and safety consultants who could provide a valuable service.

"Remember some of these schools are very, very large ...There's no question that they need to manage risk. What I'm saying is they don't need to panic."

The suggestion schools were buying a scissor lift was an example of people leaping to the most extreme response to managing risk, Woodhouse said.

But he added that if high light bulbs needed changing, then using a scissor lift might be the right decision to prevent falls.

ACC figures show 1709 accidents were categorised as happening at schools in 2014 among five to 17-year-olds. The figure is not specific to school hours or terms, and are thought likely to include people using school grounds for weekend sport and other school facilities for unrelated activities.

The cost to date of the accidents in 2014 is $216,158 but more costs could accrue. In 2013 there were 1647 accidents with costs to date of $279,823.

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