17 February 2025 , 16:48
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A teacher is suing a summer camp firm after being knocked over when up to 100 children playing British Bulldog charged at her.
Elizabeth Parkin is claiming £300,000 in damages after her leg was injured in the fall and, she says, she wasn’t able to work for around four months.
The 45-year-old has also been left with a limp and may need a knee replacement, the High Court heard.
British Bulldog sees participants run in a group from one designated area to another while one or more players named ‘bulldogs’ attempt to physically stop them.
Ms Parkin was working at a Euro Sports Camps summer camp, based at a public boarding and day school Bradfield College in Reading, in August 2023, when the incident happened on the school hockey pitch.
She walked onto the pitch while the game had paused and was facing away from the children when they charged forward. The Sun reports.
She said a colleague had organised the spur-of-the moment game ‘without a risk assessment’.
British Bulldog has been banned at many schools (Picture: Alamy Stock Photo)
Her claim said: ‘A child or children collided into the claimant, knocking her to the ground, where she sustained injuries.’
Ms Parkin works as a pastoral lead at a secondary school in Bournemouth and said she was forced to stay off work until November 2023 due to the injuries.
She said she continues to suffer pain in her left knee and leg.
The teacher, named supporting staff member of the year at the Bournemouth Daily Echo School Awards in 2022, is suing CMT Learning, which operates Euro Sports Camps.
Many schools have banned children from playing British Bulldog and other touch games like tag because of injury risks.
Not everyone has welcomed the move, however. In 2019, headteacher Joanne Smith was branded ‘Britain’s biggest snowflake’ for stopping children from playing tag.
The new rule was brought in at Rudyard Kipling Primary School in Brighton under its new ‘Gentle Hands’ policy.
Among the critics was Piers Morgan, who said games like tag prepare children for the real world.