I think you’re being
too cautious. The children will (hopefully!) have real cutlery at
home. There’s no reason why they would suddenly forget how to use it
properly, simply because they were in a museum setting. Their school will
also allow them to use cutlery at lunchtime…
This sounds like an
awesome activity, please don’t refrain from doing it through fear of
injury. If they’re setting a table it should be quite a sedate affair…why
not have the person running the workshop holding a tray of cutlery. Each
child could be stood at a place setting, as it comes to their turn the workshop
leader could come to them with the cutlery. This way the child would only
have to turn around, pick up the cutlery and then lay it down again.
Good
luck!
East Riddlesden
Hall
From: List for discussion of
issues in museum education in the UK. [mailto:
Sent: 09 July 2010 11:43
To:
Subject: Setting a table risk
assessment
Dear
Gemmers,
I
would like to run a workshop with school pupils aged 8-12 where they are
challenged to ‘set the Captain’s Table for dinner’. In teams they will have to
work out where the cutlery should be placed etc. Ideally we’d use real cutlery,
but I’m slightly anxious about the risks involved.
The
workshop will of course be supervised. Am I being too
cautious?
Any
suggestions?
Lisa
Lisa
Gaston
Museum Education
Officer
The
Tall Ship
G3
8QQ
t:
0141 222 2513
w:
www.thetallship.com
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