MORE than £1 million of public money has been paid out in compensation and legal costs for injuries children have suffered in Yorkshire’s primary and secondary schools over the past five years, new figures reveal.

Pay outs include £35,000 after a child broke a limb, £16,000 after a member of a class was injured during a science experiment and just over £10,000 after a pupil was knocked over by a teacher during a football match.

The figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that there been 171 successful personal injury claims made against schools in the region since September 2008.

This was a higher number of claims than those made against schools across Greater London.

Across Yorkshire £1.3 million has been paid out in 11 of the 15 education authorities in the region which provided figures.

Rotherham had the highest pay out figure at £289,851, followed by Leeds where £221,013 was paid out, Wakefield with £183,730 and Bradford with £178,527. The responses from councils give descriptions of some of the incidents in which pupils at primary and secondary schools have been hurt.

via Injury claims in schools cost more than £1m – Yorkshire Post.