Outdoor Education Advisers' Panel

A Gloucester school has been fined £5,000 following the death of a pupil on a sixth form trip.

A Gloucester school has been fined £5,000 following the death of a pupil on a sixth form trip.

District Judge Bruce Morgan imposed the fine and £10,000 costs on the governors of Central Technology College, after hearing the school's health and safety policy was in "tatters". He warned that the prosecution could mean an end to school trips.

The governors had admitted breaching health and safety law following the death of Yunus Moolla in July 2001.

The 17-year-old drowned during a visit to Gullet Quarry in the Malvern Hills. The court heard he had ignored the instructions of teacher Andrew Barker and swam in the flooded pit.

Another pupil, who was not named in court, had earlier jumped 40ft into the water of the disused quarry and was pulled out by Mr Barker after getting into difficulty, the court heard.

Two charges against Mr Barker were dropped after the Moolla family urged the Health and Safety Executive not to prosecute.

Andrew Langdon, prosecuting for the HSE, said Mr Barker had forbidden the sixth formers from swimming after that but allowed Yunus and a friend to wash their shoes in the water.

Fatally, Yunus ignored the teacher's advice.

Sentencing the school at Worcester Magistrates' Court, Judge Morgan said: "This is the sort of incident that every educational establishment must have nightmares about. I don't overlook the fact that at the end of the day a child has lost his life, however."

He was told the foundation school in Cotteswold Road, Gloucester, was in £240,000 debt and would struggle to pay a steep fine.

"The children, will be the ones who suffer," he said. "However the health and safety policy was almost non-existent at the time."

Expressing his sympathy to the Moolla family, he praised them for being so supportive of the school and Mr Barker.

But he criticised the length of time it had taken for the case to be closed and the culture of fear which prevents many teachers from running trips.

"Prosecutions like this are slowly going to bring a death knell to school outings," he said.

"I fully accept that the policy in relation to health and safety was not correct - in fact it was in tatters.

"If there had been a correct policy the first incident wouldn't have taken place."
But he said no safeguard could have prevented Yunus' death at Gullet Quarry, where children from the school had swum before.

After the hearing, headteacher Enid Cole, who was deputy head at the time of the accident, issued a statement on behalf of the school.
"The college governors and headteacher still deeply regret Yunus' death.
"The college has put in place new procedures regarding our awareness and response to health and safety issues."