A SCHOOL has been accused of taking health and safety rules to the extreme — after an eight-year-old boy was banned from carrying his cough sweets.

Shocked Duncan Lawrence said his eight-year-old son Jake wanted to have the Halls Soothers with him at school after suffering from a cold.

But he was told by staff at St Peter’s First School in Droitwich that only prescribed medicines were allowed.

Head teacher Tracey O’Keefe-Pullan said cough sweets are allowed in school — but only if they are handed in to a class teacher or the school office so they can be administered properly.

Mr Lawrence said he could not believe what he was hearing.

“We are not the sort of people to go to the doctors all the time and get antibiotics. If a Halls Soother can do the job we would rather do that.

“The headmistress said the lozenges are not against the rules but she doesn’t want them to have them."

Mr Lawrence continued: “She said another child might have an allergy to a lozenge.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous, health and safety gone mad.”

Mr Lawrence, of Hanbury Road, in Droitwich, said he was told that if Jake could not spend the day at school without a lozenge he was not well enough to come to school and so he took his son home again.

He said: “He was fine and the chances are he wouldn’t even need one.

“They were just there to put his mind at rest that he could have one if he needs them.

“I said to the headmistress I’m fed up of the heads and teachers talking to parents as if we are their pupils.”

However, Mrs O’Keefe-Pullan is standing by the school’s rules on cough sweets.

“All we ask for as part of our policy is that an adult in school takes care of them,” she said.

“He wanted his little boy to have them in his pocket and have them whenever in the day.

“It’s for the welfare of all children in school. Children can’t just bring anything into school.”

Mrs O’Keefe-Pullan added: “The last thing we want is for a child to be out of school.

“We are very happy to work with parents to ensure children are in school but it’s about following procedures to keep everyone safe.”