A FIVE year-old pupil of Cardenden Primary School slipped and fell on a frosty playground and suffered concussion.

Mum, Sophie Burt, is concerned why the playground could not be gritted to improve the grip for excited kids running around during a break-time.

She was quick to point out that the assistance and support she and son Duncan received from the school's headteacher, Donna Shields, after the incident, was first class but she has been struggling to get any confirmation from Fife Council education department on what the policy is on, as she described it: 'Making playground's safe in freezing weather.'

Said Sophie, from Station Road, in the village: "It happened at lunchtime on Thursday November 14 when Duncan was out with his friends in the playground and he slipped and fell.

"I went and picked him up from the school after the incident and he seemed to be none the worse for it all. However, by Friday he was not feeling at all well and I took him to the Victoria Hospital where it was discovered he had concussion.

"This was a real shock for me and it made me really concerned how this had happened."

Sophie thought that the playgrounds of all schools would be properly gritted during freezing weather and she contacted the education department, but struggled to get a response.

"I would have thought that the safety of schoolchildren at our schools would be a priority for the council but currently that does not seem to be the case."

Service Manager Neil Finnie said on Tuesday: "We are aware of an incident where a child was hurt while playing in the school grounds. I'm confident that the staff involved handled the situation professionally at the time.

"Gritting policy in all our schools is to have a minimum of one main route through the playground, and on to all entrances, gritted during frosty, cold weather.

"Our staff will try, where resources are available, to grit other paths and areas of the playground. During inclement weather all our schools will assess the conditions in the playground before allowing children outside at break and lunch time."

Added Sophie: "It looks as if they are piling the responsibility on headteachers, but another problem is that janitors are shared by schools so in difficult conditions it will be hard for all the work to be tackled.

"Surely the safety of children has to be top of the agenda."