Oven gloves off over charity bake

A plan by children at a Bristol school to bake cakes and sell them in aid of Children in Need has been stopped because of health and safety fears.

Head teacher Tamryn Savage said there were hygiene and allergy considerations and she had insisted on the school canteen supplying a cake stall instead.

"It only takes one thing to go wrong," said Ms Savage of Downend School.

"I'm responsible for 1,500 children with a range of allergies. What if one eats something they shouldn't eat?"

The group of Year 10 and Year 7 pupils at the school were told on Wednesday not to bring in their own cakes for the event on Friday, which will also be a non-uniform day.

Baking cakes

Instead, cakes and biscuits will only be made by the school canteen.

Pupils at the school have been baking cakes along with taking part in other fundraising activities since the BBC appeal started in 1980.

Last year their efforts raised a total of £2,000 for Children In Need.

Dean Blake, a spokesman for the school, said: "The canteen can monitor what goes into these cakes and biscuits rather than leave that to parents.

"We have no control of what goes into those cakes and with allergies like wheat or gluten there is so much to consider."