School fined after boy is burned

A private school has been fined £15,000 after a 12-year-old boy caught fire during a chemistry lesson.

Norwich School admitted three health and safety breaches but was cleared of a fourth at Norwich Crown Court.

The boy spent 12 days in a specialist burns unit and needed skin grafts after he caught fire reaching over a candle during an experiment two years ago.

On Thursday Recorder Ian Foster directed the jury to return a not guilty verdict on the fourth charge.

Prosecutors at Norwich Crown Court had said they could not prove beyond reasonable doubt the charge of failing to carry out a risk assessment for the experiment.

The £8000-a-year school was fined after admitting failure to make suitable and sufficient risk assessment regarding dangers to staff.

It also accepted staff had failed to assess risks to pupils and the school had failed to ensure employees had health and safety training repeated to them often enough - particularly fire precautions.

The school was also ordered to pay £15,000 towards the prosecution costs.