Academic slams school race days

A Nottingham academic has criticised educational trips to racecourses which he claims are encouraging children as young as four to gamble.

Professor Mark Griffiths, of Nottingham Trent University, said visits run by the British Horseracing Education Trust (BHEST) were "irresponsible".

More than 8,000 pupils aged four to 18 have taken part in the scheme.

BHEST says the visits "aim to bring lessons to life" by giving pupils the chance to learn outside the classroom.

'Nanny state'

Professor Griffiths said: "It's not a case of spoiling the fun for the majority. It's about realising that gambling is an adult activity and it should be done by those over 18.

"If we are going to allow children to know about gambling, it should be done in a school setting."

Teacher Vanessa Platt, from Lowes Wong Infant School in Southwell, said her pupils had benefited from visits to Southwell Racecourse.

"We said that people decide which horse they want to win but we didn't go into the fact that you can put money on it and the children did choose a horse and in fact the favourite that they chose did win, so it was exciting.

"It concerns me that we're turning into a nanny state. If children aren't given the opportunity to visit places like that how can they as adults ever make informed decisions?" she said.

On its website, BHEST describes the scheme as a way to "open horseracing to new, young audiences and to support learning through the use of innovative and informative activities based on the National Curriculum".

The programme began in 2000 and aims to open the scheme to 20,000 pupils by 2010.