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Equipment - To What Standard?


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Hi, We went to purchase a wooden wendy house of a site recently and they cam back and asked us to sign a disclaimer as it was for personal use not commercial. We are a voluntary preschool where every penny counts and it infurates me that we have to buy a piece of equipment that is for commercial use even though they look and seem to be exactly the same as what Argos would sell. What do other settings do - and if there are legal requirements where are they written down as I cant find them anywhere. Any help on this would be much appreciated. ie. surely a Little tikes plastic slide is the same whether from Argos or Hope??

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Hi

 

I buy equipment/resources for my pre-school from many different places - certainly not just 'Educational Suppliers'......I have sometimes made big mistakes and found that what I have purchased was not 'strong enough' or suitable for group use, but equally I have made mistakes too when buying from Ed. suppliers.......as far as I know (could be wrong) you can make your own decisions about this......

 

I kind of understand that the manufacturers of the Wendy House probably just wanted to 'cover their backs' - they are really, I think, telling you that this piece of equipment is maybe only designed to withstand use by one of two children......

 

Not sure if that helps - hope so! :o

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Sounds like they are just covering their backs, might be that their insurers require them to do this.

 

Very annoying!

 

I would buy and risk assess to show you have considered what might go wrong.

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as others have said probably covering their backs in that if something goes wrong it will not be replaced or repaired due to it not being used as stated in the blurb... same as found on toasters and kettles which often state domestic use only... if used in a busy kitchen you are not covered..

 

we went to local garden centre and bought a wooden one.. they knew what it was for and happy for us to buy it.. we managed to get price reduced for charity.. free delivery within an hour of buying it as they were in the area that day, and half price for someone to put it together.. we had no handy dad at the time... and it is still fine 3 years later..

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I think there's got to be a bit of flexibility with this one consider the equipment that gets used in preschool nurseries that was never intended to be toys i.e. crates, tyres, recycled art materials wood work

 

I think risk assessments and common sense is needed and regular checks for wear and tear as some have already said even buying things from the educational catalogues doesn't guarantee toys will last longer

 

I'd say 50% of my toys and equipment are second hand and I dont always have the labels/ packaging to know for sure if it's passed safety checks so it then goes purely on judgement.

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