A DISMAYED headteacher has cancelled his school’s annual museum trip after health and safety officials banned teaching staff from carrying disabled pupils up a flight of stairs.

Youngsters, aged five and six, from Prince of Wales First School, Dorchester, have enjoyed daytrips to Scaplen’s Court Museum, High Street, Poole, for more than a decade.

The Grade I listed building boasts an upstairs toy museum and Victorian classroom, accessed via a staircase in an open courtyard.

Prince of Wales head Peter Farrington says a number of his disabled pupils have been carefully lifted from their wheelchairs and carried upstairs by dedicated school staff for around 15 years.

So he was shocked when the museum said the practice was too risky and barred wheelchair users from the second floor.

However, when the Daily Echo contacted Borough of Poole, which runs the museum, public engagement and participation portfolio holder Cllr Judy Butt said there was no record indicating wheelchair users have ever been carried up the museum staircase.

Cllr Butt says this year was the first time the Prince of Wales School, which organises self-guided workshops, informed them that three of their pupils used wheelchairs.

Mr Farrington, who baulked at the suggestion staff have been unaware of the situation, said: “We are a mainstream first school with special provision for children with physical disabilities.

“Suddenly this year we’ve been told the way we’ve been achieving access for our children who use wheelchairs is not acceptable on health and safety grounds.

“Whenever we go on school trips we do our own risk assessments. We made a judgement, that although there is a small risk, it is an acceptable risk.

“We’ve been doing this for years without it being an issue and to all of a sudden to be told we cannot carry on is more than disappointing.

“In my view they are prioritising health and safety issues at the expense of their responsibility under the Equality Act.

“As far as we are concerned they’ve excluded us because we have disabled children.”

The school was offered alternative arrangements, including museum staff bringing items from the toy museum downstairs to disabled pupils, but Mr Farrington dismissed these arrangements as “derisory”.

Cllr Butt said: “Recently the school have said that they have carried wheelchair users upstairs during visits in previous years. However, we have no record of this.

"As the school books self-guided workshops, our staff do not supervise their visits, although had we been aware of children being carried upstairs we would not have allowed it to happen due to possible issues in the event of an emergency.

“We suggested they might wish to host the workshop on the ground floor, or offered to host the toys workshop for them as an alternative – something we have done in the past for other schools very successfully.

“It is unfortunate that the school chose to cancel their visit this year, and we can only apologise for any inconvenience caused. But we hope that parents will understand that we must prioritise the safety of visitors.”