PRIMARY school children taking part in school swimming lessons have been banned from wearing goggles, the Gazette can reveal.

Judith Pemberton-Bennetts, whose son is a pupil at North Nibley Primary School, rang to say she had received a letter notifying her that children were not to wear goggles when they went swimming with the school.

"I have no idea why they have decided this," she said. "There has been no discussion about it - they have just done it.

"I have done some research myself and the decision has been made on the advice of one expert. It seems bizarre.

"It is all to cover themselves and it is putting children off going swimming. A lot of parents are making complaints and children are saying it is hurting their eyes.

"My son goes swimming at Dursley Pool on Saturday and he can wear his goggles then but when he can't he goes swimming at exactly the same pool with the school on Mondays."

A spokesman for the county council said: "Unlikely as it may seem, swimming goggles can be a hazard, particularly when small children try to put them on themselves.

"Teachers' full attention has to be focused on the children in the water and they just cannot adjust goggles for all of them in the way that parents can when they take children swimming.

"Experts agree that it is far safer for children not to wear goggles for their lessons, hence the council's advice to schools.

"Of course there are medical exceptions, of which schools can be made aware. In general, however, health and safety advice, based on the views of national sports experts, is that children are much safer if they are not wearing goggles during their lessons."

Mrs Pemberton-Bennetts said: "It is safety gone mad. It is going to get to the point when they say they can't go swimming because they are going to drown themselves."