The Southern Daily Echo has launched a campaign aimed at improving the safety of children at school.

The Justice for Elizabeth campaign was set up after a lapse in guidelines was blamed for the death of schoolgirl Elizabeth Bee, who drowned on a school boating trip.

The paper is urging independent schools, like the one Elizabeth attended, to adopt the stringent safety guidelines which are mandatory in state schools.

Her parents say that if those guidelines were in place their daughter would be alive today.

Elizabeth, (nine), a pupil of Fareham’s private Boundary Oak School, died in hospital several hours after the motorised flat-bottomed boat she was in capsized, throwing all the girls and teacher into the water in Portsmouth Harbour. The “grossly overloaded” boat went out without safety checks being done, according to an investigation.

The paper’s call is backed by the Royal Yachting Association and inspectors for outdoor education.

The new MP for Fareham, Mark Hoban said: “I am aware there are differing guidelines for independent and state schools. Certainly that needs looking into.”

A 400-page document covers the safety of children in state schools but no universal document exists to protect children in the same way at private schools.

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