Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Can someone please tell me how the system works for having things PAT tested. The situation is that my son starts on Wednesday and won't be taking anything electrical with him. I am sure that he will take the odd electical item later, perhaps after the leave weekend, I am thinking of items such as phone chargers and CD players. Does this mean we will have to pay for PAT testing because we didn't bring things at the beginning of term, or do you always pay anyway? Is new stuff exempt, perhaps if brought in the unopened box? How much is it?

Thanks in advance.

Yes, you have to pay for PAT testing. I think (don't quote me though) it's about £4 per item, possibly a bit more, and the charge is added to your fees the following term. As far as I know even brand new items need to be tested.

Would someone please enlighten me as to what PAT testing is?

Portable Appliance Testing. Work (and other) environments have to ensure all electrical appliances are regularly tested (usually annually or biennially I believe) for electrical safety. This includes not only work equipment such as computers but also kettles, radios, anything that individuals bring in. They are usually labelled with a small green & white label on the plug or on the flex, indicating when the next test is due.

Oo-er - I hope it doesn't apply to domestic situations as well. We recently swapped various lights over and I suspect that the one now in the bathroom is not legal, but then nor was the one we took down from the bathroom when we (I use the term loosely!) installed timber cladding on the bathroom ceiling. I fight a constant battle to prevent my husband from sneaking a portable TV into the bathroom - he doesn't put it anywhere where it might fall into the bath, but I am sometimes tempted ..........

When I got to Uni in 89 they tried to enforce electrical compliance by using old 5A round pin sockets, unfortunately I lived on a farm where we had a parallel ring main running off a generator using 5A sockets (to stop us kids plugging high drain appliances in) as we used to have so many power cuts. Hence we had a large supply of old adapters and plugs picked up on white elephant stalls. I made a tidy penny from selling 5A adaptors including a scary one that plugged into a 5A socket and had 3,5 &13 round pin sockets plus a bayonet stlye bulb holder !!!

At CH we used to have electrical inspection at the beginning of every year and usually it was more to be on the lookout for trees of adapters and dodgy toasters in studies. I would expect it is an insurance requirement on the school even if not a legal requirement. £4 is quite cheap as it is usually a c£1.50 per item for a firm to get done.

If I have my son's mobile phone charger PAT tested at my work (and get the sticker) will that count or will CH want to do their own and charge me?

£4 is quite cheap as it is usually a c£1.50 per item for a firm to get done.

Didn't understand this! Surely if firms only charge £1.50 per item, £4 is expensive NOT cheap?

They did not do that when i was there 2000-2002!!! blimey waht a farce, must be since the houses have been done-but saying that i was in a brand spanking new grecians house

YadaYada, I suspect the school will want to do their own test, but you could always ask the houseparent on Wednesday.

And please don't hold me to the charge being £4, it was two years ago that I saw the amount written on my invoice and I struggle to remember what happened yesterday, let alone two years ago!

Blondie, I expect it's something to do with Health and Safety, and making sure the school doesn't burn down when someone plugs in a dodgy phone charger!

The last time I paid CH (Jan 06) it was £5 irrespective of the number of items a pupil was having tested. I don't know if it has changed since then. Items can be tested elsewhere and brought in to school as long as the sticker is in date.

thriftymatron wrote:The last time I paid CH (Jan 06) it was £5 irrespective of the number of items a pupil was having tested. I don't know if it has changed since then.

That's probably how much it is still then, and since my daughter only had one item tested (phone charger) I assumed it was per item. If I can have lots of items tested for £5 I'll make sure I give both daughters' electrical items to one daughter and just pay the once!

thriftymatron wrote:Items can be tested elsewhere and brought in to school as long as the sticker is in date.

That's good news for you, YadaYada

I remeber a blanket PAT fee as well, but I think that just applies to the Michelmas term. A while ago we had a letter re: ICT equipment which said (you should) "ensure the equipment has a current (hah!) PAT certificate. The school does normally carry out a testing regime in the Michelmas term. If equipment were to be brought in after this, then it would nedd to have been tested independently before it could be used". This would seem to imply you have to sort it out yourself.

As ever, you will need to check with the HM. I find email a v. good form of contact for things like that. The email addresses can be found at the front of the school calendar if you haven't already been given them.

I am pretty sure that last year we all sent the mobile phones that the Second Form brought back after Leave Weekend to one boarding house for them to be tested. We also had the testers return in January, as many pupils had new electrical items for Christmas. I will need to check the arrangements for this year and will post an update later.

Sorry to say I had to google PAT testing. Without wishing to appear flippant, it does seem an awfully expensive requirement - is it really necessary? I mean, has any equipment been banned as a result of these tests? Or is it a case of CYA on the off chance that, God forbid, something awful should happen?

(I type from a place where such a thing would cause the entire country to grind to a halt!)