![]()
Chapter 1
Help to keep children safe
In this chapter we will look at three elements:
1 Preparing and maintaining a safe environment.
2 Dealing with accidents, emergencies and illness.
3 Supporting the safeguarding of children from abuse.
KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
Prepare and maintain a safe environment
Every member of staff employed in a school has, as a primary duty, to give consideration to the health, safety and security of both pupils and adults. It is everyoneās responsibility to ensure that the school environment is both safe and secure for all the community.
School procedures
Health and Safety Policy
Every school must have a Health and Safety Policy that should:
ā¢ outline the responsibilities of staff;
ā¢ state how a healthy and safe environment will be established and maintained;
ā¢ stipulate procedures for recording and reporting accidents, injuries and emergencies;
ā¢ outline fire safety procedures;
ā¢ state how First Aid is to be administered and how pupilsā medical needs are to be met.
Staff responsibilities
Class and subject teachers are responsible both for the safety of their learning environment and for the children in their care. This begins with the responsibility to take registers at the start of each morning and each afternoon. It is a legal requirement of every school to know which pupils are present on site.
The school is required to ensure that all facilities, including washrooms and toilets, are regularly cleaned and inspected for health and safety.
Recording and reporting procedures
Every member of staff in a school must act like a āprudent parentā in the event of an accident, injury or emergency. As soon as possible after any incident the illness, injury or accident must be fully reported and accurately written up in the appropriate logbook. You will need to be familiar with the schoolās Health and Safety Policy to make sure you follow appropriate procedures. It is vital that the correct person or persons are informed at the earliest opportunity if any such health problem arises.
Specific duties of care
There are also specific duties required of you if you are responsible for pupils:
Donāt strain yourself or your children
You are not required to try to move objects beyond your strength. Where you have children under your direct supervision, it is your responsibility to instruct them in how to safely move equipment, should that be needed. They should never be allowed to move awkward objects such as pianos or televisions.
Donāt clutter the doors or corridors
You are required to ensure all exits and access points to the learning environment within which you are working are clear and free from obstruction.
Figure 1.1 Donāt strain yourself
Donāt drop rubbish
All waste products must be disposed of safely in line with school procedures. If you are cooking, for instance, you are responsible for the disposal of food waste and for cleaning the equipment both before and after use.
School visits and trips
If your duties include that of accompanying teachers and pupils on off-site visits and activities you should be clear as to what your responsibilities are. If you drive a minibus you will have received appropriate training and gained a recognised qualification. You may be asked to keep a register of small groups of children, collect pocket money, medicines, and so on.
In the event of an emergency
As a teaching assistant you may be asked to perform specific functions in respect to emergency procedures, for instance, checking the toilets or other non-teaching areas in the event of evacuation of the building.
National legislation and regulations
Acts and regulations
Various Acts of Parliament and government regulations relate to health and safety in schools. Some of the most significant are:
ā¢ The Health and Safety at Work Act, 1974
ā¢ Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations, 1981
ā¢ The Manual Handling Operations Regulations, 1992
ā¢ The Health and Safety of Pupils on Educational Visits Act, 1998
ā¢ Health and Safety at Work Regulations, 1999.
Probably the most familiar government publication is Every Child Matters (ECM). Two of the five ECM outcomes relate to health and safety ā Be Healthy and Stay Safe.
Manual handling of pupils
Employers have to take steps to avoid manual handling involving the risk of injury so far as is reasonably practicable. Where manual handling cannot be avoided, risk assessments must be undertaken and, consequently, risks must be reduced to the lowest level.
Training and an Intimate Care Policy
Full training must be given to all staff involved in this procedure, which will include correct handling and lifting procedures with particular emphasis on back care. When pupils require manual handling, the school must have an Intimate Care Policy in place.
Risks associated with the manual handling of children
There are a number of risks associated with manually handling or lifting pupils, perhaps the most obvious of which is the physical risk of injury to either the pupil or the person lifting. Improper lifting can seriously injure either pupil or adult, or both, which is why proper training is essential.
Safety and security
Responsibilities
Although ultimate responsibility for safety and security rests with the employers, all employees have a responsibility to maintain a safe and secure environment. Nobody can say it is somebody elseās job.
Each class teacher and teaching assistant working with them needs to be aware of and observe standards of health and safety as they apply to their learning environment. This includes cables safely secured; exits free from obstruction; tables and chairs safe to sit on and use; as well as potentially dangerous equipment and materials safely and securely stored when not in use and adequately supervised when they are in use.
School environment
Inside the school building you may work in classrooms, halls, general working areas, ICT suites, science laboratories, gymnasiums, cooking areas, workshops and many others. Each of these will present different issues of health and safety that must be considered and responded to carefully.
You may also work outside of school buildings with children ā the school playground, during sports activities, on educational visits, joining residential trips and so on. These, too, pose issues of health and safety that must be responded to appropriately.
Safety and security also relates to pupils arriving at and departing from the school. Care needs to be taken that younger children are met by appropriate adults whereas older students must be protected from dangerous traffic or from undesirable activities outside the school gates.
The context of the school
Issues of safety and security are likely to be different for village schools than for those situated in busy and crowded inner cities. Where schools are located on main roads, safety will relate to road crossing patrols, whereas village schools may face issues of pupils needing to be escorted along narrow roads without pavements, possibly with poor street lighting in the winter.
Security
Each school will have its own system of external and internal security. You need to be familiar with this and maintain the relevant procedures. Most schools operate some system of identifying visitors. Every member of staff has a responsibility to challenge anyone on the premises they do not recognise and who is not showing appropriate identification.
Figure 1...
