Head Teachers - Managing Health and Safety in your School

Written by Paddy Swan


Continued from page 1

* They must be made school specific. * They need to form part ofrepparttar School Safety Management System.

•Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) – Flowing fromrepparttar 109277 school Risk Assessment System control measures will be identified and some of these e.g for school cleaning, will indicate that PPE needs to be used for some operations. The school needs to ensure thatrepparttar 109278 PPE is available, in good condition and that employees and pupils wear it and use it properly. It should also be regularly inspected and inspections recorded and equipment updated and replaced as necessary. If PPE is provided to pupils for use in school or on visits e.g buoyancy aids for water based activities, or mountaineering gear for adventure based trips,repparttar 109279 children need to be clearly instructed and know how to use it and it should be in good condition.

•Managing Safety – The Head teacher and any Governing Body, whether it isrepparttar 109280 Employer or not, has a duty to ensure that safety is properly managed in school and this means : that a SMS is in place and it works. that all Risk Assessments, Policies, Procedures etc are appropriate torepparttar 109281 specific circumstances ofrepparttar 109282 school.

Children and Safety:

Because ofrepparttar 109283 intersection of laws likerepparttar 109284 Children Act and various Education and Medical Acts, H&S in schools is actually far more complex than it is in industry.The clear imperative for any teacher or school isrepparttar 109285 primacy ofrepparttar 109286 safety ofrepparttar 109287 children.

This also brings into playrepparttar 109288 professional duty of care ofrepparttar 109289 teacher andrepparttar 109290 school to do no harm through carelessness and/or negligence.

This taken inrepparttar 109291 round means thatrepparttar 109292 level of care and supervision given to younger and more immature children needs to be greater than that given to older, more mature children. However, every teacher knows that some Year 5s can be be more mature than Year 6s.This is whererepparttar 109293 teacher's professional competence intersects with Risk Assessment, Polciies and Procedures. Every day in controllingrepparttar 109294 class teacher's are making ongoing Risk Assessments in maintaining discipline and adequate supervision. All that H&S does is to provide a framework in which to operate which allows them to justify their actions in case of a accident or incident. By providing this frameworkrepparttar 109295 school protects, itself, its' staff and its' children.

Staff and Governors andrepparttar 109296 SMS

• Whether or notrepparttar 109297 Governing Body isrepparttar 109298 Employer it still carries out its’ duties by oversight ofrepparttar 109299 SMS and actively checks by monitoring and auditingrepparttar 109300 School SMS and ensures that it fitsrepparttar 109301 school’s circumstances. The Employer Governing Body as a dutyholder would haverepparttar 109302 additional legal responsibility of providing policies and specific procedures together with resources to manage safety.

•The Regulations point out that it is good practice for a Governor to be appointed to have responsibility for Health and Safety and its’ management inrepparttar 109303 school.

•There is a requirement under safety law and regulations for School Staff to be consulted in matters which affect their safety.At present this often done throughrepparttar 109304 teaching Union Reps.This is fine but it tends to discouragerepparttar 109305 whole staff to participate inrepparttar 109306 SMS.

A good way for this to happen is to enlist staff and pupils in a School Safety Committee which helps to run, and is part of,repparttar 109307 School SMS.

Accidents do happen?

Health and Safety compliance need not be a major burden. It simply needs to be put in place because accidents do happen and if they do they should be approached using a safety approach to learn from them and as opportunities to review Risk Assessment and reappraise control measures.

Accidents can be to pupils, staff or visitors/contractors and can result in litigation and/or prosecution. Accidents to children which have ended in litigation against schools have often been unsuccessful ifrepparttar 109308 accident has been shown to be a result of play.

The view taken by courts seems to be that play is necessary for a child’s development and sometimes this can result in accidents butrepparttar 109309 school need not take undue or unreasonably costly action to avoid all accidents at all costs.

Even for accidents caused during horseplayrepparttar 109310 courts have indicated that negligence or extreme recklessness needs to be demonstrably proven.

Reasonable safety isrepparttar 109311 concept which isrepparttar 109312 benchmark to judge response to safety matters against and providedrepparttar 109313 school has reasonable systems in place which indicate that it is managing safety and using good practice it should be secure.

Prosecution and enforcing UK Safety Law.

HSE isrepparttar 109314 body which inspects and enforcesrepparttar 109315 safety law.

Approximately 25% of all prosecutions for breaches which HSE made overrepparttar 109316 last 5 years were attributed to breaches of management duties underrepparttar 109317 Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations.

Having said that action by HSE involving enforcement action against schools is rare and prosecution rarer still. There are approximately 80 breaches per year in Primary Schools.

Accidents are not so rare unfortunately and approximately 11,000 accidents were reported in Education under RIDDORS (3 day accidents) in 1999/2000 of which about one third were due to slips and trips.

Finally

Provided a school follows good practice andrepparttar 109318 rules no one is likely to be at risk from enforcement or legal action.

Thatrepparttar 109319 Staff, Governing Body and individual Governors need to supportrepparttar 109320 Headteacher in carrying out their duty underrepparttar 109321 law and co-operate with any Employer is a given.The Head Teacher also needs to respond torepparttar 109322 H&S requiremnts ofrepparttar 109323 employer andrepparttar 109324 law.

They can do this by ensuring that safety is managed inrepparttar 109325 school under a Safety Management System. This ensures thatrepparttar 109326 school is in compliance withrepparttar 109327 regulations.

The whole school needs to be seen to be playing its’ full part in any school Safety Management System.

The Employer and Governors by oversight and target setting, monitoring, auditing and reviewing, and ensuring that resources are available to helprepparttar 109328 head manage school H&S. The Head Teacher by managing and implementing and overseeingrepparttar 109329 SMS. The Staff by cop-operating, consultation and assistance in implementingrepparttar 109330 systems. By doing this and everyone playing their full part that school overall safety will be improved and accident levels drop.

Dr. Paddy Swan is a qualified teacher with senior management experience in UK schools and colleges. He also has almost 25 years safety experience in industry. He has developed over 100 online and multimedia safe systems training solutions. Paddy is the author of School Basic Safety for Classroom and Support staff for UK schools and the Headteacher's Safety Management Toolkit at http://www.swaneducation.co.uk




Teach Phonemic Awareness in 5 Minutes a day

Written by Sacha of home-school-reading.com


Continued from page 1

One great thing you can do to help your child, or students learn more about phonemic awareness is read stories outloud to them, but do it a little differently. One time on every page take a word that is 3 or 4 letters, and say it a part at a time. Look below for an example.

Let’s say you are reading a story about Sam,repparttar cat. Here is what you will say: “Samrepparttar 109276 cat was having a very good day. First his friend gave him M . . . I . . . L . . . K. What didrepparttar 109277 friend give Sam? (Child responds) Yes, MILK. Then (keep on reading.)” Important, you are sayingrepparttar 109278 SOUNDS inrepparttar 109279 letter MILK, notrepparttar 109280 Letter Names.

Once this has become easy, start reading alphabet books withrepparttar 109281 child, but do each ofrepparttar 109282 letters, one part at a time. You will notice that this will help your child learnrepparttar 109283 SOUNDS that each letter makes.

Once your child has learned these skills, s/he is ready to start learning to read! Start today! Teach your child to grow their phonic ears through these easy tips.

Sacha Luria-Smith has been recognized for her teaching success on National Public Radio and Disney radio. She has also taught middle school in Oakland, CA. She is the author ofthe website http://www.home-school-reading.com.


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