This manual and training package is ideal for anyone with chief responsibility for the day-to-day health and safety tasks in a school, be they the headteacher, member of senior management team or the bursar.  It also includes sections for individuals and teams who are responsible for planning events and visits and for running departments within the school.

Practical Health and Safety in Secondary Schools contains:

• Nine individual training sessions to help raise awareness
• A range of templates and exemplars to assist with creating your own health and safety folder and with informing others of safety issues
• A supporting background text to assist with the understanding of health and safety issues and which is aimed at being accessible at all levels of the school structure and covering a wide range of safety issues which arise in the day to day life of an active school community

Chapter Breakdown

Section 1: Background, responsibilities and policy

1.1 Background to Health and Safety
1.2 Why is Health and Safety important?
1.3 Understanding the Health and Safety at Work Act in an education setting
1.4 “Duty of Care” and “Reasonably Practicable”
1.5  Hazards and Risks
1.6 The legal implications
1.7 Enforcing Health and Safety
1.8 A swift sidetrack into RIDDOR
1.9 The basic functions of a Health and Safety Policy
1.10 Building a positive Health and Safety Culture

Section 2: Risk management and risk taking

2.1 Changing attitudes to safety and risk
2.2 Changing school attitudes to safety and risk
2.3 The risk averse society
2.4 Why students need to encounter risk
2.5 Positive risk management
2.6 Risk in real life
2.7 Risk in “virtual” situations
2.8 Developing risk evaluating skills
2.9 Introducing parents and staff to risk management

Section 3: Health and safety in practice

3.1 Generic, specific and “live” risk assessments
3.2 Strategies for dealing with the media
3.3 Outdoor learning
3.4 Specialist outdoor centres
3.5 School residential trips
3.6 Science activities
3.7 Food technology and specialist workshops
3.8 Sporting activities
3.9 Theatrical productions
3.10 School fairs and fetes
3.11 Other public events (including premises hire)
3.12 Work experience

Section 4: Health and safety resources

4.1 A practical guide to risk assessment

• Generic risk assessment for school theatrical production
• Generic risk assessment for school fete
• Generic risk assessment for non-specialist classroom
• Powerpoint presentation & Guide notes: How to write a risk assessment

4.2 Fire Safety

• Fire risk assessment checklist
• Arson vulnerability checklist
• Fire safety checklist

4.3 List of useful websites for Health and Safety information
4.4 Powerpoint presentation & Guide notes: Health and Safety for Governors
4.5 Powerpoint presentation & Guide notes: Health and Safety awareness for managers
4.6 Powerpoint presentation & Guide notes: Health and Safety for staff
4.7 Guide notes school safety booklet & template for booklet
4.8 Powerpoint presentation & Guide notes: Health and Safety awareness – outdoor activities
4.9 Powerpoint presentation & Guide notes: Health and Safety awareness – specialist outdoor centres
4.10 Powerpoint presentation & Guide notes: Health and Safety awareness – residential visits
4.11 Guide notes for school visits booklet & template for booklet
4.12 Powerpoint presentation & Guide notes: Health and Safety awareness – school productions
4.13 Powerpoint presentation & Guide notes: Health and Safety awareness – school fairs and fetes
4.14 Guide notes for Work experience and Work experience checklist