Steve Gullick - 07/02/2012

Health and Safety


We talked about health and safety. 

'Health and safety in a school is about taking a sensible and proportionate approach to ensure the premises provide a healthy and safe place for all who use them, including the school workforce, visitors and pupils.' Health and Safety Executive (2011).

We were given a scenario about a school that is going on an overnight trip and we had to write a list of what would be needed on the trip.


Checklist
-Register
-Consent forms
-Parent helpers CRB's
-Risk Assessment
-Teacher:Pupil ratio
-Gender balance of teachers/helpers
-Health and safety forms
-First aid kit & first aiders
-Emergency contact information
-Permission for photos to be taken
-Rules for the children (e.g. Stranger danger etc)
-Accident and incident book
-Insurance
-Policy on valuables and money








After this we discussed another scenario where we are the chair of the governing body. Then we learnt about strategic and tactical planning and how they are used. We discussed the advantages and disadvantages of strategic planning. I found this seminar very interesting, as I didn't realize how much the governing body has to do to keep the school running at a high standard. 


Chair of the governing body
We also talked about the chair of the governing body. We were given a scenario where we had to put ourselves in the position of chair of a governing body and come up with a solution to a problem. Our scenario was :


A fellow governor comes to you two days before your next scheduled meeting with the Head Teacher and tells you a mother had said to them that they are concerned that her child rarely brings texts home to do their homework, especially for History and Geography. The parent is supportive of the school and does not want the issue brought to a full governing body meeting but is obviously not happy and would like something to be done. 


What do you, as chair, do?

• The governor should tell the parent that they need to go directly to the school as the governing body does not get involved in the day to day running of the school.

References


Health and Safety Executive - Health and Safety checklist for classroom Retrieved 2nd May 2012 from 
http://www.hse.gov.uk/risk/classroom-checklist.pdf