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Health and Safety and assessing risk are challenging
areas for School Technology Departments. If you have ever asked your
Education Authority Advisor which Health and Safety courses are a legal
requirement - it is likely that he/she will not be able to give a straight
answer. To be fair, the Department for Education have not stated
categorically which courses Technology staff must take in order to be
suitable qualified.
It is not unknown for an accident to take place in a school workshop. For
this reason, Health and Safety must be the most important consideration
for Design and Technology teachers. A Technology Department cannot rely on
the experience of its staff especially when some members may be newly
qualified. Health and Safety must be built into every lesson and this can
only be achieved through the Department working together. Therefore, it is
necessary that an atmosphere of health and safety permeates through the
department and that this is reflected in the approach of all staff to
teaching. For this reason WATT have developed a quality system aimed at
establishing an ethos of Health and Safety in Design and Technology
Departments.
The Health and Safety at Works Regulations, 1992, state very clearly that
it is the duty of the employer to carry out suitable assessments of risks
to employees and to other persons. In terms of the Technology Department
this means that risk assessments must be carried out in order to protect
both staff and pupils. The regulations state that competent persons must
carry out risk assessments. They must be recorded and regularly
reviewed/updated.
Risks to health and safety must be minimised as far as possible and this
is the focus of the WATT Risk Assessment System.
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