The last thing you want as a teacher is for one of your students to injure themselves. So, what steps can you take to avoid this nightmare from becoming a reality?
Kids can be clumsy. If you’re a teacher, you’ll know that all too well! But, sometimes, that inherent clumsiness has the potential to lead to an injury, which is the last thing you want to happen in your classroom or on the school playing field.
So, what steps can you take to prevent injuries to children as a teacher? We’ll be answering that very question with some useful tips and advice in this very post.
Whether it’s creating a set of clear rules, or working alongside your colleagues to create a unified plan of action, these simple tips should keep your students out of harm’s way and give you some much needed peace of mind.
7 Tips for Preventing Injuries Among Your Students
1. Set Very Clear Ground Rules
If you want to make sure that your students don’t injure themselves under your watch, then it’s important to set out some very clear ground rules concerning their behaviour in and out of the classroom.
If you provide your students with rules, they’re much more likely to take responsibility for their behaviour and understand what is and isn’t acceptable. And, if that means they’re more likely to stay out of harm’s way and prevent themselves from being injured, then this works out perfectly.
Of course, the rules should be easy to follow and understand, and be tailored to the age of the children you’re looking after.
2. Be Firm on Consequences
If someone breaks the rules that you’ve set in place to keep your students safe, then you need to make sure that you set out appropriate punishments or consequences. If you start to let small rule breaks slide, then this could eventually lead to an injury which was otherwise avoidable – precisely what you want to avoid.
Of course, you don’t need to go overboard if one of your students commits a minor misdemeanour. But a firm telling off may be exactly what they need to recorrect their behaviour and keep them from injuring themselves.
3. Work with Your Colleagues
If you want to make sure that your students stay safe, then it’s also vital that you communicate with your fellow teachers so that you’re all on the same page. It’s all very well having a clear set of rules relating to staying safe in one class, but if those same rules aren’t also used by another teacher, confusion may start to set in.
Sit down and create a unified policy that you all follow and that will allow you to work to achieve the same goal. This way, you can ensure your school is a safe environment for all your students.
4. Complete Health and Safety Tasks with Your Students
As a teacher, you naturally begin to grow eyes in the back of your head, right? Well, unfortunately, your sixth sense for danger can only go so far and sometimes, and potential dangers may occur when your attention is focused elsewhere.
This means that you need your students to be able to identify certain health and safety issues and act accordingly. Students of a certain age would benefit from completing basic health and safety tasks, such as worksheets. This can help them to understand what potential risks can occur in the classroom and what they should do to make sure they aren’t injured as a result.
5. Do a Classroom Spot Check at the Start of Every Day
When you arrive in your classroom for the day, it’s sensible to carry out a quick spot check to make sure there are no hazards that could potentially lead to an injury. For instance, you may find that a cable has been pulled out, leading to a trip hazard, or a carpet has frayed, exposing a carpet gripper.
It should take five minutes to complete and will save you plenty of potential hassle in the long run!
6. If You Spot a Hazard, Deal With it Straight Away
On that same note, if you do spot a hazard, either in the classroom or anywhere else on the school grounds, it’s vital that you deal with it straight away. There’s no use in leaving the hazard if you’re busy, or you think someone else will deal with it, because you never know when it might end up causing an injury to a student.
If you think that the hazard is something that you can’t deal with yourself, you should make sure you report it to a caretaker or superior, who will be able to deal with it as a matter of urgency.
7. Make Sure Everyone is Kept in Sight During Breaktime
Breaktime is likely to be where most injuries in a school happen, which means that someone needs to keep an eye on them as much as possible. When you’re tasked with keeping an eye on your students during break times, you should make sure that you keep everyone within your sight as much as possible.
If students creep out of your sight, there’s a chance they might start playing games that are far too rough and could lead to injuries very quickly. While you might be seen as a bit of a killjoy, you’re ultimately stopping an injury from occurring!
Are There Any Other Ways You Can Prevent School Injuries as a Teacher?
To summarise, in this post we’ve covered a range of different tips and advice that you can keep in mind if you want to make sure that your students avoid any injuries. Of course, sometimes injuries are completely unavoidable, but these tips will help to significantly reduce the potential of them occurring.
If you’re a teacher, you may have some tips of your own that you think would be worth sharing. If so, why not leave a comment below so we can keep the discussion going?
