Direct link to: www.huntersafety.zoomshare.com

Outdoor Education: Geography

Fieldwork

Safety

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Approaching Start Point, South Devon Coast Path - high cliffs to the left, vertical unprotected drops to the right, competent, 'switched-on' staff, and managed risk. But would you take students here?

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Safety is an issue which is not subject-specific, but should be ever-present in all you do as a fieldwork Leader. The leader has a legal responsibility with a Duty of Care, and in loco parentis, to be part of the safety solution and never part of the problem. You act as you would being a caring parent of your own children. Thus in managing the assessment of the risk of the fieldwork he/she minimises every risk as much as possible and does not become part of the risk which then becomes a human hazard. I have experienced a geographer being such, and it is an ugly, and dangerous series of events which, once seen, one hopes never to observe - and ultimately have to deal with - again.

You will have to complete, for a day-visit to undertake fieldwork,  a Local Area Visit Approval Form for your school's Educational Visits Co-ordinator.  In Essex if the visit is residential then Governors' approval is required, and a least one-term's notice is needed plus the completion of a T-38 residential visits booklet; whilst sounding akin to a Russian tank, there is also a similarity in that it's a feared document - you ignore it at your peril. However as Leader, you should already have all the information to hand:

Safety Considerations

The following points for advice should be dovetailed into your planning until they are habit and recurring good practice

Refer to the notes on Planning at

www.geofieldwork.zoomshare.com/1.html

1. Know your staff; build the fieldwork - but also build the fieldcourse...and around them to some considerable extent. If it all goes pear-shaped and you're at the mercy of environment, media, a long line of communications, and parents, a good 'team' around you cannot be quantified!

2. Get there - to the venue[s]...walk it it ponder it, check the cliff path, talk to the Coastguard, buy a set of Tide Tables, talk to the locals (Post Offices are great for this), what time buses each day/week[?!] - why? In case yours fails to turn up; storm conditions frequent? best time to walk the route to measure the cliff profile; do your 2-way radios work along all the route[s], and your mobile phones.? Where are your escape routes? Do you need them? Yes - always...don't be melodramatic about it, just sort them out.

You have to develop your 'what if.....?' scenarios.

3. Complete a Risk Assessment [see below] that you have personally done....do NOT use someone else's and simply photocopy it straight into the Approval Form or T-38 equivalent. The EVC [if he/she is a competent one] will want to know that you have thought through each and every risk that could reasonably be expected to turn into a hazard - and that you've developed a control mechanism for it.

4. Who is your First Aider? Do you need to take one? Almost certainly you will need to. What is the extent of their experience? They'll be qualified but probably only in, at best, the standard HSE 'First Aid at Work' course, and good though it is, it's only for urban areas where you can lay your hands on an ambulance within 5 minutes or so; you are going to be stuck in a field / somewhere around Tilly Whim Caves / in middle of Dartmoor or  deep in some gorge; you know you will because first aid accidents have a nasty habit of being worst when you are furthest from getting any form of Triple 9, blue light, NHS back-up; it's a sort of Murphy's Law - and you must prepare a contingency for this.

Ensure you have a couple of first aid kits - and if you sign them out from the Medical Room, or bought them from 'Boots' then spend time going through the whole kit[s] learning what's where...and briefing your Team. Add bits that you know you may need but don't usually come in the kits eg insect sting/bite spray.

More information for Leaders:

www.huntertraining.zoomshare.com/4.html

4. Each parent has to sign the Consent Form, but you should also have the most comprehensive information as possible about each student's (and staff) medical conditions.  These must be collected in with plenty of time to sort any potential situations from arising which may render your management of the rest of the group difficult eg. is there a student who suffers from anaphylaxis in your fieldwork group? Have you had time to arrange for Epi-pen training for the first aider and/or other staff? Have you met the parents to talk through the contingency, treatment, and procedures..... and responsibilities of the other students? This needs to be prior to the official Visit-Parents' Evening to outline the whole week's work.

Each Staff member of the Fieldwork Team has a copy of all the medical details of all the students which he/she carries all the time.

Double fieldcourse with one group of Yr. 7s and another of Yr.10s all meeting up at Saddle Tor, eastern Dartmoor; managed risk, understood hazard, and highly experienced and qualified staff - technically (Geog) qualified and Mountain Leaders. Important here to ensure that the fieldwork is for the students - not to satisfy the desire of the staff to 'bag another ten summits'. They'd be poor leaders if they behaved in this way.

5.Meet the pupils on a number of formal occasions before the fieldcourse week - or day arrives. Set aims and objectives for these meets (with a hidden agenda too - to actually get to know your student team, after all you will be living cheek-by-jowl with them if it's a residential); however one of the main priorities will be to communicate some safety information; some of this may be forwarded from the field centre, or hotel, or County Council centre - most will come from you - ensuring instructions are listened to, some do's and dont's; an outline of the routes to be taken on walk-ins to survey sites and the need for common sense when the teacher is not standing shoulder to shoulder with the student.

Students understand when you are being urgent about safety - and if its a relative wilderness area the message will 'hit-home' pretty quickly once they are there. Urban courses are a source of some complacency amongst upper school students because the majority live in the urban jungle and think safety is not an issue here; wrong. Students and staff are regularly injured on the walk in to fieldwork and activity sites where roads have to be crossed; in my experience just in 2005 at least two occasions have occurred where police have been involved investigating pedestrian/driver behaviour at sites where pupils cross roads - and not necesssarily major roads. This needs to be included in a Risk Assessment.

6. Leaders should ensure the equipment that they carry is capable of assisting in the safety and care (and perhaps stabilisation) of students in a crisis - minor or major - and or emergency situation; one of the keys to what you carry is do not be fatalistic or melodramatic - but do be realistic. As a leader it is your responsibility to solve problems - and the equipment you carry will enhance and give you advantages at a time when you need them most in perhaps the form of better communications from a mobile phone or two-way radio, treatment for students from a comprehensive first aid kit, or spare clothing for that forgetful -and cold - student. Guidance on what you might need in your leaders sac can be found at www.huntertraining.zoomshare.com/4.html

7. The most intangible but critical element to this safety part of the fieldwork is the 'awareness' of the Leader and his/her staff; call it professional hunch - call it sixth sense - but almost certainly it is borne out of experience and 'saturation' in fieldwork management and leadership - year in, year out, building a repertoire of these experiences.

KS4 Fieldwork : back of Skiddaw en route to Caldbeck