RoSPA Press Office : Press Release

November 22 , 2005
ACTION NEEDED OVER CHILDREN’S ATTITUDE TO RISK

Secondary school children are not receiving risk education that deals with making decisions and exploring the consequences of their actions, joint preliminary research by RoSPA and the Health and Safety Laboratory has revealed.

Action is now being called for to solve the problem after a study involving teachers and 11-16-year-olds at a school in the north of England looked at how a whole school addressed health and safety and risk education.

It was commissioned as part of the Health and Safety Executive’s Revitalising Health and Safety strategy and found that the attitude of pupils towards education generally was a huge barrier to risk education. Teachers felt that pupils did not take responsibility for their actions in or out of class, especially concerning health and safety issues.

They believed that peers and older pupils easily influenced younger children. Lessons learned in class were ignored if older pupils demonstrated dangerous examples outside the school environment away from the care of teachers.

The majority of teachers felt there was little awareness of risk and hazards by pupils. Some children often played on railway tracks; they often trespassed and enjoyed playing “chicken”. The threat of being injured was not considered. However, being caught was seen as a reason to regard the behaviour as risky, but not enough to discontinue this behaviour.

It was felt that risk education in school did not transfer to other areas of life. Teachers believed that risk education was immediate and responsive to subject needs rather than proactive. The demands of the National Curriculum put pressure on teachers’ time and it was felt that for risk education to be effective it had to be embedded across the curriculum.

Juliet Barratt, RoSPA Safety Education Adviser, said: “Teachers concentrated on what makes a safe lesson and on ensuring they comply with health and safety regulations rather than education about risk, which could be transferred to other situations outside the classroom. If risk education is to be effective, there has to be commitment from teachers, parents and pupils to give us a ‘whole school approach’ to risk education and to create a positive health and safety culture.

“We are now planning similar research in other schools and want to see better guidance for teachers about how to integrate risk education into everyday lessons. There needs to be more emphasis on risk education in teacher training and as part of professional development.

“Parents need guidance about its importance for children’s health and safety and its relevance for when youngsters start work. They also need to be able to reinforce the messages delivered in school to keep their children safe and to lead by good example.”