Teaching Safety
Injury prevention specialists often talk about the three E's – Engineering, Enforcement and Education – as the routes to safer outcomes for all. Engineering and enforcement strategies help to provide children and young people with a safe environment in which to grow and develop. These important but passive approaches have contributed to making the UK one of the safest countries to grow up in. However, education is also vital to enable children to interact with their environment, to develop the vital skills they need and understand their growing responsibility they share with adults for keeping themselves (and others) safe.
In this section you will find advice based on the most up to date evidence for effective practice in safety and risk education whether you are a teacher, instructor or expert visitor supporting schools with safety and risk education. You will also find case studies and examples of best practice and links to advice and guidance from other organisations. We have included our responses to recent consultations about the curriculum and public health policy, blogs, often aimed at young people and advice on evaluating your practice. Crucially we have included reports, written by young people about their safety concerns – and some solutions!
Safety Education Journals
Why Safety and Risk Education?
While safety education tends to focus on specific topics or hazards, such as road safety, risk education offers children the opportunity to learn how to recognise hazards, assess and manage risk in a range of settings. The article 'Why safety and risk education' explores this idea in more depth and examines links to policy and practice in health and education. Read more: Why Safety and Risk Education?
Take a look at Ofsted's requirements for behaviour and safety which includes pupils being able to assess and manage risk. Read more: Safety and risk education and Ofsted
There are a wide range of resources available for teaching about safety topics. Here you will find some which have been developed by RoSPA or with RoSPA's involvement.
RoSPA's advice and guidance on effective approaches to safety and risk education is based on up to date evidence from across the world.
At RoSPA we use evaluation to improve our work. Here you will find evaluation guidance and reports.
RoSPA regularly responds to opportunities for consultation from government agencies. Recent responses are published here.
A whole school approach to safety and risk will help you develop a safety culture for your school where children can benefit from challenging activities while being as safe as necessary, not always as safe as possible.
At RoSPA we believe in the fundamental principle of involving people in decisions which aim to make then safe from injury and accidents.
In this section you will find some examples of good practice in safety and risk education.