Our children spend most of their time in school. As parents, you must ensure your child has a safe environment to learn and thrive. Making a classroom safe and inviting can also help increase your kid's participation and enhance their sense of belonging within an educational setting.
This is why all schools need to do everything they can to improve child safety within their premises. School injuries account for around twenty per cent of unintentional injuries that require a visit to the emergency department each year. Children around ten and thirteen have the highest incident rate compared to other age groups.
When setting up a fun and creative environment for kids, you must keep these tips in mind. From hazard signs to door finger guards for schools, here is everything you need to make your school safe!
Slips, trips, and falls are the most common ways kids get injured in schools. This is not a surprise, especially when the classrooms, hallways, and cafeterias are littered with books, backpacks, kid-sized furniture, and spilt juice. However, despite being the number one hazard, these injuries are straightforward to prevent.
The school management should occasionally inspect the flooring to check for any loose wires or flooring that could be a tripping hazard. Ensure you put a "wet floor" hazard sign whenever there is spilt water or juice. Ensure all your windows are shut firmly, especially if they are at a height.
Door injuries also account for a significant number of school accidents every year. Though a door might not seem dangerous initially, a closing door can exert tons of pressure, enough to severely damage a child's hand.
The best way to understand this is by doing a little class experiment. Place two pencils between a door and its frame and try shutting it. You will notice that breaking those pencils is effortless without exerting much pressure! Imagine what that would do to a child's hand or fingers.
The best way to prevent such injuries is to install a high-quality door hinge protector for all high-traffic doors on your property. These door hinge protectors help prevent small hands from accessing the gap between the door and its frame.
Another way you can prevent such injuries is by adding a free-flow PVC curtain. However, this is not an ideal choice for all areas. On the other hand, door finger guards can be easily installed on a wide range of doors. It can also match your school's aesthetics without looking out of place. It would help if you also tried teaching kids about door safety and why it's crucial not to play around doors.
While this goes without saying, it's essential to mention equipment safety. You must ensure all equipment accessible to kids is safe to use. A school is a massive place with a lot of kids. It is unfair to let a few teachers be responsible for so many children.
Remember, kids are curious in nature and will try to touch and poke everything, even electrical sockets. Ensure everything is childproof. While at it, ensure your safety equipment like fire extinguisher and fire alarm are functioning correctly.