Risk Assessment

MSDSs, Storage, Handling, Transport, Labeling, computer management systems, and anything else to do with safety.
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rae
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Joined: 31 May 2006, 10:00
School: Oxley College
Suburb: Burradoo
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Re: Risk Assessment

Post by rae »

I think the whole point is for the teachers to actually produce an RA every time they do the experiment so they actually think about what they are doing. You have access to your own stored files of the previously produced RA but not anyone elses. We have now been using it for over 12months so the teachers can look up previously produced RA in our own file and modify them.
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mitch2
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State/Location: SA

Re: Risk Assessment

Post by mitch2 »

Yeah understand that the purpose is for each teacher to do a risk assessment but as with a lot of pracs the little hints and adjustments to pracs that have already been done by a teacher of 30yrs experience verses 1st year out can be light years apart. Plus from experience some of these people who write science pracs have hardly ever considered the pracs from a labbies perspective and often from an equipment point of view or cost.
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smiley
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Re: Risk Assessment

Post by smiley »

Speaking of cost...beware the Pearson's experiments. They are often bucket chemistry! :-(

You will see things like "give every child four 250 mL beakers, 100mL of oil" etc, for a prac that can (and was) done very adequately in 25mm test tubes. Some of their pracs also either transmit very little info for the amount of trouble, or are just unworkable. Of course, then there are others that are spot on. My replacement, and I (via email) kind of assess each prac as it comes up because we have at least one teacher who just blindly follows the book and looks a little astonished when she encounters rebellion from her labbie.
Cheers, K 8-)
curie
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Joined: 27 May 2010, 09:42
State/Location: NSW

Re: Risk Assessment

Post by curie »

Does anyone have their students doing risk assessments? Has anyone bought student riskassess? I see on the website that according to the national curriculum students are encouraged to assess risks . I pushed to get riskassess and would like it to be used with every prac but that doesn't always happen and if I push the point I get told. It could get interesting if the students have to do them when the teachers aren't.
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smiley
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Re: Risk Assessment

Post by smiley »

Yes we subscribe to both. The students use their Student RiskAssess as part of their EEI's, which also gives them relevant info to talk about in their Process Journals.

We use RiskAssess as my timetabling medium, so teachers HAVE to use RA to get a prac. They now even do one, when they only want something like paper & pencils, or pre-made slides, just to book the gear. I have even, in recent days, asserted my legislative obligations, and knocked back RA's where the teacher has failed to acknowledge a "special needs" student or assessed a prac using a bunsen, 800mL beakers etc as "Low Risk". My HOD backs me up 100%, and if she sees a teacher coming in to ask me if "that Yr9 prac" is still set up - for example - she will ask them if they've done the RA for their class. Love my HOD! :wub:
Cheers, K 8-)
RosalieL
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Job Title: Lab Assistant
School: MCS
State/Location: NSW

Re: Risk Assessment

Post by RosalieL »

Just jumping on this thread (from nearly a decade ago!!) and wondering who has/still has the student riskassess and how much does it get used? We are only a small school so not sure it would be worth the extra $$ to only be used for one or 2 classes per year (especially when I have one teacher who still has not logged in when we’ve had the staff version for over 12 months… :mad: :redcard: )
Merilyn1
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Re: Risk Assessment

Post by Merilyn1 »

We subscribe to both. The students do use ours but we are very active users of the main Riskassess except for the teacher new to us this year - says he only did risk assessments for "serious, high risk pracs". How do you know it is high risk without doing a RA? My coordinator appreciates how much easier things are for me if ALL pracs are ordered through Riskassess. Yes, even coloured pencils get ordered this way.

But I digress...if you think the teachers will get the students using it, it is certainly worth the extra money. But could easily be a waste of money if you have trouble getting the teachers to use it themselves. It won't make much of a difference to your job whether you have it or not.

If you do choose to subscribe, I still get the teacher to order the materials for the pracs via their own RA. It is impossible trying to follow the students requests, especially if the teacher doesn't check them properly.
Prima
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Joined: 02 Dec 2014, 11:20
Job Title: Lab assistant
State/Location: NSW

Re: Risk Assessment

Post by Prima »

We have had RiskAssess for several years - but the main subscription only, not the student version. I don't know how I would have survived without it, especially for chemical labelling. Been the best thing ever. We've used the booking process for Senior Chem, it's worked a treat.

For about 3 terms now we have extended it to all classes. I have not been allowed to hand out pracs or equipment without the process being followed. Kind of, anyway, at least it's better than it used to be! The teachers are slowly getting used to it, although I have to say I find it slows me down, I rewrite (in a shortened form) the pracs into my A4 diary, so much easier for me to work out the What's, Where's and When's.
There has been zero interest in extending the subscription for students. Life is perhaps hard enough already??!!
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Lyn
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School: St. John's Catholic College
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Re: Risk Assessment

Post by Lyn »

We have had Risk Assess for a long while now (only the main subscription) and it has been incredibly useful. For me in particular the timetabling aspect of the program is invaluable. Merilyn1, you need to point out to your new teacher that by law he has to do a risk assessment for any and every prac that he does regardless of how easy it might be. Risk assessments are done to cover not only his back but also the school he is working in. If he is that lazy tell him that he will probably find previous pracs in the risk assess program that he can reutilise. This will save him from having to use what little grey matter he may have left in his head. You can also remind him that if he doesn't use the program then he won't show up on the timetable and therefore when he turns up expecting his prac to be available and set up it won't be. Get the backing of your head of dept as well just to cover you back. Good luck with the training regime. :coffee:
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Anna Z
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Job Title: Lab Manager
School: DET Secondary School
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Re: Risk Assessment

Post by Anna Z »

smiley wrote: 14 Mar 2014, 13:39 Yes we subscribe to both. The students use their Student RiskAssess as part of their EEI's, which also gives them relevant info to talk about in their Process Journals.

We use RiskAssess as my timetabling medium, so teachers HAVE to use RA to get a prac. They now even do one, when they only want something like paper & pencils, or pre-made slides, just to book the gear. I have even, in recent days, asserted my legislative obligations, and knocked back RA's where the teacher has failed to acknowledge a "special needs" student or assessed a prac using a bunsen, 800mL beakers etc as "Low Risk". My HOD backs me up 100%, and if she sees a teacher coming in to ask me if "that Yr9 prac" is still set up - for example - she will ask them if they've done the RA for their class. Love my HOD! :wub:
This is us also...no RA no prac, no reschedule - no prac , no room chnage entered - well it will be where they have said they wanted it in RA. We are so OCD with it.

And yes student RA for EEI's, EI and Science fair student projects. If they don't do it, they get nothing from us.
mtg
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School: NDSC
Suburb: west gippsland
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Re: Risk Assessment

Post by mtg »

I have copied smiley's post to show my HOD, I am struggling to get staff to all use riskassess. I absolutely love it for my labelling. The only problem is the lack of predictive text. Having to type in the whole word when you put in the equipment required etc.
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gotolady
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State/Location: NSW

Re: Risk Assessment

Post by gotolady »

Hi guys,
Hope your year is better than the last couple.
Just a heads up with riskassess putting the wrong chemical equations on labels. It has been frantic here with assessment exams and luckily the teachers have picked up errors.
From memory it was silver nitrate and sodium carbonate. Don't know of any others.
Cheers
RosalieL
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Joined: 28 Jan 2021, 13:24
Job Title: Lab Assistant
School: MCS
State/Location: NSW

Re: Risk Assessment

Post by RosalieL »

mtg wrote: 21 Mar 2022, 10:40 I have copied smiley's post to show my HOD, I am struggling to get staff to all use riskassess. I absolutely love it for my labelling. The only problem is the lack of predictive text. Having to type in the whole word when you put in the equipment required etc.
You can just type the start and hit enter and it gives you a short list to select from. I hope this tip helps save you some time! Eg "Sod chl" will bring up sodium chloride, sodium chlorate, sodium hyperchlorite,sodium dichloroisocyanurate and sodium perchlorate and you can then click from there.
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Anna Z
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Job Title: Lab Manager
School: DET Secondary School
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Re: Risk Assessment

Post by Anna Z »

it also may make a difference if you are using it in Chrome or explorer
Merilyn1
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School: Wollondilly Anglican College
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Re: Risk Assessment

Post by Merilyn1 »

Works fine with Chrome.
Merilyn1
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Re: Risk Assessment

Post by Merilyn1 »

Lyn wrote: 16 Mar 2022, 14:08 We have had Risk Assess for a long while now (only the main subscription) and it has been incredibly useful. For me in particular the timetabling aspect of the program is invaluable. Merilyn1, you need to point out to your new teacher that by law he has to do a risk assessment for any and every prac that he does regardless of how easy it might be. Risk assessments are done to cover not only his back but also the school he is working in. If he is that lazy tell him that he will probably find previous pracs in the risk assess program that he can reutilise. This will save him from having to use what little grey matter he may have left in his head. You can also remind him that if he doesn't use the program then he won't show up on the timetable and therefore when he turns up expecting his prac to be available and set up it won't be. Get the backing of your head of dept as well just to cover you back. Good luck with the training regime. :coffee:
Luckily Lyn, he is the odd one out and will soon learn. Definitely have the HT's support. I have cut him a little bit of slack - he's new and had some other home things to deal with but no more Mrs Nice Girl :D
There is always a conundrum (in NSW at least) that you do not need to prepare a risk assessment for activities that carry a low level risk. But, how do you know it is a low level risk without doing a risk assessment??
Riskassess just makes it easy to just go ahead and do it.
I love your sarcastic, jaded comments :giggle: We all feel like that on so many days (more frequently the longer you've been doing the job).
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Wayne
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Re: Risk Assessment

Post by Wayne »

gotolady wrote: 21 Mar 2022, 10:58 Hi guys,
Hope your year is better than the last couple.
Just a heads up with riskassess putting the wrong chemical equations on labels. It has been frantic here with assessment exams and luckily the teachers have picked up errors.
From memory it was silver nitrate and sodium carbonate. Don't know of any others.
Cheers
I just checked silver nitrate and sodium carbonate and I get the correct chemical formula for them on RiskAssess.
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MissKat
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Job Title: Science Technician
School: Cranbrook School
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Re: Risk Assessment

Post by MissKat »

RosalieL wrote: 15 Mar 2022, 11:48 Just jumping on this thread (from nearly a decade ago!!) and wondering who has/still has the student riskassess and how much does it get used? We are only a small school so not sure it would be worth the extra $$ to only be used for one or 2 classes per year (especially when I have one teacher who still has not logged in when we’ve had the staff version for over 12 months… :mad: :redcard: )
My school has quite a lot of senior science classes and in our second year of IB. Our HSC chemistry and physics do individual depth studies and many of the extension science students also work on practical projects. The IB cohort have their IAs and sometimes EEs. So we get a lot of use out of the student risk assess site.

Regarding the teacher's use of the main site, if they don't order it on there, it doesn't get prepped.
ottenc
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Joined: 25 Mar 2022, 09:42
Job Title: Laboratory Technician
School: Leighland Christian School
State/Location: TAS

Re: Risk Assessment

Post by ottenc »

New Labbie this year, coming in from commercial laboratories. How do you determine what needs a risk assessment? My knee jerk response is to do a risk assessment for every prac, but the teachers tend to avoid them for the simpler pracs. I understand it seems ridiculous to run a risk assessment for a biology prac where the students are just measuring their pulse at different activity levels, but don't we have some kind of legal responsibility to prove we've assessed the risk?
Note to add: I think the teachers are also reluctant to add more 'pressure' on me at the moment, as I have had a turbulent start to a new job with no handover, and no-one really understanding the requirements of the position. As it stands, I prepare all risk assessments through RiskAssess, and have the teachers sign off before beginning the prac
Merilyn1
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Re: Risk Assessment

Post by Merilyn1 »

At my school, the teachers order every prac through Riskassess. No order no equipment.
Further, you should leave the risk assessments for the teachers to do. Don't do it for them as you are not aware of the risks - quite often, we don't even know what they are doing with the equipment.
There is something buried in NSW legislation that says a formal risk assessment is not required for low risk activities. My thought is how do you know it is low risk without doing a RA? Riskassess allows teachers to order materials and equipment that are low risk but you have a record that they have determined it to be a low risk. Pretty simple.
As for your example with the Bio class - different activity levels will have different risks, so the teachers should technically be considering those things.
It is always good to try and set the rules early in your job. It can be difficult to change things along the way. Tell the teachers that using Riskassess will make it easier for you (which it does) as you can keep track of the prac scheduling and who needs/has different items of equipment.
BTW - I also use Riskassess for my own risk assessments e.g. acid dilutions etc
And for some good reading if you are new to the job, Peter Crisp has a really good resource book on the Riskassess website called "Safety in Schools". You can download it from the home page (near the bottom of the page).
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