Ordering for Practical Lessons

[mtg]

Risk assess here too. You can then go to a library and find the prac either one of yours or a generic one and modify it for your use too. Liability exists regardless of the system, just suggest a moderate risk be generated if in doubt. The labelling has been wonderful. Chemwatch labelling was awful and complicated with tiny writing unless you got a degree in how to use it. I would point out the GHS legislation and that Riskassess does all the pictograms automatically.

[macca]

Okay I've set mine too, 1 day to start, would like it to be 2 but lets see the reaction to this first. I'm away tomorrow so it will be interesting.

[Anna Z]

Set it and plead not guilty - "must be Riskassess doing it".

This I just set mine ... will see what happens.

[RosalieL]

I decided to set mine after all. I came in this morning to two pracs, both ordered and done this morning before I arrived. They knew I was going to be late today and got their own stuff out, but still...

[ottenc]

This is the first year the teachers have booked their pracs online via Risk Assess. When I set it up, I let them know that I would need at least a weeks notice for most pracs. They started out well, but are slipping already! So I've set mine for 5 days

[macca]

Yep didn't take long, one email at 10.30pm last night didn't read till this morning. 3 teachers wanting pracs and saw the warning, they knew they were all pracs that were already made up so OKAY with that. Not the HT yet.

They'll all realise they only have 9 days to go soon!!!! Then end of term yah!!!

[macca]

This is the first year the teachers have booked their pracs online via Risk Assess. When I set it up, I let them know that I would need at least a weeks notice for most pracs. They started out well, but are slipping already! So I've set mine for 5 days

WOW I wish

[cactus155]

This is the first year the teachers have booked their pracs online via Risk Assess. When I set it up, I let them know that I would need at least a weeks notice for most pracs. They started out well, but are slipping already! So I've set mine for 5 days

WOW I wish

Wowsers at least a week, we have Risk Assess but no one uses it, I tend to get a email usually without a date or number of students/groups, although a couple of Teachers have given me their term handbooks and expect me to know what experiment they are up to and which of the 3 lessons in the week they want the experiment set up for. I have butted heads with many Teachers over my 20+ years doing this job about giving me time, when we get a new Teacher I said I need x days notice but then they tend to go into the void of the Science staffroom and get told different by other Teachers, sometimes I say no but that can be hard

[Anna Z]

Since I've popped the 3 day warning in RA, I've had every teacher who have put in pracs late come and see me within minutes... love it. They seem to be running scared.

[gotolady]

Good morning all you wonderful labbies.
I have reached the end of my patience with my staff thinking they can order pracs at 9pm and expecting me to have all the equipment and chemicals ready for 1st period.
I have installed the cutoff programme and now waiting for the sh@#t to hit the fan when they have problems processing their orders. It has been a totally awful year so far and can only hope that it gets better next term.
Hope everyone has a restful safe and happy break.

[KassH]

We've set ours and had it going for about 2 weeks. Our teachers are rather bad at the late pracs!! So far there have been 4-5 pracs put in short of the set 2 day notice but only one teacher has come to let us know that they were sorry for the short notice but could we still please get the pracs ready. The others have just carried on as if normal! I'm sure they've seen it. It doesn't stop them from booking them in late but I guess we have to be tougher with saying no!

[Pm706Narrogin]

For those who use an online system, how do you find it?

WA use ChemAlert for our hazardous substances registers. The downside of this is it functions purely as a register. It doesn't have the scheduling aspect of RiskAssess. So most of our schools are a hodgepodge of paper slips with some schools using online systems.

Our head of department has been strongly hinting she wants to go online. We're not so sure. Our pinboard is large and visual. Plus we're a pretty busy school so we find it very convenient to not have to sit down at our computer just to keep checking what's on. We also find teachers are more likely to discuss with us what they want when they have to put up a slip. That also gives us the opportunity to review the prac, suggest a simpler/more workable version and discuss anything else we need to discuss.

We've had an option for teachers to use Microsoft Forms to submit requests since the start of the year. We've found we lose the communication aspect. Pracs just appear, often some variation of a prac we have a similar method for that we know works. Or with not enough information (like number of groups). We then have to spend more time chasing the teacher up to have a discussion.

I definitely get the advantages around teachers being able to book whenever, being able to risk assess themselves and being able to enforce time limits for ordering. But do you find this sometimes comes at the cost of communication? Or is it just a system that eventually sorts itself out?

[RosalieL]

I find teachers often still talk to me about it before ordering (small school though) if they aren't sure if we have the equipment or if I'll have time to prepare it. I have one teacher who likes to put a few weeks worth of pracs in at once (and then she hopes she stays on track!). I think it if you started using risk assess you would eventually find a new normal. At my previous school I used to print out the day first thing and I could tick it off rather than going to the computer, so you could still use that pinboard system you already have in a modified way. I don't have easy access to a printer at this school though so I do tend to be on my computer a lot more.

RiskAssess offers a 2 week free trial so if you can get all teachers on board to give it a red hot go, I'd say try it and see if you think it will work for you. The first time for each prac is a bit time consuming so point out to them that it won't always be like that. Next year they can pull up the same prac and re-use it. If you have multiple classes doing the same prac they can use the same risk assessment using the "create modifiable copy" button.

There's a for comments afterwards for if things were changed/what you would do differently next time so you can keep making them better.

You can set it to have a mandatory response for number of groups etc as well. There is also the advantage of being able to print labels of various sizes directly from RiskAssess and you can create your own labels as well.

If I get a request for a prac I know we can do differently that works better I will let the teacher know either in person or via email and then usually modify the prac order myself if they agree to it. Then they just sign it again.

You will find many labbies on here can help you get started if you have questions if you do trial it.

[Pm706Narrogin]

Thanks Rosalie.

That's what I figured. It's what you're used to and the more you get used to something the more you make it work. RiskAssess sounds great as an all-in-one tool.

[bigmack]

At old school , we had a day book that teachers would come into prep-room and fill out . I liked it , but we moved to "SENTRAL" resource booking . That was a game changer for the teachers , but I found I was constantly having to refresh pages . At that school we also started using Riskassess but most found it PITA and so we basically only used it for Label printing .

Here at my new school , they've used Riskassess for years . There are not many pracs that aren't on it , so teachers just copy and paste . It is good for me in that as we have 4xYr7 ,Yr8 and 3x Yr9 , the teachers all tend to do the same prac which means I only have to get one set of stuff ready and just keep it topped up until they are done rather that having 3 or 4 versions of each prac hanging around .

Similar to Rosalie , our teachers are very good at asking about availability of materials and equipment ,usually when they come to grab a prac or return it , so there is always good communications .

[LabbieSeth]

I find teachers often still talk to me about it before ordering (small school though) if they aren't sure if we have the equipment or if I'll have time to prepare it. I have one teacher who likes to put a few weeks worth of pracs in at once (and then she hopes she stays on track!). I think it if you started using risk assess you would eventually find a new normal. At my previous school I used to print out the day first thing and I could tick it off rather than going to the computer, so you could still use that pinboard system you already have in a modified way. I don't have easy access to a printer at this school though so I do tend to be on my computer a lot more.

RiskAssess offers a 2 week free trial so if you can get all teachers on board to give it a red hot go, I'd say try it and see if you think it will work for you. The first time for each prac is a bit time consuming so point out to them that it won't always be like that. Next year they can pull up the same prac and re-use it. If you have multiple classes doing the same prac they can use the same risk assessment using the "create modifiable copy" button.

There's a for comments afterwards for if things were changed/what you would do differently next time so you can keep making them better.

You can set it to have a mandatory response for number of groups etc as well. There is also the advantage of being able to print labels of various sizes directly from RiskAssess and you can create your own labels as well.

If I get a request for a prac I know we can do differently that works better I will let the teacher know either in person or via email and then usually modify the prac order myself if they agree to it. Then they just sign it again.

You will find many labbies on here can help you get started if you have questions if you do trial it.

I find that my situation is very similar to Rosalie. Often teachers will come talk to me about their pracs and check that we have the equipment/resources, and check if I have time to complete it. The teachers all agree it saves them a lot of time as (because we have been using it for some years now) all the pracs and risk assessments are already done and can just be 'reposted' like Rosalie said.

I find it also helps me manage my time a little better in terms of preparing the prac as when and where the prac is being done is cleary laid out. It also allows me to see what pracs are using the same materials/equipment or if a prac is being done multiple times which I find saves me a lot of time in comparison to when I've worked in schools without Riskassess.

[RosalieL]

I think part of the reason RiskAssess works so well is because the people who created it still run it, and they listen when labbies have suggestions and make changes to make it even more user friendly. The cost has remained relatively low as well when you consider what you can pay annually for access to other programs (eg the online text books for kids are $90 PER STUDENT!!).