The Keep Safe Programme brings Fifth and Sixth Class Primary school students together with local agencies and organisations with a safety remit. The Programme has a direct link to the Curriculum in Primary school, with particular relevance to Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE). It also helps students deal with the transition to Post Primary school.
The Choose Safety Programme is designed to prepare young people for the world of work and work experience. Transition Year and Senior Cycle students can explore core principles of health and safety as they may apply in their current or future places of work. Choose Safety can be taught as a structured 20 hour programme or teachers may select units from the Programme to cover specific topics as desired and/or integrate them into other subjects in the classroom. If your Post Primary school, College of Further Education, PLC or Youthreach centre is interested in receiving FREE Choose Safety Teacher and Student books in English or as Gaeilge, please complete the online Programme Registration Form.
HSA Digital Badges - A Digital Badge is an online symbol or indicator of an accomplishment, skill, competency, or interest. The badge can be displayed on an online CV, social networking site and once clicked on, badges provide a direct link to learner achievements. The HSA issue Digital Badges to students in Post Primary schools, Colleges of Further Education, PLC's and Youthreach centres in the Republic of Ireland who participate in the Choose Safety Programme. Badges can be earned for each module of Choose Safety that is completed, as well as the four Choose Safety full programmes on offer. Teachers simply register their students for Digital Badges on the HSA e-learning portal and badges are directly sent to students' email addresses.
Also found on the HSA’s e-learning online portal are a range of health and safety courses, which are free of charge. One such course is Get Safe – Work Safe, a free 45 minute course preparing young people for the work place. This course can be accessed on the online e-learning portal under ‘Post-Primary Schools’ – ‘Post-Primary Schools – Curriculum’. Groups of learners can be set up on the portal and they can do the course in their own time and at their own pace. It can be useful as a teacher/facilitator to set them up using the Group Manager system on the homepage; the teacher/facilitator can then monitor who has completed the course.
To learn more about the Choose Safety Programme please click here.
The Health and Safety Authority has designed a safety resource for Primary schools entitled What's Under the Sink? to raise awareness amongst younger children of the dangers of household chemicals. What's Under the Sink? is a short, clear, online presentation, designed for use on classroom whiteboards and comes with useful teacher guidelines, including a lesson plan and suggestions for follow up cross-curricular activities. While the resource is most closely linked to the SPHE curriculum objectives for First and Second classes, with a little adaption, it links with curriculum objectives at other class levels and can also be used by teachers of Infant or Senior classes as an awareness-raising tool. This resource is also available as Gaeilge.
The Health and Safety Authority has developed resources to give farm safety messages to Primary students in 30 minutes. These include a Farm Safety Primary School Presentation, a set of seven PowerPoint slides, specifically developed for use in all Primary classes. Teachers can use these slides with their whiteboards or print them to photocopy.
Also available are the On the Farm videos, which showcase child safety on the farm from the child's own perspective.
Farm Safety (2013) - Only a Giant Can Lift a Bull publication
Ocean Safety (2014) - Too Cold for Sharks publication
Construction Safety (2015) - Grandad Built Our House publication
