🍀 Safety through Mindset, Action, Coordination and Rationales
Emphasis on Safety
Number 1 Objective : Keeping everyone ALIVE
Amongst all the discussion about the socio-emotional benefits of Forest School, we must be diligent about ensuring safety of our community . If unforeseen/ natural accidents happen, we will face it as a community. This messaging needs to be firmly put across to all parties. With that foundation in place, we can then build the other components of a Forest School community. Discussion and Trainings are good platforms to enhance the capacity of community members to best manage safety considerations as they show up. SAFETY comes FIRST.Â
*Safety here refers to situations involving grievous bodily harm.Â
Sprains, bruises, and minor fractures come with the territory and free nature of the activity. The risk-benefit analysis must be carried according to context and coaches’ assessment of each participant’s capacity to overcome the risk and forge their independence.
Emergency Action
Ensure the True Safety of the Community Members
It is important to have an Emergency Action Plan. It is for the true safety of the members of the community. It is a guide to support the coaches (or individual in charge of safety), into prompt actions. A good EAP takes into consideration the realistic aspect of the operation. It is not just some protocol to prevent a child’s truest expression because you’re worried about your back. Remember.Â
Whatsapp for Coord & Comms
To enable operational efficiency
Due to the dynamism of doing Forest School in a public park, and open area, it is important to have open communication channels that would allow the team and active stakeholders to be able to coordinate operational issues before, during and after the session. We use WhatsApp groups as our main communication channel because everyone is on it. It requires all users who are on the channel to be reasonable and not overbearing, to maintain healthy communication between parties. It is advisable to select a communication channel and approach that best fits your current Forest School size, frequency, and contexts.
Insurance Rationales
To give people a peace of mind, regarding the administrative ness of an accident
The dynamic nature of Forest School means we do not have fixed activities, and are constantly on-the-go. As such, we were unable to subscribe to mainstream insurances. Insurance, in our context, is for administrative peace of mind. It may give the operational team a false sense of safety, and the impression that our backs are covered. Hence, we decided to take on the liabilities ourselves. This has pushed us to have the best operational safety standards, rather than relying on an administrative entity to cover our backs. It is a different attitude to take, relative to the conventional / corporate mindsets. It comes with a high level of stress and pressure on the leadership and coaches to ensure the safety of the community while practising Forest School.
E.g. for Reference : Emergency-Action-Plan | Operational Briefings | Safety & Health Guide