Awareness of classroom safety among teachers and classroom assistants campaign

Wednesday, February 11, 2004

A campaign to raise awareness of classroom safety among teachers and classroom assistants has been launched by the Health and Safety Executive and the local education authorities in Glasgow, Sheffield and Trafford. The campaign highlights the risk school staff face from falling while putting things in a cupboard, putting up a display or closing a window. Bill Gillan, programme manager for the HSE Falls from Height Priority Programme, said, 'Our statistics show that teachers and classroom assistants are at risk from this type of accident and we hope that this approach will be successful in raising awareness of the danger and reducing the number of accidents.' The HSE said falls in school classrooms in the UK have resulted in five deaths and more than 3,000 injuries in the past six years alone.