Collision corners around the school
Karapiro School
“Video is a powerful medium for promoting
safety messages. This is especially true if
the video is produced by and features the
students affected by the safety issue.” David
Graham, Principal
Introduction
Karapiro School is a decile 9 school with a roll of 62, situated near Cambridge. The
school has been pro-active in injury prevention for many years. They have a hazard
identification plan in place, and work to eliminate all identified hazards. This has
included moving the school gate off busy State Highway 1, building safety barriers
on the adventure playground, and covering all deck areas with clear roofing to stop
them from getting slippery in winter.
However, some students have still been injured in other ways. So for their ACC
ThinkSafe Education project, the school chose to look at one of the main causes –
children colliding with each other as they run around hidden corners of the school
buildings.
What was the issue?
Before they settled on the issue of children being injured from running into each
other, the school reviewed the medical room log to analyse the nature of injuries
they were treating. They compared their results with data on the ACC website
regarding overall injury causes for students in that age group.
Their analysis showed that a high number of collisions between children were
happening in the school. In one instance, a student had knocked out a permanent
front tooth in such a collision.
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Despite collisions between children being an age-old problem for schools, there
was little evidence of practical solutions. An internet search provided little help,
as even though schools round the world had similar policies regarding the issue,
collisions still occurred. So Karapiro School decided to involve their students in
identifying the extent of the problem and how it could be resolved.
What did the school do?
The school referred to the ACC website to help them plan their project, particularly
the theme for Year 4-6 of ‘building safe physical and emotional environments’. The
site suggested a range of learning activities in which students could investigate,
monitor and evaluate rules relevant to a specific area in the school and present
their findings.
Investigation:
As the first step, senior students were sent out with a digital camera to identify
potentially hazardous corners around the school. They secretly observed these
corners over a period of time to see how many children were running rather than
walking around them.
The students plotted the results of their observations onto a plan of the school, and
found that one corner was particularly bad (which happened to be the corner on
which the child had lost a tooth the previous year). They surmised that this might
be because it was a busy corner on a junior block, just after a flight of stairs, with
poor visibility and no rain cover.
They then brainstormed ways to address the problem. Their ideas included
replacing wood with glass to increase visibility, painting lines on the ground,
making a video to show juniors the problem, adding planters or other barriers that
the children would need to walk round, allowing children to go through the rooms
rather than round them, and even having traffic lights or making juniors wear
helmets.
The students assessed the merits of each idea using a ‘Plus Minus Interesting’
format. In the end, they decided the best solution was to create a video, because
it was cost effective, would not involve too many changes to the school, and would
appeal to both the juniors and the seniors themselves.
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Interventions (action plan):
To help form ideas and assess different video techniques, the senior students
watched a number of videos, including the ACC injury prevention advertisements.
In teams, they then produced their own videos. One of the videos was selected
to be shown to the whole school at assembly. The presentation also included a
slideshow of the data that they had gathered, and some hidden camera footage of
student behaviour at the corners in question.
After one week, the class repeated the initial data gathering investigation, using a
combination of tally charts and hidden cameras.
What happened as a result?
The results of the second data gathering investigation showed a vast improvement,
with far fewer children running round the corners.
The hidden camera footage showed a small number of students who were still
running round some corners. These children were identified and spoken to.
How well did it work?
The school found the ThinkSafe Education unit plan a useful and easy-to-access
resource for this student-centred project using the curriculum as a forum.
Video was a powerful medium for promoting safety messages, especially when the
students were involved in its production. The resulting video resource can now be
used to repeat the message when necessary.
The project also gave students an authentic context in which to develop skills such
as statistical investigation and presenting moving images as visual language.
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What will they do in the future?
This approach could be easily repeated to address other safety concerns around
the school. Hidden cameras gather very specific and accurate data, though ethical
considerations would need to be taken into account.
Want more information?
Visit www.acc.co.nz/injuryprevention/schools.
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