Australia's Science Forum

Hello All - Just wondering how you guys organise your Risk Assessments. Do you store them in the Prep Room in a folder? Do you organise by Year level or by the Prac Title? Do you re-use the ones already prepared by getting the teacher to sign and date? Just trying to get a handle on this - at the moment we seem to be up to our ears in paperwork (so what else is new?) and would like to streamline this RA business to make our lives a little easier. To date we have kept them in a folder and I have to thumb through to find the one I"m looking for, O.K. if you have plenty of time, not if you are in a hurry. Your ideas on this topic would be very much appreciated. Cheers. Judy

Hi Judy
I do a RA for every prac, yes lots of paper work, I store them in an expandable folder in the prep room for the current term, divided by year groups. Each term I put them into a storage folder, ours are valid for 15months, when they expire, I store them in a box, as workcover require them stored for 5 years, after that I guess I will throw them out.
hope this has helped
cheers
Lisa

Remember DET schools do not have to RA's, if you stay within the guide lines of the CSIS.

We have a form which has, on one side a laboratory request, and on the other a Risk Assessment for that prac.
The TEACHERS are supposed to fill the Risk Assessments out, check regulations here - because you amy be doing THEIR work for them, and I wonder if that makes YOU liable, not them????
and I am constantly chasing them to do so... but .....only one or two bother.
I was told by our Head Office, a few years ago, that if there was no Risk Assessment filled out, then I was NOT to prepare the Prac. Now has anyone ever tried to pull rank on teachers?
Of course it didnt work, and the only one who got deeper in trouble was............ you guessed it!

Thanks for the input everyone - we are an independent school so the RA's have to be done and no, I am not writing them, just trying to keep them in some sort of order so I can access them easily. And because getting teachers to fill in the forms is like pulling teeth, we re-use the ones that have already been done by getting teachers to read, sign and date, which is easier to accomplish! Of course we need to do them from scratch after 5yrs. but this does not seem to be such a problem - (go figure!) So, looks like there's no way of streamlining this process, so will just have to get on with it. Ah, well! Such is the life of a labbie! Cheers. Judy

Dear Judy,
does your school have an Archive Department? Ours is attached to our school Museum and this is where our RA/prac requests and memorabilia goes to as well. It is fun to visit what we used in the days when we scrounged for everything....a teachers kitchen cupboard doors when we needed dissecting boards, mattress protectors for saddlecloths, etc. I also put into the Archives a few of those the ol' Government Stores bottles - does anyone remember those days???
~Robyn

Hi All,

Ummmm, It's a trade secret...

Cheers,

Robb.....

Hi
I have a folder for each of years 7,8,9,10 and one for each of bio, chem, phys and earth science in years 11 and 12. I file them in the prep room. In these folders I have a risk assessment for each of the pracs that are listed in their programs in the order they are listed. On the front of each RA there is a sheet that lists stuff needed (order sheet). I also write notes on how they want it set up (draw diagrams if complicated or if a particular set up worked really well). Then on the front of the RA there is a sheet where they can fill in the date they want it for, no. of groups and sign in when they have done it (to say they have abided by the RA). Then too, you only have to write the RA once and they can use it for quite a few years. Takes less space to store that way too.
To order their pracs they go through the folders, take out the prac they want and hang it on my request board (or tell me in passing in the hallway 5 minutes before the lesson....).
This isn't all complete yet but seems to be working reasonably well. If something goes wrong or works really well, I include a note of it with the prac.

Cheers
Tina

Just veering off the risk assessment topic for a sec, I too make notes about things that work well or don't on stick it's and put them in the text book with the appropriate prac. Everyone loves to borrow my copy of the texts to get hints when they are planning pracs. The thing they like best of all is finding the notes that say "such and such asks to be reminded is they ever ask for this experiment again to think back to the bottom year 8's 2006." or "such and such had another religious experience with this prac walking out of the room going Lordy! Lordy! Lordy!"

Judygee

I have a prep room set of all the pracs that we do for each yrs topic.
I keep each topics' folder within a large Marbic folder.. marked with that yr.., eg Yr 8.
Each prac is in its own plastic sleeve within the smaller topic folders.

I tag the RA sheet with a highlighted tab at the top ...labelled with yr, topic & prac & pg number( so it can be whipped out easily, as well as located easily).

I keep each RA page in with the prac.
When the prac comes out to play( to be prepared).. so does the RA.... to be reviewed, signed and replaced for next time.
No seperate folders to store.. no fiddling with another set of records in seperate folders. it works very well.. & so simple.

Like shuffling two packs of cards and stacking them together. ( the prac page and also the RA page)
But the red topped tag on the RA means that they still stand out when the folders are upright on my bench against the wall.