Safety First! Program

Key Program & Activity Planning Steps

The Lead Teacher is responsible for planning, conducting and evaluating the program, activity or event. If questions or concerns arise, contact the Principal or designate.

The key steps to follow to plan a program or activity are:

Step 1:     Outline the activity: who, what, when, where, how and why.
Step 2:     Identify the key anticipated risks involved, using Safety First! as appropriate.
Step 3:     Review relevant policies, procedures and Safety First! guidelines.
Step 4:     Secure any approvals needed from the district, school or other bodies.
Step 5:     Secure informed consent from parents/guardians (and volunteers if appropriate).
Step 6:     Train staff, volunteers and students in safety and emergency response plans.
Step 7:      Conduct the activity, have fun and adapt plan to support safety and success.
Step 8:     Debrief and submit any follow-up forms, receipts, etc., in a timely manner.

How to Use These Guidelines

First and foremost, this is a reference resource, designed for easy reference and learning. Every effort has been made to keep the document concise and clear, but there is no magic length. To keep it manageable, Safety First! is divided into two levels, 1 and 2. Everyone involved in off-site activities should be familiar with Sections 1-3, found in Level 1. Beyond that, everything is to be used only as relevant to the activity, environment and group.

Level 1 Sections in the Safety First! Document

Section 1:	Introduction provides information regarding the what, why, and how of the Safety First! Guidelines. Read this section once and then refer back to it as needed.
Section 2:	Risk Management Primer contains basic, practical information about legal liability, risk assessment and risk management. Read it once and then use as reference.
Section 3:	General Considerations for Off-site Activities contains basic information of relevance to almost all school off-site experiences. Principals, teachers and others involved in providing relevant activities should review it regularly (at least annually).
Section 4:	Special Considerations provides information related to a variety of circumstances that won’t apply to every activity or outing, but that could apply to any off-site experience (e.g., transporting students during the activity, overnight supervision). This is reference information and the reader need only be aware of the subsections listed in the table of contents and refer to any one(s) relevant to the circumstances.
Section 5:	Local Activities contains activity specific guidelines for conducting a variety of lower risk activities that are commonly done in local environments (e.g., municipal parks and trails) on a short term duration (i.e., during a class, a half-day trip) by teachers/leaders with no special training or certification and with emergency medical services readily accessible.

Level 2 Sections in the Safety First! Document

Section 6:	General Considerations for Higher Care Activities shares basic information related to providing all higher care outdoor pursuits or aquatics activities; i.e., those, operating in more remote environments (e.g., a provincial park) and/or over longer durations (e.g., a weekend trip). Teachers/leaders will generally need some training and experience in the activity and environment, and the group will require good internal rescue and first aid capacity. The teacher/leader involved in any of these types of endeavors should be familiar with the relevant content of this section as it applies.
Section 7:	Higher Care Activities contains guidelines relevant to adventurous outdoor pursuits and aquatics activities. Only those involved in planning these activities need refer to this section and then only the page(s) of relevance to the general category and specific activity(ies) planned.
Section 8:	Travel Excursions provides guidelines for out-of-province and out-of-country travel. Only those involved in such activities need refer to this section. Some sub-heading titles may be repeated across two or more sections of the document. However, the content will not be repeated from one section to another. It will be progressive, with basic information appearing in earlier sections and more specialized considerations building on this content appearing in later sections. Red hyperlinks have been provided to help readers move electronically within this Safety First! document.

Permitted Uses

Only licensed school districts/authorities in BC may use this resource to support school activities. All others, whether involved in a not-for-profit or a for-profit endeavor, must secure written permission from the author to use this resource in the development of policy, procedures and/or practices.

Licensed school districts in BC may:

Use this resource in the development of policy, procedures and practices;
Distribute the resource within the district, in print form and/or electronically, including on staff-only limited parts of the licensee’s website and/or on school-level local intranets; and
Provide the activity-specific page(s) of direct relevance to the services to be provided by a specific service provider to that provider for the purposes of clarifying expectations and contracting for the service.

Licensed school districts in BC may not:

Modify or change this document (due to its research base);
Put this resource or any part thereof on a publicly accessible website or otherwise distribute any or all of it to individuals or organizations outside of the school; or
Claim copyright for itself for this document or any derivative documents based on this document, including adding any school district identifiers.