Professional Conversations at Staff Meetings – What if Scenarios
- Published: 12 October 2022
Currently the incidents of children who pose flight risks in schools appears to be increasing. With this in mind, it may be opportune to discuss two “what if” scenarios. Each school has its own unique context and capacity and the procedures agreed following discussion would vary from school to school.
What if a child runs out of school and goes missing ----------?
What if a child has been identified as a flight risk -------------?
The discussions might include:
- Protocols and procedures to be followed in the event of the first scenario including notification of Gardaí and who does what, where and when.
- If an incident has occurred in the school a review of the incident might consider what worked well and what we would do differently.
- Where a flight risk is identified, a Health and Safety audit ought to should be undertaken to identify of risk and how these might be minimized or possibly eliminated. The HSA website may be helpful in this regard.
- To whom does this then need to be communicated? All staff and the parents of particular children need to know the protocols put in place to manage these situations. As with all communication this is best done before an incident occurs.
Once the discussion has taken place record the decisions made and submit them to the Board for approval.
Being proactive in this regard will lead to better outcomes should such unfortunate incidents occur.
