Health and safety

Having hives in a school environment raises issues of health and safety. But, to be quite honest, these are the same whenever you have hives in more public or easily accessible spaces.

So, what safety measures are in place?

• The hives are located away from the main school building, at the end of the allotment gardens, where children rarely go. They only access that area (or should) with a teacher to do a gardening extra activity. The gardens they work on are over 10m away from the hives.

• I have informed all staff and pupils of the location of the hives and that they are not to approach or disturb them without proper equipment and a teacher with them.

• There is a huge sign, easily visible from afar, warning about the hives. Although this is set up directly in front of the hives, it is visible from a distance.

• For all hive manipulations with pupils, there must be two members of staff present (one for the bees, one for the pupils, if things go wrong). One member of staff is to have a walkie-talkie to be able to call for assistance in case of an accident or incident. All pupils must wear beesuits, wellies and leather gloves.

• I have a list of all pupils with insect bite or bee allergies. These will not be allowed to go to watch manipulations.

I put all of this in my risk assessment, which I would upload to this page, if I knew how to attach documents to the blog. However, I am happy to send it to anybody that would like it. It is not a very complex document and is basically the result of me thinking through what could happen.