Agriculture Curriculum and Methodology

Grace Ball a1161709

Health, Safety and Animal Ethics in Schools
Agriculture taught as a school subject has a large practical component, schools that teach this subject
should have access to a farm environment for the students learning. As an Agricultural teacher the
classroom can stretch from the school farms, tractor seats, paddocks or in livestock yards. Therefore
with the use of outdoor classrooms comes a factor of risks, ethics to follow and work health and safety
issues to consider. It is of the upmost importance that students can learn in a safe environment and
that the animals used are respected with proper ethical practice. The following document aims to
outline the considerations toward farm safety and animal ethics for educational purposes.

Animal Ethics
Animal ethics are in place to ensure the welfare of the animals and the safety of the student and staff,
while providing educational opportunities.
There is must be an animal ethics officer for each school. This may be a delegated teacher or Principal
within the school. However all staff must be fully aware of the ethical practices for all animals when
working on the farm. The animal ethics officer should be undertaking the roles and responsibilities
listed in figure 1.

Figure 1: Animals ethic officer role and responsibilities (Independent Schools Sector)
Referring to the Independent Schools Animal Ethics Handbook, there are 4 categories of approval when
working with animals.
- Category 1: requires no approval before performing i.e. animal observation.
- Category 2: may be carried out if students are training beforehand i.e. mustering.
- Category 3: approval by an ethical office i.e. hoof trimming, coat clipping.
- Category 4: pre approval from higher ethical officers i.e. commercial work such as growing
turkeys for sale.
All staff should be regularly monitoring livestock for behaviour and health conditions, and be vigilant on
reporting those of concern. Animals that are bought to the farm from other places should be
quarantined and introduced as per the farms procedure, i.e. vaccinated and wormed before entering
the group.
There are different codes of conduct and SOP (safe operating procedures) for each of the animals that
can be kept at the school. The relevant code of practices can be found through DECD or Independent
Schools websites, these documents should be filed in the schools office. Refer to resource list for links
to these documents.

WHS officer
Each school must also have an allocated WHS office, this personnel is responsible for overseeing the
work health and safety of students, teachers and school staff. Their role involves insuring all codes of
practices and standards are being met and recorded appropriately. They will be involved with early
intervention to incident reports and management for any WHS issue that arises within the school.
The Department for Education and Child Development (DECD) is committed to providing safe
systems of work and a safe work environment: For all workers, students, young people, children
and other persons that meets its legislative obligations. (Department for Education and Child
Development, 2015).
See resource list for further information and links to Work, Health, Safety and Injury Management policy
required for DECD schools.

What are the main risks to consider?

The main risk factors will be dependant on the focus of the school farm, for example some schools have
larger focus on machinery compared to livestock. Some of the topics that need to be considered are as
follows:
Machinery and safety
Drivers are licences and trained for safe use,
Knowing the risk of driving while there are students walking around
Students to be aware of operating machines and what to do when a tractor approaches
Signs clearly displayed to indicate machinery in use
Tractors and equipment are serviced regularly
ATV
Drivers must be travelling safely and at a slow speed
Wearing a helmet
Correct number of people riding the ATV and to be wearing helmets
Chemicals and storage
Chemicals must be safe to be used when there are students around (chemical drift and potential
allergies)
Stored appropriately, locked up and safety signs
Records kept about their usage, so they cant go missing
Operators to be chemically certified
Good animal care and maintenance
Animals stocked to the ethic standards (Dry Stock Equivalent)
Free range of movement
Access to correct feed and water is always available
Vaccinated/wormed regularly both for animal health and human contact
Dead stock to be removed appropriately
General Farm
Locks on farm gates before/after hours
Lock for sheds

Record keeping
It is also important to maintain correct record keeping so that all activities regarding safe procedures
can be monitored and tracked. The records will provide the relevant governing groups with history of
the farms practices, as well as provide support if an incident occurs. The following points outline
records that need to be kept on the farm.

Phone Numbers
All staff
Vet/farrier/Horse dentist and any other animal medical services
Fist aid officer
Staff movement
What time staff enter/exited the farm
Roster for weekend/holidays
Who has the keys to certain areas
Visitor sign-in or are given permission before entering farm
Fire procedures
Fire procedures in place for each area
Relevant signs and exit maps have been posted on doors or walls
Students and staff have been made aware of the relevant dangers
Animal health
Animals vaccines have been recorded as evidence of doing so
Worming procedures have been noted
Dead stock are recorded with details about the death
Vehicles
Vehicles/tractors/ATV have been registered
Machines serviced date
Injury forms
If a student/staff become injured the ED155 needs to be completed and reported to the WHS
officer (See appendix 1 and resources for link)
If an inspection occurs whether it be for animal ethics of school safety procedure its vital that all
records are up-to-date to support the good practices being taken up.

School holidays
Being a school environment means that there needs to be staff members present over weekends and
during school holidays to ensure all animals are cared for. This requires a well organised roster to preplan the non-school days. There would also need to be someone aware of who is on the farm in case of
an emergency or if help is required. This may be a person that is located near the school for after hour
problems. In some schools this may mean that livestock numbers need reducing over the summer
holidays to reduce the responsibilities and risks.

Implementing it into the classroom?

To encourage the practice of farm safety through Year 8-12, a program could be devised to integrate it
into the curriculum. The following table suggests how the topic could be delivered through the year
levels. It should be the first topic taught in Year 8, as it would provide the grounding before entering the
farm for the first time. It would not be assumed that any student has a farming background, ensuring
that all students are given the correct safety education for the school farm. All the safety topics should
involved practical aspects to encourage the students confidence on the farm and help to maintain safe
practices.
These topics can be crossed or swapped between the year levels. The structure of the plan is
dependant on the schools main focus. For example Wudinna Area School may focus on tractor safety,
where as Urrbrae Agricultural High School may focus on animal ethics.
Year
Leve
l

Topic

General farm safety

Working with larger animals

Animal health
Driving tractors and working
with machinery
Animals for scientific practices

10
11

Suggested Ideas
-How to act and behave on the farm
-Dangers to look out for
-Working and caring for small animals and birds
-Building confidence with livestock
-General animal health observations
-Tractor licences
-ATV safety
-Knowledge about using animals for experiments

12

Safe practices in the workplace

-Animal diseases and risk to humans (zoonosis)

-Preparation for future work places
-Confidence building for work environments
livestock)
-Experiments regarding ethical practise

(machinery

and

Table 1: Suggest topics for school safety education for Years 8-12
There are educational posters that can be found through Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and
Safety. These can be displayed in the classroom and on farm for visual reminder aids.

Figure 3: Example poster for Farm Safety

Conclusion
There are many considerations to bear in mind when running a school farm. The student and staffs
safety is paramount to a successful farm, if animals are present on farm their ethical care is also of the
upmost importance. Both good safety and ethics provide the best learning opportunities for students.
Its important that students learn to work on a farm with model procedures to ensure they continue and
are aware of the correct ways for future work and safe practices.

Resources
Farm Safe Australia Inc.
schools

http://www.farmsafe.org.au/content/future-farmers-resource-for-high-

Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety - http://www.aghealth.org.au/index.php?

id=5044
Standard Operating Procedures for the use of Animals in Schools http://www.ais.sa.edu.au/__files/f/46593/Standard%20Operating%20Procedure%20-%20Apr%2015.pdf
Animal Health Australia - http://www.animalhealthaustralia.com.au
Work Health Safety and Injury Management Policy
-http://www.decd.sa.gov.au/docs/documents/1/OccupationalHealthSafetyW.pdf
Injury Report Form - http://www.decd.sa.gov.au/docs/documents/1/ed155.pdf

Appendices
Appendix 1: Fist page of the Injury Report Form