Safety Rules OK! – working towards injury free schools

What is Safety Rules OK?

The program is modelled on the 'school safe cycle', a step by step process to identify injury causes and implement injury prevention strategies. Fundamental to the program is the formation of injury prevention committees which coordinate the program. The committee consists primarily of students as student ownership of the program will encourage lasting changes in prevention behaviour and safety attitudes.

Safety Rules OK! is a whole school approach to injury prevention which adopts environmental, educational and promotional strategies to work towards injury free schools. The program is designed to support safety curriculum activities in the classroom and assist schools to meet their duty of care responsibilities. If a school does not currently have a high injury rate, continual reinforcement of safety awareness and injury prevention strategies is still vital to ensure that the injury free record is maintained. The increased awareness will also hopefully extend to the home, road, recreational activities and into the workplace later in life.

How did the program start?

The Safety Rules OK! Program was first piloted in the rural Education District of Narrogin in June, 1995. School health nurses within the Narrogin Education District identified a need for injury prevention and the resulting school injury prevention initiative was developed as a joint project of Kidsafe WA and the Southern Public Health Unit with support from the Education Department of WA and the Upper Great Southern Health Service. Funding for the project was provided by Healthway, the Western Australian Health Promotion Foundation.> Over one year, new strategies and ideas were developed, implemented and evaluated in conjunction with adopted strategies from Schoolsafe (Kidsafe Victoria) and the SCIP program (Student Committees for Injury Prevention, NSW Health). The pilot program proved successful in reducing injuries and creating safer school environments, and in March 1996, the program was implemented in the Bayswater and Inner City Health District as a metropolitan comparison. A joint initiative of the City of Bayswater and the Public and Community Health Unit, with funding from Healthway, the project was extended to become a Schools and Child Care Facilities Injury Prevention Program. To download a copy of the Safety Rules OK! Resource click here (resource still to come) To access current Safety Rules OK! Teachers Resources and Student Activities download the topics of interest supplied on the Safety in Schools Week Page or Healthway Support Sponsorship Teachers Notes.