EducationHealth, Safety and Wellbeing for Schools Schools and early childhood centres are busy places where staff are stretched as they manage multiple roles and emerging challenges. It is no wonder school Boards or Leadership Teams often seek further assurances or assistance in assessing how effective their health, safety, and wellbeing systems are. At Working Wise, we understand that health, safety and wellbeing goes beyond the classroom. One of our first actions when partnering with schools is to encourage the leadership team to widen the lens – not only focusing on students but ensuring the safety of everyone in the school ecosystem, including parents, teachers, support staff, and volunteers. This holistic approach enables schools to address risks comprehensively and implement effective controls, creating a safer learning environment for all. School health, safety and wellbeing responsibilities Two acts, the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA) and the Education and Training Act 2020 (ETA), come into play for schools in relation to health, safety and wellbeing. The purpose of the HSWA is to provide a legal framework to ensure the health and safety of all employees and everyone else in the school environment. The ETA outlines schools’ legal responsibilities and duty of care to ensure they provide an emotionally and physically safe place for all staff and students, while catering for their individual needs. The Board of Trustees (BoT) holds the primary duty of care as the Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking (PCBU). Their responsibilities include ensuring adequate resources and processes are in place to meet health and safety obligations. While many schools do understand how to manage the risks in their school environment, they may not when it comes to the risks of outside of the classroom. Schools must also prioritise having best practice processes in place for Education Outside the Classroom (EOTC). Given the risks associated with school trips and other off-site activities, it is essential for schools to have comprehensive safety measures to manage these activities effectively. The importance of EOTC has been highlighted by recent tragic incidents on recent school trips, underscoring the need for thorough safety planning. Where the risks on trips are more extreme, there may not be enough expertise within the school and the BoT to even identify the risks, let alone assess them correctly. Schools are used to ‘making do’ and asking for expert advice isn’t something they do naturally because cost and time pressures. School leaders, such as head teachers and board members, play a crucial role in ensuring their health, safety and wellbeing management systems are both proactive and comprehensive. At Working Wise, we help school leaders navigate their responsibilities and offer tailored solutions to keep their school environment healthier and safer. Want a structured what to improve your school’s health, safety and wellbeing? Contact us today. A clear pathway to improvement: Health, safety and wellbeing reviews and assessments When schools reach out to us, they are often at a loss where to start to improve their systems. We always recommend a safety and wellbeing review to identify what the gaps are, what’s working well and what needs to be done to improve systems and processes. Our team uses a high engagement model and works with the school leadership team, and members of staff to assess the effectiveness of their current systems and identify areas for improvement. These reviews provide valuable insights, helping schools maintain compliance with HSWA and best practice processes to enhance the health, safety and wellbeingin their environment. With all reviews we provide a work programme which breaks down the steps to implement the recommendations. By partnering with Working Wise, schools will be on the right pathway to ensure their health, safety, and wellbeing systems are robust, easy to use, and adaptable to cope with emerging risks. GOSH – A Smart Solution for Schools Managing health, safety and wellbeing is a challenging task for school leaders, but with GOSH, you can simplify the process. GOSH is an easy-to-use, cloud-based health, safety and wellbeing system designed to integrate with other school software and to help schools report, track, and monitor incidents and risks in real time. Key Benefits of GOSH for Schools: Centralised Monitoring: Track health, safety and wellbeing activities across the entire school. Smart Reporting: Generate reports with real-time data to identify trends and make informed decisions. Incident Reporting: Quickly report incidents and risks from any device, whether it is a mobile phone, tablet, or desktop. EOTC Management: GOSH helps manage Education Outside the Classroom activities safely and efficiently. Comprehensive Dashboard: School leadership can view a snapshot of their overall health, safety and wellbeing performance. How GOSH Can Help Schools At Working Wise, we recognise that each school faces unique challenges in managing health, safety and wellbeing. GOSH is more than just a tool—it is a solution tailored to fit the specific needs of educational environments, from early childhood centres to secondary schools. Whether you are managing EOTC, property maintenance, incident and event reporting or managing risks across the school GOSH ensures you have a clear, comprehensive view of your school’s safety data. Our dedicated team provides ongoing support, from setting up the system, coaching on best use of the system, and how to digistise your current practices, to training sessions for staff when launching the system or onboarding new staff. We’ll work with you so your school can fully leverage GOSH’s capabilities to foster a safer and healthier environment for everyone at your school. Want to save 20 – 50% more time dealing with health, safety and wellbeing? Discover how GOSH can help your school today – Get in touch for a demo. Why choose GOSH for Schools & Education? Flexible & Scaleable GOSH grows with your school’s needs. Simple & Accessible Designed to be user-friendly and quick to implement. Robust Reporting Tools Generate detailed reports, including graphs and charts, for your Board of Trustees and leadership team. Real-Time Data Instant visibility on incidents and risks, enabling prompt action. EOTC Management GOSH includes an EOTC Risk Register and Event Proposal allowing staff to carefully plan trips and assess the associated health and safety risks. View all features Developing Health & Safety Representatives in Schools In a busy school, empowering staff to take ownership of health, safety and wellbeing and lend a helping hand is vital. Working Wise supports schools to develop Health & Safety Representatives to play a critical role in making sure health, safety and wellbeing activities take place and make a difference in improving overall results. Health and Safety Representatives also play a critical role in building a proactive safety culture. Working Wise provides approved Health and Safety Representative training so your school can operate your worker engagement, participation and representation system in line with the health and safety legislation. We provide the training and tools needed to ensure that representatives can help the school effectively monitor risks, communicate with staff, and implement safety initiatives. Learn how we can increase engagement and participation by having trained Health and Safety Representatives. Get in touch. Understanding School Board of Trustees Responsibilities Recently we partnered with Te Whakarōputanga Kaitiaki Kura o Aotearoa – New Zealand School Boards Association (formerly NZSTA) to develop and run a series of workshops for Board of Trustees (BoT) to cover their health, safety and wellbeing responsibilities. You can access this resource here. Contact us if you’d like to talk to us about running a workshop for your BoT to do some work with them around school responsibilities and understanding your school’s health, safety and wellbeing risk profile. Education sector clients we currently work with