Currently I am working with a teacher candidate. After their first lesson in Year 7 Makerspace with 56 students, 2 teachers  they turned to be looking somewhat concerned and asked me "How am I meant to do this without someone loosing a finger?" I felt this was a valid question and a good place to start the conversation with them about safety in practical, open plan spaces. 

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Safety from the start 

​What the teacher candidate had not seen was the amount of work we did and will continue to to do setting up safe work expectations and routines.  

The space itself
When ANY student learning in the space starts we require them to go on a tour (virtual or real life) where we go through the important safety features and work practices of the space. Then they complete a practical licence where they are required to get 100%. Students can resit the licence quiz as many times as needed. 

We have yellow zones - spaces containing tools/machinery that need a bit of space so students can not work in yellow zones unless on that tool.  

Students come in and trade their blazer and tie for an apron to protect their uniforms - using the apron hook to keep out floor clean. All bags must be in lockers or dropped to a coordinators office. 

Charter of Respect 
We have a Charter of Respect (COR)  which covers how we should all interact and work safely. It's used across the College. So in the first term each week we have a warm up scenario where we present a possible situation that may happen in the space and students dive int the COR and come up with possible consequences for the issues they have identified. Not only does it get students engaging with the COR it makes it relevant to the space and style of learning that is happening in the space. See a sample scenario and reflection tool on the left.

Context

Our Year 7 students work in a Makerspace - a repurposed wood work room using stand up benches. In the space are tools like 3D printers, a laser cutter, heat presses and more. All the equipment they need is housed on large wheeled trolleys that appear each lesson for them to use. And at any given point in the same space is another class ranging from Year 8 Humanities to Year 10 Makerspace! 

The unit the teacher candidate saw in action was Cardbordia - a unit taking 2D design and making it 3D through construction of city buildings and landmarks in 3D using cardboard prior to designing in 3D using the laser cutter. Students get to learn basic circuitry also as they light their creations with LED lights. 

And every student had in their command a safety knife, cutting mat and hot glue gun. Busy times. 

Weekly Routines

At the core of what we do to promote a safe space is regular, transparent routines. 

Specific tool use  - eg hot glue guns and safety knives. We have a weekly safety checkin that happens each week we use a tool. They are consistent, clear messages and helps reinforce safe practices. A sample is on the left. This also allows us to address and actions from previous sessions that need focus. This stays on screen display for the duration of the lesson. We have an agreed 15 minutes of "quiet" focussed learning at the start of our practical classes to allow both teachers in the space to introduce the lesson/key concepts/activities. 

Arranging learners and learning zones - In some classes we also arrange our learners so that they can work safely away from their buddies who so badly want to show off their rad knife skills. Similarly if we have students using concrete and another group using iPads we allocate and label learning zones for the various activities. 

All iPads and pencil cases in a yellow zone - we keep these clean, dry and out of the way. Typically lesson are structured so these items are only needed at the start and end to aid with this. 

Noise monitor - is sometimes placed on screen. with the safety info. When we get too loud we all pause and down tools,  "huddle in" (we practice doing this with our learners all term) and take a walk out into the courtyard. The act of resetting and refocussing on our noise also give the other class i the space a moment to reflect also. 

Pack up cards - each week students get a laminated, physical job card which outlines what they need to do during pack up, how they do it and where they find the stuff needed to do it. One of these rolls is a safety auditer who makes sure cords are rolled OK, knives are retracted. 

Back up plan

Even with all these things in place some students may still show unsafe behaviours - accidents may happen and we deal with these but deliberate, unsafe behaviour also happens. We have a firm understanding that practical work is not right and that it comes with responsibilities. If students can not uphold the responsibility of working in a safe way they pack up immediately. Practical is stopped for the day and they are given a theory task to complete without their device using pen/paper. These tasks are connected to the Charter of Respect and the subject being studied. We then have a conversation with the student regarding their actions and what happens next time as outlined in the COR prior to them returning to practical classes the following week.