Bursar’s Review Autumn 2019.

DECLARING A CLIMATE EMERGENCY Energy Coast UTC (University Technical College) in Workington, Cumbria, is the first school in the UK to declare a climate emergency. A student-led eco-energy group took their proposal to declare an emergency to the governing body after they became aware of just how large the problem is. Pupil, Eddie McCurrie, said: “We explained what it means to actually declare a climate emergency, which is that we put the environment at the front of all the decisions that we make in school and the governors decided that they would support our proposal”. School principal, Cherry Tingle, said; “We know that unless we do something now, we are heading towards an irretrievable situation. We are thoroughly committed to considering the environmental impact of everything we do.” The beauty of the Lake District propelled the eco-energy group into action. “Living in the Lake District, people come down and see it’s all luscious and green with lovely weather, but when you start to dig in you see next to all the roads there’s just loads of rubbish and plastics,” said pupil, Monty McCurrie. “All the different habitats that are being changed, affected and damaged due to the plastics and rubbish − that made me want to join the eco-council.” The eco-group have introduced litter pick-ups around the school as well as encouraging pupils to recycle their single use plastics and refill their water bottles. Although they initially struggled to get other pupils motivated to look after the environment, gradually more people have become involved in the group. The declaration of a school-wide climate emergency will hopefully bring the issue to the forefront of the pupils' minds. News Autumn 2019 www.theisba.org.uk 8 Harrow School leads the way on health and safety Harrow School has become the first school in the country to undertake an ISO 45001 audit through the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), demonstrating its commitment to the health and safety of its pupils and staff. Launched just last year, organisations are now starting to adopt the new voluntary standard to go beyond basic mandatory requirements and ensure that their workplaces are safer for everyone. Harrow School recently undertook an audit against the standard – the first school to do so through RoSPA. Nathan Davies, RoSPA head of consultancy, said: “It is so encouraging when organisations, and in particular educational institutions that have a responsibility for children and young people, take such an active and forward-thinking approach to the health and safety of their environment. “The ISO 45001 standard isn’t a legal requirement, and so using it to benchmark and develop health and safety systems and processes displays a real dedication to looking after everyone that comes into contact with your organisation”. Bryan Brown, health and safety manager at Harrow School, said: “We aim to work beyond the Independent School Inspectorate (ISI) requirements and, in leading by example, to help raise compliance standards across the sector and support other independent schools tackling similar issues. “ISO 45001 provides an excellent in-depth benchmark as it assesses health and safety culture and operations from top to bottom across the school, involving governors, senior management and staff members alike. Working with ISBA we are encouraging other schools to work with health and safety experts to undertake these beneficial audits, which provide an excellent lead-in to an ISI inspection. ISO 45001 establishes an ongoing health and safety culture and commitment within schools and also avoids the dangerous potential ‘switch off’ once ISI have left”. Better, safer working conditions RoSPA staff sat on the British Standards Institute working group which developed ISO 45001. The standard provides organisations around the world with requirements for a management system and framework which proactively improves employee safety, reduces workplace risks and creates better, safer working conditions, and it also fits closely with quality and environmental standards ISO 9000 and ISO 14001. RoSPA offers auditing and support with implementing ISO 45001, and also provides a low-cost, online self-evaluation tool for smaller organisations or those exploring the standard. RoSPA courses Turn to page 68 of this issue for details of the ISBA Professional Development Programme for 2019 and 2020, including several valuable RoSPA Health & Safety courses. The beauty of the Lake District propelled a Cumbrian school into action