Health and Safety at Work and finding trustworthy organisation websites

World Day for Safety and Health at Work

On the 28th April, it is World Day for Safety and Health at Work so we thought we would take a look at resources which may help when learning about health and safety. It is something which affects the workplace but is also relevant to the home, for example.

Most  (if not all) vocational courses at College cover this topic and everyone who works needs to know about it. You may even be asked about it in an interview. Health and Safety covers anything from use of computers and manual handling to fire safety to working with chemicals, food or specific tools.

Finding quality websites on health and safety

When using the internet to help with research, it is best to concentrate on information from trusted organisations. For example:

Government departments - identify these by the .gov at the end of the URL e.g. www.hse.gov.uk is the Health and Safety Executive website and www.food.gov deals with food hygiene. The Health and Safety Act  itself (plus other legislation) can be found at https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1974/37 .

Charities and other trusted organisations - identify these by the .org at the end of the URL e.g. e.g. http://www.safetygroupsuk.org.uk (Safety Groups UK - a  charity that promotes health and safety).
You may find a .com website useful like The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (https://www.rospa.com/) but as a rule you need to treat these sites with care as anyone can set up a .co.uk or .com website whereas organisations and government departments can only register to use the .org and .gov websites.

Hospitals and NHS websites - identify these by the .nhs.uk at the end of the URL. The NHS patient safety website has all sorts of interesting information for those of you working in/ studying Health and Social Care particularly.

Academic websites, identified by the .ac.uk web extension, can also be trusted but perhaps not so relevant here. The College's moodle site (including your course page) has .ac.uk at the end of the main URL and includes information and resources created by your Lecturers.

If you are not sure, take a look at the About Us section of the website (if there isn't one, think twice about using it). Who are they? Who writes the website? What is their experience/ qualifications?

Google tip: To restrict your search to just government websites, for example, use site:.gov.uk in your search (Others would be site:.nhs.uk or site.ac.uk or site:.org.uk). You can also do this site:.uk to just find UK sites - something that is very important with anything to do with legislation. Other countries do not have the same standards and laws for health and safety as the UK although much may be the same.

Other online resources

The Health and Safety Executive website has a list of the ten worst Health and Safety myths. They also have a collection of videos on their website and a related YouTube channel. These include case studies and examples where health and safety has gone wrong.

They also have an e-learning package Slips and Trips which is free to use.

The Jisc Hairdressing Training resource (available from our Electronic Resources page on Moodle) has an activity where hairdressing students can test their knowledge of Health and Safety when blow-drying hair. It includes particular hazards in a salon environment like turning heating tongs off and not leaving them unattended, safety with perm solutions and keeping the salon clean.

Use Infotrac to find examples in the news or in magazines which demonstrate what happens if health and safety good practice isn't followed or where accidents have happened.

Remember also, that we have books too. The general books are at 363.11 with other subjects having specialised books in their own areas (e.g. construction 692.9 or 624.0684).

Loyalty Card Event

Loyalty Card Event

On Wednesday, the LRC hosted it's annual Loyalty Card event. 

Throughout the year, students and staff have been borrowing and reading fiction and collecting a stamp each time they have finished a book. Participants were entered in to a draw for a chance to win £50 of Waterstones vouchers or a copy of Darren O'Sullivan's new book.

We were thrilled to have local author Darren O'Sullivan with us for the event. Darren used to be a Performing Arts student at Peterborough Regional College and he has just had his first book Our Little Secret published in print. It is a thriller set in Peterborough.

Author and ex-student Darren O-Sullivan with LRC Manager Louise Auckland

Darren held a question and answer session with the students who attended and presented certificates and prizes to the 3 students whose names he pulled out of the draw. Congratulations go to Leon particularly who won the Waterstones vouchers!

Student feedback after the event included:

 "I loved the feedback and advice from a real author on how to write stories".

"I really enjoyed taking part in the reading challenge and encouraging the students"

"I really enjoyed the event".

Finding different ways to revise

Finding different ways to revise for exams

It's that time of year again with lots of students both at PRC and UCP doing exams in the near future.

Over Easter one expert reported that students should have been revising for 7 hours a day during the holidays. If this is something you didn't do (and not everyone agrees that this is wise), don't despair, concentrate on what you can achieve from now on and work hard. However, it doesn't have to be boring.

Here are 3 tips from the websites mentioned later in the blog.

• Break your revision up in to manageable chunks and plan a timetable.
• Find different ways to revise - use flash cards or mind maps, watch a video or make up useful mnemonics etc
• It is important to revise actively - this means concentrating and focusing. Creating your own resources like flash cards or mind maps, for example, will involve your brain and force you to think about what you are revising and therefore be more effective than staring at words on a page.

The student room website has lots of advice and tools which you can use to help you revise. Just creating them may be a different way to revise initially. You can also access resources already created by other students (but you may want to be sure they are correct first).

For example, create your own revision timetable.
Create your own flashcards.
Create mindmaps.
Create your own crosswords and quizzes.

The site also provides revision tips and tools for university students including a Uni revision app.

You will need to sign up to use the resources but the tools are free to use otherwise.

Have a look at the following TEDx talk about  how using drawing can help you remember more - even if you don't think you can draw.

The BBC website also has lots of  revision  advice and resources (e.g. how to remain motivated). These are aimed at GCSE and A level but the principles remain the same. They also have a revision app.

Electronic resources provide revision activities.

If you are a Health and Social Care student or Hair and Beauty student, there are quizzes and videos as part of the online resources available from our Electronic Resources page. Primal also has quizzes and case studies if you need to remember human anatomy for your exams.