we are wondering what other special schools do in the event of a fire alarm when they have pupils led out on the floor mats in classrooms. Do you take your time to hoist them back into wheelchairs to get them out of the building or do staff try to slide the pupils outside with them still led on top of the mat?
We have had a few Fire Alarms recently, which have all luckily turned out to be 'false alarms'.
Staff have tried to slide the pupils, who are on top of the mats, out of the classroom doors and outside; staff do not know if it's a real fire or a false alarm so it's treated as a real emergency and rush the pupils outside on the mats; this has resulted in 2 staff incurring injuries.
We could have up to 9 pupils at one time on the floor mats in a classroom, who're large, 'hoisted' and immobile.
What do other special schools advise?
I am not a special school representative but could you reduce numbers going on to mats at the same time. Practice hoisting so you can time how long it takes for getting back into the chairs? Do you have evac mats you could have them already lying on? in case of emergency. Do you have a moving and handling advisor who could offer appropriate training for evacuation in these circumstances? They will probably need to be child specific.
I would ask the school to alert all staff members when a practice fire alarm is scheduled, to ensure the pupils aren't on the mats. If a practice fire alarm sounds while they're on the mat I would hoist the child to ensure injuries are not inflicted on staff members or the pupil.
In case of a real emergency, I would use the mat to take the pupil to safety while they're still on it.
I'm not sure how reasonable a risk it is for staff to be pulling mats if is a fire drill- since Avoid is the central tenant of MH regulations. Although I appreciate being ready in the real event.