Gallery: Co. Monaghan school holds first farm safety day
St. Daigh's National School in Inniskeen, Co. Monaghan, held their first farm safety awareness day today (Thursday, June 5).
Second Class teacher Niamh Monahan and Fourth Class teacher Aisling Kelly, both originally from farming backgrounds, told Agriland that they decided to hold the day as the local community prepares for the busy summer farm season because they felt the topic is not talked about enough.
They said: "What was originally supposed to be a small demonstration spiralled into this event."
The two teachers ended up organising paramedics, fire services, local farmers, and Alma Jordan of AgriKids, to come to the school and demonstrate basic safety skills to the pupils.
According to Niamh and Aisling the key message was that "basic safety might save a life."
All the kids received training from the emergency services on how to carry out CPR, while the older classes were given a lesson in catastrophic bleeding.
A local farmer filled a dummy suit with straw to demonstrate the hazards of power take-off (PTO) demonstrations, showing the speed and danger the machinery poses.
The two teachers said that the demonstrations, while child-friendly, were extremely affective for all classes.
The teachers said: "We have grown up on farms - they are a wonderful place to be, but today is to stress that they are not a playground.
"A lot of the kids will be on farms over the summer, whether it be their own, cousins, or friends."
The teachers believe that a safety day would be just as useful for kids living in urban areas and suggested anyone hiking or hill-walking should also be educated on basic safety and first aid.
They said would love to make the event a yearly one, and also hope that it can be rolled out across all schools in the country.
Take a look at this gallery -all photos supplied by St. Daigh's National School - below for some highlights of the school's farm safety day.
Recently, the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) outlined that farming accounts for two in five of all fatal workplace incidents, despite only representing 6.5% of the workforce.
According to the HSA, this year farming has accounted for five of the ten workplace fatalities, with fishing accounting for one fatality.
In response to these figures, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine, Michael Healy-Rae, voiced his concern about the significant increase in work-related fatalities among outdoor workers, particularly among farmers.
