Hosting a school

The Rock Our Future school competition is held each year and encourages schools to visit their local quarry and enter the competition.

Quarry visits are an excellent way for children in years 5-8 to obtain information about the importance of quarries, and the activities being conducted at your quarry. It also helps to establish your business as part of the community and will enhance your social licence to operate.

It is an opportunity to educate young people in quarrying and the contribution that your operation makes to the local community.

The following are things to consider when planning a school visit:

Planning:

• Generally, enquiries from schools are referred through the AQA office, where we recommend and provide contact details of nearby quarries which have advised they’re happy to host visits. If you have a relationship with a local school, you should encourage them to visit and enter the annual competition.
• Discuss with the school contact, a time of the year where bad weather is less likely to impact on the visit. You will probably need to cancel in the event of heavy rain. Avoid school holidays, long weekends etc. or other times when the quarry is busy as you will need resources to supervise the visit.
• Before the visit, obtain details from the school on number of students attending, ages, teachers and/or parents accompanying them. This is important as you will need to ensure adequate supervision on the day.
• Plan what you intend to do with the students on the day. If you have viewing areas away from heavy vehicles and machinery, use these areas for explaining the operation. They all want to have their photo taken next to large plant so facilitate this by having some equipment parked in a safe area.
• Ensure you have plenty of staff/helpers on hand for the day as there will be plenty of questions (teachers will have primed them and given them questions to ask) and you need to ensure the children to not stray from the areas you want them. You may like to prepare a script so that all staff are giving the same message if showing the children around in groups.
• Avoid providing food and drinks etc. Normally the teachers will have planned for meals on the day. Provide portaloos or access to suitable amenities. It is not wise to allow children to use workers’ amenities.
• It is a good idea to provide the children with some written information, but this does not need to be more than a page or two. Giveaways are fine but make sure you have enough for everyone.
• Ensure you have a clearly marked muster point, signs and barricades etc. to preclude entry to the site other than under your direction. Adequate bus and/or car parking should also be provided.

 Health and Safety:

• Ensure you risk assess all activities, access etc. that could expose the visitors to hazards at the site on the day, and ensure you have adequate controls to avoid harm.
• Ensure you have enough PPE for the children to wear and explain the hazards, as this is all part of the learning for the children on the day.
• If numbers need to be limited at certain locations, split the group up and escort them in smaller groups. Note this will require more of your staff to supervise and explain the activities.
• While not required by legislation, it is a good idea to notify your local WorkSafe Inspector of your intention to conduct a school visit.
• If you are going to run activities for children, ensure they are supervised, all hazards are adequately controlled, and the area is fenced/barricaded etc.
• Due to the uneven nature of most quarry sites, it is a good idea to specify that closed in shoes must be worn on site.

If you require any assistance in organising a quarry open day, please contact Wayne on 021 944 336, or email wayne@aqa.org.nz.