Risk-benefit assessment template

Tool use: knives, saws and peelers

The safe answer, the first time, is always 'not yet'. And 'not yet' has a way of lasting all term while the tools stay in the bag.

Supported risk is the fifth principle, and tools are where it gets quietly abandoned. Nobody gets hurt, and nobody learns anything either. This assessment exists so that the tools come out.

It assumes a fixed tool station rather than tools loose in the wood, adults trained in the tools they are supervising, and a tool talk at the start of every session, every time, including for the children who have heard it before.

Benefits of the experience

This column is why the activity happens. Write yours before you write a single hazard.

Real tool competence, and the particular pride of a made thing the child takes home.
Risk managed for real rather than described: the glove, the stance, the discipline of counting tools back in.
Focus and self-regulation. Children who cannot sit still indoors will work a peeler for forty minutes.
Trust, felt from the adult's side. Being handed a real tool is being told you are capable of handling it.

Hazards, controls and residual risk

Severity (S) and Likelihood (L) are each scored 1–3 and multiplied into a Risk Rating (RR). Low is 1–3, Medium 4–6, Significant 7–9. The final column is what is left after your controls, which is the number that matters.

Experience / activity	Hazards	Associated risks	S	L	RR	Control actions	Risk after controls
Bow saw	Sharp blade Blade snagging or jumping	Cuts to the non-dominant hand Deep cuts to self or others	3	2	6	Instruction and demonstration before use, every session (see your tool procedure). Fixed saw station, 1:1 adult supervision. This is the one to be strict about. Glove on the non-tool hand only. Work secured in a sawhorse or clamp, never held in the other hand. Stable stance: dominant foot back, non-dominant foot stabilising the sawhorse. Blade cover on whenever it is not cutting. Carried by an adult. Saws counted out and counted in by the leader. The session does not end until the numbers match. If the blade jams, a leader frees it, not the child.	Medium (3)
Knife work and whittling	Sharp blade Slipping cut	Cuts to hands and thighs Cuts to others nearby	2	2	4	Seated to work, cutting away from the body. Blood bubble: arms outstretched, turn a full circle, nobody inside it. Knee-to-knee spacing at the station, never shoulder to shoulder. Tools counted out and in. Sheathed the moment they are not in use. Time-boxed: a tired child with a knife is the actual hazard.	Low (2)
Potato peelers	Exposed blade	Shallow cuts to hands	1	2	2	Peel away from the body, seated, knee-to-knee spacing. Counted out and in like any other tool. They are not toys because they are from the kitchen.	Low (1)
Carrying and passing tools	Tools carried unsheathed Passing hand to hand	Cuts to bystanders	2	1	2	Passed handle first, and never passed while walking. Blade down at your side when moving, or sheathed. Adults model this exactly. They are the demonstration whether they mean to be or not.	Low (1)

The scoring key

Severity (S)

3 Death or major injury
2 Permanent disability or serious injury
1 Minor injury

Likelihood (L)

3 Occurs repeatedly
2 Will or could occur
1 Unlikely, though conceivable

Risk Rating (RR = S × L)

7–9 Significant
4–6 Medium
1–3 Low

What this template cannot know

Risk assessments are site-specific. This one is a starting point, not an answer, and copying it unchanged would be a mistake. Before you sign anything, work out the following for your wood and your group:

Which tools YOU are trained and competent to supervise. Do not run a station for a tool you have not been trained on.
Your own tool procedure and where it is kept.
Your tool station ratios, which should be tighter than your session ratio.
The specific children in the group: who is new to tools, and who needs one-to-one today.

Then put your name on it, date it, and set a review date. The assessment belongs to the person who signs it, which is you.

The paperwork around it

The taught form carries a header before the table, and it earns its place: the activity, the group, who carried the assessment out, the date it was written, the review frequency (annually is typical), the date it was last reviewed, a signature, and any other assessments it refers to. Your site assessment sits under all of your activity assessments, so name it here.

None of that is bureaucracy for its own sake. An assessment nobody signed and nobody reviewed is not an assessment, it is a document. And the review is where the near-misses you logged during the term finally do their job: they are the reason next year's version is better than this one.

Write it once. Stack it on every session.

Keep your assessments as a reusable library, stack the right ones onto each session (a frozen copy travels with the day), and log the dynamic call you make on the ground, offline, with cold hands. Free for practitioners, never per child.

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