Voice Care for Teachers

2 Identify areas/activities that may pose a risk to teachers’ vocal health

The principal and/or their delegate in consultation with the Health and Safety Representatives (HSR) and employees, must implement a risk management approach for identifying areas/activities that may pose a risk to teachers’ vocal health by identifying the hazards that may impact on teachers’ vocal health.

2.1 Environmental factors

Vocal health of teachers can be impacted on by a range of environmental factors such as:

• open plan classrooms
• areas with poor insulation from external noise (e.g. thin walls or partitions, poor fitting doors or windows)
• environments with floor, wall or ceiling surfaces which cause sound reverberation (i.e. hard surfaces such as lino, ceramic or vinyl tiles, concrete, timber)
• environments with high levels of background noise (internal or external)
• environments requiring teachers to talk or project their voice over large distances e.g. swimming pools, outdoor settings

The principal and/or their delegate must ensure that the hazards that may impact on teachers’ vocal health are recorded in the ‘Hazard type’ column of OHS Risk Register (Excel).