Health and Safety guidelines

• Clothing (hypothermia): Fieldwork is miserable if you are cold and wet. Wearing appropriate warm clothing and carrying in your day pack water-proofs, hat gloves when necessary. Footwear should be fit for purpose and comfortable.
• Country code: You must avoid fire, injury and stress to livestock and damage to yourselves, i.e. climbing loose stone walls, crossing barbed-wire fences.
• Water: Working in and around rivers can be dangerous, always wear waders and appropriate clothing as immersion can induce hypothermia.
• Emergency Kit: Make sure you know what to do in an emergency, i.e. where to summon help and what to do if you, or someone you are with gets injured. Take a small first-aid kit, a torch and a whistle.
• Herd mentality: Group work can encourage a 'herd' mentality in which individual students switch-off from making their own decisions and lose awareness of the potential risks that surround them. It may also lead to anti-social behaviour, e.g. not considering other pedestrians.   Always be aware of your surroundings and take responsiblity for your individual actions.
• Maps: Absolutely vital - even in towns where a street map is essential.
• Medication: If you regularly take/have medication do not forget it when you go outside. Suntan lotion is also important when it is sunny.
• Paths and tracks: Never run down hills as things can go out of control very easily. Take care on steep paths and tread carefully on potentially slippery ground, especially wet grassy banks and boulders in rivers.
• Traffic: Be sensible, be aware of your surroundings and do not expect drivers to be aware of your presence, especially in quiet rural areas.
• Identification: When dealing with the public carry some form of personal identification especially in a foreign country as it makes other people feel safer with you, e.g. student card, laminated badge, letter from school/college.