Cover teacher — you need no subject knowledge
Print: this sheet, one per pupil. No computers needed. Every fact pupils need is in the grey box below; it is taken from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) guidance on display screen equipment.
Run: 5 min read the HSE facts box aloud as a class · 10 min find the faults in Dylan's workstation · 10 min complete the risk table · 20 min draw the poster · 5 min swap sheets and tick against the success criteria.
Collect: this sheet with the table and poster completed. If any pupil says their own back, wrist or eyes hurt when using a screen, pass that on to the class teacher — HSE treats "users complain of pain or discomfort" as a trigger for a fresh assessment.
What you are doing
"Display screen equipment" (DSE) means computers, laptops, tablets and phones. Sitting badly at a screen for hours causes real injuries, so there is a law about it. You are going to inspect a described workstation, list what is wrong with it, and then design an A4 poster for the ICT room that tells other pupils how to set up a screen safely.
The HSE facts you are working from
- The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations apply to people who use screens daily, for continuous periods of an hour or more. HSE calls those people "DSE users".
- Employers must do a workstation assessment, reduce the risks they find, provide an eye test if a worker asks for one, and provide training and information.
- Badly set up workstations cause pain in necks, shoulders, backs, arms, wrists and hands, plus fatigue and eye strain. HSE warns that the causes are not always obvious.
- On breaks, HSE says take short breaks often rather than longer ones less often: 5 to 10 minutes every hour is better than 20 minutes every 2 hours. Ideally the user chooses when.
- A break should let you get up and move around, or at least stretch and change posture. Software that nags you to take a break does not by itself make the work safe.
- The rules cover fixed desks, mobile workers, home workers and hot-desking. A new assessment is needed when a new workstation is set up, a new user starts, something about the workstation changes, or a user complains of pain or discomfort.
Dylan's workstation — read this carefully
Dylan does his coursework for two hours every evening. This is his set-up:
- He uses a laptop flat on the kitchen table, so the screen is well below his eye level and he looks down at it.
- He sits on a kitchen stool with no back rest. His feet dangle and do not reach the floor.
- The table is high, so his wrists bend upwards over the front edge of the laptop as he types.
- A window is directly behind the screen, so he is squinting into the light and the screen is hard to read.
- His mouse is on a pile of books to the right of the laptop, past a stack of folders, so he reaches out sideways to use it.
- He starts at 6pm and does not get up once until 8pm.
The risk table
Find six problems. For each one, name the part of the body at risk and write one change Dylan could make tonight for free.
| What is wrong |
Body part or effect at risk |
The change I would make |
| 1 | | |
| 2 | | |
| 3 | | |
| 4 | | |
| 5 | | |
| 6 | | |
Your break plan
Dylan works 6pm to 8pm. Using the HSE break advice above, write the times he should stop and what he should do in each break.
Step by step
- 5 min — Read the HSE facts box. Underline the numbers: one hour, 5 to 10 minutes, every hour.
- 10 min — Read Dylan's set-up and mark the six faults.
- 10 min — Fill in the risk table and the break plan. Every change must cost nothing.
- 20 min — Design your poster in the frame below. Five rules maximum, each with a small drawing, and a title someone can read from across the room.
- 5 min — Swap with a partner and tick their sheet against the success criteria.
Poster: "Set up your screen safely"
Draw it here. Keep it to five rules so it can be read in a few seconds.
Success criteria
- I can name six specific faults in a workstation and not just say it "looks uncomfortable".
- I can link each fault to the part of the body it puts at risk, using the HSE list of neck, shoulders, back, arms, wrists, hands, fatigue and eye strain.
- I can state the HSE break advice accurately: short breaks often, roughly 5 to 10 minutes every hour, getting up and changing posture.
- I can explain that my own screen habits at home affect my health, and name one thing I will change.
- My poster gives five clear instructions that a Year 7 pupil could follow without help.
If you finish early
- Write the five questions you would ask in a workstation assessment of the desk you are sitting at right now. HSE publishes a real checklist (CK1) — compare yours to it afterwards.
- Dylan's employer would have to pay for an eye test if he asked. Write a short paragraph on why eye tests, and not just chairs, are part of the law.
- Phones count as display screen equipment too. Redesign one of your poster rules so it applies to someone using a phone on a bus.