Photography Used to Support Safety Plans

Photography can be used to create visual tools for students. When using pictures related to real life, this can make the concept easier for the student to connect to and understand.

I worked with an amazing student in primary who had difficulty understanding school boundaries. Unfortunately, they had left the school grounds (outside the fence), this action put the student in danger. Supervisors acted quickly to the situation and had the student back on school grounds. This particular student often will have large reactions to requests by supervisors and may walk the opposite direction. Thankfully, this situation had a quick recovery and everyone was safe. But the students action made it clear to staff that they were going to have to create and implement a safety plan. The classroom teacher, the student service teacher, and admin created the plan.

One of the tools we decided to create to help this student understand school boundaries and safety was a Safe/Not Safe game board.

Created on Canva

The student took an active role on creating this game. They picked the colour of the board (pink is their favourite colour). Then the student and myself went on a picture taking adventure where we went around the school identifying areas that are safe and not safe. This activity was very active and a positive experience for the student and myself. Once we we printed off the pictures and cut them out, we were ready to play the game.

Some Examples of Safe Picture Cards

Some Examples of Not Safe Picture Cards

The game is very simple the student is to identify a card for example: parking lot, forest, road, playground, then place the card in the section they feel it fits. Picture cards would be placed in safe not safe categories on the chart. Take note that the forest card is in both places (safe and not safe), this created a space where we could discuss why having a trusted adult with you can help create areas that are not safe, and safe.

Using photography to create real life connections for this students safety was an effective tool. In the game we created, we would include the student in some of the pictures, this helped the student to see themselves in the situation presented.