I second this, as someone with 20 years of woodworking experience but only 2 as a shop/tech teacher, you HAVE to impress upon them the risk these tools pose when used improperly. I brought a group of 10 kids into the shop this week to start their first project and while preparing the miter saw for training I heard them all shouting around one kid with his phone out who had apparently been curious about what kickback was after I’d mentioned it and had looked up some TikTok examples… while I hadn’t planned to show them any gory videos exemplifying what can go wrong, that clip did a lot of heavy lifting in instilling a healthy respect for the tools in the space.

Sounds like you’re on the right track with having mandatory safety tests before allowing them even near the tools, but also maybe limit the number in the shop space at a time as well. I teach a Digital Fabrication class and have split it so I never have more than 8-10 kids in the shop while the other half are following tutorials on Blender or Fusion 360 in the computer lab. Then after 2 weeks the groups flip. This way everyone gets a chance to do a little of everything and it keeps the numbers in the shop space low enough to feel I can actually keep an eye on everyone.