HIWFRS Education Officers have carried out 585 visits reaching more than 70% of all schools across Hampshire and Isle of Wight this academic year, in a bid to make life safer by educating the adults of the future.
The interactive fire safety lessons are specially designed for each age group and key stage to ensure the content is engaging and age appropriate.
Younger children can join in with songs and games centred around making good choices, while the older children learn how to identify risk and how they can make informed choices to stay safe. Students aged 13 plus have an Arson Awareness workshop where they learn the consequences of arson through real life case studies.
Every school in Hampshire and Isle of Wight is offered a visit, but schools are prioritised based on levels of deprivation and the number of accidental and deliberate fire calls in the area. Matching the schools with incident and local data helps to target efforts more effectively and to maximise the impact in each community.
The Education Officers, Corryne Pienaar, Laura Dixon and Claire Barter, are a core part of the Children and Young People (CYP) team and thanks to their strong partnership with schools throughout Hampshire and Isle of Wight, they have been successfully delivering fire safety classes to young people since 1996.
HIWFRS Education Manager Judy Rice said:
“The work we do with schools provides children with memorable and potentially life-saving education, which will stay with each young person as they journey into adulthood. It can help them know what to do in the event of a fire, know how to spot dangers, and understand the consequences of setting fires.
“Using the information we hold about where fires are happening and the causes means we can be more adaptive and reactive to the needs of our communities, for example working with secondary schools where there are spikes in deliberate fire setting nearby.”
Recent school testimonials:
- “The visit was brilliant. I have had so much positive feedback about the enjoyment and the levels of engagement from the children. The Education Officers were absolutely wonderful, patient and understanding of our children, with their additional needs and pitched their content absolutely spot on!
- “The Education Officer was friendly, approachable and informative. The session was geared at the appropriate level for the age group and had a range of different things to keep them engaged – PowerPoint, song actions, uniform and equipment.”
- “The children learnt, engaged with and enjoyed a well-paced, multi-sensory lesson that was expertly delivered. Keep on doing what you’re doing as it’s so important.”
- “I thought your session with our year 2 children was absolutely fantastic, it was pitched perfectly and they (and I) learnt so much! The children were totally engaged and your delivery of the information was done in such an enthusiastic and fun way, with so many different interactive elements.”
Access the Kidzone area for a full suite of resources for children of all ages or find out more about our CYP team programmes.