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Education

The Educational Context

The curriculum framework for Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) and Citizenship provides opportunities for safety awareness to be incorporated into the wider personal and social development of pupils. Guidance has been produced by the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA)

The National Healthy Schools Standard (NHSS) is part of the Healthy Schools programme, led by the Department for Education and Employment and the Department of Health. The overall aim of this work is to help schools to become healthier places through supporting the development and improvement of local programmes.

Based in education and health partnerships, the programmes can provide support to schools, including working with external agencies in a range of contexts, such as PSHE and Citizenship.

Teachers will find the Fire Kills website useful.

Teachers’ road safety resources can be found at the Think! Road Safety website

Schools Programme

Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service has a structured rolling programme of school visits. This is delivered by our Community Safety Educators rather than an operational crew, which avoids the risk of sessions being disrupted by emergency call-outs, and ensures a fair and equal service across Leicestershire and Rutland.

Our aim is to visit each child in our service area at least twice in their school career. We offer annual visits to all state and independent schools, at Key Stage 1 and 2; and to some targeted secondary schools at Key Stage 3. No charge is made for these presentations. There are three levels of fire safety sessions, one for Key Stage One children (Year One), and the others for Key Stage Two (Year Five) and Key Stage Three (Year Eight).

We aim to develop the children’s knowledge and understanding of fire safety and to provide them with survival skills in the event of a fire. We emphasise the need to pass on what they have learned to their families. Also at years five and eight we try to teach students the possible consequences of deliberate fire setting and making hoax 999 calls.

Some basic road safety points are also incorporated into all presentations and the follow-up workbooks. The sessions are designed to be interactive and use a variety of resources and visual aids. Pupil books linked to the National Curriculum are left with staff at the end of the visit to enable follow-up work and reinforce the teaching points.

Year 1 Session

• Good and bad fires
• Don’t play with matches
• Stop, drop and roll
• Crawling low in smoke
• Cartoon DVD
• Road safety (booster seats and safety near roads)
• Workbook
• ‘Frances the Firefly’ booklet.

Year 5 Session

• Escape plans, smoke alarms
• 999 calls / hoax calls
• Storyboard – deliberate fire setting
• Two DVD excerpts: Freddie and Filbert's Fire Plan, Bedroom Fire
• Road safety: Cycle helmets, walking to school
• Workbook

Year 8 Session*

• Fire safety revision
• 999 / hoax calls
• Deliberate fire setting
• DVD: ‘Heat of the Moment’
• Road safety: Cycle helmets, planning safe routes.
• Workbook

We try to be flexible as possible; times and group sizes are arranged at the convenience of the school and the content of the presentations can be varied if the group has special needs or specific cultural / religious requirements. In some circumstances we are willing to give lessons or presentations to other year groups if time allows; for example we can support the delivery of the Fire Safety element of the GCSE Science syllabus.

* Year 8 sessions are automatically offered to schools in areas where there is a high incidence of deliberate fires. However we are always happy to consider other schools on request. For educational visits please contact Helene Sutliff the Youth Education Manager, via Service Headquarters

Please note that our Schools Programme does not normally include a fire engine visit by an operational crew. If your school wishes to request such a visit please write to or e-mail our Service Headquarters, who will forward your request to your local fire station for consideration.

Every academic year our educators visit nearly 400 schools and colleges and over 30,000 children. We have had a fantastic reception from staff and students and we know that the children are spreading the message and teaching the adults.

Firefit

Firefit is an additional service which we offer to primary schools as an alternative to our usual Year 1 and/or Year 5 presentation. For a small (non profit-making) charge, our Firefit team will visit your school and set up an assault course in the hall or on the school field. Children will learn key fire and road safety messages while participating in various Speed, Agility and Quickness (SAQ) exercises and aerobic team games, accompanied by music. The emphasis is on keeping fit as well as safe, and healthy eating messages are also promoted. But Firefit is also great fun and is always very well received by teachers and pupils.

The charge for Firefit  is approximately £60 for two x 1 hour sessions. For further details contact Helene Sutliff via Service Headquarters. For contact information, click here

Pre-School

As the operational crews have many demands on their time, availability for visits to nurseries and pre-school groups may be limited. A few ‘Pre-School Resource Boxes’ are available for nurseries and playgroups to borrow free of charge. Each of these contains small uniforms, helmets and kit, jigsaws, fire safety posters, books and toys. It is accompanied by a teachers’ resource book containing songs and ideas for activities, as well as photocopiable activity sheets.

If your organisation would like to apply for use of a resource box please contact Service Headquarters and ask for the Community Safety Support Team.

Warning Zone

Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service is pleased to be associated with Warning Zone Safety Centre. Currently we sponsor two scenarios: Fire Safety and Arson/Criminal Damage.

Warning Zone can be used flexibly by schools and community groups to enhance and deliver many areas of health and safety education. The Zone provides schools with an opportunity to help pupils understand the dangers they may encounter in their everyday lives and also develops the concept of personal responsibility. For further details please click here: Warning Zone