FIREFIGHTERS in Warwickshire have given their support to a new online resource to help children and young people learn about safety.
Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service (WFRS) is endorsing the release of Stay Wise – a free learning platform aimed at pupils aged from three to 18 to help them learn about safety.
Stay Wise aims to save lives by bringing the educational resources of the emergency services into the national education curriculum.
It means pupils can learn about fire safety as part of a maths or science lesson, or write an escape plan instruction and how to keep safe as part of an English lesson.
The website offers free lesson plans, videos, and activity sheets to help educators give young people potentially life-saving advice during lessons.
It also has resources to help parents who are home-schooling due to the pandemic and keep children engaged. Teachers can also set work from the site as part of a remote learning plan for parents and carers to follow.
Tim Sargent, group manager for the prevention team at WFRS, said: “As a fire and rescue service, we are committed to keeping our communities safe, this includes helping children to learn about all aspects of safety so that they know how to keep themselves safe.
“Stay Wise is a fantastic new resource for everyone to use. It offers teachers, parents and the emergency services consistent and effective educational materials to help young people learn about a range of safety topics – which is even more critical when we are all spending so much time at home.”
The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) leads the partnership behind Stay Wise. Partners include the Royal Life Saving Society, the RNLI, HM Coast Guard, the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, the National Police Chiefs Council and the Injury Minimisation Programme for Schools.
Warwickshire County Council’s spokesman for community safety and fire and rescue said: “Alongside Stay Wise, WFRS is committed to saving lives through education and we have a variety of educational resources available to children young people throughout lockdown.
“I would therefore like to encourage parents, carers and teachers to make use of the Stay Wise and WFRS education resources to teach children and young people about staying safe – something that it even more important during such uncertain times.”
Visit www.staywise.co.uk for more information on Stay Wise.
Visit https://tinyurl.com/y4633u6g for the WFRS education hub – an interactive site covering various fire safety themes including candle safety, escape routes and what to do in the event of a fire.
