Cornwall Fire & Rescue Service Newsdesk

at 31/05/2

On average every year, around 100* children are killed or burnt due to fires in the South West and just under 2,500** more are injured, left permanently disfigured/disabled or die as a result of accidents on local roads.

It is figures like these, together with other frightening statistics across the United Kingdom and first hand experience at the sharp end that prompted Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service to team up with other emergency services to launch StayWise (www.staywise.co.uk). StayWise is a unique, web-based resource that gives teachers, children and the general public practical tools for learning about safety in every day situations. It is the only scheme of its kind designed to address every area of the National Curriculum. StayWise uses the expertise and specialist knowledge of all the emergency services and was developed with the help of senior educational professionals.

Teachers at the schools where StayWise was piloted, voted the site stimulating, interactive and motivating, giving pupils the freedom to work at their own pace.

“The Every Child Matters document*** and the new Children’s Workforce Strategy****, which seek to build a world class workforce for education, calls for the public service sector, the voluntary sector and the wider professional world, to put the child at the heart of their collaborative efforts. By offering appropriate skills and knowledge, they will empower a child to make appropriate life choices. The StayWise website is a classic example of how this vision can begin to be achieved. In this day of developing ‘personalised learning’ for pupils, the fact that materials can be individually tailored to pupils’ needs is hugely supportive” said head teacher Brenda Bigland*****.

“StayWise is a unique opportunity to give children the knowledge they need in their every day lives to combat risk. This has been a tremendous collaborative effort and one with which we are proud to be identified” said Iain Cox, Chief Fire Officer, Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service.
StayWise is a cross-curricular resource bank that supports learning from Foundation Stage to Key Stage 5 and matches both the National Curriculum and QCA Units of Study requirements. By providing interactive electronic learning opportunities for young people, children can take part in different life scenarios and make decisions on how best to avoid (risk) and deal with emergencies.

The website provides a catalogue of resources designed to help teachers integrate safety into other subject areas such as Numeracy, Literacy and Science. Enhancing children’s independence in this way ultimately improves their information retention.

Whilst the emergency services and schools are the main stakeholders in this project, support from organisations such as ODPM, LEAs, NHSS, RoSPA together with corporate support from companies such as Kidde, has been fundamental to the success of the project. This support has enabled the delivery of StayWise and ensured it is available to schools free of charge.

“This is an ideal platform for partnership work for both public and private sector organisations, giving us the opportunity to make a very real difference to the safety education of our future generations. We hope to see StayWise available in all schools by the end of 2005, and, most importantly of all, a subsequent reduction in accidents involving children” said Iain Cox, Chief Fire Officer, Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service.

The StayWise site will be maintained centrally and continually updated. Once constructed, it will be shared with ‘E-Government’ to help reach a wider audience.