Lifeskills

Held at Westpoint this year was the Year 6 Lifeskills afternoon where the children learned how to respond in a variety of emergency situations. The day was organised by Devon & Cornwall Constabulary and was contributed by the RNLI, Tranco, Devon Fire Service, and the Police themselves.

The children were split into groups and visited each place in turn...

The beach:

Here the children were made aware of the dangers that can be present at the beach. The RNLI representatives taught about the different flags and what they mean, pointed out potential hazards - some obvious and some quite surprising.

Bad gas:

Transco informed the children about the many ways escaping gas can be dangerous. They did a short role play which was very effective and kept their attention whilst getting across the important points at the same time.

Hazardous materials:

From a list of different materials the children were asked to rearrange them in order of most to least dangerous. The resulting chaos was great fun, and although there was no correct answer since all the materials were potentially hazardous it did get the children thinking about the dangers presented by common items found around the home.

Alcohol abuse:

After the initial excitement the children were taught about the various resulting effects of alcohol abuse. An enlightening experience and beneficial to counter the levels of promotion alcohol has in society.

mmm... nice jackets	Baywatch 2	"so why are sharks dangerous?"
There's a bad smell round here	Boys organising	Girls organising
good job we were sat down	spot the dummy	"...the keys are still in!"
"'evil eyes' you say?"	no knives in THIS toaster	"yo no hablo el espaņol"
	what trendy shirts

Cycling safety:

We know we're supposed to wear a helmet but do we do it? The children labelled a model of a 'dangerous' cyclist, highlighting areas where there could be cause of an accident. Items such as headphones, shopping bags and stray shoelaces were picked up on but they did learn more about the less obvious causes of accidents. A demonstration using a couple of eggs at the end ensured their desire to wear a helmet!

Theft awareness:

Always a good 'activity', Devon and Cornwall Constabulary set up a test of observation where a car has been left looking abandoned and the children examine it. During the following brief by one of the police officers, a 'thief' walks past and steals something through the open car window. There was a marked difference in the way the children reacted to this, ranging from jumping up and down pointing at the 'thief' screaming "They just nicked that watch from the car!", through giggling, to not noticing at all what had happened. The descriptions then given to the police officer were equally entertaining...

Fire in the home:

Devon Fire Service made up a mock kitchen with examples of dangers such as multiple plugs wired into one socket, an iron cable hanging over the edge of the sideboard, gas cans over the stove etc. The children were alerted to the presence of these dangers during which the socket 'caught fire' and started billowing out smoke. Using the methods just taught them, the children called the Fire Service using the handy phone just outside the kitchen and saved the other people in there. Truly heroic.