We have created a range of fun and engaging resources, which can be used by teachers in the classroom to make sure all the children learn important fire safety messages.
Below you will find the resources and teacher notes for a range of activities that can be completed with your class.
As a minimum we would ask that you undertake the Fire Investigation section (26 minutes plus time to complete the tasks) and recap the important safety messages of having working smoke alarms and to get out, stay out and call 999.
Please also send the information sheet home to parents and carers.
If you have additional capacity, please do use the rest of the resources to help the children understand the important messages to keep themselves safe and learn about the role of a firefighter.
Thank you for your commitment to safeguarding the children in your care by helping them understand how to be safe around fire, roads and water.
The topics are:
In addition we have:
- Take home sheet – to help the children take the important safety messages home.
- Feedback form and certificate – from yourself to help us improve the resources. By filling out the feedback form you will access the fire safety certificate for your class.
Fire Investigation
This session will “train” the children to be “Fire Investigation Officers”. During this they will learn about how fires develop and what they can do to prevent fires happening in the home to keep everyone safe.
Main activity: 26-minute video “training” the children to be Fire Investigation Officers before undertaking their own “fire investigation case”. Using the evidence provided and their new knowledge they will work out how the fire started, how it was detected and if everyone got to safety. They will then provide recommendations on what they would do to keep people safe from fires.
Resources
- Fire Investigation PowerPoint
- Fire Investigation Video only
- Fire Investigation Sheet
- Take home Year 5 Electrical Safety 2
To do
- In pairs, or as appropriate, children need a copy of the worksheet “Fire Investigation Reporting Sheet” and pencil/pen
- Play the video in the PowerPoint and pause when asked to either complete the worksheet or discuss answers. NB – a smoke alarm is sounded during this video.
- Provide children with a copy each of the “Take Home Sheet Year 5 electrical safety 2” to take home.
What is hotter?
The activity will look at the different temperatures of hot items and gives advice on how to stay safe with these items.
Main Activity: Watch the video and decide which item is hotter, and how to stay safe.
Resources
To do
- Watch the video, pause when asked and discuss with the class.
Hazard House
Take a tour of our “Hazard House” spotting the hazards and finding out how to make them safe, allowing this knowledge to be transferred to their own home.
Main activity: Look around the house, spot the hazard and find out how to stay safe.
Resources
To do
Either as a class on a large screen, or individually, or in pairs on smaller screens, the children look around the home and learn about how to make the home safer.
- The tour will take you around each room – starting with the kitchen, find the tags and listen to the safety information, then move on to the next hazard. All rooms have a different number of hazards for you to find. Check your progress using the countdown in the text box.
- The resource includes both an audio version or text pop up boxes, providing written explanation, so you can choose how you’d prefer to access the helpful fire safety information.
- If you cannot find all the hazards, you can ask for a hint if you are not sure.
Who could be affected by a fire?
Children look at an example of a fire to think about who could be affected by it. The idea is to realise there are a lot of people who can be directly or indirectly affected by a fire. The effects can be economic, social, environmental, or a mixture. There are no right or wrong answers to this activity, so it can lead to some great discussion/debates.
Main Activity: Discuss who could be affected by a fire and how they could be affected.
Resources
To do
- Read the Fire scenario to the children.
- Discuss with the children who was affected by the fire – there are a number of options to do this.
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- Discuss as a class.
- Discuss in groups/ pairs and make a list then discuss as a class.
- Give the children the list, or use the list to discuss how each person/ group could be affected.
- Ask the children to place the people on the ‘Zone of Relevance’ board according to how affected they would have been by the fire.
- Discuss how to keep themselves safe and remove themselves from a situation they feel is unsafe or they are not happy to be in. A simple way is to make an excuse to leave i.e. “I have to go home, my mum needs me”.
Being a firefighter
Learning about being a firefighter, the children are then encouraged to think how they are like a firefighter and their positive attributes.
Main activity: PowerPoint looking at what types of incidents firefighters attend, what they have to help them and the characteristics of a good firefighter. Then linking these positive attributes to their lives and encouraging them to be like a firefighter.
Resources
- Being a Firefighter PowerPoint (contains video).
To do
Use the PowerPoint to discuss what firefighters do, what they have to help them and the characteristics of a good firefighter.
These attributes can then be linked to the children, and show they are like firefighters. For example:
- they are brave when they put their hand up to answer a question they are not sure of.
- they are kind when then talk to someone who hasn’t got any friends in the playground.
- they are determined when they keep trying even when it is hard.
Water Safety
It is important that all children (whether they can swim or not) know what to do if they are in trouble in water or feel scared in water. If you could spend a few minutes showing the children how to “float like a star” (lie on their backs, arms and legs out like a star) this would be invaluable in helping them know what to do if they get in trouble in water. It is also important at this age, the children understand that they need to take care around water.
Many resources to teach about water safety can be found from both the RNLI and RLSS websites.
RNLI Education Resources For Young People
Water Safety Education Resources for Schools
Road Safety
It is important that children learn how to stay safe using the roads either as a passenger in a vehicle, as a pedestrian or on a bike or scooter.
Many road safety resources can be found on the Think! Road Safety website – www.think.gov.uk/education-resources/
Take Home Sheet
To help the children put their learning into practice and have safer homes, it is important that the parents and carers know what the children have learnt.
Please could you either, print or email home the document “Take home Year 5 Electrical Safety 2”.
The activity sheet contains a QR code that students, with permission of parents and carers, can scan to complete a form, to make sure everybody learns the important safety messages. It also allows them to enter a prize draw to win a VIP trip to a fire station, Blaze bear and emergency services Lego set. One prize draw entry will be chosen at the end of the academic year.
Feedback form and certificate
It is very important that we provide an excellent standard of service to schools. Therefore, to help us improve we would be very grateful if you could take a few moments to fill in this quick online survey about the self-delivered activities.
Your feedback is important in allowing us to develop the resources we can offer you. Once you have submitted the evaluation, there will be a link to download and print a class certificate.
Fire Appliance visit
We understand that a visit by the fire crew and the fire appliance is very beneficial to the children. However, due to capacity we are sadly unable to fulfil every request. To enquire if a fire appliance would be available please fill in this form.
The request will be sent to your local fire station. If they have capacity to visit they will contact you using the details on the form. If you do not hear back, sadly they do not have capacity for the visit this year.
Please do not share the form with other schools, and use this form only for requests for a fire appliance.
If there is capacity, please note:
- Classes being visited must have completed the minimum activities (For Year 5 and 6 this is the ‘Fire Investigation’). Please do not complete this form unless this has been completed or planned for before the firefighter visit.
- There is only one visit per school per year, so please consult other teachers to see if other classes would also like a visit.
- The firefighters’ visit can be up to approximately 90 minutes so please work with other teachers to work out a timetable.
- The firefighters are operational. This means they may not turn up, unfortunately we would be unlikely to be able to contact you if this is the case. Or they may be called away during the visit. Depending on individual circumstances they will try to rearrange the visit wherever possible.
- The risk assessment can be found here: Dorset & Wiltshire Fire Service | Risk Assessment for DWFRS visits
The information on this page can be found in this document for ease of printing if wished.
Thank you for your assistance in helping safeguard the children in your care by helping them learn how to stay safe.