West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service have some new, free, exciting, and interactive resources for your school
West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service have been busy redesigning the content and style of materials we have available for schools to download.
A new package has been developed that supports all primary school years and offers pupils the opportunity to learn and build upon their safety knowledge. Safety is an important subject and should be talked about / learned from an early age. To build on
this year on year will make our children and young people more safety aware as well as helping WYFRS by taking messages back home to keep the homes of West Yorkshire safer too.
This new package changes how our fire fighters engage with schools and instead of visiting to see one year 5 group and delivering the education, they will split up and spend their time visiting several different year groups/classes, spending approximately
10-15 minutes in each classroom taking part, and supporting teachers with the delivery of the educational resources. The aim is to enable the children to build relationships with the Fire Service, creating respect and trust as they will see the fire service
within their school year after year, reducing attacks on fire fighters and other emergency services in our communities.
Materials have been developed to cover every primary year and support our schools in educating young people about safety from early years all the way through to year 6.
There is a range of different resources available, from videos, worksheets, games, quizzes, and lessons etc. which are all designed for teachers to lead in the delivery to the students. All materials are designed to support cross curriculum subjects, i.e.,
maths, science, and English etc. whilst learning about safety in a fun and engaging way.
Please use the opportunity to invite your local fire station down to support the teachers in the classroom, enabling our fire fighters to share their valuable experience, expertise, and knowledge with the children.
Schools will be able to use the participation sheets which have been put together to identify the packages they wish to utilise, and which classrooms, year groups will be taking part. This will help our fire fighters know which lessons they can visit and
the resource the class will be looking at.
Do you:
- Want a local fire appliance to visit your school?
- Need materials for ‘People who help us’?
- Need materials for the Great Fire of London?
This new package of materials means you can now combine all these requests together into the one visit and combine our resources much more effectively.
If you invite other emergency services and partners, such as West Yorkshire Police and Yorkshire Ambulance Service into your school to support learning, this would be a great opportunity for you to create an exciting safety learning experience for students.
All the materials have been developed with the input of several schools across West Yorkshire and fit in with the national curriculum.
You can access all the materials from WYFRS
HERE. Trials have been taking place in several schools to ensure their suitability both prior to, and during the pandemic to support home learning and we have received some excellent feedback, which can be seen below.
During the pilot’s crews spent time in several classrooms. They watched lessons being delivered by teachers and joined the children in the classrooms working on activities. They helped with some of the more technical fire knowledge and held quizzes on a
wide range of areas including Fire Safety, Water Safety, History of the Fire Service, roles, and jobs within the service.
If you would like to discuss booking your school in for a visit from the fire service, please contact your local fire station who will be happy to look at booking a suitable date or email
schools.resources@westyorksfire.gov.uk .
Below is some of the feedback received during the pilot sessions held in schools.
“This was a wonderful opportunity for children and staff to work alongside the Fire Service in an educational and fun way. The children got to know the crews and were very surprised to learn about all they do on a daily basis - not just putting out fires.
We can't wait for the next visit and to forge stronger links with our local Fire Station and crews in the future. Your attendance at school as enriched these children’s lives in ways you don’t even realise. Some children don’t encounter anyone, they are
brought in by their parent and then go home and do not see anyone else.”
“While I was in the school this morning, I was aware that there was a great deal of energy, effort and interaction taking place between Fire Service personnel, staff and the children. It seemed that everybody involved was as excited and enjoying the
event as much as each other.
The little boy who lives next door to me is in the class you visited on Monday. On Tuesday morning he was still excited and enthusiastic about Monday's activities with the Fire Fighters and he told me all about it. He remembered the fire engine and
sitting in it, squirting the water and the big teddy. He said he'd had a "brilliant" day.
Thank you very much for all that you and your colleagues have done for the school and the children during your time at Steeton. Thank you too for all you and your colleagues do otherwise. Steeton Primary School is very lucky to have had your visit and
I hope your project thrives and that other schools have the good sense to invite you.”
“Yesterday was brilliant. The whole school assembly got the message across brilliantly. The reception children ended up being so inspired that they created fire safety posters, role played being firefighters and it instigated lots of excitement.
The delivery was great. Really engaging and enjoyable. There were videos and interactive games which the children really enjoyed. They could then recall lots of the information they received and hopefully it will have an impact on the choices they make
at home.”
“Absolutely loved the session we had - the children did too, all those involved had great fun and it is hopefully our first step into developing those ongoing relationships with the school, pupils and fire service”
“Amazing crew who were really happy to help out in classes and show children around the fire engine! We can't wait to have them back for next year!”
“The delivery of the sessions was really good. The children were well informed thanks to the resources provided and wealth of information given
Definitely the right approach - that is how strong, respectful relationships will be built and hopefully transfer from school community to town community.”
“It was fab. Delivered by professionals and pitched just right for the children.
There were videos for them to watch and plenty of time for questions which were answered fully. He recapped and asked questions to check understanding and that they were retaining and remembering the information too. Would highly recommended future visits.”
“The work we have done with the Normanton branch has been fantastic. Materials and teaching aids were of great quality and allowed school staff to deliver the lessons effectively. The children show clear respect towards the team - this is due to the
warm, professional approach that the team take!”