Shropshire Fire and Rescue introduced the "Be Cool, Be Safe" Safety Quiz targeting year 7 pupils across the Shropshire and Wrekin Fire Authority area in 2006.
The overall objective of the quiz is to educate young people to become responsible citizens. The subject matter encompasses a range of safety issues from our partners such as the road safety team, Her Majesty's Coastguard, the Police, local drugs workers, Rail track and Connexions. In consultation with young people from local schools, a trendy new magazine was designed for every year 7 pupil within the county not only to help answer the quiz questions, but also to raise their awareness of personal safety.
This project has cemented partnerships with senior schools and has allowed our organisation the opportunity to work within the National Curriculum. Many local senior schools are now incorporating the safety quiz within their timetable on an annual basis. Since the introduction of the " Be Cool, Be Safe" quiz we have developed good working relationships with schools at Key stage 3 and during the last 4 years school participation has increased from 16 to 37. Thereby, increasing pupil participation from 935 to 4,725. Next year we will be working towards achieving our target to enroll every school.
Community Safety Partnerships and Connexions have continued to endorse the magazine by financially supporting us to ensure we educate the children of today to become safer adults for the future.
Equality and fairness ensures that all schools within Shropshire and the Borough of Telford & Wrekin area are invited to participate this includes all independent schools.
A new interactive IT lesson is now available on Shropshire Fire and Rescue Services web site to assist Teachers in delivering our crucial safety messages. Research with teachers suggested that access to the magazine through our website, with a simple multiply choice quiz attached at the end, would be beneficial to them and it will enable the Youth Officer to monitor schools participation and examine pupil's knowledge.
Schools are taking the challenge to win computer equipment for their school and gift vouchers for the winning team members.
