Primary school pupils gear up to become "Safe Young Highlanders"
Issued by HighLife Highland
Hundreds of local primary seven pupils will be looking forward to taking part in the forthcoming ‘Safe Young Highlander’ event which is being coordinated by the charity High Life Highland on behalf of The Highland Council, Community Planning Partners and the many other organisations involved.
The popular annual event is designed to give the pupils a positive, interactive experience increasing their knowledge in community safety, health and crime prevention.
Over the hour and a half the pupils and teachers are in attendance, they get to safely experience a number of potentially hazardous situations in simulated exercises which is then followed up by discussions and practical advice as to how the pupils can prevent the experience transferring into real life. The pupils learn about life saving skills, first aid, fire and water safety as well as safety on the roads. And with the increasing use of internet access – the pupils also learn about internet safety and how to be responsible online.
Speaking about the Safe Young Highlander event City of Inverness Provost Helen Carmicheal said, “Safe Young Highlander is such an important date in the calendar for local primary schools so it is great to see this really positive event happening again this year.
“There is rightly a lot of emphasis placed on online safety these but it remains so important for children to understand the day-to-day risks associated with things like water, fire and road safety and I believe this is exactly what ‘Safe Highland’ delivers.
The City Provost continued, “The fact the pupils also get to learn about the dangers of building sites, electricity and other issues like substance misuse means this an extremely rounded session for the pupils, leaving them with a great message to take away from the event that we hope will now only help them in the here-and-now but into their future as well.”
The Safe Young Highlander event for Inverness area schools takes place at the Cameron Barracks between 4th and 13th May with other events taking place across the Highlands in areas such as Fort William, Lairg, Portree and Wick before the summer holiday recess.
Although High Life Highland are coordinating the event there are many other partners involved in making the Inverness ‘Safe Young Highlander’ such a success including; The Highland Council, Police Scotland, NHS Highland, Fujitsu, Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, Network Rail, British Transport Police, SSE and the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.