Promoting Safety for Children at The Guildford Spectrum.

Suzanne and I had a very informative morning at Guildford Spectrum on June 26^th when we joined final year primary school children in attending a Junior Citizen Safety Event run by Child Safety Media. Over a two week period approximately 1,200 Year 6 children (10–11-year-olds) from local primary schools will be taking part in a series of interactive safety workshops under the ‘Junior Citizen’ banner.

The ‘Junior Citizen’ scheme teaches children about important issues that are often overlooked by the curriculum, such as: first aid (learning how to save a life; DRABC; basic life support – CPR;  recovery position); the dangers and consequences of criminal damage (trespass, graffiti, object throwing); anti-social behaviour (what it is and what it isn’t, who can cause ASB and how to report it);being wildfire aware in the countryside, what to do if a fire is encountered, how to make a 999 call; health and wellbeing (the importance of physical activity; sugar swaps); safety on the railways (safe places to cross, dangers of electricity and platform safety); water safety (dangers, lifeguards, flags, safety signs, floating, what to do in an emergency).The workshops are delivered by local safety agencies and  give pupils the unique opportunity to learn valuable skills from the professionals, through practical demonstrations and discussions in real-life situations.

The event, will run until Friday, 27th June 2025, and includes sessions from agencies such as South East Coast Ambulance Service, British Transport Police, Thames Basin Heaths Partnership, Children and Family Health Surrey (School Nurses), Network Rail/ South Western Railway and Freedom Leisure.

The children were certainly fully enthralled and from a quick quiz at the end of the session they had clearly absorbed the main safety messages that had been conveyed. Suzanne, Howard Smith, Mayor of Guildford, and I also came away suitably enlightened. Many congratulations to Dan Lowrie, Director of Child Safety Media, his fellow staff, all the agencies involved and Freedom Leisure (who run Guildford Spectrum and make the space available).