School bushfire education program draws on research

Research from the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC is supporting bushfire education for primary school students in New South Wales. 

The bushfire education kit, ‘Guide to Working with School Communities’, put together for primary schools by the New South Wales Rural Fire Service (NSW RFS) was launched in June at the Warrimoo Public School in the Blue Mountains.

During the launch NSW Premier Mike Baird, NSW Emergency Services Minister David Elliot and NSW RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons sat in on the lesson.

With many RFS brigades already working with their local school communities, the Guide will be rolled out to all school across the state to assist with preparation for bushfires, even in areas where the threat is considered low. The resource are intended for NSW RFS volunteers who deliver school fire safety programs, and will off great benefit to teachers and students.

The Guide comprises a three-step-program where students will learn skills to be safe around fire through scenario-based exercises as well as determining the context of the knowledge within their own lives. Students will be encouraged to share their learnings with family and friends, further enhancing their knowledge.

The Guide is based on key research to help children gain an understanding of bushfire preparation and safety, and involved the input of CRC researcher Dr Briony Towers. Dr Towers provided expert insight on research findings and insights into how children learn about bushfires. The collaboration is continuing, and Dr Towers and her team will evaluate the guide over upcoming fire seasons to gather baseline data so that its impact on community safety can be measured over time.

“We were really keen to be involved with the RFS in producing the Guide,” Dr Towers said.

“It is more than just being able to provide learnings from our research. It is really valuable to learn as much as we can from Tony Jarrett and Brenda Doran-Higgins on community engagement and designing education programs. Collaboration and partnerships are a big part of what the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC is all about, and it has been fantastic to be a part of developing the Guide.”

“We will now work on evaluating the Guide and gathering some baseline data so that we can measure its impacts on community safety over time.”

The Guide Sessions are structured using the ‘Learn, Practice, Share’ approach to give both children and parents a clear understanding of the material.

NSW RFS’ Tony Jarrett is a lead end-user of the Child-centred disaster risk reduction project that Dr Towers is a part of, and believes the Guide will enhance the knowledge and safety of children in bushfire prone areas.

“The Guide acknowledges the important role RFS volunteers play in delivering bushfire education in schools,” Mr Jarrett said.

“Our volunteers need to be confident and skilled in connecting with their schools and students. The Guide has flexible Session Outlines framed around robust educational outcomes that can be applied in different school settings and with different age groups.”

The choice to launch the Guide at Warrimoo Public School within the Blue Mountains area was an important one due to the area experiencing a bushfire in November 2014. During the fire children at the school were kept safe and placed into lockdown within the grounds.