Towards the end of last year, Simon Walsh, Resident Liaison Officer for Apollo Housing, carried out a safety and awareness talk at Kilmorie Primary School to around 200 children aged between 5 and 11 years-old.
The sessions are designed to be interactive with activities such as dressing up in full protective gear, identifying safety equipment, watching short films and a question and answer session. After the talk, the children were encouraged to enter a competition to make a safety awareness poster to be displayed on scaffolds and building sites near their school.
Mark Agnew, Director of Property Services for Lewisham Homes commented ”The safety of our building sites couldn’t be more important to Lewisham Homes. We are pleased to be working with Apollo to help local children understand how to stay safe around our sites”.
Mr Walsh commented, “We had a great response, it was very interactive and the kids really enjoyed themselves whilst learning. When they see their posters up in their local area, it really does give them a sense of achievement and it has the knock-on effect of a reduced risk of trespass in no-go areas.”
The safety talks are aimed at children at key stage 2 and 3 but the sessions have been so successful that there are plans to expand them to older children as well.
