Game developed by school children rolled out to warn about deliberate fires
Northamptonshire's Police and Fire Service say schemes like the County Schools Challenge are valuable ways to teach fire safety
Northamptonshire Fire & Rescue and the Police force say the County Schools Challenge is a valuable way to engage young people in fire safety.
The comments come as they say the summer holidays are a peak for deliberate fire setting and as the winners of the 2023 Northamptonshire County Schools Challenge have launched their winning idea at Corby Fire Station, two years after winning.
Corby Technical School were victorious with their design, a card game and lesson plan to help raise awareness of deliberate fire setting, aimed at children.
The County Schools Challenge is an annual project run in Northamptonshire to help thousands of pupils learn about important social issues while teaching them invaluable skills. The theme for this round was deliberate fire setting and was led by Northamptonshire’s Police and Fire Arson Task Force.
Summer holiday's see peak in deliberate fires
Corby Technical School’s winning project was the ‘30 Seconds’ game, a card game that aims to teach young people the dangers of deliberate fire setting. The game has tokens to win that can be used in a classroom setting, by partner agencies or by young people and families. An accompanying lesson plan has also been designed and is available to all schools nationwide.
The winning team of five students, Hallé Mathew, Gracie Wilson, Sophia Callan, Freya Binley, and Amber Barber, competed against twenty-five other secondary schools to win the challenge.
The ‘30 Seconds’ game is aimed predominantly at primary and secondary school children aged 8-14 although play is suitable for anyone. As well as multiple choice cards, there are true and false cards, and fact cards all relating to deliberate fire setting and fire safety.
Kelly Crockett, Arson Reduction Coordinator from Northamptonshire’s Arson Task Force worked on the project which has been running for 14 years:
"The reason why it came about was about 14 years ago, the arson task force were dealing with a series of arsons in the north of the county. And to try and tackle that issue, it was recognised the valuable role that schools can play in promoting kind of these messages."
She says it's important engaging young people in fire safety in fun ways:
"Some of these young people have never been involved in fire setting, but there's other young people that may have been so, it's just a good way to kind of share those safety messages to help them resonate with them and something that they can actually kind of connect with.
"I think sitting in a classroom, children often find it difficult, so looking at creative ways to kind of share information and educate young people, I think is really important and known through proves experience through play and that kind of engagement is actually really effective."
Assistant Principal of Corby Technical School Kieran Fitzpatrick said, “The students created a card game called ‘30 Seconds’. They chose the name because a fire can escalate in just 30 seconds, which they thought was a very important message to convey to young people."
After being crowned winners of the 2023 County Schools Challenge, the school and the team linked up with Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service and Northamptonshire Police to have the game professionally produced, and it is now ready to be distributed.