9 Essential Early Years and Primary Resources for Child Safety Week 2018

This year, Child Safety Week takes place from Monday 4 to Sunday 10 June 2018, with the theme of ‘Safe children: Together we’ve got this’.

Teachers, school leaders and families are all being asked to play their part in keeping children safe by sharing their experience and knowledge.

This means practical, simple ways to avoid potential dangers for yourself and others, not just the horror stories – real or imagined.

1 | Prevent and protect

Child Safety Week is run by Child Accident Prevention Trust to raise awareness of the risks of child accidents and how they can be prevented.

It provides loads of advice and articles with safety tips and ways to avoid injuries.

This includes burns and scalds, choking prevention, cycle safety and more.

Download the 2018 Child Safety Week Action Pack PDF here.

2 | Internet safety

Obviously, in today’s world, one of the most crucial elements of child safety is making sure they’re not exposed to harm online.

At internetmatters.org you’ll find info on inappropriate content, cyberbullying, identity theft and more.

The advice and school resource sections are separated into age ranges too, so you can find something specific for your class.

Check out the site here.

3 | On the road

Road safety is something that all children need to know about, especially those who walk or ride to school.

The charity Brake has an excellent set of resources for teachers which you can view as a webpage with links or as a printable PDF.

It covers Early Years to Key Stage 4 and also includes advice for road safety on school trips, practical pedestrian and cycle training and SEN resources.

Plus there are loads more activities and resources from Brake here.

4 | THINK! resources

You can also find a selection of excellent road safety resources on the THINK! website. There are sections for ages 3-6, 7-12 and 13-16, with lesson plans, documents, slides, films and games for you and your students.

Head to think.gov.uk/education to check it all out.

5 | Playground safety

ROSPA, or the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, has a massive bank of advice on all things related to playground safety.

It covers everything from risk assessment and legal aspects to ball pool cleaning and skateboarding safety.

Find all of this here.

6 | Heat check

Most young children will know not to go near fire, but of course not every burn hazard is as obvious as a flame. The Children’s Burns Trust can help, with a range of resources for various age groups. (Of course, some of the resources for older children will have images of injuries that might be distressing, so do check them out beforehand.)

For KS1 for example you’ll find a free PDF book called Bernie Bear and the Bad Idea about the dangers of playing with lighters and matches.

There’s also an interactive matching pairs-style game where children have to join up the household items that can cause burns, a ‘play safe’ worksheet and more.

Find all of the CBT resources for each Key Stage from Early Years to KS4 on the site’s learning zone.

7 | Sun safety

Now that the weather is warmer, teaching children how to keep themselves safe from the sun is especially important, and Boots Soltan Sun Ready is a fun and free learning programme specially designed to support primary schools when teaching sun safety to 5-11 year-olds.

The resources take a fun, creative and engaging approach to learning, and the materials are easy to fit into lesson plans, providing great cross-curricular links and bringing the topic to life with a range of interactive tools and fresh ideas for both parents and teachers.

Find out more and download the sun safety assembly PowerPoint here.

8 | Country living

This one might seem a little specific for some of you, but following a number if injuries to children in Northern Ireland on farm visits, the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI) produced an in-depth guide to staying safe around animals, machinery and natural elements.

There are links to videos like this one to share with your class:

Plus you’ll find an introductory child farm safety activity pack, and resources for KS1, KS2 and parents.

And you can find all of this in one place here.

9 | Home security

Of course, educating children about safety doesn’t stop at the classroom. They need to be able to take this advice home with them too.

Thankfully, Safe Kids has produced some great guidance such as this home safety activity book or these tip sheets on batteries, toys and medication

Get all this and more, including lesson plans and fact sheets at safekids.org.

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