Children taught to avoid dangers at Crucial Crew

Published on 28 June 2011

Over 1,400 pupils visited Gilwell Park, Chingford over a two-week period to take part in the annual Crucial Crew event.

Crucial Crew is an interactive safety initiative based around key life skills that targets 10-11 year-old children. Crucial Crew teaches children how to tackle the dangers they may encounter in everyday life and helps prevent them, in a very interactive way, becoming involved in crime.

It is designed to help the children to:
• Cope with dangerous situations
• Accept responsibility for their own safety
• Learn social responsibility
• Make sensible decisions based on acquired knowledge

Crucial Crew is based very firmly on four principles:
• Children learn by doing
• Crime prevention and personal safety education can be challenging and exciting
• Everyone is concerned about crime prevention and personal safety
• The most effective way of tackling the problem is a partnership approach

This year children received a copy of a personal safety workbook with further information and advice on dealing with dangerous situations and how to make positive choices regarding behaviour. The publication, with an introduction by Councillor Penny Smith, Chair of the Epping Forest District Safer Communities Partnership, complements the Crucial Crew experience and will act as both a classroom and family resource.

This year £1,000 was awarded for the Crucial Crew workbooks given to every child that attends by the High Sheriff Lady Ruggles-Brise who attended on 17 June 2011 with the Chairman of Epping Forest District Council Councillor Ken Angold-Stephens.

Set out below are the scenarios the children dealt with this year. Each interactive scenario lasted for ten minutes during which time the children were asked to make personal choices about their safety.

Scenario 1 - Alcohol Misuse
Aim - to show how alcohol and binge drinking affects the body and the brain.
Provider - Alcohelp.

Scenario 2 - Fire Safety
Aim - to enable children to identify common causes of domestic fires and to respond to a simulated fire scenario.
Provider - Essex County Fire and Rescue Service.

Scenario 3 - First Aid
Aim - for the children to have a basic knowledge of how to assess an unconscious patient and place them in the recovery position.
Provider - Ambulance Crew.

Scenario 4 - Heavy Goods Vehicles Dangers
Aim - to highlight the dangers of vehicle blind spots and the need for caution in approaching heavy goods vehicles.
Provider - Sainsbury’s Ltd.

Scenario 5 - Internet Safety
Aim - to ensure that young people are aware of the dangers involved with disclosing personal information whilst using social networking sites and internet chat rooms. Reinforcement of treating each other with respect when online, texting and telephoning.
Provider - Essex Police.

Scenario 6 - Police Searches / Knife Crime
Aim - to give guidance to young people as to how / when / why the police stop and search people and to make them aware of the implications and dangers of carrying knives / weapons.
Provider - British Transport Police.

Scenario 7 - Recycling
Aim - to enable young people to identify what can be recycled out of the day-to-day domestic rubbish generated and to understand basic hygiene. To be aware of littering as an environmental crime and the fines that may be imposed.
Provider - Epping Forest District Council Environmental Services.

Scenario 8 - Road Safety
Aim - for young people to consider how collisions can happen and how they can be avoided and the consequences for all involved.
Provider - Essex County Council Highways Department.

Scenario 9 - Healthy Living
Aim - to provide knowledge of how to make healthy food choices and to increase their awareness of hidden fats and sugars in foods.
Provider - Essex PCT.

Scenario 10 - Self Esteem and Bullying
Aim - to understand what is bullying and the forms it may take. To find out what you can do about bullying and how to cope.
Provider - school nurses.