Safe Home For Me

About Safe Home For Me

Terms of Use

Safehome4me.com is aimed at Pre-school and Key Stage 1 pupils, aged 3- 7 years. The resource has been developed by the Southern Area Health Promotion Department (SAHPD), on behalf of the Southern Area Accident Prevention Liaison Group (SAAPLG) and in consultation with the Southern Education and Library Board (SELB), to raise awareness of the factors that can cause accidents within the home.

Safehome4me.com is designed to be used by children in pre-school settings, nursery schools and primary schools but can easily be used at home too. The scenarios and games work best if explained and discussed with an adult initially, but once children are familiar with the games, they can continue to use them alone or in small groups.

The teachers’ resource to accompany the online resource, covers a range of safety topics relevant to the home, encouraging discussion and further activities as appropriate. Activities can be performed by children under the direction of their teachers or with help from the child’s parent or carer.

The information below shows the main areas of the online resource and indicates the general safety issues covered under each accident type.

Inside the Home

Burns to your skin
(Hot water, baths, taps, cup of tea/coffee, matches, irons, kettles)
Falling and crashing accidents
(Stairs, objects on the floor, climbing on furniture and worktops, doors)
Poisoning acidents
(Household products, medicines, plants and berries, unmarked bottles/containers)
Ear, nose and mouth accidents
(Foreign body accidents – small objects, coins, batteries)

Outside the Home

Bouncing accidents
(Trampoline safety – safety pads, safety nets, one person at a time, stunts, jumping on/off a trampoline, over-exertion, positioning the trampoline safely, other toys)
Burns to your skin
(Sparklers)

Safehome4me.com was developed through a multi-disciplinary group whose membership included representatives from the Health and Education sector.
The development of Safehome4me.com has been made possible through funding from the Southern Health and Social Services Board through the Northern Ireland Home Accident Prevention Strategy.

Objectives

To assist teachers and pupils with understanding the different types of accidents that can happen, including accident prevalence statistics.
To assist teachers and pupils with accident prevention strategies.
To promote an understanding of the impact of accidents, both immediate and in the long-term.
To encourage pupils to become pro-active in their own home by engaging with their parent or carer on accident prevention strategies.
To instruct pupils on appropriate and step-by-step use of emergency services when dealing with the consequences of an accident in and around the home.

Educational Context

This resource will help children develop attitudes and behaviours around keeping themselves safe, keeping others safe and knowing what to do if an accident happens.

Children will be encouraged to bring this learning home and share it with parents and carers to change aspects of their behaviours or modify the home environment in order to reduce the risk of an accident happening.

This will be achieved by setting out tasks where children can investigate areas of the home, suggest solutions and make decisions based on what they have learned.

Where possible content and activities have been designed to fit in with the main areas of personal, social and health education (PSHE) and citizenship set out in the Northern Ireland Curriculum for the Foundation Stage and Primary School.

Acknowledgements

Safehome4me.com has been developed in partnership with the following organisations and groups:

Armagh and Dungannon Locality Early Years Team
Armagh and Dungannon Locality Health Promotion Department
Aurion Learning
Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA)
Craigavon and Banbridge Locality Health Promotion Department
DELTA Parenting Partnership Service (DELTA)
Home Accident Prevention Northern Ireland (HAPNI)
Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS)
Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS)
Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA)
Southern Area Accident Prevention Liaison Group (SAAPLG)
Southern Education and Library Board (SELB)
Southern Health and Social Care Trust (SHSCT)
Southern Health and Social Services Board (SHSSB)
St Mary's Primary School, Stewartstown

We would like to thank all the organisations above for their help in developing this resource. In particular we would like to thank the Southern Health and Social Services Board for funding this project. Thanks also to the teachers, staff, pupils and children who helped in the piloting of this resource based at:

Desart Lodge Day Nursery, Armagh
St Patrick’s Primary School, Loughgall Road, Armagh
St Joseph’s Primary School, Madden, Armagh
Keady Primary School, Armagh

A special word of thanks goes to Aurion Learning who provided strategic support and undertook the design and construction of SafeHome4Me.com.

Finally, thanks to the staff of the Southern Area Health Promotion Department in particular, Lynne Crosby-Rowan for Graphic Design and Orla Toner for project administration.

Project Team

Fiona Quigley, Educational Manager, Aurion Learning
Gerard Rocks, Manager, SAHPD
Keith Southern, Multi Media Developer, Aurion Learning
Nina Daly, Health Promotion Officer: Accident Prevention, SAHPD

Reference Group

Cathy Murray, Health Promotion, Armagh and Dungannon Locality
Heather Holland, Manager, RoSPA (from August 2007)
Janice Bisp, Manager, RoSPA (to June 2007)
Janice Riddal, Early Years Senior Social Worker, Armagh and Dungannon Locality
Jenny McDaid, Early Years Senior Social Worker, Armagh and Dungannon Locality
Joan Shine, Assistant Advisory Officer Primary Team, SELB
Liz Jones, Parenting Partnership Service Manager, DELTA
Olivia Duffy, Vice-Principal, St Mary's Primary School, Stewartstown
Valerie Gough, Health Promotion, Craigavon and Banbridge Locality
Wendy McKeown, Assistant Advisory Officer for Early Years, SELB
Yvonne Murtagh, Post Primary Parenting Officer DELTA