School kids tackle water safety at the Watershed

Water safety was top of the agenda at a recent event at The Watershed attended by over one hundred, local primary school children.

The youngsters from St. Patrick’s De La Salle Boys School; St. John of God Girls Primary School; Kilkenny School Project N.S and St. John’s Senior N.S. all attended a Health and Safety Authority ‘Keep Safe’ event in the Watershed at the Bohernatounish Road last week.

Nine state agencies and regional organisations with a safety remit came together to deliver an interactive programme directed at fifth and sixth class pupils.

Keep Safe aims to promote safety and community awareness through involving the children in a series of interactive scenarios with a common safety theme.

Speaking at the event, Mark Cullen, Senior Inspector with the Health and Safety Authority said tha the Keep Safe programme is designed for school children.

“It aims to be an enjoyable and common sense way for them to learn about issues like water safety, electricity, road safety, fire safety and more.

“The Health and Safety Authority brings together a number of regional and national agencies on the same day, who have a common interest in educating children around essential safety messages.

The children are so engaged and interested. It is great to see the discussion carrying on back in their homes, schools and communities.”

Aims

The aims of the one day ‘Keep Safe’ event are to help children to become aware of personal and home safety, learn how to react to dangerous situations, foster good citizenship, learn how to recognise hazards and manage risks, learn how to stay safe within the context of, for example, road safety, water safety, fire safety and site safety.

The agencies and organisations that were represented on the day include the Health and Safety Authority, ESB Networks, Garda Siochana, Fire Services, Civil Defence, Irish Water Safety, IFA (Kilkenny branch) and the Construction Industry Federation.