Reception children had a wonderful, hands-on experience with a real-life fire engine thanks to a recent visits at the Academy.

Reception’s topic over the past two learning blocks has been ‘People Who Help Us’, and recent lessons have focused on firefighters.

On the days of their visits, Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue parked their bright, shiny red fire engine on the Academy playground, where children in Reception were greeted by friendly firefighters.

As part of the visits, the children had the opportunity to tour, and sit inside, the fire engine, learn all about the different tools used, handle the equipment and each child sprayed water from the hose across the playground. They also had the opportunity to try on a life jacket.

In addition to this, two fire fighters visited the classes and spoke to the children about their roles, what to do in an emergency and which number to call for help (999).

They taught the children the ‘stop, drop, and roll‘ strategy for if their clothing was on fire being giving the children the opportunity to practise this. They spoke about their uniforms and even dressed up a member of staff in it as a demonstration.

They also informed the children that they have just 80 seconds to be ready to leave for their job when they receive a call.

It was a thoroughly rewarding, practical experience and the children had plenty of positive things to say about it. Here are a selection of the children’s own words:

“It was so fun!”

 

“My favourite bit was spraying the water”

 

“I loved going in the fire truck.”

 

“I loved shooting the water.”

 

“My favourite part was holding the machine that cuts cars.”

 

“I liked wearing the life jacket.”

 

“I liked watching the blue lights on the fire engine.”

 

“It was really, really good.”