Year 1 and 2

Get Firewise for year 1 and 2 is a sequenced programme of learning experiences designed to give five and six year olds knowledge, attitudes and behaviours that will keep them safe around fire.
The students learn behaviours that will keep them from starting fires, such as not playing with matches and lighters. They learn and practise what to do if there is a fire in a building or room they are in.

It focuses on:

• not playing with matches and lighters
• being safe near fires
• understanding that fire can be dangerous
• knowing what to do if there is a fire in a room
• practising evacuating from a room in a fire emergency.

The programme has an additional section where students learn and practise calling 111 in an emergency.

The programme is cross-curricula with a strong literacy focus. It meets the objectives of the New Zealand Curriculum (2007).

Get Firewise is a flexible programme and can be used as a short term topic using literacy and topic time over two or three weeks. It can also be used as a whole term topic using an inquiry learning approach.

The Get Firewise resource has an A3 picture book, Tamati and Sam Get Firewise, that is also provided as a digital story for use on an interactive whiteboard or a computer and LCD projector.

Get Firewise provides a free book and DVD for families and whānau to encourage them to learn and practise behaviours that will keep them safe from fire.

While the Get Firewise programme is designed to be delivered solely by teachers, a visit by firefighters or designated Firewise coordinators can occur near the end, or after the learning programme has been completed.

The firefighter visit is a structured presentation to the class that summarises and reinforces the key learning in the Get Firewise. It is usually about 30- to 40-minutes.

The presentation is designed around gaining responses from students and must be delivered to one class at a time to be effective. The firefighters will not deliver presentations to groups of classes because the student’s retention of safety behaviours is compromised.

This presentation focuses on:

• being safe with matches, lighters and candles
• the speed of fire
• escaping from a room that has smoke in it.

The firefighter or Firewise coordinator will discuss this presentation with you and can adapt it to meet the identified needs of your class. They will use a range of visual aids in the presentation, including props, a flip chart and a short piece of DVD footage.

The presentation will end with your students completing an evacuation of the classroom crawling under a black smoke sheet.

Please note, a firefighter presentation supports, but it it not a substitute for, the learning programme. Students must have completed, or have almost completed, Get Firewise, before a firefighter can visit. Not all locations will have firefighters available.

To check the availability and/or arrange for a firefighter or Firewise coordinator to visit your class, please use the form provided here.

Please note, if a group of firefighters from your local fire station visits your class they will be on duty and may be called away if there is a fire emergency. Every effort will be made to avoid this situation but it is a possibility.

Ongoing evaluation of the programme

The Fire Service conducts ongoing evaluations of the Get Firewise for year 1 and 2 programme.
Schools that use the programme are strongly encouraged to complete the evaluation form provided here online. This will help us to ensure the programme remains current and best meets teachers and students needs.