We have supported initiatives with children to ensure that they learn about gas and the basics of gas safety, for the benefit of their families now and for themselves in the future.
Gas Safe Charity in partnership with Gas Safe Register, approached specialist education marketing agency, EdComs, to help it develop a presence in primary schools, in order to: raise awareness of how to stay safe with gas; the potential dangers of unsafe gas appliances; and carbon monoxide poisoning. We wanted to change the public’s behaviour to gas safety issues, and we wanted this programme to act as a channel in order to reach parents as well.
Our research identified that only 10% of primary teachers said that they taught about gas safety, even though 93% felt it was important and 56% thought it was very important. This gap is not an indication of apathy; it is an indication of a lack of confidence. When asked how confident they felt teaching about gas safety, just 6% said they felt very confident and 46% felt not very / not at all confident.
Teachers welcomed the idea of a Gas Safe education programme, with 84% of the primary teachers we spoke to interested in hearing about a Gas Safe programme.
A theatre in education workshop tour, Party at Perils’, was developed with Gas Safe Charity funding and rolled out across 90 primary schools, reaching over 7,000 young people. The play covered key learning objectives around gas safety in the home, with Errol Peril and his parents, Gerald and Cheryl, going through a journey of discovery as they move into a new house.
Alongside the live events, we built and launched the interactive Get Gas Safe website which provides all primary school teachers with materials to deliver a lesson in class about gas safety.
For free educational resources for primary schools - curriculum-linked lesson plan, activity sheets, parent leaflet, stickers, spot the hazard challenge, gas safety quiz and Meet the Perils video downloads – click here.