Pupils are pictured above during the display they put on for family, friends and teachers.

10 July 2009

Fourteen pupils from Cressex Community School in High Wycombe have been presented with certificates today after completing a course which involved working and learning at a fire station for one day a week.

The boys and girls, aged 14 and 15, were taking part in an initiative called Sparx, a scheme that helps Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service engage with young people by offering them a step towards a key skill qualification.

The six-week course took place at Princes Risborough Fire Station and activities included:

• Firefighting procedure including using hoses, training and working with knots and lines.
  
  
• Teambuilding and problem-solving tasks.
  
  
• Fire safety awareness, including safety in the home, smoke detectors and fire escape plans.
  
  
• First aid.
  
  
• Road safety and water safety awareness.
  
  
• Drugs and alcohol awareness.

Sparx was devised by Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service’s youth inclusion officer, Kerry Burns, and has been designed to help raise fire safety awareness within the community. Twelve pupils from Holmer Green Senior School took part in the pilot course in November last year.

Many of the students who will be invited to take part in future courses are following the ASDAN (Award Scheme Development and Accreditation Network) vocational course, which is run in many schools for young people who are not undertaking the whole national curriculum.

Kerry said: “To gain the qualification, the students have to put together a portfolio of work around a selected task or activity, and while they are with us they are assessed on working with others.

“At the end-of-course presentation event, the students demonstrate the skills they have learned to an invited audience of parents and teachers.”

They were presented with certificates recognising the effort they put into the presentation and their attendance, progress and achievements by Area Manager Chris Bailey. The audience included Cressex Community School teaching assistant Denise Preston, who has accompanied pupils throughout the course, and headteacher David Hood.