Nine to 11-year olds from Ranzau and Brightwater schools are at the A&P showgrounds this week learning confidence and life skills to help keep them safe.
The safety skills course, now in its fifth year, seeks to also prevent incidents from happening in the first place.
“It’s a learning event that the students have so much fun doing,” says Clued Up Kids coordinator, Jo Perrett.
About 560 students from across the Nelson Tasman region will be participating on different days throughout the week.
Students are broken into groups of 8-10 for hands-on activities like the ‘shaky house’ for practising earthquake drills. There’s also a smoky fire simulation that teaches children how to react during a house fire, as well as demonstrations on water safety, quad bikes, how to interact with dogs, how visible a bicycle is to a truck, and first aid.
The event brings all the different agencies together in one place with each event manned by professionals from their field. They deliver their information in short snappy messages disguised as fun.
Surveys pre and post the event show a 7% increase in learning and children bring parents up to speed by sharing their newfound knowledge when they get home.
“The event has to be like a well-oiled machine, weather being the biggest nightmare I face,” says Jo.
Clued Up Kids is a multi-agency programme with agencies involved including the Police, Fire Emergency NZ, Civil Defence, and the New Zealand Red Cross, to name a few.
Many others are involved including the organisations behind the funding such as both councils, District Health Board, the Public Health Organisation and the huge group of people volunteering.