Safety Education

Safety Education

Why is safety education needed in schools?
Some facts and figures about accidents and injuries among Children and young people
• Accidents are the main cause of death and disability for children in the UK.
• As many as 10,000 children are permanently disabled each year by accidental injuries.
• Boys - in all age groups - are more likely to be involved in accidents than girls.
• Children from poorer families are five times more likely to die as a result of accidents than those from wealthier backgrounds.
• Road accidents are the leading cause of accidental injury amongst children and young people: every year, over 130 children die and more than 4,500 are seriously injured while walking and cycling, often close to their homes.
• Child pedestrian casualties peak at about age 12; child cyclist casualties peak at about age 14.
• House fires are the biggest single cause of accidental death in the home.
• A large proportion of non-fatal home injuries are due to falls.
• Other significant causes of death or injury in children are burns and
scalds, poisoning, drowning, choking and suffocation.
• Young, inexperienced workers have the highest accident rates in the workplace.
• Young, inexperienced drivers have the highest accident rates among drivers.

What can safety education achieve?
Safety education can enable children and young people, and their parents/carers, to put effective safety measures into practice. For example, young cyclists can be taught how to plan safer routes to avoid difficult junctions where most accidents happen. Fitting smoke alarms and rehearsing escape routes can save lives in fires.
What pupils learn about risk assessment in school can be applied to life outside the school gates and can increase receptiveness to safety information and advice from other sources. Safety education can help young people make decisions about, and undertake, a wide range of activities - sport, adventurous activities, travel, work...