Schools in fire country, an innovative, participatory bushfire education program enabling place-based teaching and learning in upper primary school classrooms in Victoria was showcased in March’s Hazardous Webinar.
Held 26 March, attendees heard from Neil Munro (Project Lead – Bushfire Education, Safer Together/Country Fire Authority), Dr Briony Towers (Chief Investigator - Child-Centered Disaster Risk Reduction/Founder and Co-Director, Leadrrr), Leigh Johnson (Principal, Harkaway Primary School), Caragh Robinson (Manager of Capability and Response, Security and Emergency Management Division, Department of Education, Victoria) and Scott Purdon (Teacher, Chewton Primary School) about how they translated research into an effective school-based program using collaborative, iterative, student-centred design processes.
When research highlighted the positive outcomes of quality school-based bushfire education for children, families, schools and communities, the challenge was to develop an effective program that was both scalable and sustainable.
The Schools in fire country project met that challenge by bringing together Victorian emergency management agencies, researchers, educators and other subject matter experts, with primary school students to bring the research to life in a practical way.
As explained in the webinar, the project team and their wide network of collaborators built partnerships and tapped into the existing knowledge and experience of school communities, local fire brigades and other valued partners. This resulted in an award winning collaboration with Harkaway Primary School and the development of a program that has been successfully tested in other schools in fire risk areas
Watch the webinar below, a series of instructional videos here, or visit the event page to see the slides.
A series of practice briefs about the development of Schools in fire country and the first steps towards scaled expansion will be available soon. These briefs provide a blueprint for the development of a participatory school-based program for fire and other natural hazards across jurisdictions.
Register here for the April Hazardous Webinar, Students in fire research showcase which will take place 11am AEST Tuesday 30 April.