County Council backs guide to help pupils stay safe
A resource pack telling primary schoolchildren how to stay safe has won the backing of Buckinghamshire County Council.
‘Watch Out! Achild’s guide to everyday dangers’ was released in a glossy book format by ‘OK Our Kids’ (OKOK), a charity set up in 2013.
Two editions have been seen by thousands of children across the county and a third is currently being produced. Now, the Council says it will work with the charity to spread the message across Buckinghamshire.
OKOK was set up by former Police Community Support Officer Tony Churchill and his wife Lynn.
They work with schools to show pupils how to keep safe, with the aim of giving simple, advice in a fun, accessible way on subjects such as road safety, stranger danger, healthy lifestyles, emergency services and how to keep safe in the home, in cars or on bicycles.
The charity’s patron is Olympic gold medallist Katherine Grainger and the booklet is also endorsed by TV star Pauline Quirke, former Chief Constable Sara Thornton, All Blacks rugby star Zinzan Brooke and Marlow Paralympian gold medallist Naomi Riches.
A further boost came last month when OKOK was given the enthusiastic support of Martin Phillips, the Cabinet Member for Community Engagement and Public Health at Buckinghamshire County Council. After meeting with Mr Churchill at County Hall, Cllr Phillips said: “The County Council is delighted to be working with OKOK to use the power of play to educate and keep our children safe. Our aim is to offer every primary school in the county the opportunity to use this invaluable resource pack.”
Mr Churchill, 62, from High Wycombe, explained: “I felt there was a lack of educational material of this kindin primary schools. Because I had been on the police, I had seen a lot of kids being ill-treated or falling into some sort of danger and I felt something more needed to be done to help. The main aim is to educate children and change the mind-set of a whole generation of children by empowering them by alerting them to everyday dangers in today’s society.”
He and his wife have ploughed more than £10,000 of their own money to make the project a success, and so far around 35,000 books have been published. A third edition is being printed in the near future and this will deal with a new set of issues, such as the dangers of radicalisation.
“Lynn and I never had any kids so we thought we would put an effort into making a difference by helping to make kids more aware of the dangers out there,” he added. “We don’t get paid – we do it for the love of it.
“We have had a wonderful response and the kids seem to love it.”
The book is co-authored by police officer Claire Annison and contains cartoons and graphics as well as easy-to-understand information.
The charity also runs a website, gives talks to schools and is developing a novel board game called ‘Mistakes and Ladders’.
New Zealand born Mr Churchill left the police force after being diagnosed with prostate cancer. He underwent an operation but then contracted severe pneumonia.
He said: “It did push me in a new direction. We decided to get the ‘Watch Out!’ book printed, but it needed to be paid for. This is when the wonderful Naomi Riches came into our lives. She is partially-sighted and represented the UK in the Paralympics in 2012. Naomi helped us greatly with the charity and the many events we had during the first 12 months.
“We are really proud of the work we do and hope that the support of the Council and others will spur us on to even greater things in the near future – and meet our aim of giving a ‘Watch Out!’ book to EVERY primary school child in the UK.”