Emergency Services Journey

Project Summary

The Emergency Services Journey, based at Maryborough Education Centre, educates students about Emergency Services as part of the Year 9 Journey Program.

Through the program, students do research, collaborate, and discuss aspects of emergency service organisations and learn about how these various organisations support our communities, and how volunteerism helps build stronger communities.

Around 40 students take part in the program each year helping them educate their families and friends about fire safety and emergency services. Students have the opportunity to develop teambuilding and leadership skills, attain a Bronze E-Lifesaving unit and Basic First Aid certificate as part of the program.

Background and situation context

The Goldfields Shire identifies our community as having overwhelming disadvantage. This includes issues such as:

• social distress
• economic disadvantage
• significant health problems
• education under achievement

In the Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) index of disadvantage (Local Government Areas in Regional Victoria), Goldfields Shire SEIFA index of disadvantage 2006 showed the highest level of disadvantage of Victorian municipalities and ranked 79/79.

At our Education Centre in 2012, a serious issue of student disengagement existed in Year 9. As part of the solution to addressing this issue, we introduced a program to provide an engaging Emergency Services Journey for all this year level. A hands-on program that connects student back with their community that has run at the Maryborough Education Centre since 2013.

Activities

The project aims of to improve engagement, motivation and learning outcomes for our Year 9 students. The program supports our school values and provides students with opportunities to develop lifelong skills and strengthen their values in Respect, Inclusion, Consistency, Enjoyment, and Safety & Achievement.

The objectives and skills students can develop include:

• attaining a basic first aid certificate with CPR
• completing elements of the minimum skills for CFA
• developing communication & presentation skills
• developing team building leadership skills
• developing knowledge and understandings associated with bushfires, grassfires, floods and storms
• completing School Curriculum Natural Hazards Resilience Package developed by CFA/SES
• participating in the Lifesaving Victoria’s Open Water Learning Program
• completing the Royal Lifesaving Australia lifesaving e-bronze modules
• develop an awareness and understanding of the importance of volunteerism in our communities.

Results

Over the last 5 years, over 200 students have completed the program. Students utilise relevant resources as part of the program and can share learnings and program outcomes with families, friends and peers by showing a willingness to educate others about how to access information, and safety and awareness. Greater student engagement with the community reflects a highlight and testament to the success of the program. Students have become Volunteers in a variety of areas including CFA, SES, St Johns and Lions Club.

Next Steps

Maryborough School maintains a commitment to continuing the program into the future and includes working with the CFA and Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria (VFBV) to explore possible program implementation in schools curriculums across Victoria.

Improving student engagement throughout the program remains a high priority as does exploring opportunities to work within community. For example, at a Volunteerism Expo held in Maryborough, the local Nursing home was looking for volunteers to work with the residents to teach them how to use iPads. Pairing students with residents to support them to learn over numerous weeks resulted in a positive outcome.

The program for 2019 will run as an elective subject offered to students in Years 9 & 10 for 6 weeks.

Reflection

Funding represents the biggest challenge with two grants funding the program to date. The CFA–District 2 donated $2000, which was instrumental in evolving and facilitating the program over a two-year period.

More recently, the VFBV funded a further $2000 grant. This continued support helped reduce the cost for all students and enabled them to participate over a two-year period.

An additional challenge involves the availability of community members to be part of the program. The program relies heavily on community good will and volunteerism to provide access and equipment for the program to run. Available resources at the time determine the content of each program. Increasing resources and activities enabled flexibility to swap learning content for each presenter.

Students who have participated in the program have been instrumental in passing on relevant and important learnings to both families and friends. Even more rewarding was seeing how students in our school developed leadership capacity, stepped up, and took on volunteering roles within our communities and beyond.

Critical Success Factors

One of the program’s critical success factors was achieving the required funding to support its implementation. Without support from CFA and VFBV, the curriculum content would not have been as impactful and beneficial to the students and would have affected vital programs such as the Teambuilding and Leadership camp.

The second critical success factor was the strong relationship developed with the community members. This enabled the program to develop, change and modify each year as relationships matured.

The last critical success factor was the commitment of Maryborough Education Centre. The school leadership team supported the program in its curriculum and continued to work with me to offer the subject as an elective at Year 9 & 10.

Barriers and Solutions

A constant barrier will be the cost associated with the program. One major expense is the Teambuilding and Leadership camp. The initial funding helped support a subsidy for the camp over the first few years. This has since finished, and we need alternatives funding sources, or limit the accessibility of the camps to all students. Some students have access to camps and excursions funding program, but not all.

Year 9 & 10 students elect to undertake the Emergency Services Journey, which therefore depends on their selection. Each cohort has different interests and these compete with other subject offerings; and attracting student to enable the class to run remains a difficult issue. Over the last few years, student presentations made from previous cohorts from the Journey, described what they learnt, achieved and enjoyed in the program.

Recently Maryborough School reviewed its curriculum structure from Year 7 to 10, which resulted in many elective subjects not running or offered to students. Thankfully, the Journey remained for 2019, but each year it undergoes a review for future commitments.

At the end of each semester, I conduct my own review and analysis of the Journey and present the results to the curriculum team that makes decisions for the following year. The selection of the Emergency Services Journey each year is justified by the learnings that take place and the skills taught throughout the semester.

Additional Project Details