School students in years 5, 6 and 7 have access to farm safety resources targeted directly at them with the launch of a new Primary Producers SA project.
PPSA’s Farm Safety For Kids project, launched at Mount Compass Area School, identifies some of the key risks on dairy, grain, livestock, horticulture, viticulture and forestry properties and assists teachers, students and their families in having open and honest conversations about farm safety.
A suite of curriculum-linked videos and supporting education resources have been developed as part of Farm Safety For Kids with guidance from Farmsafe Australia, SafeWork SA, KidSafe SA and the PPSA commodity groups.
PPSA chief executive Caroline Rhodes said providing safety information and practical strategies for children visiting or living on farms was a powerful tactic to help achieve the goal of farm safety for all.
“PPSA is committed to promoting agriculture in schools to ensure awareness of primary production in South Australia and the role our industry plays in producing sustainable and nutritious produce for our communities in a safe manner,” she said.
“Our research has shown that while many states had farm safety resources for families and farmers, none of them had curriculum-linked resources for students in the Year 5-7 age group.
“We worked with South Australian schools to develop key messages, and students from those schools feature in the videos to deliver those messages about farm safety.
“Feedback from schools indicated that kids teaching kids (peer to peer learning) was important, making language accessible, and setting a clear message on protecting your mates.”
The most prominent message throughout the video series which has also been embedded into the other resources is protect your people.
Another key message the resources consistently reinforce is the importance of the 4Ps: pair up and plan; pause and practice; play in safe areas, and; pop on your PPE (personal protective equipment).
“PPSA has supported a number of education initiatives.
Most recently, Educating Kids About Agriculture (EKAA) worked to teach students the science behind primary production.
“We are excited to now deliver this project which focuses on the most important aspect of any job – keeping our people safe,” Ms Rhodes said.
“We are thankful to the advice and expertise from Farmsafe Australia and the PPSA commodity groups who have helped us to identify key safety issues relevant to each sector.”
The Farm Safety For Kids project is delivered by Food and Fibre Education SA (the education arm of AgCommunicators) and funded by the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry through the National Farm Safety Education Fund: Improving Farm Safety Practices project.
