BFireSafe@school is an important and innovative Strategic Partnership project whose aim is to develop a new fire safety education programme for teachers and pupils in second level schools in Europe. There is no standardised approach to fire safety training in second level schools in Europe at present. This project aims to address that deficiency. No previous Erasmus+ schools project has provided such training and so this is a unique opportunity. Background This project builds upon fire safety teaching already successfully implemented in many EU countries at primary school level. At present there is no universal fire safety module or online training tool available for teachers to train second level school students in fire safety. Our needs analysis research found that fire safety awareness programmes across Europe are focused mainly on younger age groups aged 8-9 and there are no programmes in place for the older age groups. A review of fire statistics in schools in a number of our partner countries reveals that the incidence of fires in schools varies significantly. Project Duration The project (if successful) will be a 30 month project with a start date of October 2018. Project consortium The project consortium consists of a wide range of partners from different cultures and experiences, from a range of service backgrounds and scale that will represent the various stakeholders involved and that will bring expertise in different fields directly connected with the objectives of the project. The partners are located in a number of different countries with a good geographical spread all over Europe, a well balanced group of fire and rescue services, local, regional and national government organisations, third level research institutions, learning developers and national and EU teacher organisations. A number of Associated Partners primarily made up of second level schools and other interested stakeholders in each partner country will participate in the BFireSafe@School project. Collectively this partnership will research, design, develop and deliver a sustainable educational framework on fire safety for second level school teachers and students. The project partners are: • Leitrim Fire Service Ireland (Project Coordinator) • National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management - Ireland • Bizkaia Fire service - Spain • Dortmund Fire service - Germany • FRS Centrum, Gent - Belgium • Frederiksborg Brand & Redning, Denmark • Finnish National Rescue Association - Finland • Learnkey, Lithuania • Trinity College, Dublin Most of the partners involved have experience of successfully delivering European funded projects previously. Project Objectives The Strategic Partnership project will address the horizontal priority of “Development of relevant and high quality skills and competences” and ...as part of the call. The objectives of the project are to 1) Increase fire safety knowledge and awareness for teachers and pupils in second level schools using innovative digital learning methods 2) Improve the health and well being of teachers and pupils 3) Use technology to implement and monitor new approaches to teacher training and pupil learning using peer networks. 4) Demonstrate how the new digital tools can be effective in improving the motivation of both teachers and pupils to learn about fire safety. Project Outputs A number of engaging and interconnected outputs will be developed such as a new classroom training course in fire safety, a new Online e-learning tool, a new Learning Management System and online app and a new training video to demonstrate safe evacuation procedures for schools. All the content will be developed in English and translated into 7 more languages (Spanish, Basque, French, German, Lithuanian, Danish). The training programme will include various training tools that will reach every student from the target group in a variety of learning styles to suit their learning needs. Training materials will be prepared and be available for teachers. Dissemination activity It is expected that at least 5000 pupils and 500 teachers in our partner schools will directly benefit from this educational programme with the potential to reach out to many more using the online learning tools and the eTwinning platform. We also plan to disseminate the outputs of the project through a series of Multiplier events and to a range of sectoral publications. Delivering a strong fire safety programme to this group of pupils will form part of critical life skills that the target group can take into adulthood with the potential of realising increasingly resilient individuals, communities and societies. Project Sustainability Efforts will be made to sustain this fire safety programme into the future by attempting to incorporate it into the school curriculum throughout countries in Europe. Contact will be made with key educational stakeholders at local, national and European level in order to achieve this.
BFireSafe@school is an important and innovative Strategic Partnership project in the school education sector whose aim is to develop a new fire safety education programme for post primary schools in Europe. There is no standardised approach to fire safety training at post primary level in Europe at present. Some countries provide some fire safety training to students, others do not. This project aims to address that deficiency. No previous Erasmus+ schools project has provided such training. Background This project builds upon fire safety teaching already successfully implemented in many EU countries at primary school level. Our needs analysis research found that fire safety awareness programmes across Europe are focused mainly on younger age groups aged 8-9 and there are no programmes in place for the older age groups. The project also builds upon the objectives of the Digital Education Action Plan of 2018 - 2021. Project Duration The project was delivered over a 36 month project ending in October 2021. Project consortium The project consortium consisted of partners from different cultures and experiences, from a range of service backgrounds and scale that represent the various stakeholders involved and that brought expertise in different fields directly connected with the objectives of the project. The partners are from a number of different countries with a good geographical spread all over Europe, a well balanced group of fire and rescue services, local, regional and national government organisations, third level research institutions, learning developers and national and EU teacher organisations. A number of Associated Partners from post primary schools, teacher organisations and fire service personnel in each partner country participated in the BFireSafe@School project. Collectively this partnership have designed, developed and delivered a sustainable educational resource on fire safety. The project partners are: • Leitrim County Council Fire Service (Project Coordinator) • National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management , Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage • Bizkaia Fire service • Dortmund Fire service • FRS Centrum, Gent • Frederiksborg Brand & Redning • Finnish National Rescue Association • Learnkey • Trinity College Most of the project partners involved had experience of successfully delivering European funded projects previously. Project Objectives The Strategic Partnership project addressed the horizontal priority of “Development of relevant and high quality skills and competences” and the school sectoral priority 'Promoting the acquisition of skills and competences' as part of the call. The objectives of the project are to 1) Increase fire safety knowledge and awareness for teachers and pupils in second level schools using innovative digital learning methods 2) Improve the health and well being of teachers and pupils 3) Use technology to implement and monitor new approaches to teacher training and pupil learning using peer networks. 4) Demonstrate how the new digital tools can be effective in improving the motivation of both teachers and pupils to learn about fire safety. Project Outputs A number of engaging and interconnected outputs were developed such as a new classroom training course in fire safety (10 modules), a new Online e-learning tool, a new Learning Management System and online app and a new training video to demonstrate safe evacuation procedures for schools. All the content developed was translated into 10 languages (English, Irish, Spanish, Basque, French, German, Dutch, Lithuanian, Danish, Finnish), surpassing our contractual target of 6 languages. The training programme included various training tools and methodologies to suit the learning needs of students. A Teachers Handbook in 10 languages was also developed to assist teachers in delivering the programme in schools. IMPACT More than 5000 pupils and 500 teachers in schools in our seven partner countries have directly benefited from this educational programme. The number of teachers, pupils and fire personnel who have registered on the LMS to use the online learning tools is greater than 1200. Dissemination activity We disseminated the outputs through a series of Multiplier events in each partner country and have published articles in a range of publications. We have over 1,100 followers. We disseminated awareness of the project to fire service colleagues in 23 European countries and on our social media channels attracting hundreds of followers. The final dissemination attracted registrations from over 22 countries worldwide. Project Sustainability Efforts were made to embed this fire safety programme into the school curriculum throughout the EU. Partners have held meetings with stakeholders in education to make them aware of the new programme. We participated in educational conferences at local, national & EU level during the project.