School children to hit the airwaves

More than half a million people will hear fire safety radio adverts about the dangers of starting deliberate fires and making hoax 999 calls voiced by children from Kingsway Park High School

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More than half a million people will hear fire safety radio adverts about the dangers of starting deliberate fires and making hoax 999 calls voiced by children from a Rochdale High School.

Children from Kingsway Park High School will be heard during the summer holidays thanks to a partnership between Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) and Key 103.

Kathryn Aylett, GMFRS’ Children and Young People’s Programme Co-ordinator said: “We chose the theme of hoax 999 calls because summer is a time when in the past we have seen an increase in the number of hoax calls coming into our control room.

“This time last year we saw a spike in the number of hoax calls over the school summer holidays in Rochdale. So we wanted to work with local young people using Key 103 to try and change that.”

The media bus visited Kingsway Park High and after coming up with scripts and ideas for their adverts, Year 8 children then spent a day at the Key 103 studios putting together and recording their adverts with the seasonal fire safety theme.

Pupils went head to head with students from The Albion High School in Salford, who also took part in the project, to make the best advert.

Key 103’s Dianne Musker said: “Each school broke into two groups and produced two adverts and two breakfast shows.

“We were blown away by the creativity the pupils showed – they worked so hard and were incredibly professional behind the microphone.

“The children were an absolute credit to their schools and their behaviour was exemplary.”

Each school chose their favourite advert to be put through to the final before Salford Borough Manager Paul Petrykowski, Rochdale Borough Manager Tony Lander and Key 103 gave each school’s advert a listen.

Chair of Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Authority, Councillor David Acton, said: “We want to work with children to get them excited and engaged from a young age so that they understand and feel a personal responsibility for fire safety in their community.

“The adverts they have come up with will get the safety messages across to hundreds of thousands of people across Greater Manchester.”

Head of Citizenship at Kingsway Park, Vincent Walters, said: “We were really keen to get involved because historically the statistics show that there’ve been issues in Rochdale with hoax calls and deliberate fires around the school summer holidays.

“I think it’s really important to break the back of it by doing what we can as a school, so working with GMFRS was a no brainer.

“The children spent a couple of really thought provoking days with the teams from the fire service and at the radio studios at Key 103 and I know they worked really hard and hopefully the message will hit home with them and to the many people that will hear their adverts on the radio.”

With the judges unable to pick an overall winner, the two winning adverts from The Albion High School and Kingsway Park High School will be aired on Key 103 for four weeks during the summer holidays from Monday, July 16, 2012.