Emergency services join forces

By Lachlan Ellis

Bacchus Marsh emergency service members have visited a local school, speaking with students and teaching them about their work in keeping the community safe.
Members from the local SES, police, ambulance, and CFA visited St Bernard’s Parish Primary School in late July, giving students some hands-on learning about their work helping people in emergencies.
Foundation teacher and Year Level Leader at St Bernard’s, Louise Black, thanked the emergency services members for coming out and providing a special and exciting learning experience.
“As part of our Health Unit, the students need to learn and understand who the people are in the community who keep us safe. We do a range of learning in the classroom about this, but nothing is more effective for them to learn and understand than to have our services out to the school talking and showing them everything they do,” Ms Black told the Moorabool News.
“The students had the opportunity to ask questions as well as explore the vehicles and tools that they use. They got to work the ‘jaws of life’ with the SES, explore the back of the ambulance, turn on the sirens in the police car, and work the fire hoses with the CFA – all learning that we would never be able to do in the classroom.
“As the classroom teacher I cannot thank those enough who volunteered their time on the day from the four services: SES, CFA, Victoria Police, and Ambulance Victoria.”
Deputy Controller for Community Engagement at the Bacchus Marsh SES Unit, Jane Patton, said it was the first time the four emergency services had come together in this way locally, and there were plans to extend the experience to more schools.
“It was a great opportunity for the children to see firefighters in their breathing apparatus equipment, because that can be quite intimidating for children to see if they’re involved in a house fire. It’s good for them to know there’s a friendly person behind that scary mask,” Ms Patton said.
“We also talked about having an emergency kit at home, and starting the discussion with the family about whether they have an emergency plan in place. It was a great success…we’re looking at maybe doing something next year in town that will allow the other primary schools to come along and have a look too.”
Ms Patton said Bacchus Marsh SES had been actively involved in community engagement with schools for many years.
“We visited Darley Primary in June, Bacchus Marsh Grammar in May, and I believe there’s an upcoming visit to St Brigid’s in Ballan.”