Playing it safe pays off at the double for Denholm youngsters

Two teams representing Denholm Primary School achieved almost perfect scores at an annual safety event for children at Eildon Mill in Tweedbank.

About 1,200 primary-seven pupils from 61 schools across the region attended this year’s Crucial Crew event, designed to help children prepare for potentially dangerous situations, learn social responsibility and understand the role of the emergency services.

Pupils worked in teams to negotiate eight different recreations of emergency scenes.

Faced with potential hazards in controlled circumstances, the children were put to the test by reacting to the different emergencies as they would in real life before being given feedback from supervisors on the relevant dangers and the correct ways of dealing with them.

And for the second successive year, two teams of five from the West End primary, dubbed the Denholm Dabs and Denholm Destroyers, emerged triumphant by scoring 79 points out of a possible 80.

They won £200 for their school and £10 book vouchers for themselves.

Headteacher Morag McCreadie said: “I can’t be sure why they have been successful again at this event.

“What I do know is that the organisers said our pupils had been really responsive and attentive at the workshops, so they have remembered the advice they were given.

“Perhaps it’s something about living in a village with pupils playing out in the open, by the river and in the woods, that makes them more safety-conscious and aware of potential dangers around them when not so many people are about. Whatever the reason, it was a great achievement.”

Mid Berwickshire councillor Donald Moffat, Scottish Borders Council’s executive member for community safety, said: “Should these children be confronted with an emergency situation in the future, hopefully they will remember the advice provided to them at Crucial Crew.”

Pupils were divided into teams and scored by staff on their ability to work together, to identify safety issues, the questions they asked and on their overall behaviour.

The event was supported by the British Red Cross, Police Scotland, Scottish Power, British Transport Police and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, among others.