Be Healthy Stay Safe week hits home with students
14/06/2010
Human Table Football proved popular with the students!
Students based at the Crawley campus were exposed to some hard-hitting issues recently, when with a series of activities designed to highlight the importance of being healthy and staying safe.
Be Healthy Stay Safe week comprised of a range of activities and seminars, which took place at locations around the campus from 24 to 27 May. Classroom-based activities included seminars on substance misuse, which were presented by Student Support Advisers, on sexual health, maintaining healthy relationships, and on road safety. There were also information stands present in the College all week, one of which highlighted the dangers of knife-crime, staffed by Police Community Support Officers and College staff, and another with representatives from the Terrence Higgins Trust discussing the threat of HIV infection, and giving away free condoms and information leaflets.
As well as classroom-based activities, students were also able to take part in a series of outdoor events. Human Table Football took place all, and groups including Motor Vehicle, Sport, Brickwork, and Service Industries students all had a go at the game! With six players, one goal-keeper and just two minutes each way to score as many goals as possible, the action was pretty end-to-end, and Deputy Principal Suri Araniyasundaran even took time out to have a go - joining in with a boisterous group of trainee bricklayers!
Fire-fighters from Crawley and Horley's Red and White Watch, spent two full days at the College, delivering a thought provoking session on traffic accidents, which incorporated theory with hands-on experience. Groups started off in the classroom, where they were given a talk by two of the Officers about their work, and shown a video containing graphic images from serious road accidents around the world. They then headed outside to the front car park, where the rest of the crew demonstrated the procedure for recovering casualties from road accidents, using two student volunteers in a real crash-scenario. Students who volunteered for this activity were asked to put on protective clothing before sitting in one of the demonstration cars. They then got to experience the sensation of being cut out of a car themselves, as the Fire Crew set about removing the roof - just as they might at the scene of a real road traffic accident.
Operational Fire-fighter Baz Jarvis, who also presents the campaign across the county explained that young people aged 16-25 are a key audience, as they are at high risk of being involved in a serious traffic accident. He explained that although the campaign is quite shocking, the idea is to make the students think twice before driving dangerously or drinking before getting behind the wheel. This message is reinforced by the crashed car demonstration, which although performed under controlled circumstances, can be an extremely unnerving experience for those in the car.
At the end of the week, Louise King, Principal Tutor at the Crawley campus, who co-ordinated the event was confident that the students would take away some valuable lessons from the week's activities. She said "After a great week, the College would like to thank all the contributors, including: The Terrence Higgins Trust; Sussex Police; Fire-fighters from Crawley and Horley Stations; West Sussex NHS Trust; Worth Services and all the additional in-house speakers for the effort and goodwill they contributed to making the week such a success, with very high quality sessions and activities."
