Pupils embrace farm safety initiative

Scores of pupils from three schools attended a farm safety day in Middlemarch on Friday.

Strath Taieri teacher and student council leader Kate Martin said more than 110 pupils from Strath Taieri School, Lee Stream School and Macraes Moonlight School attended the event.

The initiative was led by the council at their school and hosted in partnership with the local community, Safer Farms and New Zealand Young Farmers.

The event was launched after a child had a minor incident during woodwork and wanted to learn more about first aid and how to be safe and be seen on the farm, Ms Martin said.

Police provided first aid training for the first half of the day.

For the rest of the day, pupils took part in farm modules including identifying blind spots around tractors, learning to load a trailer and strop it down safely, learning how to use fire extinguishers and dressing up in the proper equipment to ride a motorbike.

As a family in the district owns a transport company, pupils were able to watch how long a stock truck took to stop in a hurry, she said.

“They were shocked how far it takes to safely pull up if there were trailers and animals on board and how much of a distance that actually is,” Ms Martin said.

The practical, hands-on activities were extremely beneficial, she said.

“They’ll always remember this day. They may not remember all the writing, reading and maths lessons, but they remember days like this and if one thing sticks in their brain then I think we’ve done a pretty good job.”

New Zealand Young Farmers South Island territory manager Bridget Joicey said it was fun to support the event and help deliver important messages through practical activities.

“It was really cool that the whole day was driven by the student council.’’

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