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Over the past three weeks hundreds of Year Six pupils from across the borough have received potentially life-saving advice from a host of partners including the police, fire service, Freedom Leisure, Network Rail and Hope UK.
Junior Citizen is an annual safety event that gives children the skills and confidence to deal with a wide range of emergency situations.
Through a series of short interactive workshops, children explore issues such as online safety, fire safety, legal and illegal substances, and how to stay safe around hazards such a railways and water.
Over 700 pupils from 13 different schools participated in this year’s programme, which took place at Woking Football Club.
Cllr Debbie Harlow, Woking Borough Council’s Portfolio Holder for Community Safety, said: “Junior Citizen helps to keep our children safe by showing them what to do in an emergency. It teaches them how to raise the alarm if something goes wrong and most importantly, gives them the confidence to say “no” if they’re being pressurised in to doing something which they know is unsafe. Ultimately it’s about giving children the life skills they need to develop in to happy, healthy, responsible young adults.”
Last year’s Junior Citizen, which normally takes place in March, had to be cancelled half way through because of the Covid-19 outbreak.
Cllr Harlow said: “It was touch-and-go as to whether or not we would be able to run this year’s event so I’m immensely grateful to our partners, and the football club, who all came together really quickly and pulled out all the stops to put on a Covid-safe event for this year’s cohort of Year 6 pupils.
“Although not all schools were able to participate at short notice, we’ve been able to give around two-thirds of our 10 to 11 year olds potentially life-saving advice.”
No stranger to the sight of eager raised hands, the Mayor of Woking, Cllr Liam Lyons, a humanities teacher at Hoe Valley School, delighted pupils from Westfield Primary, when he dropped in and sat alongside them in their rail safety workshops to hear the advice being delivered.
He encouraged pupils to share what they had learnt during the course of their visit with friends and family to help make the borough a safer place for everyone.
For more information about Junior Citizen, email community.safety@woking.gov.uk or call 01483 755 855.