More than 200 Year Six students from local primary schools have become more “clued up” on how to deal with a range of practical and safety issues.

The Clued Up Kids programme, which aims to instil resilience, confidence and develop life skills through the practical hands-on application of safety messages, took place at the Wanaka Recreation Centre last week (March 31- April 1).

“It’s great to see so many children from across our district take part in this inaugural year of Clued Up Kids,” Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) recovery team community lead Marie Day said.

“It’s an engaging model which is used across the world to build resilience and confidence in children.”

Local children practice CPR to the tune of Baby Shark.

The programme involves a 15 minute rotating circuit of sessions in which small groups (ten students) participate. 

The sessions include an earthquake shakeout simulation by Civil Defence, safety around animals with Animal Control, how to be safe in the backcountry with Search & Rescue, fire safety (including an interactive smoke out tunnel) with Fire and Emergency NZ, water safety with the harbourmaster, seatbelt safety with the police, life tools via games with Sport Otago, CPR with St John, and resilience training and emotional literacy with Kahu Youth Trust.

Students exit the interactive smoke out tunnel.

“With so many public safety organisations jumping on board this year we feel this is a great programme for our local kids, and something we hope to run as an annual event,” Marie said.

Marie said one of the council team had seen the programme promoted elsewhere in the country and discovered it produced “really successful outcomes” for the students involved, whose knowledge is tested before and after the event.

Learning about the contents of a ‘Go Bag’.

Marie said the Wanaka session went very well, with “lots of engagement and a great learning experience for the kids”. 

More than 120 Wanaka Primary School students attended the programme on Wednesday and more than 90 students from Hāwea Flat School, Holy Family Catholic School, and Te Kura O Take Kārara Primary School attended on Thursday.

Seatbelt training with the police.

After the inaugural Southern Lakes session in Queenstown (March 16/17) the local Mitre 10 sold out of Civil Defence ‘Go Bags’, she said, adding that the value of teaching Year Six children is “they are often the ones that go home and remind Mum and Dad it’s time to do something better for preparedness”.

Marie said the inaugural Queenstown Lakes Clued Up Kids programme was made possible by a lottery grant from the Department of Internal Affairs Covid-19 Wellbeing Fund.

PHOTOS: Wanaka App