FIRE safety has become a fun and engaging part of the curriculum thanks to a new learning scheme by Chippenham firefighter and watch manager Steve Lodge.

He came up with a simple way to include children in a weekly classroom activity that only takes a few minutes. The teacher asks pupils questions about fire safety and then one or two children from the class are chosen to go up and test 'Bleep' - the smoke alarm. The children chosen that week are given a yellow fire helmet and a certificate - all provided by the fire service.

Pupils are educated on the testing of smoke alarms on a regular basis, and hopefully will go home and get an adult to test the smoke alarm in their house.

"Teaching children about how to stay safe in a wide range of contexts is very important to us at Sutton Benger primary and so we are delighted to be part of this local project," said Louise Pitman-Jones, associate headteacher. "We are sure that our children will take on board the key message and share their learning with their families at home.

"After the firefighters visited Year 2 this morning, the children were really keen to get started with the project straight away and had remembered some key rules."

"We should always check the smoke alarm once a week," said Willow and Silas added that in the event of a fire: "You have to crawl on the floor when the building is smoky."

The aim is to roll out Bleep to all the primary school in Chippenham and then offer it to all primary schools in Wiltshire and Dorset.

Any schools interested should contact Steve on steve.lodge@dwfire.org.uk