To stand ankle deep in the ashes of their burnt out class rooms is heart-breaking for any School Principal but watching the children staring forlornly at the skeletal remains of what was once their safe learning haven is a truly emotional experience. Listening to stories from parents about children suddenly having trouble sleeping, bed wetting, and fearful of going to school is soul destroying. But it doesn’t stop with the children. Then you have the teachers, passionate about their learning and teaching, who have just lost years’ worth of resources and records along with their entire classroom displays, all because of a senseless act of arson. Almost ¾ of all deliberately lit fires in New Zealand are lit by young people and schools are four times more likely to be targets of arson. This increases still further over the November period as access and awareness of lighters/matches and fireworks proliferate in communities. Arson is reckless, it’s mindless and it’s often deliberate but what can you do about it? “A whole bunch of things” according to the Fire Service’s Arson Reduction Manager Peter Wilding. “The first thing to do is dispel the myth that arson is inevitable” says Peter. There is a huge amount of experience from overseas and locally that demonstrates that communities and in particular, schools, can take simple proactive steps to significantly reduce the likelihood of arson. Most school fires are lit by young people who rarely transport fuel to a fire site. Instead they use locally sourced combustibles to set their fires. Whether the intention is to burn the school or just a reckless act of fire setting, the devastating result is the same. The upside to this common method of fire starting is that by removing easily sourced fuels, such as the contents of rubbish bins, cardboard and other items found around buildings and securing access under them makes it more difficult to start the initial fire. Rubbish bins should be secured away from school buildings and emptied every night and before weekends. Wheelie bins feature comm only in juvenile arson and once the contents are alight the plastic bin itself renders down and becomes a very significant fuel source. A simple chain around the handle can prevent bins being placed against the side of buildings as happened in Timaru, Palmerston North and a score of other schools this year alone.
Improved security lighting around buildings is another simple, cost efficient but demonstrably effective way to reduce deliberate fire setting on your school grounds. Fire setters simply don’t wont to be seen playing with fire. Invariably when the Fire Service attends a major loss fire at a school their fire investigators find evidence of previous fire lighting and other vandalism that has occurred in the preceding days or weeks. Left untreated fire setting behaviour is likely to lead to larger fires by unintended fire growth (once a fire is started it quickly develops beyond easy extinguishment). As the fire setter’s confidence grows so too does the target size. Just as unattended broken windows at your school can lead to escalating vandalism so also can little signs of fire lighting in and around your school escalate to major fires. Peter encourages schools to be particularly vigilant in identifying these signs. Spent matches, melted playground equipment and burnt papers are clear indicators of fire setting and should be reported to the Police and Fire Service as soon as possible as well as addressing the issue with students. Schools are a great resource for communities even during holiday periods as people enjoy their sports fields, tennis courts
It’s a myth that arson is inevitable and swimming pools. For most schools public exclusion is not desirable or even an option however applying the simple suggestions made here you will strengthen your school’s resist ance to the risk of deliberate fire setting and significantly reduce the likelihood of your standing ankle deep in ashes rueing what preventative actions you might have taken. The Fire Service runs a programme specifically designed to treat young people who exhibit fire lighting behaviour. It’s free and uses firefighters who are specifically trained to help children stop firelighting. For more information visit www.fire.org.nz/faip or call 0800 FIREINFO. For further information about hardening your school against arson, contact Peter Wilding at fireinvestigation@fire.org.nz
ADVERTORIAL
Top Class Books for Children Make better use of your librarian’s limited hours! Time is of the essence in a school library, for not only does the librarian have to be there to advise children, but they must also keep up with administrative duties – buying books and processing them to shelf-readiness is just one aspect of their many tasks. That’s where Top Class Books for Children can help to save time. We do the arduous bit – trawling through catalogues and meeting with agents – to select only the cream of the latest publications. Then, taking into consideration your school’s demographics, we put together a box of books on a buy or return basis. Relieve your librarian of the time-consuming task of hunting through bookshops or websites; we’ll provide a box of carefully selected books. All the librarian has to do is select which books to purchase. Instant gratification! Those books not wanted are returned to us using the address and courier labels we have provided. This leaves the librarian with more time to complete the myriad of tasks still waiting to be done. Meanwhile we process the order, add a $5.99 handling fee and invoice the school, offering a 10% discount on the total amount of the purchase if paid by the due date. Does your librarian make use of our services? We are just a phone call / fax / email away. Contact us to assist your librarian in building a better library. Leslie Eden BA, HED, TESOL Ph: (03) 434 5844 Fax: (03) 434 8963 topclassbooks@xtra.co.nz See our advert, this page.
Financial Accounting for Schools Leading Edge Services are leading providers of accounting services for schools in the upper North Island. Benefits are: ◆ Flexible options of service to compliment school needs. ◆ Accounting software in ‘cloud’ environment for security. ◆ Professional, experienced advice in all legal requirements for school accounting.
For more information visit our website for our contact details and client references.
www.edgeservices.co.nz
TCB4C Aiming Only For The Best!
Selecting Great Books! BOOKS FOR CLASSROOM & LIBRARY
Time-saving library programme Textbooks Special orders Years 1–13 10% discount for on-time payments
Join us today! Top Class Books for Children (TCB4C) Leslie Eden BA, HED, TESOL P: (03) 434 5844 E: topclassbooks@xtra.co.nz
Get a classroom of NEW desks at a fraction of the cost!
POSTURA DESK
Cordless drill inCludEd with 60+ top Orders! * or similar drill depending on stock/model available
TM
with its REVOLUTIONARY
Performance Edge
TM
D
id you know you can purchase our Performance Edge™ desks complete or simply buy the tops and fit them to your existing ‘other brand’ desk frames!
Easily fit our ‘NEW’ tops to your other brand frames!
After years of R&D, Sebel has designed the next generation of school desks that deliver superior comfort, style and safety in the classroom. Using a patented process, molten polypropylene is injected into the wood particles, fusing the Performance Edge™ and desktop together as ‘one element’ making it tamper resistant.
Bull Blue
Marine Crush
Features – Tamper resistant injection moulded polypropylene. – Arm/elbow-friendly for better, longer concentration. – Huge range of desks, frames and colours. – Lifetime Warranty on Performance Edge™.
Fog Grey
– SINGLE 600 x 600 and 600 x 450. – DUAL 1200 x 600. Beech
So simple you can…
D.I.Y.
DIY Top Replacement 21st Century School Design Superior Arm Ergonomics Low Cost Alternative Contemporary Colours
Sand
Simply attach your NEW Performance Edge top using the existing desk frame holes
Sebel Stone
Mandarin
AuCklAnd 4 Nikau St, Eden Tce Auckland 1021 T: 09 373 9981 E: auksales@sebelfurniture.com
ChristChurCh 8-10 Matipo St, Riccarton Christchurch 8041 T: 03 338 0021 E: chrsales@sebelfurniture.com
Olive
Freecall 0800 101 288 | Web www.sebelfurniture.com