Essential Energy rolls out electricity safety program for schools

Electricity Safety Week, held between 4 to 8 September is an annual program aimed at teaching primary school children the dangers of electricity use and how to keep safe.

More than 850 regional, rural and remote schools across NSW have registered for the program which delivers free educational resources supporting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) including 76 schools in the New England area.

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The curriculum material was developed in partnership with the NSW Department of Education. The education material includes teachers 'notes, student lesson plans, extension activities and interactive whiteboard lessons with embedded resources.

Essential Energy, operator of one of Australia's largest electricity networks, has also created a range of interactive games and activities to help teach kids how to be safe around electricity.

It starts with the basics. Students are encouraged to think about the definition of energy, its power and capacity, how energy is made, the difference between amps, volts and watts, the uses of energy and what atoms and electrons are.

The scope of the program is inclusive of more complicated electrical design theory encompassing circuit design challenges, energy conductors, series and parallel circuits and electricity generation and transmission.

Age-appropriate competitions are also being run, with the winners and runners-up in each category winning STEM prizes, as well as the winner's school receiving $1000 for their P & C associations. The competitions include colouring-in for Kindergarten, a poster design for years 1-4 and a superhero comic competition for years 5-6.

Essential Energy's Senior Safety Lead Dan Baker says the program includes important safety messages around staying safe near powerlines, appliance safety and keeping away from electrical equipment, as well as a new subject introduced last year on how to stay safe during an electrical storm.

Master Electricians Australia is a training and accreditation organisation dedicated to lifting the standards of electrical safety.

In a federal budget submission focusing on the implementation of a national safety switch program, it was identified around 300 Australians are unfortunately hospitalised every year due to electrical accidents in the home.

In the workplace, Health and safety standards are in place to identify and prevent potential risks and injuries, however, breaches of the Work Health and Safety Act do sometimes unfortunately occur.

In February 2019 a worker was fatally electrocuted while on a property in Sydney's outer West after contact between high-voltage power lines and a steel handrail he was holding.

Essential Energy Community Relations Manager Bronya Presser, says that electricity and electricity safety is perhaps something that people may take for granted and may not consider often in their day-to-day lives, however it's definitely an important message to reinforce with children.

She says the broad scale of the program and successful registration rate by NSW schools is quite incredible.

"There are 900 schools within our footprint and over 90 % of them have registered for the program, we are amazed by the overwhelming response rate and quite proud of the program.

We hope that the kids will take the messages about electrical safety they learn at school into their homes and ask their parents, "What are four things you should do during an electrical storm?"

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