Safety bear birthday

Fri, Oct 14th 2005, 11:00

Redrow’s health and safety bear, Buster, has celebrated his first birthday and with it a year of highlighting to children the importance of safety on construction sites.

Buster visits schools close to Redrow’s new home developments all over the UK, which include Lichfield, Hilton and Mountsorrel, to raise awareness among children of the dangers of playing on building sites. Health and safety is a top priority for Redrow and the award winning home builder is committed to educating children about these risks.

Bob Sayers, group health and safety director for Redrow, says: “Buster is a vital and hardworking member of our heath and safety team. For the past year he has been spreading the important safety message in schools with the support of the ‘Buster Rules OK!’ activity packs.”

As well as having fun with jokes, puzzles and activities, the pack helps children learn an important message from their ‘building buddy’, Buster, about the potential dangers on developments under construction.

Bob adds: “The children from ‘Busy Bees’ day nursery in St David’s Park, Flintshire, joined us for Buster’s party and we celebrated his birthday with a big cake. Buster is now looking forward to another year of meeting children throughout England, Scotland and Wales and reinforcing his safety message, in a fun and informative way.”

Buster is just one example of Redrow’s support and involvement with young people. The home builder has extended its commitment to education even further by launching the Redrow Learning Web, an on-line resource which includes a teachers’ area to help plan lessons and guide their pupils, meets with National Curriculum requirements and has been accredited by the National Grid for Learning.

The Learning Web is split into two modules – ‘The House Detectives’, aimed at primary school children aged eight to 11, and ‘Plan It … Build It’, which is targeted at secondary school pupils aged 12 – 16 as part of their citizenship studies.

‘The House Detectives’ enables children to compare and contrast their own community with others around the UK, while ‘Plan It … Build It’ challenges pupils to research, plan and ‘build’ a new development taking into account a full range of issues such as housing supply, planning policy, environmental concerns and sustainability.

The Redrow Learning Web, including Buster the bear activity packs, can be accessed at www.education.redrow.co.uk