A pupil from Willaston Primary School in Douglas will see her artwork used to publicise next year’s Crucial Crew week after winning a competition.
Crucial Crew is now in its 31st year and involves primary school pupils from across the island attending Isle of Man College to learn life skills from a number of organisations including the police, fire brigade, coastguard and Manx Telecom.
This year the event ran for four days in the last week of June and pupils were challenged to produce a poster illustrating the most important lessons that they learned during the event. Jessica Heard, aged 11, won and as well as seeing her design used to produce posters for Crucial Crew 2014 she and her classmates at Willaston Primary School all won £10 mobile top-up vouchers from Manx Telecom.
Police sergeant Wendy Barker said: ‘The Crucial Crew committee were delighted with the number of entries in the competition and the quality of the artwork which children created.
‘They all put a lot of time and effort into thinking about how to convey the purpose of Crucial Crew and we would like to thank everyone who took part.’
Keith Hardisty, headteacher at Willaston School, said: ‘We’re very proud that Jessica’s design was chosen to promote Crucial Crew 2014. She has always been creative and hard-working and is a deserving winner of the competition.’
This year’s Crucial Crew included contributions from the police focusing on ‘responsibility and consequences’.
The fire service organised a demonstration on safety in the home by creating a mock-up of a bedroom and asking children to spot safety hazards.
Manx Telecom staff presented workshops advising children how they can stay safe while online, and encouraging them to use the internet and mobiles safely and responsibly.
They also learnt how to be safe when using interactive games, or social networks, spot the warning signs that they should report to adults or teachers while online, and learn about the effects of cyber-bullying and what to do if they are a victim of it.
Children were given Manx Telecom bags including a water bottle, mobile safety booklet, a ‘Fakebook’ leaflet, and a leaflet about fire safety. Other workshops and demonstrations were given by St John Ambulance, Isle of Man Coastguard, Manx Electricity Authority, Manx Gas, Department of Health, and the Department of Infrastructure’s road safety unit. The Department of Community, Culture and Leisure provided free bus transport for all the school pupils to and from the college.
[MT – Crucial Crew winner1]: Willaston Primary School pupil Jessica Heard, 11, with her winning design. She was presented with her prize by, left to right, Station Officer Roger Brown of the Isle of Man Fire and Rescue Service’s Community Fire Safety Department, PC Mike Griffiths, Willaston Primary School Headteacher Keith Hardisty, and Emma Walker from Manx Telecom.
[MT – Crucial Crew winner2]: Willaston Primary School pupil Jessica Heard, 11, with her design which won the Crucial Crew poster competition.
[MT – Crucial Crew winner3]: Willaston Primary School pupil Jessica Heard, 11, centre, with her classmates who all won £10 Manx Telecom top-up vouchers thanks to Jessica winning the Crucial Crew poster competition.
[MT – Crucial Crew winner4]: The winning design created by Willaston School pupil Jessica Heard.
