Bonanza Creative
Educating, engaging and empowering 58,000 young people on the dangers of carbon monoxide
Our project at a glance
- Partner GDNs: Northern Gas Networks, SGN and Wales & West Utilities
- Strategic priority area: Carbon monoxide awareness
- Support target: 58,000 young people over four academic years
- Duration: September 2022 to March 2026
- Investment: £575,901.44 over four academic years
- Forecast SROI: £2.35
We thoroughly enjoyed it. The way you used drama and games to bring the learning to life really helped to reinforce the learning. Who could have thought that learning about carbon monoxide could be so fun!
Teacher feedback
Why we’re working together
Young people are one of the groups most at risk from carbon monoxide poisoning. The NHS explains this is because the smaller a person is, the faster they’ll be affected by carbon monoxide.
Schools provide an opportunity to reach this at-risk group in an environment where they are focused on learning and likely to be receptive to CO safety advice. Although the programme takes place in school, our awareness raising will extend beyond the classroom, as the children will take their learning home to their families and act as advocates for CO safety in the wider community.
We’re excited to lead a collaboration with Northern Gas Networks and Wales & West Utilities to reach primary and secondary school age children with carbon monoxide safety information. Following a successful seven-month trial in 2022, we’re partnering with creative learning specialists Bonanza Creative to deliver tailored educational programmes for children aged 5 to 16.
Project objectives
- Educating young people on the dangers of CO through in-school sessions
- Empowering young people to take their learning home to keep their households safe from CO
How we’re working together
In-depth classroom sessions
Bonanza Creative runs two tailored classroom-based educational programmes, Safety Seymour for Key Stage 1 pupils aged five to seven and CO Crew for Key Stage 2 pupils aged eight to 11. During the sessions, pupils learn what carbon monoxide is, where it comes from, the dangers of CO and how to stay safe.
Every child who participates in an in-depth session receives a take-home CO safety pack. The pack includes a CO information leaflet, completion certificate, sticker and keyring. Importantly, the packs also include a letter to parents and guardians to further empower the young person to take the learning home and share it with their household.
School assemblies
As an alternative to in-depth classroom-based sessions, we’re also running assembly sessions. These shorter sessions include a 15-minute video incorporating Safety Seymour and the CO Crew to provide a high-level overview of the dangers of CO and CO safety advice. The video provides details of the classroom sessions to encourage the schools to book those for more in-depth learning for young people.
CO awareness for SEN schools
As a partnership, we’re committed to providing an inclusive educational programme for all young people. Bonanza Creative is experienced in delivering these activities with accessibility in mind and so, we’re providing tailored CO awareness sessions at special educational needs (SEN) schools as part of this collaborative programme.
Pupils at SEN schools will also receive a CO alarm to take home as we identified during our programme pilot that providing a CO alarm for SEN school participants helped them to engage with the learning and share it at home.
Silent Killer trial for Key Stage 3 pupils
In addition to our educational programmes for pupils in Key Stages 1 and 2, we’re also trialling a new Silent Killer programme for Key Stage 2 pupils aged 12 to 16. This programme is an extension of our Silent Killer ‘whodunnit’ interactive resource that we’ve created especially for this age group. Our trial will allow us to gain valuable feedback from secondary school teachers and pupils on the format of this new classroom-based session.
How to get involved
If you’d like to register your interest in a CO safety session for your school, please visit the Bonanza Creative website and enter your school postcode to check availability.