Wednesday 27th September, 20 lucky Year 5 children were invited to explore the world of West Bromwich Emergency Services. The children visited the West Bromwich Fire Station to find out all about the careers, services and opportunities involved with the Fire and Police Services.

The day started with a boxing fitness session where we practiced skipping and shadow boxing. We then met Tara, the 6 month old springer spaniel who is currently in training to become a police dog! Jack was given the opportunity to help train Tara, he was given the task of hiding her training toy to see if she could sniff it out, and she did!

We were then given a tour a Fire Truck, the Fire Fighters explained the purpose of all of the equipment and answered our questions. A group of Fire Fighters then took us into the station to put our team work skills to the test, we were given challenges to complete as a team with very little input, we found it was really important to communicate with one another and to always include everyone in decision making and planning.

Just before lunch, we were given the opportunity to explore a police car and van, we were allowed to turn on the lights and sirens and even got to see what it would be like to be arrested! Even Ms Beale got arrested! Then we were treated to a live drill practice of the Fire Service recovering a car accident, which involved cutting and removing sections of the car! We were so impressed and gave them a big round of applause when they helped the ‘victims’ safely out of the car.

For the afternoon we moved inside for some education sessions starting with exploring a ‘crime scene’ where we took the role of officers from all different roles and found out what their jobs are in order to solve a crime!

After this we then had a session where discussed the importance of reporting fires and how to know the difference between a hoax and a genuine incident. We then put our knowledge to the test to identify some possible fire hazards we might find within our own homes and how to stop them from occurring to keep us safe!

To round off the day we then got to explore the ‘Police Museum’ where we could see a range of police attire and equipment dating as far back as the Victorian Period! We then had fun dressing up in the clothing and doing our best Police Officer impressions!

Thank you West Bromwich Fire and Police, we had a fantastic day!