Preparing young people to recognise and handle risk is vital say ‘Safe Islander’ organisers

Orkney’s latest crop of secondary school pupils will be taking part in the annual Safe Islander event this week aimed at helping them recognise some common risks – at a time when their independence is growing. 

The Safe Islander event returns on Thursday 18 September with pupils converging at Kirkwall Grammar School for hands-on activities and scenarios by several local organisations.

The event will be attended by pupils from KGS, Stromness Academy, and the Junior High Schools in Sanday and Westray. 

It’s expected the event will see around 250 pupils take part overall, with small groups rotating through eight different 'stations’ to hear direct from local organisations about risks and peer pressure situations they may face as teenagers: 

• Casey Construction will be talking about the dangers of entering construction sites – with scaffolding and equipment to help demonstrate the risks 
• Scottish Fire and Rescue Service will set up a ‘mock bedroom’ to spot dangers in - these include overloaded sockets and phone chargers left on overnight 
• RNLI will have a life raft for pupils to explore while they talk about water safety 
• SSEN will have high viz, harnesses and other equipment for pupils to get to grips with while they learn about living safely with electricity 
• Orkney Alcohol and Drugs Partnership are talking about vaping, alcohol, and peer pressure scenarios 
• SEPA will talk about how to stay safe in a flood, and get pupils to pick out common household items that could be useful to pack in a ‘flood kit’ 
• Police Scotland will be speaking about online safety and the dangers of revealing personal information in the digital world 
• The Council’s Community Learning and Development and Employability team will be inviting pupils to put a pin in a map to plot out the factors that make young people feel safest in their community and discussing the findings with them. 

The event - now in its 17^th year - is being led by OIC’s Youth Services team this year, part of the Council’s wider Community Learning and Development and Employability (CLDE) service. 

Cheryl Rafferty is OIC’s Youth Services Team Manager:  

“We’re really pleased to be the organisers this year, continuing the great work on this event which has been running for a number of years now.  

“It’s a great way to contribute to the wellbeing of our young people - and a timely opportunity for our team to get to know the new S1s and let them see how we work with their schools and with partners to support their safety and skills development.  

“A huge shout out to the Council’s Environmental Health team who set the event in motion many years ago and led it until her recent retirement from OIC – it’s thanks to that hard work over the years that we’ve been able to pick up the reins and run with it again this year. Also, a thank you to KGS for hosting the event again.” 

OIC Councillor David Dawson has chaired the county’s Road Safety Forum for several years and says the lessons learned at Safe Islander are central to young people’s wellbeing: “The value of this event is that it introduces young people to a wide range of risks in a safe and managed way. 

“Some of these will be risks they’ve maybe not encountered or thought about before.

“This event gives our S1s opportunity to learn about and recognise some common risks and really consider how they’d respond in the moment - at a stage of their life when they’re having to become that bit more independent. 

“I would like to thank all our staff here at the Council, past and present, and partners for their work over several years now, for ensuring this vital event continues for the safety of our young people.”