The heat is on

Oxfordshire’s Blue Skies level 2 students got to experience a day at the Fire Section at RAF Brize Norton.

The day started with a tour of the station, some demonstrations of the equipment and a look around the fire engines. Then the group had a number of tasks to complete focusing on working as a team and applying the leadership skills they have been learning over the past few weeks.

The first task included getting a casualty from one side of a simulated fire to the other without touching it.

One student was chosen to instruct and lead the team. In their first try at the task, the students took 17 minutes to complete it, but the second time they only took 7 minutes which was a huge improvement.

The second task was to put out a simulated fire using a hose in small teams of three. This task involved each team member working together to set out the hoses, link them together and start the water to put out the fire.

‘I loved getting to use the fire equipment, especially getting to put out a pretend fire with the hose pipe.’ BS2 student

The final morning task was to guide each other blindfolded through a series of tunnels on different levels. After some lunch the students got to use the radios and one student had to navigate the other students around the station to collect clues that would reveal a code to access the prize. Both teams worked really hard to and managed to get the code before it was time to return to school.

‘Today has been the best day and made me realise this is what I really want to do when I leave school.’ Will, BS2 student

The students had a fantastic session and once again worked closely together as a team communicating effectively and supporting each other to achieve their objectives.