Pakenham Learning Centre

The Pakenham Learning Centre provides students with a unique and memorable learning experience.  Contained within the Pakenham Police and Emergency Services Complex, the Learning Centre offers those attending the opportunity to enter a ‘real life’ fire station.  Housed within two of the four engine bays, the Centre provides an exceptional environment in which to deliver home fire safety messages to primary school aged children.

The program involves an activity filled one hour lesson that teaches students important life saving messages about fire.

These messages are further enhanced by the use of household props, simulated home environments and interactive multimedia, providing students with the opportunity to apply what they have learnt.

THIS IS A FREE SERVICE PROVIDED BY CFA

Target Audience

The program is targeted at middle primary students in Grades 3 and 4 but upon request can cater for those in younger year levels.  The Centre accommodates a maximum of thirty students.  It is also possible to provide additional activities on site in the instance where larger school groups would like to attend..

The Session Content

The Learning Centre program is integrated with and complements CFA’s Brigades in Schools Program (BIS).
Inside the Learning Centre we have simulated several home environments, enabling students to move through the high risk areas of the kitchen, laundry and lounge room.  A significant portion of time is also dedicated to preparing and rehearsing Home Fire Escape Plans, this component further complimented by ‘take-home’ material.

Inside the Learning Centre the students will:

• recognise and explain how to remedy home fire hazards
• discuss the science behind fire through understanding the fire triangle
• identify and discuss the dangers of flammable liquids
• learn personal survival strategies to extinguish clothing fires and to cool burn/scald injuries
• identify the need to make a home fire escape plan and work through several possible scenarios

Outcomes of the Program:

• Increasing students’ understanding of fire safety around the home;
• Promoting fire safety to students in a novel environment that is conducive to learning;
• Alerting the community to the need for fire safety at school and home;
• Alerting the community to CFA’s role in saving life and property;
• Students are encouraged to take the fire safety messages home and discuss them with family and friends.

Booking a session at the Learning Centre

The Learning Centre is open on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  Simply email your preferred time and date for a session to Pakenham-learning-centre@cfa.vic.gov.au or alternatively contact the Learning Centre Coordinator on 03 5945 4700 for further information or available booking times.

Program Design and Curriculum Links

The program is designed to enable students to demonstrate strategies that deal with unsafe or emergency situations. This is strongly aligned to the learning outcomes in the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) and Curriculum Standards Framework II (CSFII). The lesson covers aspects within three key learning areas of Health and Physical Education, SOSE and Science.

Also Available

Pakenham Learning Centre Curriculum (pdf 136k)
Pakenham Learning Centre Curriculum - Print Friendly (pdf 136k)