Following a visit to St Mark’s Primary School in Rutherglen, ScottishPower’s public safety education programme has now achieved the milestone of visiting every willing Primary School in their Scottish network area – helping more than 170,000 children learn about staying safe around electricity.
PowerWise is an award winning public safety education programme that is provided to schools free of charge. Running for over a decade, the programme has now visited more than 1,380 Primary Schools in Scotland.
The sessions are delivered by fully qualified teachers and are designed to help children recognise the dangers of electrical equipment in the home and outdoors, with advice on how to stay safe.
ScottishPower believes that engaging with young children will help reduce the number of incidents involving electricity later in life.
To celebrate this achievement, ScottishPower treated pupils at St Mark's Primary School to a special lesson which included a giant, colourful plasma ball that showed pupils the power of electricity at the touch of their fingertips. Ewan McMillan, Director of Health and Safety, ScottishPower Energy Networks was on hand to provide the pupils with some further tips and advice on how to stay safe around electricity.
Mr McMillan said: “From the outset of the PowerWise programme we aimed to visit as many Primary Schools as possible and we are very proud of achieving this milestone. It was fantastic to come down and see the children and staff at St Mark’s Primary School today and see how enthusiastically they respond to the lessons and witness first-hand the benefits that the programme provides.
“ScottishPower Energy Networks is committed to delivering these safety messages to as many children as possible and we will continue to target classrooms across the country. Educating young people about the potential dangers that are associated with electrical equipment is hugely important - as these lessons will help to keep people safe for many years to come.”
For further information, photography or interviews please contact:
Stephanie Robertson 07739 326 546 / Calum Frier 07834 376 791, Stripe Communications scottishpower@stripecommunications.com
Notes to editors:
ScottishPower Energy Networks owns and operates the electricity transmission and distribution network in the south of Scotland and the distribution network in Cheshire, Merseyside and North Wales.
As the network operator it maintains and repairs the electrical equipment and network assets that transport electricity to around 3.5 million homes and business.