Playing safe: QPA attention turns to teenagers

AN aggregates levy-funded research project into ways of combating quarry trespass by teenagers will reach a conclusion at a conference in Loughborough at the end of this month. The project is being run by the Quarry Products Association and its member companies.

The QPA says that although its popular ‘Play Safe…Stay Safe’ materials have been adopted by the industry and presented to a large number of younger children, there is an ongoing need for the industry to communicate with young people throughout their school careers, as a large proportion of the problems associated with quarry trespass are committed by teenagers. With this as the impetus, the Association embarked on the research project to look into ways of communicating and engaging with this particular age group.

At four pilot schools across the country, all in areas with a high density of quarries, students themselves were asked to tackle the problem of trespass. Although the youngsters produced videos, web sites, artwork, magazines and even sculpture to raise awareness of the problem, the QPA project team found it was not what the students produced that helped tackle trespass, but the act of engaging with the issue itself that helped the teenagers gain a better understanding of the risks.

Consequently, the QPA has enlisted the help of an education expert to develop a teaching template that can be taken to schools alongside the ‘Play Safe’ materials, specifically designed to engage older children in the issue of quarry safety and to help them gain a more mature perception of risk.

The draft resources will be launched at the free half-day conference at Loughborough University on 28 March 2006. Anyone interested in attending should contact the QPA by email on: events@qpa.org or tel: (020) 7963 8014. The final resources will be made available to the industry in the spring.