Teenagers take the lead in new quarry safety campaign

THE Quarry Products Association is taking an innovative new approach to communicating with young people in an effort to tackle the problem of trespass. A recent survey has revealed that 55% of quarry managers across the industry are still aware of incidents of trespass on their sites, with teenagers presenting a particular concern.

Although the QPA’s long-running Play Safe…Stay Safe campaign has reached a large audience of younger children and parents, concerns have been expressed that the materials are less suitable for teenagers. With this in mind, the QPA has launched the Reassessing Risk project in partnership with the HSE, Derbyshire Constabulary and other partners to take a fresh look at the problem.

From the outset, the project has sought the guidance of teenagers themselves in developing a new approach to communication. Teenagers were drafted from four partnership schools in major quarrying areas to tackle this communication challenge. Their unique approaches were presented by the students at the recent Reassessing Risk conference in Loughborough.

The young teams from Tividale Community Arts College in Oldbury, Frome Community College in Somerset, Anthony Gell School in Wirksworth and Serlby Park School in Nottinghamshire variously produced documentaries, advertising posters, magazines, radio jingles, web sites and even a sculpture.

The conference was also an opportunity to showcase the extended work that the QPA had undertaken with the Anthony Gell School and leading learning analyst Roy Leighton. This part of the project saw Mr Leighton work with students at the school to develop a new approach to teaching teenagers practical techniques for managing risk-taking in their lives.

This work will produce a set of teaching materials that can be taken into schools where the problem of teenage trespass is particularly acute. The pack will equip teachers with the resources needed to help students realize the inherent dangers of thrill-seeking in quarries and encourage them to redirect their energy into more worthwhile pursuits.

Speaking at the conference, Cedric Hollinsworth, the conference chairman and executive director of the QPA, said: ‘Although great progress has been made by quarrying companies to remedy the problem – through a series of measures including school visits and site security – trespass remains a major problem at some locations.

‘One overwhelming conclusion from the project is that you cannot hope to change teenagers’ behaviour unless you change their thinking. Success comes not from talking at them, but from engaging with them and their imaginations. We’ve also learnt that it isn’t so much the resources themselves, but the actual production process that is really significant in spreading our key safety messages.

‘The students who have worked on these projects have not just have taken in the messages personally, but will also have spread the word to both their peers and younger children. As part of this year’s Play Safe…Stay Safe campaign, we will soon be approaching schools in each of our key safety hotspots to recruit new teenage ambassadors. They will visit their local primary schools, present their resources and spread the safety message even further.’