Our 3-Step Escape Plan

  • First Escape Route
  • Second Escape Route
  • Meeting Place
Notes

Use this space to note any additional information about your escape plan, i.e. who will assist

Your checklist

  • Get low

    Smoke is poisonous and more deadly than flames.

    If you breathe smoke for more than a few breaths it can kill you.

  • Be fast

    A house fire can kill you in less than three minutes.

    Don't spend time trying to save possessions.

  • Close doors

    A closed door buys you time.

    It slows down the spread of fire, giving you more time to get to safety.

  • Get out - stay out!

    People have died by going back into a fire.

    Don't leave the meeting place to go back inside for any reason.

Call emergency services as soon as you are out and safe. Ask for FIRE.

Clearly state your address and let the operator know it anyone is still inside or has not made it to the safe meeting place.

Emergency call 111 Emergency text 111

Get Firewise

Get Firewise for year 1 and 2 is a sequenced programme of learning experiences designed to give five and six year olds knowledge, attitudes and behaviours that will keep them safe around fire. 

On this page

On this page

  • About Get Firewise
  • Key outcomes of the Firewise programme
  • Firewise assessment data and programme feedback
  • Firewise assessment and feedback form
  • Firefighter visit
  • Order physical resources for schools
  • Home educators
  • Online resources

About Get Firewise

The Get Firewise programme is cross-curricula with a strong literacy focus. It meets the objectives of Te Marautanga o Aotearoa | The New Zealand Curriculum (2008)with additional content updates.

Get Firewiseis a flexible programme and can be used as a short term topic using literacy and topic time over two or three weeks. It can also be used as a whole term topic using an inquiry learning approach.

Watch the video for a snapshot view of what our Get Firewise programme offers. From curriculum insights, classroom teaching, a firefighter visit to interactive and fun experiences on a fire station. It can be used as a promotional tool for schools.

Key outcomes of the Firewise programme

Get Firewise is focused on ensuring students:

  • understand that fire can be dangerous
  • can show they know how to prevent fires starting
  • can show they know how to get themselves out of a burning building quickly and safely to a safe meeting place.

These outcomes can be identified as achieved through completion of the assessment data and activities provided below.

Teachers may choose to use one or more of these simple activities to assess their class against each outcome. You may choose to use the same or different activities for diagnostic and summative assessment.

Firewise assessment data and programme feedback

Assessment activities

The Firewise assessment tool has now been updated. Teachers can complete the diagnostic assessment directly online to capture student knowledge and behaviours before starting the programme.

Complete the assessment activities before you begin, and after completing the programme to show how behaviours of students and families are changing as a result of this programme; specifically, the three fire safety learning outcomes.

Note: we prioritise firefighter visits to schools who have completed the assessments.

Once the diagnostic assessment has been submitted, an automated email will be sent to remind teachers to complete the summative assessment at the end of the programme.

This update reflects teacher feedback and is designed to make the assessment process easier and more efficient.

Fill in the online form.

Useful guides:

Feedback form

Complete the feedback form once you've completed the programme to help us ensure the programme remains current and best meets the needs of teachers, kaiako and students.

There are four sections to the feedback form:

  1. Contact and school details
  2. Assessment data
  3. Feedback on the Firewise resources/programme
  4. Feedback on the firefighter visit.

Fill in the online form.

Firewise assessment and feedback form

Complete now

Firefighter visit

While the Get Firewise programme is designed to be delivered solely by teachers, a visit by firefighters or designated Firewise coordinators can occur near the end, or after the learning programme, assessment and feedback form have been completed.

The firefighter visit is a structured presentation to the class that summarises and reinforces the key learning in theGet Firewise. It is usually about 30-to 45-minutes.

This presentation focuses on:

  • being safe with matches, lighters and candles
  • the speed of fire
  • escaping from a room that has smoke in it.

The firefighter or Firewise coordinator will discuss this presentation with you and can adapt it to meet the identified needs of your class. The presentation is designed around gaining responses from students and should be delivered to one class at a time to be effective. The firefighters will not deliver presentations to groups of classes because the students’ retention of safety behaviours is compromised.

Please note:A firefighter presentation supports, but it is not a substitute for, the learning programme. Students must have completed, or have almost completed,Get Firewise, before a firefighter can visit. Not all locations will have firefighters available, andFirefighters that visit are on duty, this means they may be called away if there is an emergency.

To check the availability and/or arrange for a firefighter or Firewise coordinator to visit your class, please use thecontact form(opens in a new tab).

Order physical resources for schools

Order now

Home educators can use the Get Firewise and Māui Tinei Ahi (opens in a new tab)programme material in a flexible way, adapting activities to suit learning at home and incorporating them into personalised literacy or inquiry-based learning sessions.

The Get Firewise and Maui Tinei Ahi main page overview is equally valuable for home educators wanting to understand how the programme supports fire safety learning in a home-based environment.

Key outcomes of the Firewise programme

Get Firewise is focused on ensuring students:

  • understand that fire can be dangerous
  • can show they know how to prevent fires starting
  • can show they know how to get themselves out of a burning building quickly and safely to a safe meeting place.

These outcomes apply to all learners, including those learning at home, and can be reinforced through everyday routines and home-based activities.

Home educators groups may also request a firefighter visit where available. Visits can be adapted for small-group learning environments, depending on local availability. We also have theFire Truck Video(opens in a new tab) available.

For all downloadable material view our learning from home resources(opens in a new tab).