Children’s safety comes first on Injury Free Day at Corio

SAFE PLACE: Natalie Millsteed, mascot Seemore, Suzie O'Neill and Rebecca Branch help children learn the safety message at Corio this week. 144623 Picture: Reg Ryan

By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN

KIDS will be kids and accidents will happen – but not if Corio’s Happy Feet early learning centre has anything to do with it.
The centre marked Injury Free Day this week to highlight safety awareness and injury prevention to help keep kids and accidents separate.
Injury Free Day is a national safety awareness campaign initiated by national health promotion charity, the KIDS Foundation.
The foundation’s Susie O’Neill said 5000 children were injured and 100 hospitalised from accidents daily in Australia.
“Children are encouraged to embrace the Think Safe, Play Safe message and to get the whole preschool community involved in safety awareness,” Mrs O’Neill said.
“We encourage Injury Free Day to be both educational and fun. It’s a day that empowers children and the rest of the community.
Children at Happy Feet participated in teaching and learning activities that highlighted the importance of creating safety awareness at preschool and at home.
Happy Feet director Natalie Millsteed said safety was the centre’s highest priority.
“Our involvement in Injury Free Day has helped our 35 families and their enrolled children to focus on injury prevention in our own local community as well as reminding us that safety is an important national issue,” she said.