Portland House pre-schoolers had a special visitor, it was one of the children’s daddies ‘Al’ who had come to talk to the children about his important job of which keeps people safe on the railways.
Al talked to the children about his job of which he surveys areas, buildings, bridges along the railway route to make sure they are safe for the trains to pass through and keep passengers and people safe. To do this he has to wear a special uniform to protect himself, we learnt that his uniform which the children could recognise as bright orange had special silver material strips on it so that it reflected with light in the dark so if he was working at night he could easily be seen. His blue hat which was really hard protects his head in case anything fell on to it and he has a special head torch on it so he can see in the dark. We turned the lights out so that we could see the torch light up and also the reflective strips on the uniform glow. Al told us about the special boots he wears, they were really hard so that his feet and toes kept safe and he told us that they were also waterproof like our wellies which keep his feet dry if he is in any water or jumping in puddles.
We also saw Al’s glasses that he wears to prevent anything going into his eyes. The children learnt the new word Survey and Al told them it means to look at things with your eyes the children then proceed to look around the room and surveyed the ceiling and lights.
Al brought some lovely interactive Thomas the Tank Engine books titled ‘Stand Back’ which tells us how to keep safe whilst we are at the railway stations if we are travelling by train, staying safe at level crossings, knowing where it is safe to go and staying safe on days out in the countryside. We learnt that it’s very important to make sure that we stand behind the yellow lines so that we don’t fall onto the tracks and to keep hold of an adult's hand. We also talked about how it wouldn’t be safe to play with balls and toys on the train tacks whilst we were waiting at the station. All the children had a little story book ‘Stay Safe with Thomas’ to take home to share with their families and continue their learning of staying safe at the railways.
