GALLERY: Taste of life at Shoreham Fire Station

SHOREHAM crew members gave special education students a taste of life as a firefighter.
s37565h14 Liam Beckett and Harry Diplocks37565h14 Liam Beckett and Harry Diplock
s37565h14 Liam Beckett and Harry Diplock

The FireBreak course is regularly run at Shoreham Fire Station, in Stoney Lane, but this time it was specially adapted for students from Oak Grove College in Worthing.

Eight young people aged 12 to 15 with learning difficulties celebrated after successfully graduating last Friday.

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Ross McKay, a teacher from the community college, said: “There is no doubting how much the students enjoyed the course. It was a pleasure to watch them perform their Pass Out drills with such obvious pride.

s37565h14 Liam Beckett and Harry Diplocks37565h14 Liam Beckett and Harry Diplock
s37565h14 Liam Beckett and Harry Diplock

“We’d like to thank West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service and in particular the fantastic team of FireBreak instructors for making the students’ experience such a positive one.”

The students, from year seven to year 14, spent five consecutive days at Shoreham Fire Station, working alongside firefighters and taking part in a specially-adapted version of the FireBreak course.

Throughout the week, the group took on a range of team-building and problem-solving activities, fire service ladder and hose drills, and learned vital life-saving skills.

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The challenging week culminated in a special Pass Out presentation, where students performed a fire service drill and demonstrated the new skills they had learned in front of an invited audience of family, friends and teachers.

Watch manager Angela Spencer-Smith, who led the course, said: “We believe that FireBreak is a powerful tool for transforming the lives of the young people who take part in it.

“The fire service runs on a culture of teamwork, respect and working really hard for each other, so we pack those values into all the activities we do during the week.

“Our team of instructors have really enjoyed working alongside the young people from Oak Grove College, helping them to overcome challenges and achieve things they really didn’t believe they could at the start of the week. The students should all be very proud of their achievements.”