Harkaway Primary School set about on a mission to increase the bushfire preparedness of our whole school community. In partnership with Dr. Towers, from the Centre for Risk and Community Safety at RMIT University, staff developed the “Harkaway Emergency Learning Program” (HELP), a whole-school, cross-curricular, 10 week emergency management focused disaster risk reduction program.

The program concluded in a whole school development of a picture story book, “Rules of the Fire Season”, showcasing the key messages students’ had learned. To illustrate the book, staff learned a range of artistic techniques in a Zart Art Professional Development workshop, then taught these techniques to students during a full day art workshop. After practicing the techniques, students selected one of the safety messages to illustrate in their final piece of art. An independent graphic designer selected one of the illustrations for each message, to be published in the book.

Click here to view the full AusVELS unit.

Liz Walford
Visual Arts Teacher
Harkaway Primary School
Suitable for levels 1-6