The 2013 competition is now OPEN
Hints and Tips for Key Stage 1 & 2 safety poster competition.
- As it’s a warning poster, try and make the poster as eye catching as possible so that people take notice.
- Try and think of all the different places where building work takes place e.g. houses, road works, refurbishments, demolition, schools, shops offices etc.
- Try to highlight the safety equipment (or possibly lack of) used on construction sites e.g. hard hats, high visibility jackets, gloves, harnesses, steel toe boots etc.
- Possibly highlight the potential dangers on construction sites e.g. large vehicles, pits and manholes, building materials, heavy materials, tools etc.
To view previous winners posters visit our Hall of Fame where you could appear if your poster is picked as the winner.
Hints and Tips for key stage 3 writing competition
Make it relevant
Make sure your story is relevant to the campaign requirements throughout your writing process. Remember it is all about educating young children of the dangers construction sites can pose. Although health and safety may not sound exciting, it is your job as a writer to make it so!
Understand your audience
Remember to bear in mind the age range of your audience. They will be young children so using long words and complicated language may not be within their grasps yet. Keep it simple and coherent. Also keep the story interesting! Remember young children don’t have a huge attention span so they must be gripped in order to read through to the end. Also don’t make it too gory, we don’t want to scare them to death!
Remember the word count
The word count of the competition is 2000 words. Although this seems a lot it soon runs out, so keep your story concise and don’t go off on a tandem. Make sure everything in the story is relevant and to the point. Make every word count!
PLAN PLAN PLAN
Although it’s great being creative, it will probably be best to plan your story in order to outline a beginning, middle and an end. Make sure you know where you want your story to go and what you want the outcome to be. Remember they don’t have to be rigid frameworks but plans can be great to refer to if you get lost half way through your writing.
Characters
Who are your characters? The characters in your story should enable your audience to identify with them, even if they are Martians from a far off distant planet. By giving them certain characteristics audiences can relate to, they can bring your characters to life in their imaginations. Possibly you may like to bring to life our own mascot Norman the friendly builder!?
Remember what is on a construction site
Construction sites are generally seen as dangerous sites with large cranes and scaffolding, along with sharp dangerous tools. However remember that construction sites are not only creating large sky scrapers, they are sites that are building your mum and dad’s or your neighbour’s extension. Make sure the setting of your story is believable and can be created easily in your audience’s imagination.
