Child farm safety calendar launched for rural schools across Northern Ireland

The annual publication focuses on the four key dangers on farms, namely slurry, animals, falls and equipment. It features potentially lifesaving farm-safety messages to children in rural primary, and special schools across Northern Ireland.

Twelve winning hand drawn pictures were selected from over 2268 entries with each ‘junior artist’ receiving a £50 gift card and having their picture included in the 2024 calendar.

Over 28,000 copies of the calendar are set to be distributed exclusively to rural primary schools and special schools for children to take home.

Launching the calendar at Denamona Primary School, Fintona, HSENI Chief Executive Robert Kidd said: “Farming is one of the most dangerous occupations in Northern Ireland. While we have various steams of work ongoing with the wider farming community, our calendar competition continues to be a fantastic way to deliver farm safety messages in an engaging way directly to children.

“This year we had entries from 78 schools, and I am convinced that, by engaging with children at an early age, we will help form their approach to farm safety now and in the future.

“We are enormously grateful for the support we receive from our rural schools for the competition. An enormous ‘thank-you’ goes to everyone who took part.”

The competition was launched in June this year and was open to rural primary school pupils (foundation, Key Stage 1, and Key Stage 2) and pupils from Special Schools in Northern Ireland.

The calendar was sponsored by Farm Safety Partnership members and affiliates: Abbey Autoline, NFU Mutual, PowerNI, Ulster Farmers Union, Northern Ireland Safety Group, DAERA, LANTRA, and the Northern Health and Social Care Trust.

For more information about child safety on farms visit: www.hseni.gov.uk/farmsafety