More than 1,200 schoolchildren have learnt valuable skills in how to stay safe in real-life situations.

The pupils from 35 schools across Waveney took part in Crucial Crew – a national safety initiative aimed at year-six students.

Held between November 13 and November 24 at Lowestoft Community Church on the South Lowestoft Industrial estate, Crucial Crew enabled children to experience real-life situations through talks and theatre-based scenarios.

Youngsters, aged 10 or 11, learnt how to tackle the personal dangers they face, raising their awareness in a fun and effective way as eight different scenarios advising them how to keep safe in their daily lives, were played out.

Among the safety topics were how to deal with a fire, road safety tips, railway safety, electrical safety and first aid advice, as scenarios were run by St John Ambulance, the fire brigade, police, Suffolk County Council, Lowestoft Lifeguards and a truck safety demonstration using a large DHL articulated lorry.

Event co-organiser and Rotarian, Brian Hunter, said: 'The event was run this year by the Lowestoft Rotary Club with support from Lowestoft East Point Rotary Club, Lowestoft South Rotary and Beccles and Bungay Rotary clubs. The support of Waveney District Council and local sponsorship has also been gratefully received, and we are very grateful to the emergency services organisations who support us so well.

'The scheme's realism is particularly appealing to the children. It is great to have the trained volunteers from all the organisations in one place with scenarios designed to keep the children safe. Crucial Crew sees the children come to one place where they have all the information to keep safe in various dangerous situations.'

The annual event has been held in Waveney for 15 years. With the children given the chance to experience eight different emergency/dangerous situations in a controlled environment, they were presented with a number of problems and at the end of each scenario there were question and answer sessions, with children demonstrating what they had learnt.

Mr Hunter added he was 'very, very pleased' with how this year's event had gone. He said: 'Crucial Crew has seen 1,200 youngsters receive advice on how to keep safe in their daily lives – that's a wonderful thing.'