CHILDREN who teamed up with Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service received a standing ovation for a theatre performance tackling safety issues.

A Key Stage Two class from each of Cheshire’s four unitary areas – Halton, Warrington, Cheshire East and Cheshire West – took part in the project, as well as community groups from across the county.

The schools – including Willow Wood Community Primary School from Winsford – have been working on the project since March after first meeting at the interactive life skills education centre Safety Central, in Lymm.

Performed at The Brindley Theatre, in Runcorn, the ‘Safer Together’ performance was the result of a collaboration between Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service and the Manchester Camerata orchestra.

The link up saw the fire service’s prevention department work with the composer, theatre maker and musicians from Manchester Camerata to highlight key water, home, rural and anti-social safety issues from an intergenerational perspective.

Nick Evans, head of prevention at Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service, said: “Each scenario was explored from both a young person’s and an older person’s perspective, portraying how they might respond to different emergency situations and showing the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ ways to act.

“This was an innovative project which has brought young and older people together to learn about mutual safety issues and then work with professional musicians and prevention staff at Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service to creatively express what they have learned.”

A series of workshops were held to devise and rehearse the performance, which portrayed the causes and consequences of a series of scenarios based on real-life stories to highlight the need to be more vigilant and safety conscious.

A gallery of pictures from the evening can be viewed on the Cheshire Fire Flickr account by clicking here.