Fast Heroes Program at Pinewood!
February 25, 2021
Pinewood implements the Fast Heroes project!
The FAST Stroke Heroes campaign aims to raise awareness of the key symptoms of stroke in young children so that they understand how to respond in an emergency. The programme provides resources to help children understand about stroke, recognize the symptoms and share this information with their wider family and community.
One superhero and their unique superpower will be introduced by the teachers and nurse, through a Powerpoint presentation, a short animation video, and a wide range of in-class and take-home activities, such as role-playing, funny face mimicking games, and rhyming poems. Children were also encouraged to identify their own family superhero so as to transfer their learning to real life.
It promises to be fun for children, gives teachers an exciting way to educate their classes on a topic that affects us all and it will create opportunities for the children to make a difference for their beloved ones. Find more and details and register below:
For students in Kindergarten to Grade 5
Our school is taking part in an international project to improve the awareness of stroke symptoms with the ultimate aim to ensure that grandparents can keep doing what they do best; that is to leave a positive impact on your child’s life.
The Department of Educational and Social Policy of the University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki – Greece, with the support of ‘Angels Initiative’, has designed the greek version for “FAST Heroes 112”, a program which is addressed to children 4-12 years old. In Pinewood, this program will be implemented from Kindergarten to Grade 5 by Ms. Ioanna Koumpli our P.E. teacher, and Ms. Katerina Karagkiaouri, our School Nurse. Through the program, children will be trained to remember the 3 most important signs of stroke by linking them to the European 112 emergency number.
Specifically, the program structure is divided in 5 axes of approximately 20 min duration each. Every time, children will learn about one symptom of stroke. The target-oriented education is conducted through a series of activities that contain pedagogical, entertaining and playful traits, accordingly selected to match the age of the children. Children will have as “fellow travelers” in this educational process four “superheroes”, the FAST Heroes. Each FAST Hero will help the children learn about a specific stroke symptom by linking it to one of the numbers in the. Children will be taught that when Face droops from 1 side, 1 Arm becomes weak or 2 lips cannot produce Speech properly, they have to call 112 immediately and ask for an ambulance. So, the initials of these 3 symptoms form the mnemonic “FAST”. If children are able to recognize the main signs of a stroke, what to do when a stroke occurs and pass that knowledge on to their family, it can save the life of a loved one.
The program includes 5 online interactive books that are presented at school, while parents are informed via mails. Each book is related to one of the 4 FAST Heroes, which children will know through a series of various activities, such as drawings, puppet show, games, etc. At the end of the program, the children’s handicrafts are supposed to be sent to their two chosen, real-life superheroes (grandfather, grandmother, uncle, aunt or any other favorite relative) of their choice.
How you get involved in the program:
What we ask from you is to register on the program’s website, www.fastheroes.com (as a parent / guardian) where you will find more material and games for children. Once the program is over, we urge you to give the material children will have prepared at school, along with the letters they will have prepared at school for their two chosen real-life superhero, inside the two blue envelopes.
Please feel free to contact us for any information at [email protected]
[email protected] and [email protected]
Thank you very much!
The FAST Heroes 112 Team