St Marks Primary School, Manchester Wins Health and Safety Competition With CBBC Dick and Dom

St Marks Primary School, Manchester Wins Health and Safety Competition With CBBC Dick and Dom

MANCHESTER, England, March 7/PRNewswire/ --

- With Photo

CBBC Dick and Dom showed up at Manchester City Stadium yesterday to
congratulate the winners from St Marks Primary School, Holland Street
Manchester, who took part in a new health and safety poster competition.

The initiative launched by Mears Social Housing maintenance and repair
contractors and endorsed by the Children's Safety Education Foundation,
teaches children aged between five and seven years of the dangers that can
exist in the home when tradesmen are doing repairs. RoSPA (Royal Society for
the Prevention of Accidents) are also supporting the initiative. It is
estimated that 256 children an hour are taken to hospitals following
accidents, and almost half of these accidents occur in the home.

Ronan Dalton aged seven won GBP500 prize money for St' Marks. His winning
poster warned children of the dangers of playing with repair tools in the
home.

Ronan's poster was chosen out of 500 potential winners by Dick and Dom,
who praised him on creativity and design. Corpus Christi with St' Anne's RC
Primary School, Carruthers Street, Manchester, who also took part in the
competition, came third and won GBP300 for their school.

The CBBC duo performed a health and safety sketch in front of a captive
audience of 40 children, with Mears cartoon character Mr Menda. The kids also
played games and took part in a fun learning experience.

Mears CEO Stuart Black said:

"Menda is a fun character with a serious message. Our staff are visitors
in people's homes and we try to keep disruption to a minimum while
carrying out improvements. But children are naturally curious about
visitors. In many cases they learn about play by watching adults at work.

"Menda will teach children about the dangers of handling tools that they
might see in their home during a Mears' visit. He'll show them how to keep
safe and you never know - he may inspire some towards a career in home
improvement too!"

John McNamee, CEO Children's Safety Education Foundation said:

"We are delighted to support Mears in their Health and Safety
initiative. Mears has designed safety packs for children that are
informative and educational too. We hope the children enjoy this learning
exercise"

Second prize went to Lizzie Burgess of Hazel Grove School in Stockport.
Other Manchester schools taking part included:

Friars Primary School, St.Wilfred's RC Primary School and St. Patrick's
Primary School.

Mears are well established in the North West region and work in
partnership with Wigan and Leigh Housing; Stockport City Council and Stockton
Council to provide social housing repairs and maintenance work.

Mears also provides extensive work for the Government's 'Decent Homes'
work programme.

NOTES TO EDITORS

Mears Group PLC

1) Mears is the leading social housing repairs and maintenance
provider in the UK, providing rapid response and planned maintenance
services to Local Authorities and Registered social Landlords.

2) Our core business takes us to the heart of communities which
provides us with a prime opportunity to enhance our understanding of
today's problems. We strongly believe we can provide sustainable
improvements to the communities where we are contracted to work, through
targeting the skills of our workforce. Our vision is to actively enable,
encourage and engage our employees to contribute to this aim, which helps
us impact a wider part of our communities and extend our commitment to
improving our neighbourhoods and ultimately improving lives.

3) Mears employ and train local people and work together to
improve the quality of life of the whole community.

Health and Safety statistics

Market research carried out by on behalf of Mears Group state that:

- Nearly 50% of children do not know why protective clothing
and hard hats/masks are worn whilst renovation work is being carried out
in their home.

- 30% of parents in the North West find it difficult to
supervise children at all times, whilst workmen are carrying out repairs
in the home.

- 25% of children have accidents which result in bruises, trips
and falls when DIY repairs are being carried out in their home.

4) Mears is the largest social housing repairs and maintenance
provider in the UK, providing rapid response and planned maintenance
services to Local Authorities and Registered social Landlords. Mears is
working across the UK to provide decent homes for social housing tenants.
- to date we have improved 500,000 homes.

5) Our core business takes us to the heart of communities which
provides us with a prime opportunity to enhance our understanding of
today's problems. We strongly believe we can provide sustainable improvements
to the communities where we are contracted to work, through targeting
the skills of our workforce. Our vision is to actively enable, encourage and
engage our employees to contribute to this aim, which helps us impact wider
part of our communities and extend our commitment to improving our
neighbourhoods and ultimately improving lives.

6) Mears employ and train local people and work together to
improve the quality of life of the whole community.

We currently have operations in Wigan and Stockport and are expanding our
reach through new partnerships with social landlords in 2006.

Health and Safety statistics

Market research carried out by on behalf of Mears Group state that:

- Nearly 50% of children do not know why protective clothing
and hard hats/masks are worn whilst renovation work is being carried out
in their home.

- 30% of parents in the North West find it difficult to
supervise children at all times, whilst workmen are carrying out repairs
in the home.

- 25% of children have accidents which result in bruises, trips
and falls when DIY repairs are being carried out in their home.

A picture accompanying this release is available through the PA
Photowire. It can be viewed at www.mediapoint.press.net or
www.prnewswire.co.uk

Source: Mears Group PLC

For more information contact: Dianne Lowther - Mears Group PR Manager, Tel: +44-(0)773-9190-722, E-mail: Dianne.Lowther@mearsgroup.co.uk; Katie Hagerty - Mears Group Marketing Assistant, Tel: +44-(0)870-67-1400 (ext 3), E-mail: Katie.Hagerty@mearsgroup.co.uk

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