Road Safety Education for children in primary schools is the starting point for life as a road user, whether as a pedestrian, a cyclist, or a driver.
Why do we need to teach children about road safety?
In Western society, if a child is to be killed, or seriously injured, the chances are that it will happen on the roads.
During 2012 61 children aged under 15 were killed on Britain’s roads, one more than in 2010 but 52% down on the 2005-2009 average
Our services are mainly intended for schools and similar establishments, but if you have a group of young people, of any age, who you think might benefit from our services, contact us to discuss your requirements.
What we offer:
School Based Activities
Our Road Safety Officers are happy to come into schools and work with teachers, other adults, and children to help all involved in the school become safer. Please contact us to discuss your requirements.
Particularly for parents of Nursery or Pre-school children, we can spend time talking about the road safety messages and behaviours that can help their children to develop good road safety practises.
Time required: Flexible, usually 30 to 60 minutes
We can deliver presentations, and have class discussions, to help the children develop an understanding of how road safety affects us all regardless of our age or gender, and to get them explore ways in which they can manage the risks of independent travel.
One of the biggest assets to the sharing of Road Safety information is the Junior Road Safety Officer. These are pupils from the school who share information with their peers. More details are available on the JRSO page.
Street feet is a role play kit for teaching early years children about crossing roads. It is aimed at the younger children but using older children to get the messages over is an ideal way to use the kit.
Time required: 30 minutes – 1 hour per session
Travel Trails are a way to get children thinking about their local roads and their routes to school. Road Safety Officers can help you plan 'out of classroom' visits to local places of interest. Where possible it is better to use real world examples i.e. after speaking about roads in the classroom, then visit examples in the local community such as a pedestrian journey to the local community centre, church etc.
Time required – Half day session
Road Safety Officers are able to work with all ages of students from Reception upwards.
Early Years work tends to deal with practical skills and building a knowledge base. With older students we tend to concentrate on attitudes towards safety and preparing for greater independence and exposure to a wider range of roads.
Subject areas that can be covered:
Time required – 40 to 90 minutes per session, as required.
We can often help by putting schools in contact with other useful agencies. Several schools have worked with the police who have brought their speed enforcement equipment into school to explain what they do to catch offenders, and why it is important that we all do our best to keep our communities safe.
Find your local Police contact here.
Road Safety Officers will ideally help teaching professionals develop schemes for regular use in schools, but may also be able to help out on one off events, subject to time available.