Road Safety Education for Schools

The Cambridgeshire road safety team have a wide range of road safety resources and schemes available that are specially designed for different school age groups.

Early Years Road Safety Education

A child can learn a lot about road safety through play. It may be something as simple as identifying traffic or learning what a road is but these basic ideas are so important and necessary before a child can learn to cross the road safely.

The Road Safety Toy Bag is available to borrow free of charge from the Road Safety Team. Usually the bag is loaned out for 2 weeks at a time.

To request a toy bag, please contact [email protected]. Please put ‘Request for toy bag’ in the subject box of your email.

Make sure to tell us when you would ideally like to borrow the toy bag and leave a contact name and both the address and telephone number where we can contact you. We will deliver it to you and collect from you directly.

Primary School Road Safety Education

Do you want to …?

Encourage your pupils to walk, cycle or scoot to school?
Help your pupils be healthier, more independent and environmentally friendly?
Encourage parents to remind their children of the rules of the road and the pavement!

We offer three fantastic TravelSmart schemes to help schools:

WalkSmart, ScootSmart and PedalSmart

All three courses are free and come with free resources for pupils and parents.

WalkSmart

WalkSmart training is for all Cambridgeshire primary school pupils in Years 4/5. The training aims to reduce child casualties on the road by giving practical training and raising children’s observation and awareness skills while crossing the road with an adult. It also provides them with road safety skills in preparation for future independent travel to secondary school and encourages walking as a healthy recreational activity.

Parents are advised to continue supervising their children until they feel they are safe, even after the training.

ScootSmart

ScootSmart training is Cambridgeshire County Council’s scheme for all Cambridgeshire primary schools and aims to improve basic scooter riding and maintenance skills and increase children’s awareness of safety while scooting, reminding them of the need to be aware of pedestrians, driveways etc.

The scheme encourages confident scooter use and supports scooting as a mode of travel to school as well as a healthy recreational activity.

PedalSmart

PedalSmart training based on the school playground is designed to teach children very basic cycle skills that will compliment any on road training they may complete at a later date in Year 5 or 6.

The children will have practical training as well as fun activities and information about safety i.e. general maintenance of their bikes, cycle helmets and bright or reflective clothing.

PedalSmart training based on the school playground is designed to teach children very basic cycle skills that will compliment any on road training they may complete at a later date in Year 5 or 6.

The children will have practical training as well as fun activities and information about safety i.e. general maintenance of their bikes, cycle helmets and bright or reflective clothing.

What we will need from you

You will need to provide a minimum of two volunteers that the Road Safety Team will train. Volunteers can be teaching staff, lunchtime supervisors, school governors, parents, grandparents etc.

Schools will need to ensure that the volunteers have been checked and cleared to work with children through the school’s usual safeguarding and checking policy.

A Road Safety Officer will come to your school to train the volunteers so will contact you to arrange a suitable time and date.

To find out more about any of the above, please contact [email protected]

Other resources for secondary schools and colleges

Road safety journey planner

This journey planner will allow students to risk assess their own daily journey to and from school. It also contains an informational fact sheet for their parents and carers.

Journey Planner

Road safety – what do you know?

This road safety quiz tests students on road safety facts relevant to their own age group. It can also help facilitate a wider class discussion about road safety.

Quiz

Morning After

Morning-after is an excellent website with the aim of helping everyone be more aware of the risk of driving the morning after drinking.

For My Girlfriend – a play with a powerful message

For My Girlfriend was created by Sarah Borley in collaboration with Cambridgeshire County Council’s Road Safety Team to show the consequences of drink/drug driving to a teenage or young adult audience (age 16+).

The play has been designed to work within your drama and performing arts modules, and the wider curriculum relating to safeguarding and PSHE. Order now through Amazon.

School Travel Planning

Modeshift STARS

The National School Travel Awards

Modeshift STARS is a hugely successful and popular national school travel planning system. In Cambridgeshire, STARS is an excellent way of promoting sustainable travel to school. Over 90 schools and early years settings in Cambridgeshire are already taking part in Modeshift STARS.

Schools taking part in Modeshift STARS can expect an average 3% reduction in trips made by car to school.

Modeshift STARS is free of charge and schools can use the system to update or create travel plans which can be used for planning applications. Support, advice and resources for school travel planning are supplied free of charge to all schools in the county by the Road Safety Education team in Cambridgeshire.

Modeshift STARS also helps participating schools to:

Reduce congestion around the school
Improve air quality
Encourage active, healthy school travel
Improve road safety around the school
Gain national awards
Support Eco-schools
Have an up to date travel plan free of charge
Involve young people in active citizenship

If you would like more information, take a look at the dedicated Modeshift STARS website. Our road safety team [email protected] are available to help you if you need any advice or support to get started.

Reducing School Run Congestion

For many schools the school run can cause traffic congestion and parking issues as well as road safety concerns. We have resources available to help schools reduce the problems that inconsiderate driving and parking can cause. The two schemes we offer are: Take 5! and Smarter Parking.

Take 5! helps you set up a 5 minute walking zone around your school. The scheme aims to encourage children and families to walk for at least part of their journey to and from school. This helps to reduce traffic near school making it safer and more appealing for cyclists and pedestrians.

Smarter Parker is an easy and effective banner scheme to discourage persistent parking offenders. The problem of congestion outside schools at the beginning and end of the school day is one that can be tackled.

Each Smarter Parker banner carries a progressively stronger message. The campaign aims to stop drivers from parking on the school keep clear markings, commonly referred to as zigzag lines. The overall message is simple: keep school entrances clear and keep our children and young people safe.

Feedback from schools taking part has been extremely positive with all of them noting a reduction in the number of cars parked outside the school entrance. If you are interested in how the scheme can help your school, please have a read of the below information pack. Apply for the scheme by completing the below online application form.

If you would like any further information about either scheme, please contact us at [email protected]

Junior Travel Ambassadors

This exciting scheme promotes active and safer travel to and from school. Junior Travel Ambassador (JTA) is aimed at Year 5 pupils and empowers them to make their own decisions about what they think needs to change to improve road safety for their school.

JTAs also encourages pupils to get more active and lead healthier lifestyles.

At least two JTAs are chosen to represent the school and have an adult mentor to help and support them. The adult can be a member of staff, governor or an interested parent.

All JTAs will receive a badge and will meet regularly with a Road Safety Officer, usually half termly. As well as advice and support, the Road Safety officer will provide educational resources and prizes for competitions. This scheme is free to all schools.

Other School Services

A range of courses are available to schools, colleges, community groups, local authority services and other organisations:

Driver training services

Minibus assessment

Standard Minibus Driver Assessmentsfor driving Minibuses with up to 16 passenger seats
Standard MPV/Car Driver Assessments– for driving vehicles with less than 9 passenger seats
Equipment Training for Wheelchair ‘Accessible’ Vehicles– for driving Minibuses or MPV’s/Cars with disabled or wheelchair users or passengers.

Fees

Standard course fee – £110 per driver
Accessible course fee – £210 per driver
Accessible upgrade fee – £110 per driver

Lower rates are available for group minibus training. All prices are exclusive of VAT. Contact [email protected]to find out more

Bespoke Driver Training

If you employ anyone who drives as part of their job or if you are an employee who has to drive for work, even if driving isn’t the main part of your job, a range of classroom and practical on-road driver training courses is available. We offer three hour training workshops tailored to your business needs. The three hour workshops cover:

safer drivers
safer journeys
safer vehicles
any specific topics important to you

These workshops are offered at £50 per person (based on a minimum of 10 participants).

Bespoke packages including practical driver coaching are also available on request. Please contact [email protected]to find out more.

School Crossing Patrol

Cambridgeshire County Council provides school crossing patrols (SCP’s) to assist children to cross the road to and from school safely. Nationally agreed criteria are used to determine the need for an SCP and help ensure that assistance is given to those sites in most need.

We also, where possible adhere to guidelines set out by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) and Local Authority Road Safety Officers’ Association.

These state that:

a SCP should not be provided at a site that has less than fifteen children crossing the road
a SCP should not operate in conjunction with a light controlled crossing as it gives conflicting messages to drivers and is a duplication of resources

When an SCP displays their stop sign it is a legal requirement for motorists to stop. If they fail to do so they can receive a £1,000 fine and three penalty points on their licence.

SCP’s are empowered to stop traffic for anybody wishing to cross the road providing they are wearing the required uniform, displaying a stop sign, are operating at an approved site and within their authorised hours of duty.

Currently no funding is available to provide new SCP sites however we welcome third party funding or sponsorship for current or new sites which meet the required criteria. Even where a School Crossing Patrol is provided parents remain responsible for ensuring their children’s safety to and from school.

In addition to managing the SCP Service we are also responsible for the following:

home to school route assessments
risk/hazard assessing school drop off points
making reasonably practicable recommendations to help improve child pedestrian safety when crossing the road to/from school

Visit Road Safety Education for Schools