The importance of road sense and safety is being reinforced for children at Newington Community Primary School in Ramsgate.
With the increasing volume of traffic as well as the new potential dangers posed by ‘silent’ electric cars, the school wants to ensure its pupils of all age groups have a structured learning programme to help them.
Whether that’s crossing the road to get to school or preparing Year 6 pupils for their journeys to secondary school next year, Newington is determined to boost the school’s ongoing safety message.
It has teamed up with Kent County Council to deliver workshops tailored to each year group from Reception through to Year 6 designed to get the children engaged with their safety.
The mascot for the club is ‘Kip the bear’ who urges children to be ‘streetwise’ through a series of engaging awareness sessions.
Years 3 and 4 are now officially ‘in the club’, after taking part in their road safety workshops. Year 3 were invited to be ‘danger detectives’, working out how to keep themselves and others safe on the roads. They explored their senses and how they help us to determine unsafe and safer behaviours.
Meanwhile Year 4 focused on identifying risks and hazards and how they can take positive actions when crossing the road.
Pupils have also learnt the important club code, which is simple and effective.
STOP at the kerb and wait; LOOK and LISTEN for traffic; THINK about what to do; CROSS the road safely with an adult, looking and listening all the time.
Assistant Head Teacher Taralee Kennedy believes reinforcing the school’s road safety values is vital.
She explained: “The workshops and the club complements the work done in school around our pupils’ personal development and their ability to judge risks.
“Children’s ability to keep themselves safe and make good choices is just as important to us at Newington, as their academic achievements.”
Kent Road Safety Club say: “Our aim is to positively affect children’s pedestrian and cyclist behaviour, subsequently and significantly reducing child and teenage pedestrian casualties in Kent.
“It is a pedestrian education programme designed for children between the ages of 4-11 and delivered in primary schools across Kent. Key road safety messages are delivered each year of children’s formal primary education to act as building blocks to safer pedestrian and cyclist behaviour.
“The Road Safety Club is an established and evaluated education programme which delivers effective and positive road safety objectives that engage younger pupils’ imagination and instils motivation and responsibility in older pupils.”
Find out more online at www.kentroadsafetyclub.co.uk