Primary school education

Road safety is an important life skill which every child must learn especially as they become older and more independent. The good news is that road safety can be taught every day. Whatever the journey there are opportunities to teach and reinforce good road user behaviour. So whether you are a parent, carer, teacher or child-minder, you have an important role to play.

We have put together descriptions of activities coupled with teaching advice and downloadable worksheets suitable for children of primary age. We have also outlined the training schemes we provide and importantly how you can get involved.

Please visit our Early Years page for preschool road safety advice.

Balanceability – Reception, Year 1 and 2
Primary Teacher Guidance and Road Safety Worksheets
The Road Safety Wiz Quiz
Bikeability
Sustainable School Travel
Walking with Children of the world
The Pollution Challenge
School Travel Discussion Exercise
Walk on Wednesday
Year 6/7 Road Safety Training

Balance-ability – Reception, Year 1 and 2

Balance-ability is a fun, play-ground based training session for reception, year 1 or 2. The scheme is run in partnership with who provide trained staff to co-ordinate the sessions. A session lasts approximately 30 minutes and is generally offered to a maximum of six children.

Children complete the sessions using balance bikes, which are bikes with no pedals. Children use their feet to maintain balance and to push themselves off. The bikes are easy to ride, bags of fun and are perfect for those who aren't ready for pedals just yet.

Balance bikes develop:

motor skills
spatial awareness
balance
agility
core strength
co-ordination
increase and maintain children's confidence.

This training is an opportunity for non-riders to experience two wheels with the aim of them achieving balance stimulated through games and exercises.

For more detailed information and booking guidance please read the Balance-ability guidance notes or visit the Cycle Derby website.

Primary Teacher Guidance and Road Safety Worksheets

The teachers' guide to pedestrian skills and worksheets package has been designed to help you teach road safety. It covers all primary ages and all road safety topics that support traditional curriculum subjects with many imaginative activities that can be used in groups or individually. The worksheets can also help reinforce home learning either as a homework project for school or by supporting independent learning for parents to use or helping cub or brownie groups.

Road Safety Wiz Quiz

The Wiz Quiz is a fun way to promote and reinforce road safety messages across the school community. The quiz generates excitement and engagement between pupils, especially if the competition is run between classes or the whole school.

Leading up to the Whiz Quiz, pupils can complete the Wiz Quiz road safety worksheets at home or in class, as individuals or in small groups. The worksheets provide a fun mix of information, questions and illustrations in preparation for the big Wiz Quiz.

Wiz Quiz presentation (needs to be opened in Explorer) has 5 rounds - 4 themed rounds and 1 bonus round! There are 4 questions in each round, with answers given and explained after each question. Pupils hold up the Wiz Quiz ABC cards to give their answer, the cards can even be decorated in team colours. The Wiz Quiz answer sheet can be used to keep track of team scores. Questions are aimed at children between 7 and 11 years old, however younger children can take part with support from older pupils or staff.

The Wiz Quiz teachers notes give a simple description of how to run the Wiz Quiz, how it can be run in different ways and what resources are needed.

The Wiz Quiz is a fun end of term activity that can create a real buzz across the school or year group while reinforcing the important road safety messages just before the school holidays.

Bikeability

Bikeability is a nationally accredited cycle training scheme and is offered to all schools in Derby. There are three levels to the training. Level 1 concentrates on the skills needed to make a journey where there is no traffic. Skill 2 is all about learning the skills to make a journey on quiet roads and skill 3 is about developing the ability to handle busier roads including traffic lights and roundabouts. All the training is conducted by national standard cycle trainers and is run on school playgrounds and local roads. Cycle Derby has more information about Bikeability and other cycling courses.

Sustainable School Travel

There are lots of fun and exciting ways to encourage sustainable travel to school. Follow the links below and download free resources for projects that will inspire your pupils to walk, scoot and cycle to school.

Walking with Children of the World

Why not run a walk to school week and discover how far children walk each day in countries all over the world? Children across the globe walk long distances every day for basic essentials such as food, water and school. Taking part in Walking with Children of the World will encourage pupils to think about how they travel to school, how far they travel and whether they really need to travel by car.

Using the class tally chart, pupils record how many in their class walk to school during the week. The total number can then be converted into a distance and compared to the journeys made by children in different countries of the world.

On the How to take part guide there are also extra activities suggested for each day to support the Children of the World theme.

Walk with Children of the World is very simple to run and provides a great topic for comparison, discussion and discovery.

Resources needed to run Walking with Children of the World:

Class chart - one per class
How to guide - one per class

The Pollution Challenge

How much pollution do you think your school can save in a week by walking, could it be the same weight as four kangaroos, one camel or even two polar bears?

You can find out by running a Pollution Challenge Walk to School Week. Simply count the number of pupils walking over the week using the class chart, then find out the weight of pollution they have saved by walking rather than travelling by car.

The Pollution Challenge is a fun way to promote walking that could be run as part of a themed week for health, environment or physical activity.

There are lots of fantastically illustrated resources available to support the campaign including promotional posters and certificates.

Resources needed to run The Pollution Challenge Walk to School Week:

How to take part in the Pollution Challenge - one per class
Balloon poster - one per class
Totals poster - one per school

Additional resources that can be used to enhance the promotion and participation of The Pollution Challenge:

School Travel Discussion Exercise

All pupils have experience of the school journey, they may be different experiences but they all travel to school and they all see movement of people and traffic outside their school on a daily basis. So no matter how the pupils travel to school, the regular involvement in the school run means they are likely to have a strong opinion about how they would like to travel and what improvements could be made.

The discussion exercise looks at a series of statements and asks pupils to identify those relevant to their school, the negative and positive and then looks at some kind of prioritisation.

The School Travel Discussion Exercise is a simple activity that stimulates very realistic and animated discussion amongst pupils of all ages, with great opportunities to expand the real life topic through further work and activities as suggested in the How to guide.

Resources needed to run a School Travel Discussion Exercise:

School Travel Discussion - Exercise cards - one pack per group
School Travel Discussion - How to guide - one per teacher/leader

Walk on Wednesday

Walk on Wednesday is a simple and fun way to encourage pupils to walk to school at least once a week. Each class has a tree poster to record how they travelled to school on a Wednesday. If they walked, cycled or scooted to school they draw a green leaf on the tree. If they travelled by bus a yellow leaf and if they came by car they draw a brown leaf.

Once the tree has been completed, older pupils can use the charts to calculate the percentage that walked for each class to find out which were the winning walkers!

Resources needed to run a Walk on Wednesday:

Tree poster - one per class
Charts - one per class
How to guide - one per class

Year 6/7 Road Safety Training

The Derby City Council Road Safety Training programme is a free, online, interactive training exercise aimed at year 6/7 that covers the main issues and options for independent travel. Topics covered in the training include practical information on cycling, walking and using public transport, as well as dealing with the emotional issues of making the right choices, taking responsibility and facing possible consequences.

The interactive programme leads pupils through a diverse sequence of films, data, information and questions that are split into three main sections:

Getting to Know the Risks
Thinking About Your Behaviour
Routes and Journey Planning

Pupils can complete the training as individuals, in pairs or it could be coordinated by a teacher and discussed as a whole class exercise. The time taken to run the training can be between 30 to 45 minutes, depending on the number of pupils and how the class are arranged. Due to the fact that the training is in 3 sections, it can be broken down to fit into a number of registration sessions, or run in one single lesson.

Forming an essential part of any year 6/7 transition or induction training, Our Road Safety Training offers a challenging programme that raises the awareness of risks, behaviour and options for independent travel, preparing pupils to make independent choices with consideration and care.