Secondary school education
Young people moving from primary school up to secondary school have lots to look forward to. New friends, new experiences, more homework! and, in most cases, the opportunity to travel to school on their own for the first time.
As they progress through secondary school, older friends might start driving, or riding motorbikes, so secondary school is an ideal time to reinforce important road safety messages. More 14 to 16 year olds are seriously hurt or killed in accidents on the road than through any other way every year.
The information and resources below can be used to support fun and informative teaching of road safety to 11 to 18 year olds.
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, The Derby City Council ‘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.
<Start the Road Safety Training>
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 the movement of people and traffic outside their school on a daily basis. So no matter how 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 about the journey to school and asks pupils to identify those relevant to their school, split the statements into negative and positive and then arrange them into some kind of priority order.
It 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.