Background
The child pedestrian training scheme is aimed at Primary children in Brighton and Hove.
The scheme is designed to raise children’s observation and awareness skills whilst crossing roads with an adult. It also provides them with road safety skills in preparation for independent travel to secondary school.
The scheme consists of a combination of on-road training sessions and in class activities. Class activity packs can be borrowed by each school from the road safety group and consist of activities, tapes, books and videos.
Organisation of the scheme
The school’s role
- To establish the scheme within the school curriculum
- To liaise with the council in establishing and evaluating the scheme
- To gain parental consents for the training
- To support the council in finding volunteer trainers if needed
- To check volunteers through the Criminal Records Bureau and the Child Protection Register
- To read and agree to the provided risk assessments
- To liaise with the Co-ordinator to organise a timetable for training sessions
- To group pupils appropriately for sessions and inform trainers of any special/medical needs prior to the course and provide Teaching Assistants where necessary
- To store road safety equipment for the duration of the training
The council’s role
- To provide advice and guidance for the child pedestrian training scheme in schools
- To provide resources for the scheme, including consent forms, record sheets and pupil posters, stickers and booklets
- To provide support in advertising for volunteer trainers if necessary
- To timetable and provide road safety loan materials if required
- To provide trainers where possible
- To risk assess all training sites and provide the school with the risk assessments
- To evaluate and update the scheme in liaison with schools
Cancellation Procedure
If the school has to cancel a training date for any reason, it is vital that the school gives the Co-ordinator at least a week and a half’s notice as far as possible. Failure to do this may mean that an alternative date may not be able to be found. Also there are implications for funding, as the Child Pedestrian Trainers will still be paid for the training they would have been doing. Obviously this funding could have been used to pay trainers to take part in training children in another school.
Consent forms
Each child will be required to have parental consent before they can take part in the road safety training. Consent forms are provided. It is the responsibility of the school to ensure that those pupils taking part in the training have a signed consent and that trainers are informed of any children who do not have a consent.
Volunteers
To enable the on-road training to take place, volunteers may be needed to train pupils by the roadside. Volunteers will be required to have a Criminal Record Bureau check and a Child Protection Register check. This is processed by the school office. Generally volunteers can be parents, grandparents, or helpers in the school. Volunteer trainers work together with a Child Pedestrian Trainer (CPT) to deliver the training. The CPT takes the leading role.
Trainers
Child Pedestrian Trainers who assist with the training are fully trained and have an enhanced Criminal record Bureau check.
Records
As part of the child pedestrian scheme, each child taking part in the scheme will be provided with a record sheet. Children will stamp their card after each completed session so that a clear record can be seen of the lessons the child has received. These are taken home after the course so the parent/guardian can clearly see what they have been learning.
Child ratios and groups
Children will be taken out in small groups during the on-road training. Children will be taken out in groups of a maximum of three children to one trainer.
Special Needs
For those children with special needs, training will be adjusted to suit their needs. This may require a change in the ratio numbers of adult to child. Consideration would need to be given to the site that is used for the training, if children have a specific disability. Schools must make the council and trainers aware of any special need/medical requirements so that provision can be made, and where necessary the child’s one to one teaching support must attend the training with them. This information must be made available to the co-ordinator before the training starts.
If any child is not behaving sensibly trainers will return the child to the class and liaise with the teacher.
Loan materials and resources
Class activity packs can be borrowed by each school from the road safety group and consist of activities, photographs, books and DVDs (See The Child Pedestrian Training Scheme Co-ordinator.) These resources complement the practical road safety training and can be used by the teacher. The resources are all accompanied by teacher’s notes so that teachers can easily use the resource and therefore need little preparation time. All children taking part in the training will receive road safety stickers/posters after each stage.
Insurance/Risk Assessment
All training sites and routes are risk assessed by the Child Pedestrian Training Scheme Co-ordinator and all trainers and pupils will be insured under Brighton and Hove City Council’s policy whilst carrying out training, as long as the risk assessment procedures are followed. All assessments and route maps will be given to the head teacher, teachers and the trainers. All sites will be located as near to the school as possible and all children and trainers will wear fluorescent tabards.
Organisation of bookings
Training is generally held during one morning or one afternoon a week for five weeks. To be able to train a class of thirty pupils it will take one and a half hours. This is divided into three half hour lessons and ten pupils are taken out during each half hour session.
Weather
We ask children to bring coats during the training, as we do continue with the training if it is light rain. Those children who are not properly dressed may not be able to take part in the training. If weather conditions are such that visibility is poor or it would compromise safety the training would be cancelled and an alternative date would be sort if possible.
The Scheme
On-road stages
Stage 1: Year One
Stage 2: Year Three
Stage 1- on-road practical training x 5 sessions
(Year One)
Child ratios -2:1, a maximum of 3:1 ratio
30 minute sessions
Road Safety Rules:-
Hold hands, stop, look, listen, think
Introduction
In the classroom the whole class will be introduced to
the training and the road safety rules before the
outside training starts.
Lesson 1
Vehicles - In the car park or playground children
investigate a car. They consider the materials it is made
from, the different coloured lights and what they mean
the car is about to do, why they should wear a seat belt
and use a booster seat, and know the clues if a vehicle is
going to move or not.
Lesson 2
By the road - Outside the school, children look at the
road environment and street furniture by the road. They
will discuss the kerb, the verge, and driveway
dangers. They will watch traffic and discuss the traffic
directions.
Lesson 3
Safer places to cross the road –Children look at
crossings that are available in the local environment
(Pelican, Puffin, Zebra crossings and islands.) They are
taught how to use them safely. If a crossing is not
available near to the school, thechildren will learn about
a (Pelican, Zebra or a Puffin Crossing) through the use of
a miniature crossing set up in the school hall.
Lesson 4
Safer routes– Children are taught how to find a safer
place to cross the road avoiding places where they can
not clearly see vehicles coming along the road. Where
available children will learn about how to deal with
junctions.
Lesson 5
Parked cars-Children learn how to deal with crossing a
road which is full of parked cars, and where there is no
safer place to cross the road.
Stage 2 - on-road practical training x 5 sessions
(Year Three)
Child ratios - 3:1,
30 minute sessions
Introduction
In the classroom the whole class will be introduced to
the training and the road safety rules before the outside
training starts.
Lesson 1
Crossing at a safer place -This is a revision session
of stage 1, stop, look, listen, think. Children revise how
to find and cross at a safer place, check driveways,
and know when a car is about to move or not etc.
Lesson 2
Crossing by parked cars - If there is no safer place to
cross, children learn how to cross between parked cars
using a set strategy.
Lesson 3
Crossing by parked cars - Children practise crossing between parked cars safely.
Lesson 4
Crossing by junctions –Childrenidentify a junction
and they consider all the directions traffic is coming
from, and if they can see clearly in all directions. If the
junction is too busy and/or it is difficult to see, or there
is a quieter safer place to cross, children learn that they
should cross there.
Lesson 5
Crossing by junctions– Children continue to practise
learning when they could cross at a junction.