School embraces road safety message

All 600 pupils at a Rochdale school now know how to stay safe on the borough’s roads, thanks to a special council road safety scheme.

Over the last school year, pupils at St Anne’s Academy in Middleton have all completed sessions on ‘Road safety and staying safe when out near the road’ with Rochdale Borough Council’s Casualty Reduction Team.

Dave Godley, Casualty Reduction Officer, added: “It’s particularly heart-breaking when a child has been involved in a road traffic incident, and therefore, satisfying for us to know that we’re doing something to try and prevent this from happening.

“Although we provide training for all ages, children in the first couple of years at secondary school are more at risk of being involved in a road traffic incident than any other age group, so lessons for years 7 and 8 have been specially created to deal with this age group.”

Sessions include:

• the new-found freedoms experienced following the transition from primary school to high school
• longer journeys taken to and from school
• causes of accidents, such as being distracted by friends or a lack of attention being paid to the road
• in-car safety, which highlights the importance of wearing a seatbelt at all times. This follows a number of a ‘hands-up’ surveys which found a high number of pupils admitting to not wearing a seatbelt, particularly in the backseat where parents cannot see them.

The team also provide lessons to Years 9,10 and 11 highlighting more road safety issues that affect this age groups such as looking at reasons why drivers crash.

Diane Davies the PSHE co-ordinator for St Anne’s Academy who organised the visits said: “The pupils really enjoyed the sessions and the team from Casualty Reduction have a great way of getting the message across to the class.”

Dave added: “Road safety as a subject to a child can be seen as quite boring so we make them interactive and as informative for the kids as possible. We regularly visit schools across the borough to spread the road safety message in the classroom and hopefully this work will help towards keeping child casualties low in the borough.”

The Council’s Highways Team also provides resources to any member of the community who requires road safety information. To request these resources or to book a school visit, please e-mail highways@rochdale.gov.uk