Road Safety Week 15th - 21st November 2021

During Road Safety week, the P7s will be learning and revising the many different, important messages below to keep all our children safe, when out and about.

It is an opportune time with the clocks having gone back around mid-term to highlight the ‘Be Safe, Be Seen’ message with so many children walking either all or part of the way to/from school.  A leaflet is available at:  https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/publications/be-safe-be-seen-leaflet

 It is widely accepted that up to the age of eight years, children are not yet ready to accurately judge the speed and distance of vehicles and should therefore be accompanied by an older pedestrian (parent/child-minder for example) if/when they need to cross a road.  Therefore the focus up to this point should be the simplified version of Stop, Look, Listen – looking and listening both before and whilst crossing.  From the age of eight years children should be introduced to and taught to use the full six steps of the Green Cross Code: https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/road-safety-seven-11-year-olds#toc-0

Seat belt wearing and use of child car seats is another issue which is important to highlight – including on those short journeys to/from school that are made on a daily basis.  More information is available at: https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/child-car-seats-restraints-and-seat-belts 

Children need to know how to safely use bus transport – waiting for a bus, lining up sensibly, getting on/off the vehicle, safe storage of schoolbags during the journey, and crossing roads to reach the bus stop or after getting off the bus.  A PowerPoint presentation for primary pupils and a leaflet for parents is available at: https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/publications/bus-safety-primary-leaflet-and-presentation

All of the topics highlighted above are covered in the ‘Road Safety Teaching Aid’ calendars which were issued for each class in every school across Northern Ireland in September.  They are also available online: https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/road-safety-teaching-aid-calendars  Which each class uses on a weekly basis.