Recent Events across Gwent Wide
Back to Gwent WideJunior Road Safety Officer Forum 2008
The First South East Wales Region,
Junior Road Safety Officer Forum
South East Wales’ first ever Junior Road Safety Officer forum was held at the YMCA Conference Centre, in Newport on Wednesday 21st May. It was a fun, action packed educational day, with 17 schools and 61 pupils attending on the day.
The Forum had non-stop activities in the morning, including visits from the Fire & Rescue Services and Heddlu Gwent Police. The children had great fun, climbing all over Duffryn Station’s Fire Appliance, two motorway Police cars and a very flashy Roads Policing motorbike. The JRSOs also had a fun lesson in speed. They had to push, two modified shopping trolleys donated by the Safety Camera Partnership, which had been made to look like cars! They had to push these at just 5mph, which is very difficult to do, as surprisingly they travel at roughly 8 miles per hour.
During the lunch break everyone was kept thoroughly entertained by Abersychan Comprehensive’s Band; who sang their very own Road Safety Song and got the children up and dancing with some popular rock tunes!
Afternoon activities included some very impressive circus skills, performed by Luke from Jugglestruck! Luke always teaches the children about light controlled crossings with the help of his Road Safety Dragon, Smokey! The children also had some on road Pedestrian Training, where they were taught the correct and safest way to cross between parked cars. The Pedestrian Training Coordinators were very impressed with the children’s behaviour and knowledge, which is a great recognition of the fact that they are their school’s Road Safety ambassadors!
The afternoon was rounded off with a lesson about moving up to comprehensive school, how using your all of your senses will help to keep you safe on your new journey; and a Road Safety Behaviour Quiz. From the results of the quiz we discovered that, in the opinion of the children, the most dangerous thing about the road outside their school was:
(i) adults speeding; and
(ii) that they have nowhere safe to cross the road due to parked cars;
and that the worst parking offences were:
(i) adults parking on the footpath; and
(ii) parking on double yellow lines.
The event received generous funding contribution from Capita Symonds, Cwmbran; and was supported by the Welsh Assembly Government; and the participating five Local Authorities of Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council; Caerphilly County Borough Council; Monmouthshire County Council; Newport City Council and Torfaen County Borough Council.
Thanks must be given to:
Abersychan Comprehensive School band;
Capita Symonds, Cwmbran and staff;
Heddlu Gwent Police, Roads Policing Unit;
Jugglestruck;
Mid & South Wales Safety Camera Partnership;
Pedestrian Training Coordinators from Caerphilly, Monmouthshire, Newport and Torfaen;
South Wales Fire & Rescue Services, Community Safety;
& the YMCA Conference Centre, Newport.
Each school participating in the scheme has two Junior Road Safety Officers from year six, and two apprentices from year five. Their main focuses are any dangerous Road Safety issues that affect their school and its local community. The JRSOs help to promote positive change of attitudes by: organising various activities, including competitions about unsafe driving and ‘in car safety’; leaflet drops regarding dangerous parking at the schools gates, and school assemblies encouraging pupils to be safer cyclists and pedestrians.
Becoming a Junior Road Safety Officer School is a responsible step to helping pupils become more aware of the dangers of the road and encouraging them to think about their own safety. For more information, please contact anna.smith@capita.co.uk or 01633 463 296.
