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Road Safety Council

 
Welcome to our Road Safety Council!
 

At Birchwood Primary School we place a huge emphasis on Road Safety as part of our PSHE learning.

We have good links with the Warwickshire Road Safety Club who regularly come in to our school to support teaching and learning across all year groups.

In addition, our Junior Road Safety Officers also help to create a whole school community aspect when raising awareness on how to be safe around roads. 

In order to remain safe when crossing the road, it is important to follow the Road Safety Code. Take a look at this poster to remind yourself of the key steps you should take every time you cross the road. Vehicles can be unpredictable, so you should always be looking and listening carefully and ensure you are fully focused on the road and the traffic.
Warwickshire Road Safety Code Poster

Birchwood Primary School is taking part in Warwickshire County Council’s ‘Safe and Active Travel Programme’ this year. The programme has been developed to promote and support road safety and active travel activities. It is designed to help schools encourage safe and active journeys. Active travel is proven to have many benefits for our children. 

With only fifteen minutes of exercise done through active travel, a child’s mood can be improved, and concentration increased by up to 4 hours. This is a great way to meet the NHS’ recommendation for children to have sixty minutes of exercise per day. Have you thought about changing #JustOneJourney per week? Why not consider 'Walk on Wednesdays', or if you can’t do the full journey actively, consider parking ten minutes away from the school and walking in?

You can find more information on Warwickshire Road Safety Education’s dedicated Facebook page @WCCSafeActiveTravel and Twitter page @WCCSafe_Active

Road Safety Warwickshire have created an animation which teaches you how to be seen by traffic when outside on a dark winter day. However you get to school, there are things you can do to help yourself be seen, making sure other road users can see you. Whether walking to and from school, the shops, or walking the dog, during foggy and overcast days, pedestrians should wear something bright coloured and something reflective at night. Choose a bag or rucksack with hi-visibility strips. Fluorescent and reflective armbands can be worn over coats and clothing, and stickers can be used on bags. Keep to the footpath at all times. Being aware of your surroundings can help as well, so always focus by watching and listening to what cars and other vehicles are doing. Be Bright, Be Seen.
School Travel Plan
Walk to School Week 2023 is back! This year’s theme is Walk with Wildlife and we are asking the children to think about the various animals they might see on their journeys and also the importance of walking, considering the difference it can make to individuals, communities and the planet. We are encouraging children to walk, cycle or scoot to school. Even if families live too far to walk all the way, why not park a bit further away from the school gate and walk the remainder of the journey.

We are extremely proud to be working with Warwickshire Road Safety, supporting their 'Kids need clean air' campaign. As you approach the school gates you will see a banner highlighting this important message and all children should have come home with a Clean Air bookmark this week.

If you wish to find out more about this campaign, please visit the following link 

https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/news/article/3972/kids-need-clean-air-drivers-asked-to-switch-off-their-engines-when-parked-waiting-or-stationary

 
On Tuesday, all classes had a visit from GXO and had fun exploring their lorry cab. We found out that the trucks wheels are nearly as tall as some of the children in school and it costs £600 to fill the tank with fuel. They also discovered that when the driver sits in the cab, they can only see some places on the road around them, so we have to be very careful when walking near main roads or crossing near parked lorries.
 

We are always conscious that the road outside of our school is extremely busy at drop off and pick up times.

We regularly remind children about being safe around traffic and how to cross roads safely. We urge parents to be extra vigilant during these busy times too, especially with younger children who may not yet have learnt the dangers.

Older children should be reminded to:

  •                      Stop, look, listen and think! before crossing.
  •                      Not cross between parked vehicles.
  •                      Cross at designated crossings where possible.
  •                      Behave sensibly when near roads and crossing roads.

It is advised that younger children should:

  •                      hold their parents hand where possible when near or crossing roads
  •                      be taught to stop look listen and think!
  •                      not be allowed to run and play near roadsides.

It is also a good idea for children to wear reflective items when it is getting darker or when the weather causes poor visibility. Like all of our families at Birchwood, we want to ensure the safety of the children.

 
Hello everybody, Junior Road Safety Officers here! There are eight JRSOs across Birchwood Primary School, one from each KS2 class, and our role is extremely important in keeping us all safe. We have already been busy welcoming Warwickshire Road Safety into school to work with numerous classes, sharing key messages with children.
 

Key Messages to Remember:

When it is icy, be careful when walking along paths or across the road. The roads outside our school get extremely busy, especially at drop off and pick up times.

Remember to STOP, LOOK and LISTEN before crossing the road.

Be Bright…Be Seen…. (Not just in clothes but also in your thinking.)

We are always on the lookout for events and activities to raise awareness of how to stay safe when out near traffic. Next week (week commencing 16th May) is ‘Walk to School’ week. Children at Birchwood are going to be encouraged to try that little bit harder next week to walk to school where possible. If you are able to walk the whole way, amazing, but if not, we are encouraging you to park a bit further than normal and walk some of the distance. By everybody doing this, we will be helping the environment by reducing emissions and reducing our global footprint. We will also be reducing the amount of cars and traffic outside school, making it a safer place for all.

 Junior Road Safety Officers will be supporting this within school, encouraging their peers to walk where they can and we will also be collecting data within Maths Meetings to measure how many children walk to school across the week. We would really appreciate your help and support with walking to school where you can and increasing the message of road safety.

Warwickshire Road Safety Club have launched a new animation for Warwickshire primary schools, focusing on the key message to 'Be Bright, Be Seen'.

The key message – make sure traffic can see you at all times – is reinforced by showing pedestrians and cyclists wearing reflective and fluorescent clothes.

At Birchwood, the Road Safety Officers work hard thinking up exciting ways to inform both children and parents on simple and easy ways to stay safe during the winter months. Our 'Glow Day' was a great success!

Glow Day 2020!
In October, we decided to hold our very own Glow Day to share awareness around the key Road Safety message 'Be Bright, Be Seen'. 
Children were invited to come into school in their brightest clothes and enjoyed a variety of activities linked to our key theme for the day. 
With the nights getting dark a lot earlier and children still wanting to be outside and getting fresh air, we wanted to ensure that we were doing so in a sensible and safe way.
We discussed key messages around how to cross the road safely, where to cross the road and how bright clothes are key in the Winter months.