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7-11 year old children - Keystage 2

Click here to download Keystage 2 as a PDF

Pedestrians & cycling casualties have doubled from the level at keystage 1. Road safety activities are now focussed on improving their pedestrian and cycling skills, go to Cyclist Training for further information.

Children of this age need to:

LEARN

• How to judge speed and distance.
• The skills and safety rules to keep them safe in traffic, when they are alone or with other people: simple lifesaving skills.
• To resist pressure from their friends to do things they know are not safe or sensible, and the words they need to use to do this.

PRACTICE

• Using things safely and playing safely.
• The skills they need to have fun, feel good, feel safe and keep safe
• Being a good example to younger children and passing on their skills.
• Resisting threats, persuasion and bullying.
• Identifying and weighing up the risks in any new situation.
• Speaking and writing to those people who can help them to bring about changes to their local and/or national environment to make it safer

UNDERSTAND

• That being able to do more things away from the family means they have more personal responsibility.
• That they will still need help to keep safe and asking for help is useful.
• That their actions can have consequences for other people.

At home
Carers are still important people in traffic education as they still have infinite opportunities to help their children cope with roads and traffic.

For further information go to: http://www.thinkroadsafety.gov.uk/advice/parents.htm,

Posters and other road safety materials e.g. Road safety activity book 2 (8+ years) are available free of charge from the Department for Transport. Visit their website at www.thinkroadsafety.gov.uk/catalogue/index.htm to order these and other resources.

The National Walk to School Week is held in May and if your school participates then it is an easy way to be involved with educating young pedestrians (see Special Events).

At school
Activities follow on from the pedestrian education programme as described at keystage 1, with the aim to:

• prepare for independence as road users but ensure that the continuing need for adult support and supervision is understood.
• enable children to deal flexibly with a variety of traffic situations including novel ones.

The Road Safety Officer can help prepare the trail for the children to follow at a later date when weather, supervision levels and topics are suitable. They can be supplied on disc or as a powerpoint presentation.

Decision Trail (outdoor)
Using a different route the children can use the skills they have developed at keystage 1 to make decisions about a safe route. The trail can be used as an assessment of road crossing procedure.

Outcomes

• be able to choose the safest place to cross, taking into account visibility, traffic flow etc.
• help children to think about and be critical of the route they have chosen.
• assess the children’s knowledge of road crossing procedures.

Curriculum links

Geography
Year 3
unit 6 – Investigating our local area.
sect 2 plan routes around the village on a base map
sect 3 identify main human and physical features of the village
sect 5 describe a journey, including the route and type of transport.

Year 5
Unit 12: Should the high street be closed to traffic?
Section 2 How big an issue is traffic –fieldwork

These can be supported with resources available from www.sandwell.gov.uk/stars/ as illustratrated.

Working for a Safer Area is a project booklet designed to get children at Key Stage II to start thinking about the problems that can result from living with modern traffic and asks them to consider producing solutions.

Mathematics
Measurement of the speed of traffic from the safe environment of the school grounds can provide pupils with the opportunity to gain experience of judging speed and distance.

Science
year 4
unit 4E Friction
Using friction – how long does it take to stop.
year 6
unit 6F How we see things
Beams of Light – how ‘cats eyes’ work
Reflection from surfaces – reflective materials.

All school-based resources are provided free of charge to Suffolk schools, although some are offered on a returnable basis. Posters for display and interactive use (safety education posters - infant) can be viewed following the link to the 'Shop with RoSPA' http://www.rospa.co.uk/index.htm    When you have made your choice, or are interested in the traffic trails etc. please email the Road Safety Office at: suffolkroadsafe@et.suffolk cc.gov.uk with your requirements.

Useful Interactive sites on road safety:
http://www.bmweducation.co.uk/safe/default.asp
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/streets/jrso/

Junior Road Safety Officer
It is important to continually reinforce safety issues across the county and dedicated advocates in the schools give a greater voice to this area. Road Safety Officer work can be replicated in schools by the JRSO. JRSO's are pupils in schools (usually from year 4 and above) who work to make everyone within the school more aware of how to keep safe on the roads. One of their main objectives is to refresh the road safety notice board, keeping it up to date and relevant.

Each year pupils apply to become JRSO's and normally two children are chosen for the job.

The area Road Safety Officer will visit the school and with a teaching assistant (or teacher) at the school will help the JRSO’s to get started.

They are encouraged to run competitions of topical interest e.g. ‘Brightness days’ in the autumn term etc to raise the road safety awareness of the rest of the pupils. This is explained in greater detail on the Junior Road Safety Officer website: http://www.suffolkroadsafe.net/JRSO