safety...safety education spring 2010 3 news ifree moped courses start icrossing over to get message...

SAFETYEducation

Spring 2010ISSN 0459-2034

Facing the perils ofMorecambe Bay

Contents

SAFETY Education Spring 2010 1

Inside this issue...

Managing Editor Janice Cave MBE

Editorial ConsultantJim Barrow

Occupational Safety AdviserRoger Bibbings

Risk Education AdviserJenny McWhirter

© Published termly by RoSPA EnterprisesLimited - a wholly owned subsidiary of The Royal Society for the Prevention ofAccidents.

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News 2School fined over injury

Drama 3Road safety message

£500,000 on offer 4New scholarships

Music aids campaigns 5Warwickshire’s lessons

Seminar news 6-7Focus on young people

Student counsellors 8Peer to peer

Shifting sands 9Morecambe Bay latest

Speeding 10Casualty figures

New Forest 11Advice for college

Calendar 12600 entries

2 SAFETY Education Spring 2010

News

Five safety education practi-tioners from around Englandhave signed up for trainingand support to achieve a na-tionally recognised qualifica-tion in Personal, SocialHealth and Economic educa-tion (PSHE education).

The course is being led byJenny McWhirter, RoSPA’srisk education adviser, withsupport from two experi-enced local leads, JohnHayman of Coventry LA andBev Petch of Solihull LA, whohave successfully supportedteachers, school nurses andother practitioners to achievethis worthwhile standard.

The five will work with

I Way to new qualificationJenny over the current schoolyear to develop their work insafety education in line withbest practice in PSHE educa-tion. They will build up aportfolio of evidence whichwill include sessions ob-served by qualified practi-tioners. Their portfolios willthen be independently as-sessed.

The Child Safety EducationCoalition has provided thefunding for registration andtraining fees, while employershave agreed to support theparticipants by allowing themtime to attend training and toprepare their portfolios.

One of the participants is

their original design and abook voucher.

Jane Coyle, head atWrenthorpe Primary School,added: “The poster com-petition has proved very pop-ular with pupils and reallyhelped reinforce the aware-ness talk given in assembly.The winning designs will be displayed around theschool, helping to keepeverybody safe and awayfrom the dangers of con-struction sites.”

I Posters pinpointconstruction perilsPupils from WrenthorpePrimary School in Wakefieldare celebrating after scoop-ing top honours in a competi-tion to design an awarenessposter to keep children safeand away from the dangersof construction sites.

Construction company ISGran the poster design compe-tition as part of its pro-gramme to highlight the veryreal dangers posed by con-struction sites. The winnersreceived a framed copy of

RoSPA’s own youth liaisonworker and CSEC co-ordina-tor, Cassius Francis. “I felt Idid not know enough aboutthe context in which safetyeducation is delivered inschools, or how best to helpand support delivery byteachers. This qualificationwill help me to help teachersoffer high quality practicalsafety education which meetsyoung people’s needs”.

Discussions have alreadybegun to consider how to ex-tend the scheme next year. IfCSEC members would likemore information, pleasecontact Jenny McWhirter ([email protected]).

A school has been fined£16,500 after a 16-year-oldpupil lost eight fingers whenher hands got stuck in abucket of plaster of Paris dur-ing an art lesson.

The girl was making a castof her hands in January 2007,magistrates in Boston,Lincolnshire, were told.

The plaster heated up andset. Neither staff nor para-medics could get it off, leav-ing the pupil at Giles Schoolin Boston with serious burns.

The school admittedbreaching health and safetyrules. It also admitted failingto report the matter to theHealth and Safety Executivewhich only found out aboutwhat happened from thegirl’s plastic surgeon. Theschool was also ordered topay £2,500 in costs.

The court was told temper-atures of up to 60C can begenerated in large quantitiesof plaster of Paris.

Jo Anderson, prosecutingfor the HSE, said the girl hadbeen told by her teacher toput her hands into clay tomake a mould. She was thensupposed to pour the liquidplaster into the clay mould.Instead she put her hand upto the wrist into the bucket ofplaster.

It is understood the mixture

began to solidify within about10 minutes and she soon re-alised she could not removeher hands.

“The student’s hands wereliterally being burnt as theplaster was setting aroundthem,” Miss Anderson said.“There was no way the stu-dent could or should haveknown of the catastrophicconsequences.”

Plastic surgeons did whatthey could to help the girl, butafter 12 operations she was

left with no fingers on onehand and just two on theother.

Speaking outside the court,the girl’s solicitor, StephenHill, said his client was a “re-markable young woman”who hoped to go to universi-ty and become a teacherworking with nursery or pri-mary aged children.

He added: “She is doing re-markably well consideringthe devastating injuries shedid suffer. But she is very sto-

I School fined for catastrophic injury

ISG’s health and safety adviser, Mick Quealy with poster com-petition winners (from left) Kate Honeyman, Iona Ross, SamScholey and Stephanie Shires

ical. She is a very deter-mined, self sufficient charac-ter but she is now only leftwith one forefinger and anindex finger.”

The school issued a state-ment which said it was proudthe girl had returned toschool and gained three A-Levels.

It added: “We would like toreassure all pupils and par-ents that our health and safe-ty procedures have been rig-orously revised.”


News

I Free moped courses start

I Crossing over to get message across

cle is a great way to getaround because you nolonger have to rely on par-ents for lifts or be constrainedby public transport times.

“However, our behaviouralstudies suggest that many in-experienced riders quicklychange from feeling nervous,cautious and vulnerable tobeing confident, cocky andbelieving themselves to beinvincible.

“The casualty statistics forthis age group would frightenany parent, but we are nottrying to discourage the useof mopeds and motorcycles.The Take Control trainingcourse is designed to help

young riders develop newskills, temper any over-enthu-siasm and improve their roadsafety awareness“.

A number of prominentlocal motorcycle dealershipsare supporting and promot-ing the Take Control coursesand the free half-day ridertraining would be an ideal fol-low up to CBT. The advancedinstructors are availableseven days a week and willusually take one or two mo-torcyclists per session, start-ing at a convenient locationto suit everyone.

For more information, goto www.takecontroltraining.co.uk

Many young students will re-turn to their studies this yearon mopeds and motorcyclesand parents in Warwickshireare being urged to send themon a free, dedicated trainingcourse to help them stay safeon the roads.

Research has shown that 16to 19 year old motorcyclistsare the most vulnerable roadusers and many still feelnervous and cautious whenthey first travel on twowheels; even though this her-alds an exciting, new-foundfreedom.

Warwickshire road safetyofficer, Stephen Rumble ex-plains “A moped or motorcy-

A new hard hitting road safe-ty drama was launched inCamden in November totackle many of the risksyoung people take on theroads.

‘Crossing Over’ by CliffordOliver is aimed at 12 and 13year olds, an age group inwhich road injuries peak na-tionally. It was commissionedby Camden Council’s publicsafety team in partnershipwith the Arc Theatre and wasfunded by Transport forLondon.

From 2007 to 2008, thecouncil in partnership withlocal organisations workedwith a total of 236 young peo-ple aged 10 to 17 years and53 parents to gauge their atti-tudes to road risk and ad-dress why children, particu-larly those from poorer com-munities and some social andethnic groups, are at greaterrisk of road injury than oth-ers.

The research was conduct-ed at the Somali CommunityCentre, the CarAf Centre, theResearch and DevelopmentCentre for Ethiopians inBritain and the SamuelLithgow Youth Centre. Thekey findings informed the de-velopment of ‘Crossing Over’and include:• Like adults, young pedestri-

ans are often distracted andin a hurry. Young peoplealso owned up to not look-ing before crossing and notwaiting for the green manat pedestrian crossings.

• Most young people sur-veyed sometimes or oftenrun across the road (87 percent), talk on their mobile(70 per cent) or continue tolisten to music (68 percent).

• Nearly half (48 per cent)sometimes or often messaround while crossing theroad.

• A quarter of young peoplesurveyed (25 per cent) playwith balls on the road.

• Both young people andparents want more roadsafety education in schools,

particularly educationwhich is realistic and whichdemonstrates the possibleconsequences of not pay-ing attention on the roads.Councillor Chris Knight, ex-

ecutive member for environ-ment on Camden Council,said: “The research providedus with an invaluable insightinto the behaviours of youngpeople on the road and whyrisks are taken. It enabled usto reassess what we are

doing to educate childrenabout being safe on the roadand informed the develop-ment of this drama.

“Crossing Over gets theroad safety message acrossin a meaningful and relevantway and will be seen by hun-dreds of children acrossCamden. Reducing road dan-ger is essential in encourag-ing people to choose to walk.”

Chris Lines, head of theLondon Road Safety Unit,

said: “There has been an 84per cent fall in the number ofchildren killed or seriously in-jured on Camden’s roadssince the mid to late 1990s,largely thanks to the excellentprogress Camden and TfLhave made in improving roadsafety education and engi-neering in the past decade.

“Eleven to 14 year olds aremore likely to be involved in aroad crash than other agegroups.”


News

I £500,000 on offer for scholarshipsApplications are invited forthe second round of fundingavailable through a £500,000accident prevention scholar-ship scheme.

The RoSPA/BNFL Scholar-ship Scheme provides fund-ing for safety-related researchwhich will produce defined,practical and influential out-comes to help save lives andprevent injuries.

Grants of up to £20,000 aproject per year are available.The closing date for applica-tions for the 2010 round of

funding is April 2. Applications are invited for

projects addressing themesincluding safety education: toenhance risk understandingand awareness (particularlyrisk awareness in preparationfor work); and general safety:to increase public awarenessof safety and accident pre-vention (particularly safetyand risk literacy among keydecision makers and commu-nicators).

The Royal Society for thePrevention of Accidents estab-

lished the scholarship schemeafter BNFL donated £500,000to fund research which wouldhave a significant impact onimproving safety in the UKand around the world.

In 2009, funding went tothree projects researching thescale and impact of child in-juries in Nepal (PhD student,University of the West ofEngland), the threat posed bycold water immersion (Uni-versity of Portsmouth) and theeffectiveness of a learner-driv-er coaching programme

I NewdeputypresidentI CSEC’s key messages

The Child Safety Education Coalition has defined its key messages.The key messages are designed to be helpful when talking about what the coalition is, does

and stands for. With 55 different organisations coming together so far to form the coalition,having a set of messages which are unique to CSEC will help it develop its own identity.

(Staffordshire County Counciland Keele University).

For more information, emailRoger Bibbings at [email protected] or call himon 0121 248 2095. Further de-tails at: www.rospa.com/occu-pationalsafety/occupational_health/bnfl_rospa_scholar-ship.htm

I Thirty seconds of fame for YeovilThe new Vin Diesel movie,Fast & Furious 4, may seem aworld away from the streetsof Yeovil, but a group ofyoung Fixers from the townare showing their own streetrace movie alongside theHollywood blockbuster.

Students from YeovilCollege have made a shortfilm about the dangers of ille-gal street racing, based ontheir own experiences in thetown. They want to encouragesafer driving among youngpeople in a bid to stop ‘boyracer’ culture, and to highlightthe consequences of fast anddangerous driving.

Now their advert, madewith the support of ITV

Fixers, has been shown to themedia and police as part ofthe UK DVD launch for Fast &Furious 4 at Santa PodRaceway.

Lead Fixer Mercedes Dare,17, says she and her friendsare astounded by the re-sponse to their campaign.

She says: “We never ex-pected the film to take off likethis. When we took the ideaof a 30-second advert to ITVFixers, we wanted to have itshown in local schools andcolleges. What we have nowis an amazing opportunity toget our concerns out to awider audience.”

Mercedes and the otherFixers travelled to Santa Pod

The Royal Society for thePrevention of Accidents has anew deputy president.

Lord Hunt of Wirral, shad-ow minister for business, in-novation and skills, has takenup the role.

Tom Mullarkey, RoSPA’schief executive, said: “LordHunt brings a wealth of parlia-mentary experience to bearon RoSPA’s many campaigns.His advice and guidance aresuperb and he has alreadystarted to have an impact asour deputy president. He andLord Jordan, our president,now make a formidable com-bination to influence ouragenda in the House of Lordsand in wider political circles.”

Lord Hunt was an MP from1976-1997 and a member ofthe Government from 1979-1995, serving in the Cabinetas Secretary of State forWales, Secretary of State forEmployment and Chancellorof the Duchy of Lancaster.

He has been a member ofthe Privy Council since 1990and was made a life peer in1997.

Lord Hunt is also presidentof the All Party Group onOccupational Safety andHealth and is an honorarymember of the InternationalInstitute of Risk and SafetyManagement, and an hon-orary vice-president of theInstitute of OccupationalSafety and Health.

to watch the film beingshown to representatives ofthe UK’s film and motoringmedia and the police.

ITV Fixers, which has beenrunning in ITV regional newsprogrammes for a year, chal-lenges people aged between16 and 25 to identify an issueof concern and gives thempractical help and guidanceto ‘fix’ the problem.

It has been devised for ITVby the Public Service Broad-casting Trust, with supportfrom v, the youth volunteer-ing charity, and the Nation-wide Foundation.

View the 30-second filmmade by the Yeovil studentsat http://vimeo.com/ 6679125.

What? The Child Safety EducationCoalition is a group of member organisa-tions which are working together to pro-mote practical education to help childrenand young people protect themselves fromunintended injury.

The five main types of unintended injuryCSEC works to reduce are road traffic in-juries, drowning, poisoning, burns andscalds and trips and falls.

Why? Children and young people gethurt unintentionally and they are more like-ly to die from unintended injury than fromany other cause.

How? CSEC encourages and supportseveryday activities which help childrenlearn about danger and how to cope with itand thereby develop lifelong skills to keepthemselves and others safe.

The key messages:

more cars on the roads, theschool run is notorious forpotentially unsafe scenesoutside the school gates.Anything we can do to helpbring road safety messagesto life and encourage pupilsand parents alike to put safe-ty first is very important tous.

“We now have more than900 schools signed up to TheJet School Run Code initia-tive, spreading the wordabout road safety through ed-ucational leaflets and specialactivity packs.”

Laura Berridge, educationaldirector at Armonico Consort,was thrilled to be approached


News

School children in Kenil-worth, Warwickshire havebeen learning valuable les-sons in staying safe on theroads thanks to a new part-nership between fuel brandJet and music educationcharity Armonico Consort.

The potentially lifesavingmessages were delivered topupils aged 8-11 at St. John’sPrimary School through aspecially designed one-daymusic and drama workshopin November.

Children were assignedroles and encouraged to worktogether to learn bespokescripts and songs duringArmonico Consort’s ‘Musicalin a Day’ workshop, which in-cluded two original songsand sections of musical un-derscoring. The scripts werespecifically tailored to rein-force The Jet School RunCode, an initiative designedto safeguard children as theyarrive and leave school.

Ziggy and Zaggy, twobright yellow robots whofront The Jet School RunCode, were used to bring thelearning to life. At the end ofthe day, parents and otherpupils were invited to watchthe children perform.

As well as inspiring chil-dren to think about road safe-

ty in general, the workshopwas also designed with aview to encouraging pupils toeducate their parents.

The Jet School Run Codewas launched in conjunctionwith the road safety charityBrake, after research by thefuel brand revealed that overhalf of parents questionedadmitted to breaking basicdriving rules on the schoolrun, including speeding, dan-gerous parking and stoppingin unsafe places to drop chil-dren off.

Consisting of importantdo’s and don’ts and otherroad safety guidelines forparents, The Jet School RunCode was developed with theaim of eliminating such dan-gerous behaviour.

Tony Conway, Jet’s market-ing manager, is delighted atthe positive feedback alreadyreceived from children, teach-ers and parents at the school:“The workshop was a greatsuccess. Not only was it anincredibly fun day for the chil-dren, it’s clear that importantlessons have been learned byeveryone involved – and thisis exactly what we wanted toachieve.

“We take our role in thelocal community very seri-ously, and with more and

by Jet to help deliver suchvital lessons in road safety:“We really had fun with theZiggy and Zaggy charactersand bringing The Jet SchoolRun Code to life. Using cre-ative methods like drama andmusic are so powerful inlearning because they en-gage children in an excitingand accessible way – and thisworkshop was certainly noexception.”

Each child taking part in theworkshop also received aspecial road safety pack con-taining a copy of The JetSchool Run Code, a hi-visjacket, Ziggy and Zaggy stick-ers, a poster and badges.

I Music and drama deliver the message

I Infocentre makes life easier for membersThe Royal Society for thePrevention of Accidents haslaunched a new system forsearching its unrivalled collec-tion of more than 28,500 acci-dent prevention resources.

The RoSPA Infocentre cata-logue has been transferred toa new online system, which isdesigned to make it easier forRoSPA members to quickly lo-cate the journal articles,books, pamphlets and reportsthey need.

RoSPA members can usethe new Liberty library man-agement system to search thedatabase at any time of day,from anywhere in the world,

free of charge. Once theyhave found the resourcethey’re looking for, they canask to borrow the item or toreceive a pdf version or pho-tocopy.

Unlimited access to theInfocentre and its resources isjust one of the free benefitsenjoyed by RoSPA members.

Ibidapo Oketunji, RoSPA’sinformation services manag-er, said: “We are reallypleased to launch theInfocentre’s new onlinesearch facility for RoSPAmembers. We hope it willmake it easier for them todraw on the expertise con-

tained within our extensiveand unrivalled library.

“Each month, the RoSPAInfocentre receives around550 enquiries from RoSPAmembers and the public whoare looking for a wide rangeof accident prevention infor-mation, guidance and re-sources. We offer a uniqueservice, because we cover allaspects of safety, and no en-quiry is too strange.”

RoSPA members can ac-cess the new search facility bylogging on to their dedicatedwebsite - www. rospa.com/members/ - and following theInfocentre links.

As well as searching for spe-cific items, they can periodi-cally search the catalogue fornewly purchased/cataloguedbooks or articles. In additionto requesting publicationsthrough the system, they canprint or save their searchesand return to them later.

The RoSPA Infocentre ishappy to take enquiries bytelephone (0121 248 2130), fax(0121 248 2001), email ([email protected]), or by let-ter (Infocentre, RoSPA, Edg-baston House, 353 BristolRoad, Birmingham, B5 7ST).Visits in person are also wel-come.


Europe

Seminar focuses on young people at riskDelegates from acrossEurope attended the first in-ternational seminar lookinginto young people’s involve-ment in injury prevention.

The three-day event whichwas hosted by the ChildSafety Education Coalitionand AdRisk (the CommunityAction on Adolescents andInjury Risk project, aEuropean initiative) and heldat the headquarters of RoSPAin Birmingham.

There were inspiring exam-ples of work from around thecontinent, including presen-tations from young peoplewho are involved in injuryprevention in the UK, andlively workshop sessions dur-ing which delegates soughtto define “high quality practi-cal safety education” and“risk competence”.

Setting the scene for theopening day’s discussionsabout what constitutes highquality practical safety educa-tion were Marcus Bailie, ofthe Adventure ActivitiesLicensing Service, Ian Park, ofLearning Outside the Class-room, and Richard Kim-berlee, from the University ofthe West of England.

Among the points raisedduring a response sessionwere that teachers needed tohave confidence that, con-trary to popular belief, therehad not been an increase incompensation claims relatedto school trips, and that thebenefits of young people en-gaging in “risky behaviour”needed to be promoted.

It was also suggested that a

perceived national policyfocus on “protecting” and“safeguarding” children andyoung people should shift tothe encouragement of activi-ties which enable them tolearn about safety.

Among the thoughts drawnout in workshop sessionsabout high quality practicalsafety education were: it is aconstant process; it can hap-pen in and out of school; it in-volves experimental learning;it fosters a culture which pro-motes responsibility and as-pirations of wellbeing; itshould be interesting, rele-vant, challenging, interactive,flexible and fun; it can pro-mote experiencing little in-juries to avoid the big in-juries; it happens in partner-ship; it should be evidence-based and evaluated; and itleads to behaviour change.

Young people from the UKwere among the speakers onthe second day of the semi-nar, as delegates turned theirattention to youth participa-tion in strategies to preventunintended injuries. They in-cluded singer-songwriterKatie Benbow, 16, of Rhyl,Denbighshire, who wrote asong and appeared in a videoin memory of her friendDavid Wares, 22, who waskilled in a car crash last yearwhile racing a friend (seewww.youtube.com/watch?v=a6lWT0YUoVs).

“I would like as many peo-ple to watch the video as pos-sible” said Katie. “If it savesone person’s life that will beenough for me. I do not wantanybody else to go throughwhat David’s family and Ihave gone through.”

She also told delegates thather interest in road safety hadnow gone beyond the video.“I would love to use the videoto reach people but if they

were not interested in thevideo, I would still like topush road safety and aware-ness. It has become a passionof mine now.”

Injury prevention cam-paigner Manpreet Darroch,21, of Walsall, who is a stu-

dent at Aston University, in-troduced delegates to thedangers of modern technolo-gy and the road. He showedan internet viral which warnsother young people of thedangers faced by pedestrianswho are distracted by loudmusic (see http://battlefront.co.uk/video/21713/).

“You might be able to stop

Young people have said that they had notthought their earphones put them at risk

when they were crossing the road

By Jo Stagg

Katie Benbow tells her story

Manpreet Darroch describes his concerns


Europe

ung people at risk

and look, but one of the mostcritical aspects of crossingthe road is listening as well,”he said. “Something whichlots of young people havesaid to me is that they hadnot thought their earphonesput them at risk when they

were crossing the road (be-fore this campaign). To methat sounds like someone haspotentially saved their ownlife.”

Alysha Ong, 19, a Uni-versity of Birmingham stu-dent from Banbury, spokeabout a project which saw herjoin RoSPA on a “young ad-vocate” placement organised

through the charity Change-makers.

During her placement,Alysha investigated whatyoung people thought aboutadvanced driver training (seewww.rospa.com/drivertraining/info/changemakers.pdf). “Wewanted to know why peoplewere or were not interested inadvanced driving andwhether they even knew whatit involved,” she said.

Five Year 10 students fromHeartlands Academy inBirmingham outlined a CSECpeer-to-peer project throughwhich they are developing apractical safety educationprogramme.

Other speakers on the sec-ond day included Dr JennyMcWhirter, RoSPA’s risk edu-cation adviser and a memberof the CSEC steering group,who introduced the “Hart lad-der of participation”, andBritta Lang, of the TransportResearch Laboratory, whotalked about consultingyoung drivers.

Manfred Zentner, of theEuropean Knowledge Centrefor Youth Policy, outlined apractical safety educationproject involving skiers andsnowboarders, and CassiusFrancis, youth liaison officerat RoSPA and a CSEC co-ordi-nator, spoke about howFacebook could be used in in-jury prevention.

Sophie Wood, principal offi-cer at NCB and a member ofthe CSEC steering group, in-troduced delegates to theconcept of youth participa-tion.

The focus of the third daywas the issue of “risk compe-tence” - how young peoplebecome able to identify chal-lenges, recognise the bene-fits and hazards involved, as-sess and manage risks andenjoy the benefits of the chal-lenge.

Ursula Löwe, of Kuratorium

fır Verkehrssicherheit (KfV) inAustria and the AdRisk proj-ect co-ordinator, ManfredZentner, Ine Buuron, of theConsumer Safety Institute inthe Netherlands, and EvelineBraun, of KfV, introduced theday’s theme before delegatesbroke into workshops.

Feedback from the work-shops included that: “learn-ing” rather than “teaching”is the key approach to help-ing young people developrisk competence; risk compe-tence fosters independenceand can be learned throughreal-life experiences/mis-takes; risk competence in-volves the ability to transferskills to parallel situations;and different age groupsdemonstrate differing levelsof risk competency (i.e. wemust not pin an expectationof risk competency onyounger age groups, e.g.five-10s, because there is a

aid that they had notones put them at risk crossing the road

risk we could blame victimsif an injury occurs).

Summing up the seminar,John Vallender, CSEC man-ager, said: “The seminar wasa tremendous success. Ithighlighted that a genuinelyshared approach to practicalsafety education existsacross Europe, based onfreedoms for children andyoung people to take owner-ship of their learningthrough an inductive ap-proach to safety education.

“The speakers’ presenta-tion and the workshop ses-sions revealed a commondesire to give children thefreedom to do things.Practical safety educationbased on this inductive ap-proach is about helping chil-dren and young people bypreparing them to take partin their world and to get thebest out of what they are try-ing to do.”

cerns

Katie Benbow with coverage of her campaign


Good practice

in this project brings more re-sponsibility. If you are lead-ing people, you are going to

learn how to be more respon-sible. It is also very helpful tolearn how to speak in front ofpeople.”

All five students said theyhad been inspired by theother young people who tookpart in the seminar.

“We’re benefiting from the

experience, knowledge andopportunity to learn aboutsafety,” said Shanice.

And it’s an opportunity theyare not taking for granted.Aliyah said: “This experienceis good for us. Many peoplewho are older than us wouldnot have got the opportunitythat we have to develop theseskills.”

Devante saw his involve-

ment in the project as directlyrelevant to his ambitions forthe future. “Most peoplewould not have this opportu-nity on their CVs,” he said.“This opportunity will helpwith my future career as a po-lice officer because of theskills which I am developing,like leadership skills, commu-nication and teamwork, andbecause a lot of my careerwill focus on safety.”

Students from HeartlandsAcademy in Birmingham arerunning a CSEC peer-to-peerproject through which theyare developing a practicalsafety education programme.The project – called Have Fun,Be Safe! - will culminate inChild Safety Week in June2010.

Working closely with aCSEC co-ordinator and one oftheir teachers, the Year 10 stu-dents - Devante Benjamin,Shanice Johnson, ElizabethKoko, Aliyah Nesbeth andGovan Rashid – have become“safety mentors” within theirschool and have been takingpresentations about how toprevent injuries into yeargroup assemblies.

They are also invitingteachers to assist them intheir preparations for ChildSafety Week and have linkeda school subject area to eachof the unintended injuriesthey are working to prevent(road traffic injuries – drama;drowning – PE; poisoning –art; burns and scalds – mediastudies; and trips and falls –textiles).

As well as starting to thinkmore about their own safetysince starting the project – in-cluding about whether or notto listen to music while cross-ing the road - the studentssaid being involved withCSEC had brought them ahost of other benefits.

“We now have more lead-ership skills and knowledge,and are being given more op-portunities,” said Govan.

Her message was echoedby Elizabeth: “Being involved

Students aim to counselpeers

We now have more leadership skills and knowledge, and are being given

more opportunities

Heartlands students in front of Cassius Francis from RoSPA, Sophie Wood from NCB andteacher Sheryl Richards


Hazards

The hazards of MorecambeBay’s sands came to worldattention in February 2004with the tragic incident inwhich Chinese cockle pickerslost their lives. Scarcely amonth goes by withoutsomeone getting into seriousdifficulties.

The bay is the estuary ofthe river Kent, which flowsfrom the Lakeland hills. Muchof the sand is actually quick-sand (sinking mud). There aresand banks separated bychannels which can be sever-al metres deep. The tide rush-es fast up the channels.

People and animals getstuck in the quick-sand andmarooned on the sand banks.They are at the mercy of therushing tide. Quick-sand andchannels are constantly shift-ing position. Each summerthe Queen’s Guide to theSands and his deputies safely

lead parties across the bay,having walked the sandsthemselves earlier in the day.Others tread the sands attheir peril.

After an incident involvingyoungsters a couple of yearsago near Silverdale on the bay,there was concern to make therisks better known and betterunderstood by young people.There should be a leaflet.Youngsters could work on put-ting it together. The leafletshould be a guide to others.Local children should have on-going involvement... a contri-bution they could make tocommunity cohesion.

Key players were WendyThompson, then partnershipofficer for North Lancashire(who lives close by theshore), and Lynne Whelon,leader of the after school careclub at St John’s C of E

P r i m a r ySchool inSilverdale.We n d y ’srole wasd r a w i n gtoge ther

those with a shared interestin this community issue.

With financial support fromthe local county councillor’sdiscretionary fund and theArea of Outstanding NaturalBeauty, Wendy and Lynneworked with the Coastguardservice and a Guide to theSands.

Children met the Guide.They went to the sands. Theylearned about the dangers,they could see them forthemselves. They enquiredabout coping with the risks.They considered the advicefrom the experts. They talkedabout it. They drew picturesabout it. And they put it all to-gether to produce some...

Golden Rules• Tell someone you are going

out and when you will beback

• Know the weather forecastand tide times

• Take a phone, compass andwhistle

• If you find quick-sand, backoff

• Avoid the edges of chan-

Advice on shifting sandsBy Jim Bennetts nels, especially after rain

• Wear suitable footwear andbright clothes.Thousands of leaflets were

printed. They are at the cara-van sites, in the shops, in thelibrary and at all the schools.

The after school care club iscalled the 701 club becauseall the village phone numbersstart with that. The leaflet car-ries the 701 logo. The childrenare proud of their contribu-tion. One of their drawings ison the front. They carry onl e a r n i n gabout thes a n d s .They tello t h e rp e o p l e .They aregetting ag o o dappreci-ation ofhow toa d o p ts a f ep r a c -tices.


Speed

Detailed road casualty fig-ures just published dem-onstrate that speeding is aserious problem on Britain’sroads, particularly amongyoung men, says the RoyalSociety for the Prevention ofAccidents.

Speed-related factors (ex-ceeding the speed limit ortravelling too fast for the con-ditions) were reported in rela-tion to 211 deaths of 16-25-year-old men on Britain’sroads in 2008 – accountingfor 41 per cent of road fatali-ties in this group.

Across all road users,speed-related factors werecited in relation to 586 roaddeaths – accounting for 25per cent of fatalities onBritain’s roads.

The Department forTransport’s report into thecontributory factors to roadaccidents in Britain in 2008also shows that continuingefforts to encourage driversand riders to undergo re-fresher training are needed.Four of the five most fre-quently-reported contributoryfactors were a driver or ridererror or reaction.

Failing to look properly wasonce again the most common-ly reported factor in accidentsof all severities (being cited in37 per cent of accidents – upfrom 35 per cent in 2007).

Loss of control was themost commonly reported fac-tor in fatal accidents (report-ed in 32 per cent of accidentswhich resulted in a death).

The other contributory fac-tors in the top five across allseverities of road accidentwere: failing to judge otherperson’s path or speed; care-less, reckless or in a hurry;and poor turn or manoeuvre.

Overall, the number of peo-ple killed on Britain’s roadsreached a record low in 2008.A total of 2,538 lives were lost(down from 2,946 in 2007).There were 26,034 serious in-juries and 202,333 slight in-juries. Disappointingly, the

number of child deaths rosefrom 121 in 2007 to 124 in2008.

Kevin Clinton, RoSPA headof road safety, said: “Despitethe very welcome drop inroad deaths and injuries,these figures continue toshow that basic driving skillsand attitudes are behind most

road deaths. It is clear that wemust continue our efforts toencourage drivers to watchtheir speed and we muststate clearly that road acci-dents caused by a driver orrider error, whether that isfailing to look properly, fail-ing to judge another person’sspeed or losing control, are

preventable.“Even though the number

of deaths and injuries on ourroads has fallen, there arestill too many lives devastat-ed by road accidents.

“We all need to maintainour driving skills and RoSPArecommends that everyonetakes refresher training.”

Speeding is a problem

The road safety music chal-lenge final took place at theBlake Theatre, Monmouthwith five schools fromBlaenau Gwent, Caerphillyand Monmouthshire. Thecompeting bands and soloistperformed their composi-tions on an anti drink-drivetheme with the audience re-sponding enthusiastically.

The winners were decidedby a panel of three judges,Polly James from NationRadio, Steve Baker fromRoSPA and St John Distonfrom Gwent Music.

The winning bands were:Lewis School Pengam, whowon £250; Abertillery Comp-

rehensive, who won £150 andNantyglo Comprehensive,who won £100

The prizes were presentedby Chief SuperintendentKevin Price of HeddluGwent police who said,“The high standard andamount of effort put in bythese young people is veryimpressive. They are pro-moting an important mes-sage. For many years wehave tried a range of strate-gies to get the anti drinkdrive message over. Musicis a powerful medium andthese musicians are in a po-sition to influence their peergroup, families and the

wider community. They areour future and I seek theirsupport in getting over thisimportant message.”

The event was attended bydignitaries from all overGwent. Cllr John Evans,Mayor of Caerphilly CBC said,“The standards shown by thestudents this evening havebeen absolutely superb. I amglad that I’m not one of thejudges as choosing the win-ner will be very difficult!”

The winning song wasused as the basis of an adver-tisement on Nation Radio topromote the All Wales AntiDrink- Drive Campaign inDecember.

The winning band with Cllr John Evans

Musical challenge


RoSPA’s road safety depart-ment was invited by Andrea Fisher, health andsafety manager of Brocken-hurst College in Hampshire,to participate in their annualDrive Safe programme heldat the college.These requestsare usually very difficult toaccommodate, but the inno-vative programme and op-portunity to encourage thestudents to develop theirown road safety initiativesprovided a unique openingfor RoSPA.

This was an event whichleft a lasting memory, besidesour, “There’s a pony that’s notfenced in - oh yeah – it’s theNew Forest”, moment of in-credible intellectual clarity!The lasting memory was ofcommunity spirit: a memorywhich began when we werecollected from our hotel by aPolice Community SupportOfficer stopping off en routeto collect two baskets of hotsausage rolls donated by thevillage baker.

This community involve-ment in an event intended forstudents was successful inachieving more than well fedparticipants. BrockenhurstCollege attracts around 2,700students per year. Situated inthe middle of the New Forestthere were natural concernsby residents regarding roadsafety, and the number of an-imals killed on the road.

As a trusted institutionBrockenhurst College design-ed a weeklong event gearedexclusively towards roadsafety. With the support ofenthusiastic local PCSO’s,and Clyde Evans of Hamp-shire Fire and RescueService, Andrea Fisher andher colleagues helped toforge positive relationshipsand build cohesion between

the college, its students, andthe wider community.

It is not easy to pull togeth-er a programme like this andwe felt that in relation to the10 principles of effective safe-ty education the programmewas particularly strong in thefollowing areas.• Encourage the adoption of,

or reinforce, a whole school[college] approach, withinthe wider community

• Use active approaches toteaching and learning (in-cluding interactive and ex-periential learning)

• Involve young people inreal decisions to help themstay safe

• Assess children and youngpeople’s learning needs

• Teach safety as part of acomprehensive personalsocial and health curriculum

• Use realistic and relevantsettings and resources

• Work in partnershipFor further information on

the 10 Principles please visit

http://www.rospa.com/safetyeducation/principles.htm

The event was attended byan impressive array of agen-cies, including a New ForestAgister, BSM, Connexions,British Horse Society, Hamp-shire Fire and Rescue Service,Animal Rescue Service,Hampshire Police, DSA, PrismDrug Service, Hampshire andIsle of Wight Air Ambulanceand others.

Our role in the event was totalk to students about the risksassociated with being passen-gers, pedestrians and cyclists:the day-to-day risks taken bystudents which Brockenhursthad previously identified.

This was an opportunity forus to hear what young peoplethink, and how this fits withour policies at RoSPA. We dis-cussed the reasons whysome young people choosenot to wear cycle helmets orseatbelts, and how awarethey are as pedestrians.

The programme incorpo-

rated workshops delivered byDSA, Hampshire Police,Hampshire County Council’sroad safety team alongsideourselves. It also included apresentation by an ex-studentwho had suffered serious in-juries in a road traffic inci-dent. Her bravery in speakingto groups of current studentshelped relate the professionalagencies’ messages to some-thing very real and tangiblefor those attending.

The Drive Safe eventreached not only the localcommunity and the studentsof Brockenhurst College, butalso groups of pupils fromsecondary schools in the area– and of course, their teach-ers. The reach of this event isto be commended. It wasgreat to be a part of some-thing that so many differentgroups and agencies were in-volved in. We think it is fair tosay that we all learned some-thing new. Well done to all ofthose involved, in particularAndrea Fisher and ClydeEvans.

Drive Safe in the Forest

Community

By Cassius Francis and Lindsey Simkins

Clyde Evans and Andrea Fisher left with Lindsey Simkins and Cassius Francis from RoSPA


News extra

I 600 enter poster competitionYear Six pupils from acrossLondon have been hard atwork designing a range ofroad safety themed postersfor a competition to produceimages for the 2010 road safe-ty calendar.

The competition, run by theLondon Safety CameraPartnership and local bor-ough road safety officers, isin its fifth year and has againattracted more than 600 en-tries from schools across thecapital.

The LSCP and MetropolitanPolice visited Cannon LaneMiddle school in Harrow toaward a prize to the school.Ten schools, of which CannonLane was one, were chosenas overall winners, with theirposters making up the mainpage of the calendars.

Two other winning schoolsin Harrow are Alpha Prep-aratory School and VaughanNursery School.

Chris Lines, head of roadsafety at Transport forLondon, said: ‘‘The LondonSafety Camera Partnershipreceived excellent work fromthe children again this yearand the judges found it verydifficult to choose the win-ners.

“Teaching young peoplegood road safety habits tolast them a lifetime will go along way in reducing thenumber of people killed andseriously injured on London’sroads. With this particularproject, the LSCP aims to ed-ucate younger pedestriansabout how safety camerascan help to save lives.’’

Head teacher at CannonLane School, Richard John-son, said: ‘‘We are delightedthat the London SafetyCamera Partnership invitedpupils from our school to takepart in this competition. In de-signing these posters, ourYear Six pupils have learneda great deal about road safetyand the dangers that theirage group face. The competi-tion has also reinforced themessage that speed can en-danger lives. The pupils are

looking forward to seeingtheir designs in the calendarnext year.’’

The competition encour-aged pupils to use their imag-ination and illustrate roadsafety issues that were impor-tant to them or their schoolenvironment. Entries rangedfrom posters about excessivespeed and wearing seatbelts,to the importance of stopping,looking and listening whencrossing the road.

The LSCP chose the 12 win-ning posters from those en-tries that best represented apositive speed related roadsafety message. Another 72entrants across London re-ceived highly commendedcertificate awards and allpupils who participated re-ceived an appreciation certifi-cate.

The winning posters havebeen made into a 2010 calen-dar that will be sent to everyprimary school in London tohighlight the risks that pupilsface on the roads due to ex-cessive speed from cars.

I Bucks campaignA campaign has beenlaunched to encourage youngpeople to play their part in re-ducing road casualtiesamong their peers.

‘In the can’ challengesyoung people to make a roadsafety film suitable for use onthe Internet. The competitionis open to anyone under 21,working on their own or inteams, or on behalf of theirschool, college or university.

There are two £1,000 firstprizes and two £250 runner upprizes for the best entriesfrom individuals/teams, andfrom educational establish-ments.

Twenty three county coun-cils and unitary local authori-ties are taking part in the cam-paign, organised by Bucking-hamshire County Council.

Valerie Letheren, Bucking-

hamshire cabinet member fortransportation said: “Insteadof creating a new road safetycampaign about the risks anddangers facing young driversand their passengers, we’vedecided to throw down thechallenge to young peoplethemselves.

“We think that, potentially,they have the best insight intohow their peers think aboutdriving and road safety - andthe best way to get messagesthrough to them.

“By challenging them tomake their own road safetyfilm we think we can learnhow to approach young peo-ple - the messages and ap-proaches which might workfor this vulnerable group.”

The competition runs untilApril 2010, when the best en-tries will be shortlisted.

The final winners in eachcategory will be selected viaan online public vote, and thewinning film(s) may be usedas the basis of a national roadsafety campaign.

The campaign website,www.inthecan.org.uk, con-tains full details about thecompetition and useful adviceand information for thosethinking of entering, includ-ing: tips on how to get startedand on film making; roadsafety information relevant toyoung people; research intoattitudes among young driv-ers; and the competition rulesand judging procedures.

For more information con-tact the road safety team atTransport for Buckingham-shire on 01296 382450 or email [email protected]

safety...safety education spring 2010 3 news ifree moped courses start icrossing over to get message...

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