Product category:
Web design and development
News Release from: Bite CP | Subject: web-based teaching tool
Edited by the Marketingservicestalk Editorial
Team on 26 October 2007
Your Streets keeps child road safety
alive
Thanks to design agency Bite CP, teachers in Bromley, London, have had a new tool at their disposal this term to help them teach and maintain awareness of Road Safety issues.
Your Streets is a web-based tool to help techers maintain awareness of road safety issues Both teachers and children were consulted by Bite CP at an early stage and were instrumental in identifying both the content and the tools to make the project work
It was warmly welcomed by teachers, who spend much of their time finding fresh ways to bring dry subjects alive for their pupils.
Road safety is a particular concern as the dark nights draw in.
National Statistics state that there were 258,404 reported casualties on roads in Great Britain in 2006 and the number of children killed or seriously injured was 3,294, of which 2,025 were pedestrians.
"Around 250 lives are needlessly lost each month on British roads and it is terrible to think that accidents like these can be avoided if all road users really had the will to avoid them", said Angus Culverwell, Principal Road Safety Officer for the London Borough of Bromley, who is the instigator of the "Your Streets" concept.
"Teachers often have a tough job to balance the needs of the Citizenship syllabus with traditional topics, but we feel we have achieved this as well as delivering direct support for the government's Every Child Matters and Work Related Learning strategies.
"Our challenge was to ensure that we could get across what is often troubling subject matter within the context of the Personal Social and Health Education syllabus in an engaging and creative way to a wide age group and without being patronising".
Mark Lappin, managing director of Bite CP, said: "We felt that the initial focus on Maths and English offered teachers rich opportunities to communicate and illustrate road safety, as well as being fun and enjoyable for the pupils".
Bite CP designed the "Your Streets" site to enable teachers to create relevant lesson plans and exercises for all ages, within the Maths and English National Curriculum, by focusing on the topics of travel and road safety.
At all times Bite CP tried to help teachers to embed road safety thinking and behaviour within normal lessons in a fun, interactive and relevant way.
For younger pupils this might simply be to help them become more aware of the hazards around them.
However the subject matter can be used for far harder-hitting exercises, such as those designed to help Year 11 pupils (those who are about to become learner drivers) become aware of the responsibility of driving and learn things of direct relevance to driving safely.
Examples of resources in "Your Streets" include: data relating to local road accidents (Maths); photographs of accident sites (Maths and English); road safety adverts for discussion (English); quizzes to use as lesson starter (Maths and English); reaction time measurer (Maths); extract from a novel about an accident (English); word search (English); stopping distances information sheet (Maths).
Culverwell added: "Bite CP has yet again been able to use its design skill and understanding to turn a rather well-worn subject into something that is not just relevant and appealing to children, but also useful for teachers.
"This is a serious topic that might have been very dry indeed - instead, it will be a great addition to the curriculum".
• Bite CP: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Marketingservicestalk email newsletter
• Marketingservicestalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
