School road safety schemes
We provide a variety of road safety training for schools including bikeability (cycling proficiency), child pedestrian and our junior road safety officer scheme.
The schemes are available to all schools in County Durham.
In addition, we offer a wide range of educational resources to schools. These resources have been developed to address specific child road safety issues, complement the national curriculum and are evaluated to ensure they effectively deliver appropriate road safety messages to our target audience.
Courses available
Bikeability Balance (three hours)
Teaches balance as a first stage to riding a bike for younger children.
Primary school training
Level one (two hours)
This teaches basic bicycle control skills on the school playground.
Level two (six hours)
This takes place on quiet risk-assessed roads near to the school. Children learn about the best position to ride on the road, how to pass parked cars and how to do left and right turns into both major and minor roads.
Secondary school training
Level three (two hours)
This takes place on busier roads with more difficult junctions.
Accredited trainers and courses
Cycling instructors will come to your school to deliver the training. All our instructors and courses are accredited by the National Cycle Training Standard.
A child pedestrian trainer will visit your school to carry out the training.
What is involved?
A 30 minute classroom introduction followed by two practical sessions on quiet risk-assessed routes close to the school.
Session one
Children learn about the road environment, the dangers of traffic and how to identify safe and unsafe crossing places. We will look at why it is unsafe to cross at certain places, explain what a 'hazard' is and what it means to 'take a risk'. Traffic flow, speed, volume and distance are also discussed. We will also check understanding of crossing the road and between parked cars if necessary
Session two
This session checks the children's understanding of the previous session and for them to demonstrate that they understand the rules of crossing the road.
Certificates
Children are awarded a certificate at the end of the session.
Primary schools are encouraged to appoint a minimum of two pupils from either Year 4, 5 or 6 to become the Road Safety Squad for their school.
The aim is that the Road Safety Squad will raise awareness of road safety/active travel to pupils, parents/carers, school staff and the local community through the promotion of different road safety/active travel themes and projects in school.