Road safety Key Stages 3 and 4

Choices

Fact - In Nottinghamshire 11-16 year olds account for 30% of all killed or seriously injured pedestrian and pedal cycle casualties.

The "Choices" session is designed for Year 8 pupils and aims to promote discussion and raise awareness of the facts.The session will fit in with Citizenship and help with practical skills as a road user.

Session details:

• time - 50 minutes to an hour
• cost - none
• number of students - between 15 and 30
• requirements from school - classroom and white board/surface on which to project.

The lesson is interactive using an EZ-Click system that enables the students to take an active part in the lesson. The session involves getting their initial opinions through a survey then stimulating discussion using a newspaper article. We then introduce them to road safety adverts from around the world and footage of real incidents.

How far, how fast?

This project is for pupils in years 7 and lasts approximately 30 minutes per session.

Using a car equipped with a reaction timer (the car remains stationary throughout the session), the pupils have to estimate where they think the car would stop in an emergency.

Using pre-prepared  tables the pupils work out the correct stopping distance and compare this with their estimates.  The pupils are also asked to consider other factors which may affect the stopping distance such as weather, road and car conditions as well as driver alertness.  

It aims to heighten pupil’s awareness of stopping distances and introduces children to the concept of measuring time and distance in a practical way.

How far how fast is an outdoor resource.  A reasonable sized hard standing play area, which has access for a car, is therefore required for this resource.

A maximum of 16 pupils are trained in each session, however, several sessions can be carried out on a single day.

The staff and equipment to carry out this training is provided free of charge.

Lesson plans

Free lesson plans to help you include road safety within lessons on citizenship, MFL, media, and PSHE are available free online at www.databases.dft.gov.uk/secondary