School newspaper promotes road safety

12.00 | 2 December 2015 |

Budding newshounds from a school in the county have honed their journalistic skills to help raise awareness of road safety.

Years 5 and 6 pupils from Etherley Lane Primary School in Bishop Auckland have produced a community newspaper entitled ‘The Etherley Lane Safety Echo’.

The publication, created to coincide with Road Safety Week, includes articles about the new part-time 20mph speed limit outside their school, as well as other features on road safety, and will be distributed among the local community.

The limit was introduces as part of the ‘Slow to 20 for safer streets’ campaign, which has seen 20mph limits rolled out at schools across the county.

The campaign involves introducing 20mph limits on roads near 33 schools across the county and is aimed at reducing road casualties and providing a safer environment for children who walk and cycle to school, helping them to be more active.

Pupils were given some hints and tips to help them conduct interviews, write news stories, take photos and design and layout their newspaper by our press team.

Their project was also filmed for inclusion in a video which we are producing to promote the 20mph campaign.

Karen Bennett, head teacher at Etherley Lane Primary School, said: “The 20mph speed limit has made a positive difference to our pupils and the community as a whole.

“It has helped improve road safety in the local area, promotes health and wellbeing and provides a safer environment for all the pupils at our school as well as the children who go to Etherley Lane Nursery.

“We are extremely proud of all the pupils who took part in our newspaper project – they were really enthusiastic and grasped the road safety message very well and produced a high-quality, informative publication.”

Cllr Brian Stephens, cabinet member for neighbourhoods and local partnerships, said: “Our aim is to equip schoolchildren with the knowledge and skills they need to be safe on the roads. It is great to see pupils putting this into practice by producing their own community newspaper to raise awareness of these important issues.”

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