The THINK! team has launched a new online resource centre to help teachers plan road safety lessons for school children.
The THINK! Resource Centre brings together a wide range of road safety materials for children and teenagers in one place. It is designed to help teachers, road safety officers and anyone teaching road safety to plan lessons easily and effectively.
Launching the resource, Stephen Hammond road safety minister, said: “Road deaths are at a record low and child casualties have fallen considerably in recent years, but we know there is room for improvement and I am determined to reduce casualties even further.
“THINK! education resources are already highly regarded, but we wanted to make them much easier to use in road safety lessons. This new online resource will be used by teachers across the country to give children the skills and knowledge they need to stay safe on the roads.”
The materials are organised into 25 themed lesson packs and aimed at all ages, from early years to Key Stage 4.
Each Lesson Pack is clearly labelled by Key Stage and includes a lesson plan and a range of teaching resources, such as online games, posters, stories, films and ideas for activities both in and out of the classroom. The packs also include information and activities for parents and carers, to ensure children are taught consistently at school and at home.
The Resource Centre can be used by teachers in Personal, Social, Health and Economics lessons and to provide examples for core curriculum subjects such as maths and science. The Resource Centre is also intended be useful for road safety officers and out of school groups such as Rainbows, Beavers, Brownies and Cub Scouts.
Click here to visit the THINK! Resource Centre website.
As James and Nick have said, this is a new presentation of existing materials, not a reinvention of the wheel, designed to make them easier for teachers and professionals to find and use. If RSGB members have concerns about the quality or content of the Think! materials, please raise this at your regional meetings and bring the information to us through your P&M reps. We meet with the DfT on a regular basis with the aim of developing and improving resources as well as other road safety matters. They need to hear your opinions and experience as key professionals who use and promote their resources – the channel is there if you choose to use it. There is still time for this to be discussed at our next P&M meeting on Tuesday 11th June if you contact your reps.
Honor Byford, Vice Chair RSGB
0
The Resource Centre is about bringing together a range of road safety materials, storing them in one place and making them accessible – all of which it achieves. RSOs were consulted on this piece of work and had the chance to comment at the testing stage and a number of RSOs did take up this opportunity.
RSGB remains extremely keen to work with the THINK! team to develop and enhance the materials and resources they produce. RSGB members are passionate and have a wealth of skills and experience to add and through our organisation we can offer a network of contacts. There are meetings between RSGB and THINK! in the near future and hopefully we will be able to forge closer working relationships.
James Gibson, Press & PR Officer, Road Safety GB
0
To be fair to the THINK! team, as I see it this exercise is about making road safety education resources more accessible and easy to use, not about creating new resources. In my view they have succeeded in this aim.
Nick Rawlings, editor, Road Safety GB newsfeed
0
Why spend money re-inventing the wheel, all this type of curriculum linked material and youth group material has been has been out there for years, fully researched and evaluated as to what works and made for sharing. Wake up DfT and smell the coffee!
Bill, Glasgow
0
I hate to say it but if we used any of the lower or upper High School resources in my Authority we would be laughed out of the classroom. Think!, and I have said this to you before, you really do need to use alternative focus groups for your educational aids for teachers to use, especially for the teenage road user.
Stuart Rochdale
0