https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnDejs_Tl3s&t=5s
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https://www.roadsafetytrust.org.uk/funded-projects/16/ucl-road-safety-for-children
#roadsafety #education #schools #pedestrians
]]>Emily addresses a variety of topics; including starting her new role with The Trust. She talks about the resources Bikeability are offering to encourage family cycling. She reflects upon the effect of lockdown on children and the 'Peace One Day' campaign. She also takes the opportunity to answer some of your questions!
https://soundcloud.com/room9media/emily-cherry-executive-director-for-the-bikeability-trust
]]>Jacob, from Washington DC, talks to us about a road traffic collision that happened to him in 2014. He talks about the injuries he suffered and how they still affect him today. Most importantly, he reflects on how he refuses to let this event define him in a negative way. He also describes the time he met Michelle Obama, and the insane amount of tweeting he does. All this and more, we hope you enjoy the interview!
He talks about why road traffic crashes are the biggest killer of young people across the world and how, young people themselves can be part of the solution.
https://soundcloud.com/room9media/manpreet-darroch-interview
]]>https://soundcloud.com/room9media/interview-jemima-hartshorn
]]>It serves as a friendly introduction to the topic and gives them the opportunity to think about the issues relating to clean air in a way which is both positive and fun!
You can view the book here.
It is also accompanied by banners and bookmarks to help spread the vital message to parents. If you would like more information about these or any of our other clean air resources then please get in touch.
]]>But today is different, as you sail thoughtlessly past, you realise you’ve just been clocked by a surreptitiously concealed police speed camera. Worse still, one of his colleagues is now flagging you down to stop. As you pull over with a selection of well-worn excuses spinning around your head, you also notice something else…
Next to the police officer stand a group of year 6 children and they look angry, really angry. As you’re trying to process what happened during the last two minutes, it’s politely explained that you can either receive a ticket or go into the school and take your chances with the dreaded “Kids Court”…
You are then faced with the horrors of utter humiliation as you attempt to explain your actions to a group of year 6 children. They’ve had enough of traffic breaking the limits and putting their lives at risk. They’re proving to be tough cross examiners and they’re certainly not for buying into any of your excuses. After a gruelling session you are allowed to go home with a warning that made three points on your licence seem like something of a let-off.
Kids Court
“Kid’s Courts” are something that has been used across the country over several years. We designed the featured logo for Sandwell Council for one of their recent campaigns. We’ve also produced a range of banners for schools to encourage drivers to slow down and to park away from the school.
]]>It includes information about:
Information for parents
The book also includes information for parents about the benefits of scooting and how to make sure their children keep safe. It is ideal to use at home together or in the classroom.
Link to a digital map
Children are given the opportunity to work out the safest route to school on their scooter. This links to a digital 3D bird's eye view followed by a street view with questions.
Click here to view the map:
www.room9media.co.uk/pages/scoot
Copies of "Scoot" cost 42p each or 38p each for 3,000 or more copies, plus delivery.
If you would like any more information contact John Billington at Room 9 Media
john@room9media.com
]]>“Tweens” is the latest, albeit, cringeworthy title used for 8 -12 year old’s by marketeers.
The online “Marketing Sherpa” observed that they “they still need the reassurance of children but also the desire for independence”.
They recommend taking an approach that combines online and offline with a healthy element of humour – the unforgivable sin is to bore them!
Our resources
We have developed two resources that are designed for use with children who have just moved up to secondary school or are in Year 6.
"Way 2 Go" is intended for classroom use and emphasises safer and sustainable travel. It covers such topics as route planning, personal safety, public transport, cycling and sustainable travel.
Move On Up!
"Move On Up" is a magazine which is ideal as a classroom resource or to send home with students in year 6 or at the start of year 7.
It has proved consistently effective in reaching this high-risk group. Packed with stories, quotes and quizzes, the magazine is not only engaging and hugely entertaining but also covers all the relevant road safety themes. Much of the content has been written by the children themselves.
For more info check out:
https://www.room9media.co.uk/collections/great-resources-for-year-6
]]>As a family, we’ve recently upped our efforts to try and drastically reduce the amount we get through each week. The highlights have been:
A few months ago, I read a comment from someone in the US complaining that the campaign against plastic would affect her job at the packaging plant. Such anxiety is understandable but we’ve all got to review our business practices to see how we can do more to stem the tidal plastic wave. As a company, we’ve also started looking at some small ways we can address this issue.
All these might seem like a drop in the ocean but we are simply left with no choice than to massively reduce the amount of plastic we use on a daily basis, and that starts now…
]]>We were tasked with transforming some original artwork by children in KS2 into an 8 foot wide banner suitable for outside school.
Encouraging road safety among parents and guardians can be difficult. By using the children's artwork, this helps to engage both the children and parents with the message of staying safe and rewards the children's hard work with their artwork blown up for all to see!
Obviously it can be a tricky task to enhance the artwork to maximise its effect and we often combine multiple masterpieces to create the final product or simply change the colours.
Featured below are two "before" and "after" examples that we think work very well!
To order your own bespoke banners, click here.
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Well, last year, upon coming to the realisation that I will probably never be able to afford my own personal chauffeur, I decided to learn.
The selection process for an instructor was easy, Andy had taught both of my brothers and lived to tell the tale without developing any kind of twitches or having some sort of mental breakdown. Excellent, I thought. We’ll take him. Possibly I should have conducted some sort of risk assessment to establish that he was mentally ready for the trials and tribulations of the coming months, but one sunny Monday morning, where he was waiting in his car – blissfully unaware of the events about to unfold.
So, for a while, Andy drove about. This is what I’m used to, I like this. Then for some reason, he hands me the keys and tells me I’m allowed to sit in the driver’s seat. This has to be a terrible accident, I have no idea what any of these buttons do.
So, Andy talks me through the controls and it all seems fairly impossible and beyond me. I begin to wonder if I have the right instructor – this guy is a pretty nice bloke and I’m not sure I want him to have a horrible car accident… Nevertheless, he makes me actually try to make the car move. This is possibly the most horrifying event in the entire process of learning to drive. You know, the bit where you have to drive, the terrifying moment where you do some stuff and the car start moving, and you’re in control of it. I’ll tell you something, 20mph feels like the light speed at the beginning.
I managed to pull up onto the pavement by accident on my first lesson, I got confused between the accelerator and the brake. I forgot what the steering wheel was for. But hey, I got through it and Andy said he would see me next week and wasn’t dead yet. Result!
I continued to learn to drive and after a while, I noticed a couple of issues that I wasn’t expecting. For example, gear changes are terrifying. I hated it and would hope that Andy wouldn’t notice that I was driving around in first gear the majority of the time. I started to realise that there is more to driving than turning the steering wheel and talking like they do in old Hollywood films. You even have to watch the road and everything. I noticed I started saying sorry a lot more than usual, particularly when Andy had to do an emergency stop one time because I was busy looking at an unusual looking dalmatian with not many spots on the other side of the road (I would recommend watching the road at all times, not dalmations. I’ve heard the test people don’t like it when you don’t.) Shoes are also a problem. If you are used to driving in a particular sort of shoe and you change, it’s like trying to drive with bricks on your feet.
Manoeuvres aren’t fun either. Reversing is confusing and three-point turns are tricky at first. There are also other cars on the road which complicate matters and pedestrians seem to be everywhere. You will feel that the clutch has some sort of vendetta against you and mostly refuses to cooperate, particularly when you try hill starts. However, after some time of practising it does get easier.
Islands aren’t the most fun to begin with either, you can’t hesitate but you also can’t crash into someone else’s car. That’s the rules, you see. It takes a great deal of concentration to know when to go for it. And also not to stall the car.
All in all, it’s not easy. But when you manage to get around an island without becoming hysterical, nail a three-point turn or even go above 30mph, it feels pretty good and it’s worth it.
]]>Whilst we were recently on holiday in Kefalonia, I couldn’t resist the temptation to pick up half a dozen manky plastic bottles off an otherwise glorious wildlife-friendly beach. If I’d been spotted I would have felt pretty embarrassed which is obviously not a feeling shared by those who’d dumped them in the first place.
So how does this fit into our aim to promote sustainable travel I hear you say?!
The simple fact is that if we’re promoting a message about sustainable travel we are, like it or not, part of a larger environmental movement.
In the last twelve months, we’ve all become painfully aware of the massive problems of plastic in our oceans. The site of huge mounds of floating plastic and wildlife feeding on it has rightly caused universal alarm. People are seriously looking for alternatives to plastic on an unprecedented scale.
And yes, there’s also plenty that we can say about this from our standpoint.
As you know, plastic starts its life as oil, much of which is extracted from the seabed where it tragically returns in the form of endless plastic bottles and literally tonnes of discarded packaging.
On the other side, petrol-fuelled vehicles pollute the air which in turn send acid rain into our already perilously over-polluted oceans. Meanwhile, even more, oil from our roads and industry gets washed into rivers and ends up in the sea.
As part of our small contribution to linking sustainable travel to the health of our oceans, we’ve produced a simple activity brochure ‘Air, land and sea’’ which gives students the opportunity to learn about the benefits of sustainable travel. It is accompanied by a webpage: www.room9media/ALS This gives some great links to some leading interactive websites on the topic.
So if you wish to "Think global, act locally" you may wish to consider the air, land and sea to give an overview before you tackle those parents who won’t stop revving up their engines outside the school gates...
]]>Ever want to see a normally calm Headteacher hit the roof? Well just casually ask them what the parking’s like outside their school and stand well back!
The problem’s nothing new as parents try and outdo each other to see who can display the most irrational and selfish behaviour. Drives are blocked, zig-zag lines parked all over and speed limits routinely disregarded in the name of the dreaded school run.
The danger to children has always been clear but the devastating effects to health caused by traffic pollution have recently also been brought into sharp focus:
The ultimate solution has got to be a massive drop in car use and a significant increase in alternative greener forms of travel. Whilst several other approaches have been adopted, we’ve pitched in with our “Cars and kids don’t mix” resources which have been widely used across the UK and beyond.
The resources are designed to give the schools an opportunity to address the issue and engage with parents in a positive and constructive manner. The ultimate aim is to get them on board and work together rather than simply antagonise them!
The campaign can be run over a period of time with a mix of approaches to maximise the impact.
The introductory leaflet comes as an attractive red triangle that explains what the problems and solutions are. These are accompanied by school gate banners and simple animations that can be used on school message boards and websites.
Participating schools can access the images and messages featured in the banners and leaflets. This gives them the opportunity to “brand” the message in letters home, the school website and even in children's work.
Schools have undertaken classroom projects, outside survey work and produced their own banners to accompany the campaign.
Once parents are familiar with the message, a polite “branded” letter can be sent home. This will explain that as a special feature of the campaign, traffic wardens or police will be making a guest appearance in the next fortnight to check up on its effectiveness. Let’s face it - they have been warned!
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