Safer Journeys to School

The Speed Watch Challenge is a combined Essex Police and Council initiative designed to demonstrate to pupils the dangers of speeding vehicles through hands-on, real life experience. An initial trial of the scheme was conducted at Prince Avenue Primary School during a week in July, with pupils from Year 6 (11-year-olds).

Session 1

The initial session aimed to give students an appreciation of the speeds travelled on a road close to their school where traffic was subject to a 30 mph speed limit.

The students worked in groups of three,  each group in turn, was accompanied to a pre-determined investigation site on the Rochford Road by a support teacher from the school and the Road Safety Officer, who took the opportunity to deliver some low key pedestrian skills training en-route. On arrival at the checking site, each group was supervised by two Road Safety Officers in measuring the time it takes for up to 30 vehicles to travel between two fixed points 100 metres apart.

The highest speeds recorded were 39.9 mph. When the groups returned to school they completed the following classwork:

• Convert the "timed data" to "speed data", using the conversion tables. 
• Complete a tally sheet
• Convert the information on the tally sheet into a graph
• Complete the 'Review of session' sheet 
• From the options available, mark the traffic calming around their school on a map

Information from the map was later collated and used as a part of the 'Real Planning' public consultation process.

Session 2

The aim of Session 2 was to give students an appreciation of the time it would take to cross the road at the same location as used to measure the speed of vehicles in Session 1. Students used their 'review sheets' from Session 1 for information on the slowest and fastest speeds recorded. The distance between the kerbs was replicated in the school playground by white strips.

Each class was split into two groups (i.e. the session was conducted with half a class group at a time). Each student was timed crossing the 'road' (the distance marked on the playground), while their name, sex, height and time the time it took them to cross road was recorded on a sheet.

The students then worked out the average time it takes to cross the road. Following the playground session, each class was shown the 'Moving on up' presentation, including links to the Travel Challenge.

Session 3

To introduce Session 3, the Road Safety Advisor, addressed the whole year group and their teachers and explained the exercise. Pupils were divided into six groups of 6 pupils and 1 group of 4 pupils. Each group, in turn, was accompanied to a pre-determined investigation site on the Rochford Road by a support teacher from the school and the Road Safety Officer, Collette Kemp, who took the opportunity to deliver some low key pedestrian skills training.

At the location, a uniformed police officer discussed the use of a speed detection camera (speed gun) with the pupils and supervised the children in using the camera on approaching vehicles.

If a speeding vehicle was detected, it was stopped by the police officer (supporting police officers were also present). The drivers were then asked to step out of their vehicle and the children were given a chance to speak to them.

Some questions the students asked included:

• Why were you speeding?
• Did you know this is a 30mph speed limit?

Conclusion

The conclusion of this trial exercise is that Speed Watch Challenge is a worthwhile project to pursue with other schools across the borough, and the students showed great enthusiasm.