By Clair Morton
Last updated on: February 26, 2018 at 12:24 pm
When it comes to crossing a road safely, the reception students at Craigburn Primary School have got it covered.
From the start, the youngsters had a pretty good idea of why they shouldn’t stand right on the kerb.
“Because you might fall over!”
“You could squish like a mash potato!”
But by the end of a recent Street Smart Primary session, they also knew how to ‘stop, look listen and think’, and why it’s so important to be visible to traffic when walking on the footpath.
Reception student Emma’s favourite part of the pedestrian safety session was watching the program’s road safety video, and what she learnt from it she plans to share with her younger sister.
“(I’ll tell her) don’t walk on the crossing until the car comes across or stops,” she said.
Craigburn Primary School teacher Nardene Manna said in her experience a lot of young children had no idea how to cross a road safely.
“The big problem around here is there’s a lot of windy roads, so they need to know there’s a safe place to cross,” she said.
“This is a really important age to for them to learn.”
Since 2014, RAA’s Street Smart Primary program has been helping children across South Australia learn road-safety skills that will help keep them safe around roads for the rest of their lives.
Today, only one third of SA primary schools receive this education through Street Smart Primary, but RAA wants to expand this program and deliver it to all primary schools in South Australia, so more children can benefit.
“We believe it’s important to reach all primary students to teach them these life-saving skills early, whether it’s how to ride a bike safely or be a responsible passenger in a car,” RAA General Manager Engagement and Innovation Penny Gale said.
“Expanding this proven program to all South Australian primary schools would require additional teachers and resources, at an estimated cost of just $400,000, which we feel is a low price to pay for a program that does such tremendous good.”
We think this is important to RAA members too, which is why RAA is asking for parliamentary candidates and political parties to let our members know whether they would support the expansion of the program if elected.