Pupils at Rosehill School, Nottingham, have received valuable lessons in road safety and in particular, how to safely cross the road in a safe and calm environment.
Rosehill provides specialist education for 120 autistic children from the ages of 4 up to 19 who have a broad spectrum of associated communication, interaction, social, imagination, sensory and learning differences.
As a result, it was important for pupils to develop their understanding of road safety, and safe crossing procedures and gain exposure to the various sounds, lights and meanings around traffic light systems in order to stay safe on the roads.
Teachers at Rosehill ran a training workshop for Key Stage 3 pupils designed to shape their understanding and attitudes towards road safety.
The workshop ran in partnership with SRL Traffic Systems, which has a Technical & Innovation Centre in Nottingham and is the UK’s largest manufacturer of portable and temporary intelligent traffic light equipment, CCTV and digital messaging signs.
The traffic systems manufacturer set up a demonstration area at Rosehill School, to allow students to practice how to stay safe around vehicles and roads in a real-life situation without any moving cars on school grounds before going out onto the actual road.
In turn, this allowed the pupils to increase their exposure to situations which can be quite challenging without the danger element and was a key step in helping the participants in preparing for independent travel in the future.
A member of Rosehill Schools’ staff commented on the day saying, “all the pupils were really engaged, it is great that they can experience this situation in their safe space.”
SRL Traffic Systems Regional Manager, Phil Smith, reflected, “It’s been our privilege to support Rosehill school with their road safety project. Road safety is at the centre of why we do what we do, so we were pleased to work with Rosehill to help create such an important and realistic demonstration to aid the students learning.”
This isn’t the end of the road for these students however, Rosehill looking to further develop the school students’ education on road safety by practising new skills with walks in the community, using ‘crossing the road’ skills more independently to think about the dangers and to start travel training for students who are ready for the next step.
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