Schoolchildren get creative for crucial safety campaign

Pupils at Hadfield Infant School have used their creative talent to highlight the importance of road safety to parents outside their school.

With the help of PCSO Brian Buller the children designed posters for a competition, with the four winners then being used as banners during three days of campaigning during the busy drop-off and collection times. 

Speaking about the need to highlight the issue, PSCO Buller said, “It’s been identified that parking outside schools is a problem, and I’ve joined forces with Hadfield Infant School as there has been some complaints about parents. We’ve got people blocking drives, parking on the pavement and on the yellow zigzags which is illegal, and we need to make sure that the children are kept safe. The school has been more than happy to get involved, and who better than the children to get the important message across. They’ve created some fantastic pictures and have been singing a song that they have come up with themselves, in order to raise awareness.” 

Jon Pearce, MP for the High Peak, was tasked with the difficult job of choosing the winning safety posters, and he explained why he felt it was important to attend and support the children, “This is an amazing competition and the children have put so much work in. Mums and dads will see their hard work, and hear the message, which is don’t park on the pavements, don’t park on the zigzags, turn your engines off and keep children safe when they are coming in and out of school. It’s such an important campaign and I’m very pleased to have come here today to support it.” 

At the prize-giving ceremony, Headteacher Mrs Dodd spoke about how proud she was of the children for being so passionate about the issue, “Not only have the children taken on the responsibility of informing adults about how to park safely, they have also asked them to consider the planet and turn off their engines to protect the environment. These children are our future, and they are invested in making it a bright one for our whole community.” 

Helen Thornhill from Move More Glossop supported the road safety campaign events, as part of her mission to encourage people to be more active. She explained “We want to encourage young people to walk to school if they can, and when doing that safety is crucial. We’re aware of people parking on the pavements and zigzags and driving at high speeds outside the school, and it’s been good to stand with the children to highlight these issues. Hopefully we will have made an impact.” 

Ann from GAST, Glossop Action for Sustainable Travel, also attended with the same aim, explaining “We try and make it easier for people to walk, cycle and scoot and use public transport, rather than using their cars whenever possible. One of the most important places to reduce car use is outside schools. The wonderful children at Hadfield Infant School are really aware of the problems that cars can cause, such as parking on the pavements making it difficult for people to get past, idling their engine and going too fast.” 

The final road safety event will take place after the Easter school holidays, and PCSO Buller and his young road safety ambassadors really hope that the important message will have sunk in and that they will see a reduction in careless road use outside the school.