Royal Award for road safety resource

A road safety teaching resource for young children has earned a Lancashire lady royal recognition.

Ann Finch, a senior road safety adviser at Lancashire County Council, was awarded a commendation in the 2002 Prince Michael International Road Safety Awards.

Ann was highly commended for her ‘Big Book’ – an A1 size, colourful all-in-one resource for teachers to use with five and six year-old children. The book is filled with road safety and play safety messages, along with teaching notes, interactive discussion points and activity sheets.

It tells the story of two young children and is divided into seven sections, each addressing a different safety situation. Ann devised the concept a number of years ago after discovering a lack of large format teaching books about road safety.

The book has been distributed to all primary schools throughout Lancashire, and has even attarcted interest from as far afield as Spain and New Zealand.

"It took a lot of time for the book to be produced but it is great to see the final product in schools," Ann said. "Feedback from both teachers and children has been very positive, and we are pleased that a number of other local authorities and schools in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland have ordered copies of the book."

Anyone wanting to know more about the big book can contact Lancashire CC’s Alison Gudgeon, Alison.Gudgeon@env.lancscc.gov.uk