Secondary pupils give up free time to spread safety word

Pupils from Priory Secondary School in Portsmouth have been recently touring a road safety play to raise safety awareness among pupils at its feeder schools and the local community.

The pupils identified the play, ‘Why did the chicken cross the road?’, as the ideal way to stress the importance of wearing a properly fitted cycle helmet. The play, written by Mark Wheeller, portrays the risk taking and decisions that young pedestrians have to take account of every day.

For three months pupils gave up their free time to rehearse and shape the play to address local road safety issues identified within their School Travel Plan (STP).

Raising road safety awareness through drama was identified in the STP as a useful way of educating young children about road conditions in the recently constructed 20mph School Safety Zone around several primary schools in the area.

Pupils from Priory School were deemed most suitable to perform the play as it was their school STP that originally identified the road safety engineering solutions that have now been put into place.

For further information contact dean.spears@portsmouthcc.gov.uk