Constable Care made us aware!

Belinda Henderson
Mary's Mount Primary School
91

This term our Year 1 and Year 2 students at Mary's Mount Primary School were lucky enough to attend an excursion to the Constable Care Safety School. After eagerly arriving and gathering in the purpose-built classroom complex we met the friendly and informative Constable Care team. We had some introductions, listened to some ground rules and important information was shared about road safety knowledge.

It was then time for our students, teachers and parent helpers to experience the hands-on opportunity to learn vital pedestrian, bicycle and public transport safety all within a realistic layout of Perth's streets. The children practised dealing with road and transport hazards in a safe urban environment. This included:

  • Working rail crossings
  • pedestrian crossings
  • a school zone with "kiss & ride"
  • functioning traffic lights that can sense approaching bike riders
  • real roads and shared paths, with scale buildings
  • even a bus stop and train station (with full size train and bus)

The students split into two groups ready to navigate the Safety School as both cyclists and pedestrians. The bikes and helmets were all supplied. The children were thrilled to then swap over so every learning activity was experienced. With applying road safety knowledge in this way ensured the students were fully engaged with the leaning activities and helped them retain key messages that could be potentially life saving.

In the days that followed the excursion the students were asked to reflect on what they learnt that they didn't know before the excursion and what was the most fun part of the day for them. This was some of their responses:

I learnt that I need to be 8 metres away from a broken down power line. My favourite part of the day was definitely riding the bikes safely on the road. Diesel D
I learnt that I need to stop for the people on the zebra crossing when I’m on my bike. My favourite part of the day was riding a bike on the road. Alannis R
I learnt that when I’m at the traffic lights I need to press the button if I want to cross the road. My favourite part of the day was riding the bikes on the road. Ellivia P
I learnt how to be safe near the roads. My favourite part of the day was riding the bikes safely. Amelie Mc
I learnt to be safe on the roads when I go walking and when I’m on my bike. I enjoyed when I got to ride the bikes and learnt all about the road rules. Noah B

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James (Your Move)

Hi Belinda - what a massive story, thanks for sharing so much of your day! It seemed the kids loved it too. It is interesting that 4/4 of the students that mentioned a favourite part said that riding their bikes on the road was the best part. Apart from the 50 points you earned from the excursion itself, I have just given you a bonus of 20 for the rich details you provided, plus 5 for including the kids' reflections.

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