We would like to say a BIG THANK YOU to Emma’s Dad for dropping us off in Kilwinning to meet Miss McMillan for our JRSO Seminar that was attended by various schools throughout the 3 Ayrshire Authorities.

We all had a great morning learning lots of new things all related to road safety. When we arrived, we were put into the blue group with another school. There were 5 different stations that we would spend time at.

Our first session was the arts and crafts area. This is where we were to create a poster highlighting all things ‘road safety’. We had a variety of paper and materials that we could choose from as well as sharing ideas from each other and with the other school that was in our group. Poster making is a big part of sharing our ideas and spreading our knowledge for the whole school to see.

The next station we went to was to spend time with Janis. She is one of the coordinators who was explaining what they would like us to focus on to support Ayrshire Roads Alliance with their campaigns to be shared into schools.

The Green Cross Code is such an important initiative and has been around for many decades. Janis showed us old videos and adverts that use to be televised throughout the 1970’s and onwards. These adverts were shown constantly throughout the day and were mainly aimed at teaching children to cross the road safely. The idea was to make instructions memorable for children. The government still supports The Green Cross Code, however they now call it THINK! As a team, we would like to re-introduce this very important message to Nether Robertland and share the importance of the message to STOP, LOOK, LISTEN & THINK whilst near the road.

We then moved onto the next station, which was a road safety game. It was based on snakes and ladders but also had areas where you landed and you had to answer a road safety question. Everyone did very well and Emma & Sophie won both the games…..no cheating, honestly!

After this it was break time where we had juice and a biscuit provided as well as a drink, sweets and chocolate that Miss McMillan gave us!!

Next task was where we went with Fiona. She is also one of the coordinators. She was highlighting distractions to us. Sophie and Rory had the worksheets and stop clocks to take note of the data, whilst Owen and Emma were being distracted. The timings that Rory and Sophie logged proved that you’re not concentrating on your surroundings when you are distracted.

Lastly, we went to Barbara who was going into detail about speed limits around schools. This is the other area of road safety that we are going to be investigating. Many areas in and around Kilmarnock have already introduced the 20mph speed restriction. It has already started in Kilmaurs, so it won’t be long until it is in Stewarton. Did you know though, that in and around our school is already a 20mph zone?

As you can see, we were involved in an action-packed morning that is vital for our journey. The information we received will be used throughout our road safety journey and we can’t wait to share lots of things with you all…..including a competition that we are already planning!!

Thank you to all the Ayrshire Road Alliance staff that put on the great seminar and thank you to Mrs Beveridge who picked us up to bring us back to school.

We look forward to sharing our learning with you.

Many thanks from Owen, Rory, Emma and Sophie.