Every one of us has a responsibility to stay alert to other road users and pedestrians.
Road safety education is a vital part of a child’s learning. By teaching and raising awareness of road safety from an early age, through to a young person getting behind the wheel for the first time we can all do our bit to reduce casualties and fatalities on Torbay’s roads.
Children aged 3 to 6
It is never too early to start teaching young children about road safety.
A wide range of resources, films, games, activities, and lesson plans are available to download for free on the think.gov.uk website.
Explore education resources for 3 to 6 year olds.
Brake, the road safety charity also offers road safety teaching resources for children and young people.
Resources from Brake for ages 4 to 11, including assembly and lesson plans, letters to parents, fact sheets, games, colouring sheets and posters can be found on the Brake Teachers Resources webpage.
Children aged 7 to 12
As children gain more independence and move onto secondary school, they face many new road safety challenges.
Support your students as they start to make their first solo journeys.
Films, games, lesson plans, videos and information are available to download for free on the think.gov.uk website.
Explore education resources for 7 to 12 year olds.
Resources from Brake for ages 4 to 11, including assembly and lesson plans, letters to parents, fact sheets, games, colouring sheets and posters can be found on the Brake Teachers Resources webpage.
Young people aged 13 to 16
As young people progress through secondary school and move onto higher education, new road safety challenges are presented.
It’s important to reinforce road safety especially when the clocks go back, as school holidays approach and as they start to think about learning to drive or being passengers in their friends’ cars.
Lesson plans, activities, films, and information are available to download for free on the think.gov.uk website.
Explore education resources for 13 to 16 year olds.
Young drivers
Visit our Young drivers pages for information on road safety and learning opportunities and resources.
Children with additional needs
Parents and carers of children with additional needs can feel concerned about the difficulties their child may face in learning vital road safety skills.
The following information is an example of what road safety advice to give to a child with additional needs.
Under-5s
- Differences between footpath and the road
- How to walk with a grown-up who they know and hold hands near the road
- Introduce Stop, Look, Listen and THINK
- Introduce safer crossing places
- Be bright, be seen
5 to 7 year olds
- How pedestrians walk safely on the pavement and vehicles use the road
- How to walk with an adult who they know and hold hand when walking near the road
- Safer crossing places and how to use them
- The Stop, Look, Listen and THINK sequence
- Places where it is not safe to cross the road
7 to 11 year olds
- The Green Cross Code and how to put it into practice, recognising safe crossing places on the road
- Road signs and pedestrian crossings
- The Highway Code and the rules of the road
Download the Teaching road safety skills to children with additional needs guide.
The National Autistic Society also offers road safety advice for parents and carers.
Vision Zero
We are working with Vision Zero a south west joint road safety project that is committed to cutting the number of deaths and serious injuries in the region to zero. It’s a huge target to achieve especially given the number of roads and different types of road users.
Learn more about the work of Vision Zero via https://visionzerosouthwest.co.uk/