RATIONALE
Research indicates that human factors are a main cause in 90% to 95% of accidents.

Road Safety education is an effective means of developing positive and safe behaviours in our students and reducing the rates of death and injury among road users.

Warialda Public School is situated in a quiet rural town of 1300 people. The busy Gwydir Highway and the Regional Route 63 both run through the town. Both these roads have to be negotiated by the many of students at the school.

The majority of students walk to school or travel by bus. A minority travel by car as passengers or ride bikes.

The Issues of concern are;
* Bus safety
* Passenger safety
* Pedestrian safety
* Cycling safety and helmets
* Occupant restraint

AIM
To develop an understanding of the need for individuals to be responsible for their behaviours in respect to road safety.

STUDENT OUTCOMES
Road safety education ia a teaching and lerning process which leads students to behave in a safe and responsible way on the roads as passengers, pedestrians and cyclists.

Warialda Public will provide teaching and learning programs which lead to achievement of student outcomes as specified in the N.S.W. Board of Studies Syllabus for the KLA PDHPE.

Students will develop;
* Knowledge and understanding of road use and road environments.
* Skills for roads use in varying traffic environments.
* Responsibile attitudes, values and road use behaviours.

CURRICULUM ACTION
Road safety at Warialda Public school is delivered K-6, through planned and incidental learning activities as well as through special focus activities. The program includes passenger, pedestrian and bicycle education.

The school is responsible for the delivery of curriculum-based road safety issues which;
* is within the PD/PE/H and integrated with other KLA’s
* addresses specific school-based road safety issues and student welfare concerns
* reflects current road safety information and research
* provides pupils with learning experiences in the road traffic environment
* informs care givers of key road safety issues
* Responds to special incidents as they occur

SCHOOL MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
The school maintains management practices which support the development of appropriate road safety behaviours by;

* Providing opportunities for students to demonstrate learning in real environments
* Using apporpriate outside agencies, such as police, who will be invited into the school to assist and enhance road safety education
* Rewarding students for demonstrating positive road safety education

BUS SAFETY
* Students are picked up and set sown in the designated bus zone in Hope Street.
* Students are supervised by staff onto buses in the afternoon. Children line up in designated bus areas and are called to leave the playground by the staff member on duty. All bus children exit by gates 2 and 3 (the two most western gates).
* Students being aware of and abiding by the Bus Code of Conduct.

PASSENGER SAFETY
Sections of Hope street are designated as pedestrian crossing, bus zones and picking up and setting down of passengers. Children who are picked up on the northern side of the street are to cross Hope street via the pedestrain crossing (i.e the Squash Courts side).
Children can be picked up on either side of Geddes street however they must use the flagged crossing when crossing the road.

AT NO STAGE ARE PARENTS TO CALL THEIR CHILDREN ACROSS either of these two roads without using the pedestrian crossings.

Students will;
* always wear a seat belt when travelling in a private vehicle
* enter or leave the vehicle through the kerb side door
* behave in a manner which does not disturb the driver

PEDESTRIAN SAFETY
* Children are to enter and exit the school through the gates provided using the pedestrian crossing on Hope Street and the school crossing on Geddes Street
* Children leave the school grounds, under teacher supervision, via gate 1 on Hope Street and through the central foyer area on Geddes Street.
* Very young students should be accompanied by older students or trusted adults if walking to and from school.

CYCLING SAFETY AND HELMETS
* Students under the age of 10 should not ride their bikes to school
* All bike riders must wear helmets to and from school
* Students are not to ride their bikes in the school grounds
* All bikes are to be placed in the racks provided in the designated area.

COMMUNITY SUPPORT
Community members are encouraged to support road safety behaviours by;
* Modelling safe road user behaviours
* Ensuring students wear helmets and use occupant restraints
* Using safe pick up and set down procedures
* Reinforcing the road safety messages delivered at school.

EVALUATION
The following procedures will be used at Warialda Public School to assess and evaluate the effectiveness of the Road Safety Education Action Statement.
* Regularly monitoring pedestrian behaviour
* Observe the condition of bikes and bike riding behaviour
* Regularly monitoring bus passenger behaviour

THIS DOCUMENT SHOULD BE READ IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE WARIALDA PUBLIC SCHOOL WELFARE POLICY.

This document was prepared by; Peter Hancock (Executive Teacher) and Gordon Lindsay (Road Safety Consultant) 1998

Road Safety Action Statement; Wednesday 21st October 1998.