Driving road safety knowledge into Kingsview Primary School pupils’ minds on Wednesday were representatives from Beca, the NZ Transport Agency/Waka Kotahi (NZTA), and Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC).
This week, hundreds of schools nationwide have been celebrating Road Safety Week. But only 16 schools around New Zealand received a visit from the Road Safety Week team, and Kingsview Primary School was one of them.
The theme of this year’s Road Safety Week — an initiative by road safety charity Brake, which works to prevent road deaths and injuries, and support people bereaved and injured in crashes across New Zealand — is to teach children the concept of being a "road safety hero".
Queenstown Lakes District Council network roading technician Sarah Thomson, said it was important to start with the younger generation, "so they can slowly teach others and learn more as they get older".
After the session, in which pupils learnt that anyone can be a road safety hero, pupils got the opportunity to explore an attenuator truck, which is responsible for displaying road signs, and has a crash cushion to keep road workers safe.
Kingsview Primary School is about 500 metres from Queenstown’s BP roundabout, which is currently undergoing major roadworks, with a $250 million upgrade.
Mr Baker said the school’s proximity to the major roading project was an influence on the decision to chose Kingsview Primary as a school it would visit.
Kingsview Primary School principal, Amos Pilgrim, said it was great to have such a purposeful message shared to pupils, with so many of them walking or using scooters to get to school, or being driven to school by their parents through roadworks.
Mr Pilgrim also said that what the children were learning was "very real to the kids, as they all see a lot of roadworks in the area".
He could tell by lots of hands up, comments and questions during the learning session, that pupils were super engaged.
