LEARN! Manual Example #16
This example sets out an overview of the different bottom-up and top-down approaches used across Europe to promote the educational activities on traffic safety and mobility.
Related Step
Implementation
Age Group
n/a
Bottom-Up Approaches
Denmark
Teachers and traffic contact teachers in Denmark can sign up to a newsletter from the Danish Road Safety Council, which is sent approximately six times a year. It contains, among other things, information about new education activities on traffic safety and mobility education, results from evaluations and new surveys relevant for them, as well as encouragement to engage in those evaluations, their school campaigns (see example 19.3), invitations to webinars they organise, and news on school patrols.
The registration page for the newsletters for schools on the Danish Road Safety Council’s website (translated from Danish).
In addition, the council also organises an annual training course for traffic contact teachers (regardless of how much experience they have) for which the costs are usually covered by the municipality or the school. The council also attends meetings in which multiple schools are gathered, and they also have a free hotline which teachers can call to get answers on questions they may have related to traffic safety and mobility education, or if they are new traffic contact teachers. Teachers and schools are also reached via the meetings in the municipalities as described in more detail in this example’s section on top-down approaches.
More Information
Danish Road Safety Council’s webpage (in Danish) for registering for their newsletter for schools.
Danish Road Safety Council’s webpage (in Danish) for registering for their various newsletters.
LEARN! Manual Example #19.3: Helping Teachers Plan Lessons During the Year
Scotland
The Curriculum for Excellence is the philosophy underpinning the Scottish Education System, and, to ensure credibility within the learning and teaching profession, Road Safety Scotland has aligned all its resources with it.
The cover of the 2022-2023 edition of the Road Safety within the Curriculum of Excellence teacher’s guide.
“Road Safety within Curriculum for Excellence” is a guide for teachers that provides an overview of all the available educational resources and how they support the curriculum. Road Safety Scotland collaborates with Education Scotland (the Scottish government’s executive agency for education), to review and update this publication every year. As well as being made available online, it is distributed to all educational establishments across Scotland, and throughout the road safety community as well.
More Information
Road Safety Scotland, Road Safety within Curriculum for Excellence 2022-23 (website).
Road Safety Scotland, Road Safety within Curriculum for Excellence 2022-23 (document).
Top-Down Approaches
Denmark
The Danish Road Safety Council has contact persons in all municipalities, one in a municipality’s schools department and one in their technical/infrastructure department, who can sign up for a newsletter specifically geared towards them which is send approximately six times a year. The council also participates in the municipalities’ meetings where traffic safety is discussed with local partners, such as schools and the police. The contact persons can also contact the road safety council at any time.
Once a year, a two-day conference for municipalities is organised in Denmark where traffic safety and mobility education are also featured.
Czechia
The Czech Transport Research Center (CDV) has good experiences with sending emails to the regional offices for education. The regional offices then send these to all the schools in their district and the emails are therefore perceived as ‘official’ and well accepted by teachers.
The Netherlands
Regional governments in the Netherlands give subsidies to different entities for them to use good quality educational material. These subsidies allow for an increase in the reach of good quality material and activities, as the costs for schools can be minimised or even eliminated. Entities developing such material can therefore use these subsidies to promote and offer their activity at a lower price.
The road safety education toolkit from CROW in turn provides an overview of products which have been looked at according to the educational checklist, and for those included it provides an independent indication of the activity’s quality.
More Information
CROW (2014). Checklist Road Safety Education.