Parents to practice pedestrian traffic teaching skills with Botley School pupils

Oxfordshire County Council Fire and Rescue Service road safety officers and firefighters from Oxford's Rewley Road fire station will use the Footsteps Parents' Guide - produced by Oxfordshire County Council's Fire and Rescue Service - to educate parents about taking children to the roadside for practical training.

Children will be collected from class and will meet their parents, who will have had Footsteps explained to them, by the roadside, where they will be asked by them a series of road safety questions.

The guide encourages parents to allow children to make their own choices and decisions about what they see and hear through questioning.

The guide can be obtained free of charge from schools or downloaded from 365alive, the website of an Oxfordshire County Council Fire and Rescue Service initiative designed to prevent emergencies through education.

Important messages

Julie Jones, a Road Safety Officer for Oxfordshire County Council's Fire and Rescue Service said: “Dealing with traffic is a practical skill that children learn best at the roadside. Parents are ideally placed to teach children how to cope with traffic as they spend the most time outside with their children, they also know their child best so can decide when their child can cope with traffic without them.

“Learning about traffic takes lots of practice and I would like to encourage all parents to teach their child pedestrian safety. It is never too soon to start, even very young children can be asked questions and, importantly, they will be watching to see how adults behave around traffic.

“Parents should use every opportunity when out walking to ask their children questions on what they are seeing and hearing in the traffic environment. My advice is to parents is to allow their children to make their own choices and decisions wherever possible at the roadside.”