Road Safety In Early Education #1: Key Road Safety Messages

Welcome to a special edition of the Learn Play Thrive podcast as we launch an exciting 10-part mini-series Road Safety in Early Education. Recorded in partnership with Kids and Traffic, the Early Childhood Road Safety Education Program at Macquarie University, this series is designed to empower educators with evidence-based strategies for keeping our littlest learners safe.

In this premiere episode, host Linda Harrison is joined by expert road safety education consultants Amanda Menzies and Bec Dunn. We explore why educators are a trusted source for families and how to effectively weave road safety messages into the daily fabric of your early years setting.

We break down the core Kids and Traffic philosophy, focusing on the developmental realities of why children are at risk around traffic. You’ll also be introduced to the three pillars of road safety messages - pedestrian, passenger, and safe play. Join us as we set the stage for a journey through the EYLF V2.0, numeracy, music, and excursions... all through the lens of quality road safety education.

Find out more:
https://kidsandtraffic.mq.edu.au/

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome to Learn Play Thrive the podcast, the ultimate early learning podcast for educators and leaders in the sector. Let's learn, play, and thrive together.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

The Learn Play Thrive podcast was recorded on the land with the Dark and John people. We pay our respects to the traditional custodians, past, present, and emerging. Hands up, hands down, clear and dark and young land.

SPEAKER_03 0:24

Welcome listeners to a special edition of the Learn Play Thrive Australia podcast. I'm your host, Linda Harrison, and today we are launching a brand new 10-part mini-series called Road Safety in Early Education. Over the next 10 episodes, we're going to dive deep into a topic that is fundamental to everything we do in early childhood, keeping our little ones safe when out and about, while empowering them to explore the world around them. We'll be covering everything from the EYLF version 2.0 and numeracy to music and excursions, all within the context of road safety education. To kick us off, I'm thrilled to introduce our two experts who will be with us throughout this journey. Please welcome Amanda Menzies and Beck Dunn, Early Childhood Road Safety Education Consultants from the Kids and Traffic Early Childhood Road Safety Education Program. A warm welcome to you both.

SPEAKER_04 1:16

Thanks so much, Linda.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

It's wonderful to be here. Hi Linda. We're so excited to share this road safety series with your listeners.

SPEAKER_03 1:23

And welcome. And so before we get into the how to, I'd love to talk about the who of Kids and Traffic. And I know the Kids and Traffic is a highly respected household name that many of our listeners will recognise. But I'd love for you to explain a bit more about the programme. So, Amanda, could you tell us about the partnership between Transport for New South Wales and Macquarie University?

SPEAKER_04 1:44

Absolutely. So our Kids and Traffic program is funded by Transport for New South Wales and is run in partnership with Macquarie University. This long-standing collaboration is now in its fourth decade. Transport for New South Wales also funds the New South Wales Department of Education, Catholic Schools New South Wales, and Independent Schools New South Wales to support road safety education right through primary school and secondary schooling.

SPEAKER_03 2:09

It's great to have that background and all of those organizations working together. And I think it's also great to just keep in mind for educators who are across the country here in Australia, I know that you're based in New South Wales. So does all of the information apply to them? That's such an important point to consider.

SPEAKER_02 2:27

And yes, we are funded to work with services in New South Wales. The messages we share are relevant to educators, families, and children all over the country. Whether you're an educator in a rural town or a parent in a busy city, anywhere in Australia, the messaging around keeping young children safe in and around vehicles is the same. From the bush to the city, we talk with educators about how their families are often out and about. Whether it's in the car, on foot, on bikes, on the train, bus, ferry, or tram, even horseback. It's always important for us to emphasize the benefit of making road safety messaging relevant to these everyday journeys for our families.

SPEAKER_04 3:08

Often our country colleagues comment on the road safety messages being just as relevant to the children off-road as well, where they're on properties near large machinery like tractors and harvesters. It's important for the grown-ups to know that the children need to stay close to them and that they need to hold their hand even near this big machinery, even off-road.

SPEAKER_02 3:29

And I think even also one of the that catch trains to go to their local services, they have to be holding hands on the platform, stepping over the gap onto the train. So any type of those transports that they're traveling on, making sure they're seated on the train, staying close to their grown-up is really important as well. Yes, and I imagine off-road two would include driveways. Most definitely. And they are for driveways in the city and rural, it's still that same messaging. Making sure you always know where your child is, keeping close to them at all times as well.

SPEAKER_04 3:58

And importantly, that hold my hand message. So making sure that grown-ups are holding children's hands around the vehicles, in places where vehicles are or they potentially could be.

SPEAKER_03 4:09

Well, that's a great intro, and I think it sets the scene perfectly for how we can now get into the nitty-gritty of what road safety looks like in early education settings. So, Amanda, why are early childhood educators so integral to sharing these road safety messages with young children in their families in those early years?

SPEAKER_04 4:30

Well, our educators are such a trusted source of information, and our families look to them for guidance on everything from sleep to early literacy. This relationship makes educators ideally placed to weave road safety through the daily fabric of the service. Families are children's first and most influential teachers, so finding out more about families' road safety concerns and issues can help inform the direction of our program around road safety and it lead us to make more meaningful learning experiences that reflect specifically on the road safety challenges of that community.

SPEAKER_02 5:08

I know one of the services we've been working quite closely with, Amanda Shilverley in New South Wales, and we've been working with them over a number of years, and recently they've been focusing on those arrival and departures challenges they've been having with children and their families.

SPEAKER_04 5:21

Yeah, and they just recently um asked their families to share some feedback on those arrivals and departures, asking them about those challenges and concerns they have not only travelling to and from the service but on those everyday journeys as well. And some of those concerns that they shared were, you know, about being in that car park with their child, coming and going from the service, but also traveling within the vehicle to not only childcare but also to those all those other places that they go with their family.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

And we know that those typical behaviours of our young children is really challenging for our families to think about and making sure that they're staying safe. Like our children not being buckled up for the whole trip, whether they're not wanting to hold hands walking through the car park, as Amanda mentioned. But undoing their own seatbelts as well is a really difficult thing as they arrive at their destinations without waiting, waiting for their grown-ups to help them.

SPEAKER_04 6:15

And I think with the educators asking for that feedback, it stopped families and got them to think about these things that you know were challenges for them, which in turn became really valuable insights for the educators into these everyday journeys and led them to plan in that way to address some of these concerns in their programming with the children.

SPEAKER_03 6:36

I'm keen to dive in a bit deeper into that kids and traffic philosophy of road safety education, which is that we do want children to engage in learning how to be safe in and around vehicles, but we don't want to make them responsible for their own safety, do we?

SPEAKER_02 6:50

No, not at all. And we really need to make sure that the grown-ups are always the ones responsible for looking after our young children. For young children, it's all about their development. They're still developing so many skills, abilities, and understandings. They're still building their understanding of the world around them. And because of this, they're keen to be where that action is and they're curious to learn more. All children develop and mature at different rates and they learn in different ways. They're still growing, and because of their small size, it can be extremely hard for drivers to see. Not to mention how quickly our young children move. Many of the typical developmental behaviours we know as educators all too well. And often the reason we get into early childhood in the first place. That's exactly right, Amanda. I think no two days are the same as the other. But they're also the reasons why our young children are at risk around vehicles and why they need a grown-up to ensure they are kept safe at all times. Our approach focuses on cross-curriculum and integrative road safety education, which is why our workshops focus on different curriculum areas along with routines and transitions. We want to engage children in how to be safe, but emphasise the responsibility always rests with the grown-up in their children's lives.

SPEAKER_03 8:08

So let's get into the specific kids and traffic key road safety messages. And these are designed for adults to use with young children as they travel together, whether they're a passenger in the car, pedestrians out walking together or at a play, aren't they?

SPEAKER_04 8:24

Yeah, so as you mentioned, our messages focus on these three areas: so pedestrian safety, passenger safety, and safe play. The messages are designed to be shared with young children and their families. They give the children a little bit of information about what they can do to keep safe, but are ultimately a tool for ensuring responsibility for children's safety is on that grown-up.

SPEAKER_02 8:46

The key road safety messages for pedestrians are always hold a grown-up's hand.

SPEAKER_03 8:51

What if they can't hold a hand? Because I often see and within a children's service that families are arriving and they're carrying a lot of bags, and so a grown-up's hand might not always be available.

SPEAKER_02 9:01

So it's really important if a grown-up's hand isn't available, that the children hold on to those that pram, the bag, clothes, the shopping trolley. Anything to be able to keep them close to their grown-up at all times is really important. And that they always cross the road with a grown-up is another one of our rule key safety messages as well. When looking at our passenger safety, making sure that our children are always buckled up safely, always stay buckled up awake or asleep, and no matter how long or short the journey is as well, and making sure that our children always get in and out of the safety door. So the safety door is our rear passenger door on the curb side. It's away from the road and the passing traffic. So it's the safest place for our grown-ups to be getting our children out as well, out of the vehicle. And thinking about those children that are going to be transitioning to school. It's also the door if their school has a kiss and drop bay for them to safely get in and out of. So again, introducing it into that early childhood program and showing them what it's all about and sharing with families is going to support them with that transition.

SPEAKER_04 10:04

Yeah, so starting those messages early, like we do with lots of things in early childhood, we're building those foundations so we can start the messaging, you know, now while they're in our early childhood services, and it can become part of that transition program as well.

SPEAKER_03 10:17

So important. And are there some safe play messages as well?

SPEAKER_02 10:21

Yeah, so when we're looking at safe play, always ask a grown-up where it's safe for you to play. So really considering making sure that it's away from the traffic environment, away from water. If there's a fence playground, is always another great space for children to engage in safe play with their grown-ups around and to always wear their helmet when riding their bike or wheel toy.

SPEAKER_03 10:40

And those messages around helmet wearing are so important. And I think children are often really excited about wearing their helmet because there's so many cool designs out there these days, aren't they?

SPEAKER_02 10:50

There's so many different compared to, I suppose, the old token stack hat back in the day. They now have unique helmets that can um show their personality, and it's just making sure that you choose a helmet that um meets the approved standards as well.

SPEAKER_04 11:04

I think it's really interesting to think about these road safety messages, and it's often nice to reflect on how educators and families talk about them. Recently, Beck and I attended an early childhood conference where a colleague approached us and so warmly told us the story of how her grandchild told her how she needed to keep safe in the car. The preschool the child attended had recently had a visit from one of our team, and the educators had been embedding the road safety messages in various ways with the children. Often these words that children come out with are the most powerful ways of sharing the road safety messages with the grown-ups in their lives.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

And yourselves as early childhood educators are ideally placed to share these key road safety messages with children during those everyday experiences that you engage in. So looking at those dramatic play, music and stories, arrivals and departures, transition times and discussions, they are all ideally placed to share these messages with families for them to use when they're out and about with their children.

SPEAKER_03 12:04

Well, I'm already buzzing with ideas from our first chat, and I know we're only just getting started with this series. We've got another nine incredible episodes lined up to round out your road safety in early education toolkit. So, Amanda, what's coming up on our mini-series journey?

SPEAKER_04 12:20

We're going to be looking at some of those practical links to the early years learning framework, looking for opportunities to link literacy, numeracy, and even how to use technology and music as tools for road safety learning in early education. It's when we look at those quality road safety learning experiences that are implemented by educators when they're hands-on, they're play-based learning. It's when we actively involve families and promote safe travel practices and most importantly making it meaningful and relevant to the local community.

SPEAKER_02 12:53

We're also going to consider the challenges and concerns that you may be having around arrival and departures times, being out and about on excursions, and during those emergency evacuations. And hopefully, we're going to be able to give you some really wonderful, useful strategies to be able to address these at your service or in your home.

SPEAKER_03 13:09

Well, Amanda and Beck, thank you so much for joining me today. And listeners, I think some key takeaways to remember are to keep it hands-on, keep it play-based, and involve families in your road safety education programs. So make sure to join us for the next episode where we will be discussing the whole of service approach to road safety education. Until then, keep playing, keep thriving, and remember road safety for young children is a community responsibility.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

See you next time. Bye everyone. Thank you for joining us on this episode of Learn Playthrive the podcast. We hope you found inspiration and valuable insights to fuel your journey in early childhood education. Remember the key to fostering learning, promoting play, and empowering young minds lies with your dedication and creativity. Stay connected between episodes by following us on Instagram at learnplaythrive underscore and join the conversation on Facebook at LearnPlaythrive Australia. If you've enjoyed today's episode, please like, subscribe, rate, or review our podcast on your favourite platform. Your feedback helps us to continue to deliver content that resonates with you. And don't forget to visit us at our website at learnplaythrive.com.au for additional resources, blog posts, and professional development opportunities. Until next time, keep learning, keep playing, and keep thriving. We'll see you in the next episode of Learn Playthrive the podcast.