Fun student video to focus on rail safety

Teens sharing to teens directly via a funny social media video? All part of young folk getting involved in Rail Safety Week…

Coming to social media next week: something educational, meaningful and kinda funny from secondary students in the Wairarapa.

The Mākoura College and Wairarapa College students, all members of SADD/Kaitiaki o Ara, have made a video about safety at level crossings of the region’s railway line. The video will be released on social media during Rail Safety Week, which begins 8 August.

The students worked with the LEARNZ team, who create education virtual field trips, to develop ideas in line with the themes of the week. Here are the students in their own words:

We’re Jeremy, Dominique, Dominic and Elise, from SADD/Kaitiaki o Ara in Wairarapa. Across the past few weeks, we put our heads together to make a video for Rail Safety Week (with the assistance of our local Road Safety Coordinator, Holly Hullena).

Getting involved with the LEARNZ online field trip has been a great opportunity. It’s been quite a rewarding experience, being able to produce something to benefit other young people, as well as show off our not-so-amazing acting skills! 

Our involvement in SADD was beneficial to this project, and valued by the LEARNZ team. They were interested in the types of things that SADD promote, and were keen to utilize our knowledge and skills. Together, we came up with the idea of a short TikTok-style video that shows the connection between road safety and rail safety.

Putting the video together was great fun.

We didn’t want the video to be too serious; we were aware of our target audience and wanted to make something that might get a few laughs, but will also get people thinking. The video we came up with showcases the do’s and don’ts when approaching a level crossing. It has the message that being ‘formal’ when approaching the crossing is beneficial to all people inside and outside the vehicle.

The video will appear on SADD social media pages during Rail Safety Week, at @SADDNZ.

SADD website(external link)

Creative collaboration

Andrew Penny, the LEARNZ field trip teacher, says it’s been great to see the SADD students come up with a creative way to showcase their message.

“We worked with the students initially via online hui to kōrero about our aims for the online field trip and how SADD could align with the field trip kaupapa.”

“Later on, we drove up to Mākoura College to meet with the students and film them introducing themselves and talking about the Kaitiaki o Ara kaupapa and the video they produced for Rail Safety Week. Both of these videos will be available on the field trip website which is being launched at the start of Rail Safety Week.”

Digital innovation: Transforming rail safety (LEARNZ)(external link)