Secondary students visit schools with road safety message

Three students visited three primary and intermediate schools to run learning activities and hand out road safety gift packs.

Young people need to work with road safety knowledge at multiple times throughout their schooling for the learning to stick. So, it was great to hear about two age groups learning alongside each other, as senior secondary students led road safety activities for primary-aged children.

Kristin School students Charlotte Hsieh, Lisa Yuan and Dianne Lee with Sandra Booth, Assistant Principal at Randwick Park School.

This was the case last year with the Kaitiaki o Ara/SADD group at Kristin School in Auckland.

Group members Dianne Lee, Lisa Yuan and Charlotte Hsieh created gift packs with road safety messages, distributed them in person at 3 schools and led creative learning experiences for the young students they met.

Dianne says she and the group were determined to promote road safety to young people in a way that was engaging and educational.  

“The gift packs included specially designed stickers featuring road safety messages, silicone bracelets with the important reminder ‘Stay Safe, Stay Alert,’ as well as stationery items like notebooks and colouring pencils.”

“However, for me, my main aim for this project wasn’t just about giving the gift packs to the students, but it also being able to interact with them and share the message of keeping safe on roads in person too.

“On the 15th of May, following Road Safety Week, we had the incredible opportunity to visit Randwick Park School in Manurewa and presented these packs to Year 8 students. We organised interactive activities to reinforce the importance of road safety further. One of the highlights was the activity where the students got to create their dream cars, incorporating safety aspects into their designs. Their enthusiasm and creativity were truly inspiring.”

The three students followed up with visits to Birdwood School in West Auckland and Te Papapa School in central Auckland.

There was a lot of work before the visits took place. The group wrote a project plan and assigned roles – Dianne liaised with schools and the national SADD organisation. Charlotte managed the design of the gift pack, and Lisa organised logistics and finance (they gained support from Auckland Transport and a Westpac scholarship).

“Overall, this project was an amazing journey of creating awareness about road safety while learning and growing alongside the students,” says Dianne. She also served as a National Leader for Kaitiaki o Ara/SADD during 2023.