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Kent 4 star Council

Contacts

Kent Highway Services
Kent County Council
Invicta House
County Hall
Maidstone
Kent ME14 1XX

Telephone icon08458 247 800

Email icon kent.highwayservices @kent.gov.uk

Junior Road Safety Officer

The Junior Road Safety Officers scheme aims to encourage road safety awareness in schoolchildren.

The scheme is run and supported by Kent County Council.

How does the scheme work?

Every year, primary schools on the JRSO scheme choose two Junior Road Safety Officers (JRSOs) for their school.

The chosen students:

  • promote road safety to the rest of the school
  • raise awareness of road safety to parents, teachers and the community
  • raise awareness of local road safety issues
  • provide a link between the council's road safety team and the students

The idea of the scheme is to enable the children themselves to highlight road safety issues that affect them.

The scheme allows children to let adults know what kind of road safety education they would like. And it helps Road Safety Officers promote topics that have been identified as a major issue.

How does having JRSOs help the school?

The school benefits because:

  • pupils experience working as a team and making decisions
  • pupils develop a sense of citizenship
  • the scheme encourages a wide range of communication skills
  • the scheme presents a positive image of the school as a safe and caring community

How do they do the job?

At the beginning of the school year, we arrange an induction session for the new JRSOs. They get information about the job, resources, and a theme to get them started.

Each JRSO gets:

  • a road safety stationery kit
  • JRSO badges (so that they can be identified easily by pupils, staff and parents)
  • leaflets and posters for the school notice board and useful information for publicity campaigns

They are also fully supported by a JRSO organiser, who is a member of Kent County Council's Road Safety team, and who visits the JRSOs regularly.

How long has the scheme been going?

The JRSO scheme has been in operation since 1990 in some authorities in England, and since approximately 1995 in Scotland.

Copyright Kent County Council 2008