Burntisland pupils plan to stay safe

And, as well as safety, another main aim of the plan is to get them more active by either walking, cycling or scootering the journey instead of travelling by car.

Senior students formed a Travel Action Group (TAG) and began working on the document at the start of the last school year with the help of P7 teacher Julie Pirie as well as the school’s parent council, junior road safety officers and community police officers who offered advice and assisted in putting it together.

Firstly the pupils carried out an audit of how everyone travelled to school, helping to identify any dangerous sections of their routes and working out if and how they could be improved.

They then put together a plan with action points and targets, with another aspect including promoting and encouraging active travel to cut down on the numbers coming to school by car, thus reducing the amount of traffic around the school.

The initiatives to promote this include a ‘Walking to School Week’ and starting up a walking bus with parents enlisted to help out. Other action points included promoting safe routes to school with painted signs on pavements guiding pupils along the safest ways to get to and from the premises and more road signs for motorists encouraging them to look out for children and reduce their speed around these areas.

And the months of hard work all came together on Monday when the finalised Travel Plan charter was signed off by Robyn Steven, travel plan co-ordinator with Fife Council who helped guide and support the school in its venture.

The pupils presented their new Travel Plan to the rest of the school at a special assembly and they were presented with a certificate of completion.

Emma Clunie, depute head at the school, said: “This has been a very important process for all the pupils and everyone involved in bringing this together.

“It has shown the value of ensuring that we are taking into account the views of everyone, and Mrs Pirie has worked extremely hard with the Travel Action Group and the Junior Road Safety Officers to ensure that our pupils not only get to school as safely as possible but also that, where possible they are being as active as possible by either walking, cycling or scootering to keep themselves fit and healthy.

“Everyone has been very enthusiastic about this. It is the pupils who have driven this plan forward and they and all the people involved have done a great job.”