Since 1986, the Road Safety Education Program has provided educational resources and professional development to teachers and childhood educators throughout NSW.
The program is a partnership with the Association of Independent Schools NSW, Catholic Schools NSW, Department of Education, and Kids and Traffic, the Early Childhood Road Safety Education Program at Macquarie University. The partnership supports the delivery of road safety education to more than 3,000 primary and secondary schools by classroom teachers. It is part of the formal school curriculum and pre-service training for teachers.
Contact your road safety school education specialist.
Early childhood road safety education
Kids and Traffic, the Early Childhood Road Safety Education Program, is funded by the Centre for Road Safety and delivered in partnership with Macquarie University to more than 3,500 early childhood services across NSW. The program provides professional development workshops, road safety education information, resources, advice and other strategies to:
- Families and carers of young children, including grandparents
- Educators in early childhood services and transition-to-school programs
- Early childhood education students in universities and TAFE colleges
- State and local government, including road safety officers
- Early intervention and family support services
- Peak early childhood and road safety organisations
Kids and Traffic teaching and learning resources, including videos, are available for educators, carers and other adults to share with young children. On the Kids and Traffic YouTube channel, you can watch the video stories Five Little Girrawaa, Look who’s buckled up and Here we go walking holding hands.
Road safety education in schools
The Road Safety Education Program is funded by the Centre for Road Safety in government and non-government schools. Road safety is taught in the learning area of Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE). All students in NSW study PDHPE from Kindergarten to Year 10.
Road safety education specialists in the government, Catholic and independent school sectors provide professional learning and advice to teachers and schools about teaching road safety and how to address road safety issues through the curriculum.
The teaching and learning focus is on pedestrian, passenger and wheels safety, as well as on future drivers. The Centre for Road Safety leads the development of quality teaching and learning resources for teachers to use in schools.
The education sectors provide professional learning to teachers to equip them with the knowledge and skills to teach quality road safety education. Teachers are also shown how to use the resources in the classroom to create effective teaching and learning programs.
Primary schools
Safety Town is a suite of digital and non-digital teaching and learning activities to support the teaching of road safety from Kindergarten to Year 6 in NSW primary schools.
The website includes interactive activities, comprehensive teaching notes, links to relevant transport information, and updated information for parents and carers.
Safety Town helps parents to reinforce road safety messages and concepts that are taught at school.
Secondary schools
- On the Move houses all the resources for secondary schools. The website has road safety material for teachers to complement the Years 7-10 PDHPE, Student Wellbeing and Senior English programs. These include:
- The Big Picture, animated statistics activity, and Choices, peer pressure and road safety decisions (Years 7 and 8, PDHPE)
- Mobile Drug Testing and Play It Safe (Years 9 and 10, PDHPE)
- Cruise Control (Year 11 English courses).
Your road safety school education specialists
Each education sector has road safety education specialists employed to help schools with road safety in the classroom:
- Association of Independent Schools NSW
- Catholic Schools NSW
- NSW Department of Education
- Kids and Traffic, the Early Childhood Road Safety Education Program
