Scottish Government

Chapter 3 Promoting Streetsense

This research would suggest that promotion of Streetsense is essential if the resource is to be fully utilised.

Promotion of Streetsense has not been easy. Many of the events that have been arranged by Road Safety Officers or indeed visits to schools have, by necessity, been with only one or a small number of teachers, most commonly with a head teacher. This then depends on the teacher to whom the information has been imparted cascading it to other members of staff.

Interviews with schools suggest that this does not always happen.

Road Safety Officers too are very aware that when visiting schools, teachers may be unaware that the Streetsense resource even exists. In other schools, it is well used. This variation is dependent not only on the efforts of the Road Safety Officers but also on the methods used within schools to disseminate information. Road Safety Officers are very conscious that a lack of use of Streetsense is likely to be due to lack of awareness of the resource.

3.1 Methods of promotion

A flier promoting Streetsense was sent to all schools from SRSC just prior to its launch. Some Road Safety Officers across various local authorities backed this up with a letter of their own. Typically this might have been to invite teachers to a training event.

Other methods of promotion are those already described within the section on distribution where the Road Safety Officers would meet with the head teacher or deputy head teacher and explain how Streetsense was to be used. They would often stress its ease of use.

Some felt that individual visits were important as a lot of resources are delivered into schools and without some personal visit to explain, it would be unlikely to be used. It was recognised that schools found it difficult to make the time to read through a new resource just to discover if it was worth using. Even when well intentioned, one head teacher commented that resources come in and then can just as quickly be forgotten.

The advantage of personal visits on a one to one basis was the opportunity for immediate feedback from each school.

One LA area takes a display stand at the head teacher's meeting and whilst they don't get a slot to directly address the teachers, can thereby speak to them in the breaks. This was one means by which the resource was distributed but also offered an opportunity to discuss the pack.

The resource is also promoted via the Scottish Universities that provide training for teachers. Lecturers involved in the provision of the health curriculum were all well aware of this resource. It would be beneficial to ensure that every trainee teacher gets access to a flier about the resource and hopefully the leaflet describing the contents of the resource. This is distributed already in some universities.

The launch of Streetsense was also on the LTScotland 5-14 web-site as a linked item.

It was recognised by LTScotland that whilst promotion was crucial it was difficult and this was a problem that was shared by those promoting other resources. Accessing every teacher was not possible and using multiple channels of accessing them and gaining their attention was thought to be the best route. To a large extent this multiple approach was adopted, in some parts of the country more than others. There remains a need to maintain the promotion and not confine it to the launch.

3.2 Ongoing promotion

Ongoing promotion was seen by a number of Road Safety Officers as essential to keep the use of Streetsense to the forefront of teachers' attention when delivering road safety education.

Regular visits to schools for whatever reason could be seen as opportunities to promote Streetsense and some Road Safety Officers mention it whenever they can. It is particularly appropriate when their reason for visiting has some synergy with the Streetsense resource and they are able to point to the resource as a means of reinforcing their visit.

Some Road Safety Officers feel that they are too busy to explain Streetsense during their normal visits to schools although most are quite happy to refer to it.

In one area Road Safety Officers were becoming increasingly aware of the problem of schools having, but not making use of, Streetsense and decided to implement a programme of training to try and counter this. They promoted training by issuing posters to be put up within staff rooms trying to access the teachers directly and not just via the management committee. This has been quite successful in increasing the numbers coming forward to ask for training and thus hopefully increasing the level of use in due course.

Ongoing promotion is very important and this needs to be brought to the attention of all Road Safety Officers. If the resource is to be updated then it would be sensible to use that event as an opportunity for additional promotion. Otherwise efforts should be made to regularly promote Streetsense in its own right.

3.3 Liaison with local authority education departments

There was variability in the extent to which Road Safety Officers worked with the education advisers or education quality improvement officers within the local authorities. For those with whom a stronger relationship exists, there was much joint working in the preparation of training for teachers and indeed in some areas in tailoring the resource to the specific needs of their area.

To have local authority education advisers or quality improvement officers backing the resource enhances its credibility.

In one area, a health curriculum pack is being written and this will include reference to Streetsense. This is helpful as it presents a co-ordinated approach with a number of different resources cross-referencing the same material and highlights the fact that this is the recommended source for this subject.

3.4 Awareness of Streetsense?

Of the 240 schools replying to the postal survey, 85% have heard of Streetsense. Although sample sizes are too small to evaluate by local authority, awareness seemed to be particularly poor in Western Isles (33%) Fife (60%) Stirling/Falkirk /Clackmannan (58%).

Lack of awareness was also high amongst special schools. Of the 13 special schools that responded 6 had not heard of the resource.

3.5 How schools heard of Streetsense?

Schools were asked to indicate how they had first heard of the Streetsense resource.

Table 3.1; How first heard of Streetsense

Interestingly, especially given the distribution methods used, the greatest proportion of those completing the questionnaire (32%) said that they had first learnt of Streetsense from the local authority education department. This rose to 38% when it was the head teachers who completed the questionnaire. This perhaps highlights the importance of working collaboratively with staff from these departments in promoting resources of this type. Whilst qualitative research with Road Safety Officers did mention close working with some education departments, they were not described as central. It may also be that some head teachers have assumed that they were the source of their information.

Road Safety Officers were the second most mentioned group with 29% indicating they were the source of their first information concerning Streetsense.

Other teachers were only mentioned by 11% but it should be borne in mind that the questionnaire was posted out to the head teacher and usually completed by them. Of the 24 class teachers who completed the questionnaire some 25% had learnt of the resource from other teachers.

Only 6% said they first learnt of the resource at a training course. There was a large variation across local authorities with the majority indicating that none had heard of it this way. Local authorities where this vehicle was however mentioned were:

• Argyll and Bute
• West Dunbartonshire
• North Lanarkshire
• Dundee/Angus/Perth and Kinross
• Fife
• City of Glasgow
• Shetland
• South Lanarkshire
• Stirling/ Falkirk / Clackmannan

Teachers were also asked to indicate how well they felt the resource has been promoted.

Table 3.2; How well has Streetsense been promoted

On balance the feeling was that Streetsense has been promoted well but this was not an overwhelming endorsement.

There was also considerable variation in the perceptions of how well the resource had been promoted. More than half (59%) felt that it had been done well and a further 21% did not know enough about the promotion process to provide a reply. Worryingly, 19%, nearly one on five of those who replied, felt that it had not been promoted well.

Those who had heard of Streetsense but did not have a copy were particularly likely to say that it was not well promoted. Nine schools did not have a copy of the resource and 77% of those felt it had not been well promoted.

Those who were not yet using Streetsense were also more likely to be critical of its promotion (27%).

Those who were most likely to say it was not well done were to be found in cities (24%), had questionnaires completed by deputy head teachers (36%) or were larger schools in excess of 400 pupils (32%). These observations hint that the difficulty inherent in promotion should not be underestimated.

Depth interviews with schools who were not using the resource suggests that they are quite amenable to approaches from Road Safety Officers to promote the resource and suggestions include:

• Offers of training - including make use of twilight sessions
• Offers to come into schools to demonstrate its use which will hopefully lead to mentions at staff meetings and a raised awareness via word of mouth
• Providing as CPD on-line

One of the university lecturers would like to see better use of the website for children to share their work with others and for teachers to share information as well. Further, she would like to see a newsletter to keep the subject of road safety to the fore of teachers' attention. This could be linked to the JRSO scheme with children contributing to a national newsletter aimed at children.

In conclusion, Road Safety Officers have a crucial role to play in the promotion of Streetsense. They are the main external contacts that schools have in relation to this topic. Support from the local authority education department is also extremely valuable.

It is recommended that a promotional campaign be considered to support Road Safety Officers in this task.