Scottish Government

Chapter 4 Training

4.1 Extent of training offered

Just over a quarter of schools who are using Streetsense, (26%) indicated that they had undertaken training in it, while 60% said that they had had no training and 14% didn't know if anyone had had training.

Training had been provided to at least one school in the following local authorities.

• Aberdeeen/ Aberdeenshire/ Moray
• Argyll and Bute
• Dundee/ Angus /Perth and Kinross
• East Dunbartonshire
• Edinburgh/ Lothian and borders
• Fife
• Highland
• Inverclyde
• North Lanarkshire
• Orkney
• Shetland
• South Ayrshire
• Stirling/ Falkirk/Clackmannan
• West Dunbartonshire

This does not mean that there has been no training in some of the remaining authorities but that no school in the survey had any experience of such training.

The majority of training was undertaken by the Road Safety Officer or the police (87%) with some schools being unsure of who delivered training.

In two thirds (68%) of schools the training did count towards CPD (Continuing Professional Development)

Commonly, training was provided to only one member of staff within the school (53%). In 8 schools (21%) training was provided to all of the teachers at the school.

Of the 38 schools that had undertaken some training, 12 (32%) had subsequently conducted some internal training to other teachers within the school.

Training has been offered in most areas of Scotland and only nine local authorities have offered no training at all in the use of the resource. Many authorities offered training at the outset when the resource was being distributed and only delivered it individually to schools if none could attend the training. Two authorities still have not completely distributed the resource as they have taken the view that the school must be trained in its use first. This has been a time consuming exercise.

Most authorities that offered training took the view that it was sufficient for someone from the school to attend training or a familiarisation seminar about the resource and to then rely on the information being cascaded to other teachers.

A few authorities are continuing with the provision of training on an ongoing basis and a few are considering offering further training in this resource.

Schools were asked to indicate how helpful their training had been.

Table 4.1; Helpfulness of training

The majority who had undertaken training had found it either very helpful (37%) or fairly helpful (47%). Only 8% (3 schools) had not found it helpful. These were all based in remote towns.

Those schools that had not undertaken any training were asked if they would have liked the opportunity to undertake training. Views were mixed with 42% saying they would like to undertake training and 56% saying that they would not like training.

4.2 Road Safety Officers' perception of training

Many of the Road Safety Officers were very keen to provide training but had faced barriers in trying to make this available. The benefits of training were that by accessing teachers' attention to eliminate barriers such as lack of familiarity and to give them tips on how to use the resource, there was a much greater chance that they would go back to their classes and actually start using the resource.

One of the key difficulties identified by Road Safety Officers is getting time to promote or train teachers in the use of Streetsense. Road Safety Officers typically fitted in with whatever time was made available to them. As such the depth of training varied, sometimes being little more than a familiarisation of the resource to workshops with hands on practical exercises.

One Road Safety Officer described how she had set up a workshop to be undertaken with head teachers but then lost the slot in their agenda. A repeated effort had the same result. The Road Safety Officer attributed this not so much to lack of interest in the resource but that schools had a lot of other issues to be addressed at that time. Even with much effort on the part of Road Safety Officers to ensure that the resource is well promoted and understood, the time available from teachers is severely constrained.

In some areas it was very difficult to get schools together for in-service in which case individual visits were undertaken. When Road Safety Officers went out to schools they often had a very short time to explain the resource to head teachers.

One Road Safety Officer who is based within the local police force felt that they experienced greater problems getting access to the right people within a school and getting permissions from the local authority than those Road Safety Officers who were based within local authorities. However this was not just a difficulty for those Road Safety Officers based within police forces as others also mentioned difficulties in gaining access to the in-service programmes. One indicated that road safety may not be a priority for those with the local authority education departments. Some teachers also have very full commitments to their CPD and it is seen as debatable whether they see road safety as having adequate priority.

It was seen as ideal if a group of schools could be trained together at an event and a few local authorities did manage to achieve this without too much difficulty. This was commonly undertaken by means of providing a number of dates with choice of afternoon or morning sessions available thus giving teachers flexibility over dates.

Road Safety Officers felt that their own training had equipped them well to provide training to schools and they were generally confident in their own understanding of the resource. One of the key messages they wanted to impart was that it was an easy resource to use and could be delivered without much, if any, additional work.

4.3 Teachers' perception of training

Views of teachers were mixed on the need for training. Some teachers feel that training is not necessary since the resource is seen as being self-explanatory and this was identified as a strength of the resource. The contrary view is that there is a clear need to undertake some promotion or minimal training to ensure that teachers are aware of what the resource has to offer, as without this it will not be fully utilised.

Teachers also acknowledged the difficulties in finding time for training and of whether road safety would be given sufficient priority within their CPD time. One teacher mentioned that there were less hours allocated to training at the time of the launch and so road safety might have been less of a priority. It has been suggested that schools might now be more amenable to allowing access either because of more time being available or because of positive relationships having been developed between Road Safety Officers and the schools. However, the current need for training is not so acute as it was at the outset as teachers are now more familiar with it. Nonetheless one teacher indicated that whilst training might not be necessary, there would still be some who will appreciate it. In schools where the resource has never been used, training may moreover be very appropriate.

One school, where the resource has been on the shelves for some time, has had the resource brought to their attention by their Road Safety Officer and has recently undertaken training across the school. They are just about to implement the resource now as a result of this input.

One deputy head teacher had requested training and this was subsequently delivered by their Road Safety Officer to all teachers in a 1.5 - 2 hour session. Whilst the resource had been delivered in advance of training and they had looked at it, they hadn't actually tried it and decided that they would delay implementation until after training. They felt that this added to their confidence in using the resource.

4.4 Cascading training

Many of the training initiatives undertaken relied on training one or two designated teachers, often head or deputy head teachers and relying on them to cascade this knowledge to other teachers within their school.

However a number of teachers have identified problems with this dependence on teachers cascading information within the school with some suggesting that this does not necessarily happen so readily in practice.

" It's the problem with everything. Somebody goes to the launch and unless it's one of the management team - that person goes back the next day into their class and they're up to here. They might have 5 minutes at a staff meeting to say look we've got this, but to be honest that's the best you're going to get"
Teacher

Further even if it is mentioned for 10 minutes at a staff meeting, there is no time for staff to actually look at a resource. It was unlikely to be discussed informally at staff breaks.

" The cascading effect doesn't work unless it's something new and interesting"

" You don't have the opportunity to pass it on"
Teacher

4.5 Training new teachers

All trainee teachers are given training in the use of Streetsense. This is covered under the health education aspect of the primary school curriculum and is undertaken under the road safety banner. Streetsense is however the key resource and trainee teachers are typically given a short hands-on workshop in the use of the resource. Time can be very constrained, for example one has only a two-hour slot to cover the risk areas of road safety, personal safety and home safety.

The lecturers at the universities responsible for the health curriculum are all very aware of the resource and in some cases work closely with the Road Safety Officers. The Streetsense resource is viewed very positively by the lecturers. At a number of universities the Road Safety Officers themselves deliver this training to the trainee teachers.

A leaflet has been prepared to ensure that trainee teachers are familiar with the resource and what it has to offer and this is distributed to students.

This is seen as a very important means of ongoing promotion as there is hopefully the side-effect of new teachers going out to schools and drawing it to the attention of established teachers

4.6 Suggestions for the provision of training

If any new training were to be provided it would be essential to plan ahead to allow it time within the schedule of training offered.

As mentioned previously, it is beneficial to work closely with the local authority education department when providing training courses and essential if these are to be accredited as CPD courses.

Whilst training of this type cannot be made mandatory, it would be beneficial to make this as attractive as possible for teachers to want to attend.

In-school training was generally the preferred option by teachers and twilight sessions now allow for greater flexibility in the timing of this. Cascading information about a resource was not a reliable method of ensuring that all staff knew about it. In-school training will not guarantee that all teachers turn up but will hopefully get enough teachers engaged with the resource to tip it past the point where it becomes a known resource across the school. One teacher highlighted this with a comment that in-school training was at its most effective when it gets people sharing ideas about using a resource within the school.

An alternative to training, suggested by a few teachers, was that Road Safety Officers go into schools to give demonstration lessons or provide in-class support with individual teachers. Not only would this bring it to the school's attention but it would also give the teachers a strong steer as to how the resource was to be delivered.

Having people come into schools to give lessons is often welcomed by schools since the pupils often pay greater attention to outside experts than to the teacher that they have become accustomed to.

Active promotion of training offered was also helpful and in Tayside there are posters offering training on display. This has boosted the uptake of these courses.

One suggestion by one of the university lecturers is that an optional course might be offered for students. This may help alleviate the shortness of time that is devoted to it within the curriculum. This has already been achieved successfully with the 'Hungry for Success' initiative.

Another of the lecturers would prefer for this to be taught to smaller groups but that would present timetable difficulties.