NI Road Safety Award Winner 2024
"I am absolutely delighted and proud to receive this award on behalf of my former P6 class and our school, Ballynahinch Primary.
This time last year, a number of children arrived up to my classroom rather irate saying that they had trouble getting across the road. Every time that they tried, a car came flying around the corner and they witnessed one parent pulling their child back onto the curb side.
My immediate reaction was: what do you want to do about this? And this was the start of our journey.
We had just started to implement Thinking Frames into our learning and we used these to identify the problem and suggest solutions. We collected and analysed data and used this to present as evidence in our letters to our local councillors.
All of the councillors wrote back to the children but there were two councillors, in particular, who took on our campaign and lobbied on our behalf. I want to take this opportunity to thank personally Councillor Callum Bowsie, Councillor David Lee-Surginor and MLA Nick Matheson for all that they have done. They kept us updated throughout the process and didn’t just send an email to me each time there was movement with the campaign, but they came into our school to speak to the children directly and ask for their input, if they were happy with each decision and to how proceed.
Our campaign made it to the local newspapers but to our amazement, we watched MLA Nick Matheson debate our issue in the chambers of Stormont, which we visited a few weeks later and got the opportunity to see how it all played out. Our children have a voice and they were being heard.
We are highly invested in the Sustrans Active Travel programme and over the past year, we have seen a dramatic decline in the children walking, scooting or cycling to school. We are the only school in the town of Ballynahinch that doesn’t have any safe places for the children to cross. Our school sits on a busy road that has a profound bend. We take part in all the active travel initiatives, but until our children have a safe place to cross, we are not going to reap the rewards of this.
We were delighted at the end of June to hear that we were on a list. Last week we received an email to say that it wouldn’t be happening any time soon, that we didn’t score enough on points. I am disgusted at that remark. Children’s safety should not be about point scoring. It should be a priority.
I am asking the Roads Service to continue to lobby on our behalf and let our young leaders of the future, see how they can make a difference, even at a young age of 9 or 10. Our campaign continues…"
Mrs Kirland, P6 teacher.