Road safety is a shared responsibility which makes it everybody’s business every day.

Starting school means lots of changes for children and their families.

Travelling to and from school is no exception. Kindergarten orientation days are a great way to promote safe road user behaviours to new parents/carers/grandparents and students.

Sharing this message with your families now is a valuable opportunity to set your school’s expectations about responsible and legal road user behaviour onsite and in the school zone, as pedestrians, bike riders, passengers and drivers.

Ideas for sharing information with families

• share road safety advice with grandparents, nannies or other carers
• conduct a virtual tour showing school entry and exits points, waiting areas, kiss and drop off zones, bus zone, no stopping and no parking zones, bike racks and so on.
• share locations for families to park safely away from the school and walk to school. Record this and add to your school website.
• interview current parents of children in kindergarten on how they keep their child safe when travelling to and from school and entering school grounds.
• ask senior students to create a video about your school’s road safety messages to share with their buddies, e.g., always hold an adult’s hand, where to wait to be picked up, what to do if someone is late to pick them up, how to tell their parents to put their mobile phone away so they can talk together as they walk home
• interview current kindergarten students about their experiences when they started school, e.g., walking to school with their parents/carers; the colour of the raincoat they wear when it’s raining; sitting in a booster seat; getting in and out of the car on the safety door side
• invite the local council Road Safety Officer to describe how to be a safe road user outside your school
• use Transport for NSW’s kindergarten orientation library bags to engage students and families in discussing road safety in and around the school. Add your own local road safety information into this bag.
• use various communication channels to share your information, e.g., social media, school newsletters, websites, email, snail mail
• add road safety for new families’ information to your school website.

Resources for schools - Kindergarten orientation

Teachers can localise and share these templates with their school community

• Road safety information for parents and carers flyer Word Template (1.6MB) (Staff only)
• Starting school safely - road safety parent and carer presentation Powerpoint template (8.4MB) (staff only)
• Starting school safety - ES1 teaching and learning activities

Contact your local department Road Safety Education Officer for further advice and support.

Ordering free road safety resources - TfNSW