Rule-breakers watch out - these pupils are road safety champs

And it’s this enthusiasm for promoting highway welfare that has enabled eight schoolchildren from Isambard Brunel Junior School to win a road safety competition.

The pupils, who are part of the school council, won the Junior Road Safety Officers Champion of Champions competition in Winchester.

The event was run by Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service to celebrate the work that junior road safety officers (JRSO) do to promote road safety in the area.

JRSOs are Primary School pupils who promote road safety to pupils, parents, and the whole school community.

This is the first time the school has had JRSOs and Isambard Brunel, in Wymering Road, North End, is the first Portsmouth school to win the Champion of Champions honour since it began five years ago.

Rounds included quizzes, timed challenges and the participation in a crash scene investigation where pupils had to interview witnesses and victims to build a picture of what happened, who was to blame, and what road safety tips would have prevented the accident.

The winning pupils were presented with a winners’ shield, certificates and a hamper of books.

School council organiser, Lisa Kirk, said: ‘I am so pleased all the hard work of the pupils has paid off and I was thrilled they’d been chosen as the winners of the Champion of Champions competition.

‘This has made them even more passionate about keeping everyone safe around our roads – they were developing future campaign ideas on the bus on the way home.’

Pupils also presented their work on the ways they have promoted road safety at the school and how they have successfully campaigned to stop parents parking outside the school gates.

Since April, pupils have cut dangerous parking at Isambard Brunel by nearly 90 per cent.

‘The children issued out their own parking tickets to parents who were parked outside the school gates, reducing the amount they issued from three tickets each day to around four a week.

Deputy headteacher Sara Paine said: ‘The work of the JRSOs supports our Brunel values of respect and nurturing and shows how our academy trust is transforming life chances every single day.’