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School's safety march
An entire school took to the streets of Portsmouth in a high-visibility attempt to get motorists to slow down – and break a record.
All 174 pupils at Stamshaw Infant School in North End Avenue flowed like a moving stream around nearby streets to the Mountbatten Centre and back to discourage speeding drivers.
The walkout was part of a world record attempt for the largest 'walking bus'.
The school joined tens of thousands of other children across the UK in the venture, co-ordinated by road safety charity Brake.
The event aimed to raise awareness about the number of children killed and hurt on foot by fast traffic, and to raise funds for the charity's work supporting families bereaved and injured by road crashes.
Year 1 pupils Summer Whittle and Declan Ware-Foster, both six years old, were at the front of the walking bus holding the banner to get motorists to slow down.
Summer said: 'I think car drivers should slow down so we can walk to school safely.'
Declan added: 'A lot of people saw us today so hopefully they won't drive as fast if they know there's a school nearby.'
Teacher Sarah Carpenter said she hoped the walking bus had the desired effect.
She said: 'A lot of the roads around here are 20mph but Twyford Avenue isn't and it's a busy road.
'A lot of our children live the other side of it in Tipner and cross the road to get to school.
'This is the fourth year we've done something like this so if we can get some motorists to slow down then today's been a success.'
The school hopes to have raised about 500 for Brake.
It will be some days before organisers know whether they've helped break the record by having 100,000 children nationwide in the walking bus.
But even if the record hasn't been broken, local police believe it has done some good.
PC Sam Phillips said: 'I think it's a marvellous idea.
'Drivers have had to stop when the children have crossed the roads so it will educate drivers to be more aware of children. We need to keep speed limits down and awareness up.'
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Weather for Portsmouth
Sunday 12 February 2012
Today
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Temperature: 3 C to 7 C
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