Junior Road Safety Officer scheme
Primary six and seven pupils are selected by their primary school to be Junior Road Safety Officers (JRSOs). JRSOs help promote road safety issues within the school and local community. There is a range of informative, colourful and engaging resources in support of this scheme.
About the JRSO scheme
The JRSO scheme is an effective and popular way to get serious road safety messages across to children and provides an opportunity to develop their communication skills. Years six and seven pupils have the opportunity to deliver important road safety messages to the entire school community in a fun and innovative way.
The scheme involves minimum input from teachers with the main emphasis being placed on the appointed JRSOs. A teacher or teaching assistant should be nominated by the school to act as a school guide and to offer advice and support to the JRSOs. Schools usually appoint two JRSOs from pupils in years six and seven. Once the JRSOs have been appointed, they should work through their activity pack and be provided with help and practical support if required.
Whilst the ideas and activities in the pack will give the JRSOs a good starting point, the scheme is flexible and they may come up with their own ideas.
Examples of what other schools have done are in the Junior Road Safety Officer pack which you can download from this page.
JRSOs should meet with the school guide on a regular basis so that tasks and deadlines can be agreed.
The JRSO's role
The role of the JRSO is to spread road safety messages to the school community by:
- giving talks
- running competitions
- putting up posters
- using their own ideas to spread the message
There is an activity pack to help them get started. Sections of this pack can also be downloaded separately.
Further activities to go with this pack are also available on the Road safety activity booklets page.
Each JRSO will receive a:
- high-visibility waistcoat
- JRSO badge
- folder to keep their documents in
- JRSO pen
Selecting your JRSOs
Methods you may wish to consider when selecting your JRSOs:
- choose one or two JRSOs (depending on school size) from years six or seven
- ask pupils to complete application forms (see above link) and make your selection based on their answers
- conduct interviews to discover budding JRSOs
- ask students to nominate representatives
Have an informal talk with candidates to check they understand the job and their commitment.
If your school would like to take part in this scheme, you can download and complete the application form at the link below and email as an attachment to safeandaccessibletravel@infrastructure-ni.gov.uk or post it to Safe and Accessible Travel Division branch.
If you have any queries about the application form or the scheme in general, you can contact the Safe and Accessible Travel Division branch.