First steps – right now!
- Put the date in your school calendar: Wednesday 14 June 2023*
- Choose a member of staff to take the lead on organising the event.
- Decide where you will walk. Make sure your route follows quiet streets with safe pavements. (If you don’t have a safe route outside your school, you can still take part by walking in your school grounds, calling for local roads to be safer for kids!)
- Organise volunteer stewards – you will need at least one adult supervisor for every eight children aged 8-11, and more for younger children.
- Ask your local police force, fire service or local authority road safety officer if you need additional support, for example to stop traffic so children can cross roads safely, or talk to pupils about road safety.
- Plan when you will run lessons, assemblies and other activities using the resources provided in your action pack.
- Decide how you can fundraise for Brake to help support families who have lost loved ones in road crashes and campaign for safer roads. You can hold a Wear Your Stripes Day or a sponsored walk, run a bake sale, sell drinks and ice creams or simply ask families to donate £3 to Brake by texting KIDSWALK to 70085.
Essential checks
- Carry out a risk assessment for the walk. You can use the route risk assessment template provided in your action pack.
- Check your school’s insurance policy is up to date and covers the event.
*You can hold Brake’s Kids Walk on Wednesday 14 June 2023 or on another day to fit in with your school calendar.
A brief overview of the basics
Kids’ manifesto for safe and healthy journeys
Every child has the right to make safe and healthy journeys where they live. By taking part in Brake’s Kids Walk, you can help children call for the key things they need to make their journeys safe: footpaths, cycle paths, safe places to cross, slow traffic and clean traffic.
Your action pack contains a Kids’ manifesto for safe and healthy journeys for your school to present to a local decision-maker (your local authority or MP). There is space to write what changes you need to address your own local road safety issues.
How to present your manifesto
- Write the name of your school in the space provided
- Write what would help you make safe and healthy journeys in your area, for example you could say that you want: 20mph speed limits; properly segregated cycle paths; improved or new crossing places; traffic restrictions for particular vehicles or at particular times; or rural road improvements, to lower speeds or help prevent overtaking.
- Ask people who support you to add their names and say why they support the manifesto
- Find out the name of the person at your local authority who is responsible for road safety and invite them to join your walk. Invite your local MP to come as well. Explain that after the walk your pupils would like to meet them to present their manifesto.
- Ask children to present the manifesto. They can also hold up the large posters provided in your action pack to reinforce the message that all children have the right to make safe and healthy journeys and that they need footpaths, cycle paths, safe places to cross, slow traffic and clean traffic to enable this.
- Invite local media to take photos and write about children campaigning for their right to make safe and healthy journeys.
- Share your story on social media and on your website. Please tag @brakecharity.
At Brake, we have lots of experience of helping people campaign for road safety. If you would like more help and advice about presenting your manifesto, please email kidswalk@brake.org.uk.
Two weeks before...
Your printed action pack will be sent out during the week beginning 5 June 2023. If you have not received yours by Friday 9 June, please email kidswalk@brake.org.uk.
Tell others
- Use the communications toolkit in your action pack to tell local media about your event.
- Let parents, teachers and pupils know about the walk. Put up posters and share the images provided in your action pack on your website, newsletter or social media pages.
- Ask your school governors, counsellors, MP, local road safety officer and other key decision-makers in your community to support your calls for children’s right to make safe and healthy journeys (see above).
Talk about road safety
- Start talking to children about their right to make safe and healthy journeys where they live. Talk to them about how to take care near roads and the value of walking more. This will help get them excited about taking part in Brake's Kids Walk. Explain that you are taking part in a road safety campaign.
Essential checks
- If you would like adults to wear high-vis vests, check you have enough for all adult volunteers. If you need more, you can ask your local authority if you can borrow these and other road safety resources if available.
- Check you have enough stickers, sponsorship forms and certificates from Brake for each child taking part, plus your banner (all included in your action pack).
A few days before...
Remind people what is happening
- Remind all adults who are helping on the day when they need to arrive and what their responsibilities are.
- Remind parents and carers that children will need to dress appropriately to take part in the walk with sturdy shoes and coats and/or sunhats and sunscreen as necessary.
- Remind children to dress brightly on the day and to bring their sponsorship forms/donations on the day.
- Arrange for a teacher to take photographs during the walk, so images can be shared on social media, sent to Brake and used in your newsletter. Ensure you have permissions from parents and carers for children to be photographed and for photos to be shared with Brake.
Run road safety activities
- Hold a road safety assembly to tell pupils about Brake’s Kids Walk using the Powerpoint presentation provided in your action pack.
- Use the lesson plans provided in your action pack to talk to children about their right to make safe and healthy journeys, what they need to make their journeys safe and how to ask for change to make their journeys safe.
- Send important road safety messages home to parents and carers: Ask pupils to send a road safety postcard to their parent or carer. Postcards and an accompanying letter to parents are included in your action pack. Ask pupils to take the postcard and letter home and talk to their grown ups about the things they need to stay safe near roads.
- Ask pupils to make road safety banners and posters to carry during the walk – you can display these in your entrance area before and after the walk too. Remind children about the key things they need to make their journeys safe.
Plan your fundraising activity
- If you are holding a sponsored walk, ask pupils to take home sponsorship forms provided in your action pack. They will need to bring back their completed forms with any money they have raised after the walk.
- If you are holding a Wear your Stripes day, ask pupils to plan their brightest stripiest outfit
On the big day, Wednesday 14 June 2023*
- Recheck the route for safety in case of new hazards.
- If you are holding a sponsored walk, collect pupils’ sponsorship forms and monies raised (please keep the sponsorship forms as Brake will need these to reclaim Gift Aid
- Ensure all adult supervisors (and a designated photographer) have turned up and are clear about their responsibilitie
- Hand out hi-vis vests to adults and get the pupils to put their stickers on.
- Get your banners ready at the front of the walk, plus any placards made by the kids.
- Line up children in pairs holding hands, and remind them to walk safely at a sensible pace and stay away from the edge of the kerb.
- Take lots of photos.
- Have a great time and please be safe!
Afterwards
Celebrate your success!
- Please share your pictures on social media to show how children are campaigning for road safety. Together we can get as many people as possible to join our conversation and talk about how to make roads safer for everyone. Don't forget to tag us @Brakecharity.
- Give every child their certificate, thank them for taking part, and repeat road safety lessons learnt.
- Thank all adult supervisors and helpers.
- Email event photos to kidswalk@brake.org.uk so we can use on our website and social media.
- Reply to the short feedback survey we email you by the end of term so we can use your feedback to make future events even better!
If you have fundraised for Brake
- You can pay in any money you have raised during Brake’s Kids Walk using one of the following methods. Please remember to mention the name of your school:
- Pay online at www.brake.org.uk/donate
- Email finance@brake.org.uk and we will send you our bank details and explain how to make a payment
- Please post sponsorship forms to Brake, PO Box 548, Huddersfield, HD1 2XZ so we can claim Gift Aid.