Adapting lessons for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)
Road safety education and training should be appropriate and effective for pupils of all ages and abilities, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
When adapting lessons, please be aware of pupils’ individual requirements and adapt lessons to fit their needs. Use visual aids and sensory play to help pupils learn and understand the connection between road danger and their own safety. Focus on road safety basics, such as holding hands with a grown up when walking near roads, how to cross roads at safe crossing places and always wearing a seat belt/sitting in a child seat when travelling by car.
Differentiation activity for this lesson:
Show pictures of different cars or model toy cars and talk about how they are different. Talk about the different parts of a car, with a focus on features that make cars safer. Talk about how cars are heavy and hard and will hurt people if they hit them. If you have a car parked in a safe place on school premises, away from roads, you could let pupils poke the car and feel how hard and heavy it is, then poke their tummies and feel how soft they are. Explain that our bodies are fragile and easily hurt by traffic. Talk about seat belts and explain why it is important to belt up on every journey.
Background information
Until quite recently, when people tried to make cars safer, they mainly focused on ways to protect people inside the car if there was a crash – this means things like seatbelts and airbags which we’re used to seeing in cars. Seatbelts and airbags are both amazing inventions that can stop people from going through the windscreen or hitting the inside of the car if there’s a crash.
These days, cars are being designed to stop crashes from happening in the first place - and to make sure people inside or outside the car are less likely to be killed or seriously injured.
The newest cars have lots of clever safety technology that can do things like brake automatically to stop drivers from hitting people, help drivers keep within speed limits, and stop cars from drifting into the wrong lane on the motorway.
Talk about designing vehicles for safety in class
Explain to children that, while it's not a nice fact to hear, more than six children are killed or seriously injured on roads every day in the UK. These crashes have a devastating effect on families and their communities.
Ask children to watch the film Our future journeys: safer by design. This short film by Brake explores how modern vehicles are designed to prevent crashes and protect people inside and outside the vehicle.
Use the factsheet for educators and factsheet for children to help children understand some of the ways safe vehicles can help prevent crashes and keep people safe, if a crash does happen.
Group discussions
Ask pupils to work in groups to discuss what they have seen in the film. Here are some questions you could ask:
- Why do we need people to design safe vehicles?
- Which do you think is safer: a car with a human driver or a driverless car?
- How can vehicle technology help people to make safer journeys?
- If you were designing a new car, what features would you include to make it safer?
- Safe vehicles are important for road safety – what else do you think is needed to help keep people safe on roads?
Ask pupils to present their answers to the class.
Activity: Design a safe vehicle
Ask children to design their own safe vehicle, using the facts they have learnt in this lesson. Encourage them to consider:
- How their vehicle would prevent road crashes.
- How their vehicle would protect people inside the vehicle.
- How their vehicle would protect people outside the vehicle (for example people who walk and wheel).
Use the poster template to help them design their own safe vehicle.
Factsheets to support your discussion
Use the factsheets below to support your class discussions about safe vehicles.
Click here to download the factsheet for educators
Use this factsheet to support your discussion with children
Click here to download the factsheet for children
Use this factsheet to support children's learning
Our future journeys: safer by design
Connected and autonomous vehicles may sound like something you’ll only find on the set of a science fiction film but the technology they use is already widely available. It may still be a while before we see driverless cars on every street but already modern vehicles are equipped with technology that enables them to keep passengers and people outside the vehicle safe, and connect with roads and people (and each other) to help make our journeys safer and healthier.
Brake teamed up with presenter Greg Foot, to create a short film for schoolchildren that explains how these vehicles work and why safe vehicles are so important for safe journeys.
Watch a short film for primary schoolchildren that shows how modern vehicles are designed for safety.
Design a safe vehicle poster template
Download and print this poster template