SAFETY-FIRST TALKS

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 174, 20 April 1937, Page 11

SAFETY-FIRST TALKS

Beneficial Results in Auckland Schools WORK TO BE CONTINUED Dominion Special Service. Auckland, April 19. Encouraging reports on the beneficial results obtained from safety first talks given to children in Auckland schools by officers of the city traffic department have been received by the department, and, in the belief that this plan of giving tuition in traffic risks is an essential service, the department is continuing the work. This year already 32 city schools have been visited and a total of 14,668 children have been instructed in safetyfirst principles. For the purpose of this tuition traffic officers specially chosen for the work visit the schools. Pupils of primary schools are divided into three sections—junior, intermediate, and senior. The junior section, which comprises the four primer classes and Standard I, are addressed on the footpath outside the school and are given practical demonstrations on the road, preferably where crossings have been provided. The intermediate section, embracing Standards II and 111, are instructed in the classrooms, with interesting talks and blackboard illustrations. This form of instruction is also given to the senior section, which includes Standards IV, V, and VI. Pupils of secondary schools are addressed in the assembly halls, as many as 1400 boys at the Seddon Technical College having been given a talk at one time, and one lecture at the Auckland Grammar School was given to 960 boys. The special officers state that at every school visited they have been well received and there has been an encouraging spirit of co-operation and appreciation. In their report to the superintendent of traffic, Mr. C. Biand, they say that they feel that the service they are offering has the wholehearted support of the teaching profession generally. On every hand they hear good reports of the behaviour of children on the streets, and teachers had informed them that the pupils had become increasingly aware of the dangers that exist on the public highway and were more careful and alert. “We believe that the school instructional talk to children provided by the city traffic department is a very essential service,” the officers concluded. “It is a service that could well be extended to include a short talk to all schools immediately preceding the school holiday periods.”