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Schools recognised for good behaviour whilst travelling to school on NCT buses and Trams – SafeMark Awards Ceremony
Around 100 secondary and Primary School children and teachers will be attending the Respect for Transport Golden SafeMark awards at the Council House in Nottingham on Wednesday 8th July to collect SafeMark certificates and other awards, as a thank you for all the partnership work promoting safe travel whilst using buses and trams.
These awards will be made in recognition of the excellent co-operation between NCT, NET and the schools themselves, to ensure safe and respectful transport of pupils to and from school, and will be presented by Councillor Jane Urquart.
Two schools will also be awarded the Golden SafeMark, launched by NCT in 2007 to recognise and reward the school or schools whose pupils have demonstrated the best behaviour while travelling on school buses.
The scheme has built on the success of the existing SafeMark scheme, which was launched in 2005 and introduced a Code of Conduct between NCT and participating schools on pupil travel.
More than 30 secondary schools in the city and county have signed up to SafeMark, which promotes safe and responsible travel among pupils while travelling to and from school. The SafeMark Team have also been working with primary schools at Safety Zone events and visiting schools talking to many year 6 pupils about to go to secondary school in September to promote this message.
SafeMark has proved a success – since launch, incidents of poor behaviour among pupils on NCT school journeys has fallen. This is not only due to the Code of Conduct, but because head teachers are co-operating more with the bus company when incidents do occur.
The Golden SafeMark recognises those pupils whose behaviour is seen to be consistently better than the average or the school which has worked the hardest to promote this message.
Dave Astill, Commercial Manager of NCT, said: “We are delighted at the response and co-operation received from schools in the city and county, this is NCT’s way of acknowledging their hard work and all the efforts made to ensure safe pupil travel on our network”
The SafeMark scheme is supported by the Respect for Transport campaign, which aims to reduce actual and perceived levels of crime and anti-social behaviour on Nottingham’s buses and trams.
Vandalism and anti-social activity on school buses not only affects the morale of drivers; it also has a financial cost to NCT and NET, who have to pay to repair and clean up damage. Furthermore antisocial behaviour on the buses and trams also deters other passengers from using public transport.