St Joseph's Catholic Primary School and Nursery

The health, safety and well-being of all of our children are of paramount importance to all of the adults that work at St. Joseph's School.

For this reason, we take part in the annual Be Bright, Be Seen road safety awareness campaign where children are invited to wear their brightest clothes for a day.

We have over the past years attained the Modeshift Bronze award for Road Safety and regularly have different events and activities in school to help children be more aware whilst out and about.

We monitor the traffic that uses the nearby roads. Our aim is to reduce the amount of vehicles that use Newport Road and Newport Close during peak times.

We encourage our parents and carers to take advantage of the parking arrangements we have negotiated by working in partnership with St. Joseph's Church to provide a Park and Stride facility. We strongly encourage as many car users as possible to use these the church at drop off and collection times to avoid congestion and promote pupil safety during these times.

Please be aware that we were in the past able to use the Toby Carvery, however they have now installed an automatic eye which will fine anyone that doesn't register at the machine each time you park. We therefore recommend that you no longer park there.

Bikeability advice for parents

Bikeability is the Cycling Proficiency for the 21st century. The course is designed to develop your child’s cycling skills, road awareness and confidence, improving their ability to ride safely in today’s traffic. All instructors are trained to the National Standard, are CRB checked and have their own insurance. All training sites are risk assessed before the start of each course. Courses usually end with a group bike ride, giving children a chance to put their new skills into practice and exploring where they live.

The safety of your child is priority and to take part in our Bikeability cycling course your child will need a safe, roadworthy bike of the correct size. Please take the time to check your child’s bike over, paying special attention to the tyres, brakes and chain or take it to a bike shop before the course commences. It is a legal requirement for all bikes that are to be ridden on the road to have TWO working brakes, a rear red reflector and orange pedal reflectors. The instructor will check the bike at the start of the course and you will be notified of any faults that are found. These need to be rectified before the next training session. All of our instructors are able to make minor adjustments to enable a child to continue with the training on the day, but we will not carry out full services or major repairs! We encourage the wearing of cycle helmets and it is important that they are in good condition and fit well. Please note that full face, downhill helmets are NOT acceptable as they impair the child’s vision and hearing on the road. Some simple tips on ensuring a good fit are outlined overleaf.

During the course, your child will receive literature to read at home. Your support in working with your child will help him/her develop road safety skills, knowledge and attitudes more effectively.

Bikeability will give your child the skills and confidence to be able to ride safely on local roads. However, these skills are easily forgotten so please take time after the course to ride on the road with your child. Riding on local commons and towpaths may be more picturesque, but it doesn’t help to reinforce what they have learnt. You will be impressed by their new skills and, quite possibly, with what they can teach you!