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BACK TO SCHOOL FOR FIRST RAIL SUPPORT

Tuesday 28 July 2009

FIRST Rail Support (FRS) has launched an innovative internet based project that aims to help teachers across the UK teach schoolchildren about bus and train safety and anti-social behaviour issues.

FRS, based in Simonstone, Lancashire, has designed a dedicated internet site as part of 'Teaching Zone', a website portal that is available to thousands of teachers across the UK.

Every school day, hundreds of teachers use the Teaching Zone website to both prepare and deliver lessons to primary and secondary school children using modern based technology such as interactive white boards and computers.

FRS has worked with educational experts to design a number of information sheets and possible lesson plans for schoolchildren on a range of subjects connected to bus and train travel. This includes how to behave sensibly when on or near buses and trains (including playing near train tracks), the consequences of committing crimes such as vandalism and fare evasion, and how to avoid unnecessary contact with strangers when travelling by bus or train.

The site, www.teachingzone.org.first, is easy to download for teachers and has been successfully trialled with a number of Lancashire based schools and now FRS is rolling the project out to schools across the UK.

The project is the brainchild of FRS Managing Director Maurice Duckworth, who was recently awarded the MBE for 40 years service to the Lancashire Police Special Constabulary.

Maurice Duckworth said: “In my time in the bus and coach industry as well as a police Specials Inspector, I have seen firsthand how children who do not follow simple safety rules can suffer serious injury through misadventure or police arrest for anti social behaviour or fare evasion.

“First leads the way in innovative projects that benefit young people and this new project is just an extension of this. For a number of years, First has run successful yellow school bus operations across the UK and in America and leads the way in home to school transport. We are now pushing the boundaries even further and using modern technology to get serious messages across to young people.

“The feedback we have had from teachers so far is that they like the lesson plans we have provided, which include encouraging youngsters to write essays on subjects such as the dangers of playing near train tracks and how vandalism not paying your bus fare can lead to trouble with the police.

“For a relatively small financial investment in setting up and running the Teaching Zone website, First is potentially going to save hundreds of thousands of pounds in such costs as repairing vandalised buses and trains and lost revenue from fare evasion.”

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