Eastern Counties

Do You Know How To Use The Bus?

Over the past 3 years First East England Buses has been supporting a classroom based educational project, Do You Know How To Use The Bus?, to encourage safe bus travel by Year 7 and 8 pupils.
Since its inception in excess of 2000 children in and around Norwich have taken part in the project with such schools as Notre Dame High School, Norwich High and CNS all enjoying the interactive presentations which use the tools of storytelling, DVD and Powerpoint.
Now, First are seeking other schools in Norfolk to sign up for the project to enable even more children to learn the dos and donts of safe bus travel.
The project was devised and is presented by two Norwich-based First bus drivers, Tereasa and Dave Hawkins, who have over 20 years combined experience of bus driving. After witnessing a number of unsafe incidents involving schoolchildren they developed Do You Know How To Use The Bus? as a means of delivering a serious message that is both fun and meaningful but also strongly highlights the importance of safe bus travel.
The project has been extremely well received, with a reduction in the number of unsafe incidents by schoolchildren reported by drivers. In addition, both Teresa and Dave were given recognition for their work at the prestigious 2008 National Transport Awards.
Do You Know How To Use The Bus? is delivered in one easily managed 50-minute classroom session and comes at no cost to the participating school as the project is fully funded by First as part of its commitment towards promoting safe bus travel.
Says Alan Pilbeam, Managing Director of First East England:
"We are very proud of this project and have received an excellent amount of positive feedback from both the schools and pupils. We want to extend the number of schools that take part to spread the safety message even further.We would welcome contact from teachers who would like to find out more.'
Any school interested in taking part should contact First customer service team on 08456 020 121.