Birmingham-based road safety charity The Conies has been given a major boost by a leading recruitment group and an insurance giant in taking its child safety campaign nationwide.
The Education Network, a subsidiary of Pertemps, is helping to resource the charity’s new nationally endorsed early learning programme for primary schools which features a family of traffic cones that deliver safety messages through their adventures.
Aviva has also converted to The Conies by offering tickets for a family of four to attend this year’s Aviva Premiership Rugby Final as the sensational prize in a special Conies promotion.
The support follows the successful piloting last year of The Conies: Walking to School Safely Journal, a 40-page fully illustrated workbook that introduced The Conies as “child safety heroes” in a similar safety role to The Green Cross Code Man in the 1970s
The pilot programme, which was sponsored by the Birmingham Community Safety Partnership, improved the safety awareness of 8,000 school pupils throughout Birmingham. The book has since been awarded Endorsed status by Fundamentally Children, the leading organisation that promotes the value of play in healthy childhoods.
The Conies safety campaign has now been boosted by Pertemps and its subsidiary The Education Network with funding for the printing of another 25,000 copies of the journal and 1,000 copies of a support guide for teachers. The full set of schools to benefit will be announced in a special launch event to be held at the West Midlands Fire Service Headquarters on Tuesday, May 22.
Meanwhile Aviva sponsorship has enabled The Conies to run a sensational prize draw for tickets for a family of up to four to attend the Aviva Premiership Rugby Final at Twickenham on Saturday, May 26. The package includes a pre-match rugby clinic for up to two children. The competition is open to all UK families with one or more children at primary school and details of how to enter are available on The Conies website at www.theconies.org.
The promotion runs alongside the charity’s launch of a new safety video, The Conies – Cone with the Wind, which is available on YouTube at https://youtu.be/CcznKujElPg. It comes 50 years after the discovery of a long-lost film of Adam West’s Batman teaching the Green Cross Code to children on London’s streets, which was recently screened in Birmingham for the first time since 1967.
Fay Goodman, Director of The Conies, said: “We are delighted with the tremendous support and backing shown by Pertemps as we aim to extend The Conies campaign into schools throughout the UK. Our many thanks also go to Aviva for the competition prize to promote The Conies.”
She added: “By educating all our young children to be self-aware of potential dangers, we will contribute to their wellbeing and avoid situations that compromise their safety.”
Fundamentally Children has praised the Walking to School Safely Journal as “an excellent resource for the classroom as it teaches children to take responsibility for themselves when out and about, encourages children to follow instructions and promotes discussion”.
