Meet our JRSO Team: Year 6: Claudia, Jacob & Year 5: Amelia and Alice
- photo to follow…
We support Hampshire’s Junior Road Safety Officer (JRSO) Scheme and have our own JRSO Team. This initiative allows pupils to lead on promoting road safety to their school communities – in a fun way while getting serious road safety messages and sustainable forms of travel communicated. Our JRSO Team is coordinated by Mrs Billing one of our Teaching Assistants. The team are busy all year round and is successful with their key messages impacting our community.
Basil Bird supported us in March 2024 with the Big Walk and Wheel.
This is the total number of journeys between 1st September 2023 and 1st April 2024
Key Road Safety Messages 2024
Leg it to Lapland December 2023
BikeIt John and Our First 2023-2024 Golden Lock Competition Winner
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June 2019
We are extremely pleased to announce that Gomer Junior School have been nominated as one of Hampshire’s Champion schools and have therefore been given the opportunity to compete for the title of JRSO Champion of Champions. This is testament to the consistently creative work of our JRSO Team and the support they receive from the Gomer community. Eight children will represent the school on 28 June where the JRSO Team (Junior Road Safety Officers) will have their efforts celebrated and find out if they are to be crowned Hampshires Champion of Champions.
Hampshire’s Economy, Transport and Environment Department were really impressed with our efforts this year in teaching of our key road safety messages through a variety of activities and they particularly liked our ‘be bright be seen day’ and our ‘bicycle helmet competition.
May 2019
With thanks to our JRSO Team who planned and delivered a Walk to School Assembly on Wednesday 8 May 2019. The team reminded us of the benefits of walking to school including our health and the environment. They are looking forward to meeting the school community at Bay Side Cabin (Stokes Bay) every day w/b 20 May from 8.30am to walk to school. We look forward to Basil Bird joining us for a walk. Still need to drive to school? Please do use our Park and Stride at the Sea Horse pub. You can then walk a little too. Mrs Bottriell has been bust decorating Gomer Rocks for the children to find everyday too.
March 2019
March is busy with another national event—The Big Pedal. Children are encouraged to cycle to school for a two week period. This year it is tied into the science curriculum through how the human body works and how to keep ourselves healthy. We have also worked it into the computing curriculum through route planning.
January and February 2019
January and February also saw the JRSO’s go out into the community again (with the local Councillor), this time doing a leaflet drop. They thought it was important that local residents knew about all the wonderful things they did to promote road safety.
December 2018
The team were back out on parking patrol in December, even though the weather was not very good! Not ones to shy away from the challenge that is road safety, they met with local Councillors and parents to gain their views and engaged in communications with Hampshire Traffic Management to discuss how we could work together to make the roads near school safer.
To make the month fun for the other pupils, the team introduced a ‘Design your own bike helmet’ competition over the Christmas holidays. Winners were chosen in January and will be given the chance to paint their 3D printed (on our own 3D printer! Designing took about an hour, printing took 33 hours each. We printed 8 of them(!) in January
Our Little Modeshift STARS – November 2018
It gives us great pleasure to inform you that Gomer Junior School was nominated for the Modeshift STARS National School Travel Awards. Hampshire were able to nominate only three schools and we are one of them. Gomer Junior School has been recognised as showing best practice in the promotion of walking, cycling and other forms of sustainable travel for the journey to and from school. Of the 3,500 schools that are signed up to participate in Modeshift STARS, we are just one of just 75 school across the country that have been nominated for this year’s Awards. Our JRSOs will attend the celebration event in November 2018.
On Friday 2 November 2018, newly appointed Junior Road Safety Office Suzy, along with other pupils from Hampshire, attended the JRSO training day at the Botley Park Hotel. While there Suzy learned how to keep herself and others safe when out and about and when on the road as well as gaining lots of new ideas to bring back to school.
“I really enjoyed making the Be Bright Be Seen T-shirt but the best bit was making the radio advert.” Split into small groups the pupils had to create a radio advert to promote road safety. This was supported by HEART radio and then recorded so the JRSO’s can use their adverts in school.
The Junior Road Safety Team have lots of exciting things planned for the rest of the school year. The next event is Be Bright Be Seen day on 23 November.
November saw the JRSO team talk about being bright and being seen. After an informative assembly delivered by the team, the pupils were then asked to accessories their uniforms so they could be seen on their journey to and from school. During the day, there were several class activities the children took part in that promoted staying safe, including road safety snakes and ladders.
Remembrance was something the JRSO’s wanted to take part in this year. Following lots of discussion and lots of ideas about how they could tie remembrance and road safety together in a fun but respectful way they decided to create poppies with a fact about the war written on them. These were then hidden in different locations on various walks to school. Children were encouraged to collect as many facts as they could on their journey to school and tell their teacher when they arrived at school.
Walktober 2018
Walk to School Month in October is a national event that the JRSO’s have organised for a few years. Each year gets more creative. This year they started by holding an assembly to encourage pupils to walk to school, have set various class challenges and this year challenged pupil to do something different on their walk to school each week – find Basil Bird, Sing a song with a friend, wear a silly accessory.
Three challenges, one per week.
Challenge 1: find Basil Bird pictures on the way to school.
Challenge 2: sing a song on the way to school with your adult or friend and share this in school.
Challenge 3: During October half term, the JRSO’s asked pupils (and staff!) to take Basil Bird on a healthy, sustainable travel adventure. He took part in lots of fun activities including pumpkin picking, walking in Cornwall, visits to the zoo and lots of trips to the beach for picnics!
September 2019 
The JRSO’s have introduced parking tickets to adults who park dangerously or inconsiderately near school. The JRSO’s go out on parking patrol, talk to the adults about how they are parking and when necessary issue a ‘parking ticket.’ Other tickets they have introduced, include ‘turning your engine off’ and ‘parking on a bend.’
Parking patrol is something that the JRSO’s do on a regular basis and have recently approached the Infant School, who are now supporting this.
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Big Peddle April 2018
Go Gomer! You were amazing and of all Hampshire schools came 33. This is brilliant. With thanks to the JRSOs for keeping you motivated to peddle and scoot.
Gomer Rocks! – May 2018
During our walk to school week our school community found our 125 Gomer rocks each and everyday. With thanks to the parents/carers who re-hid them everyday too. Great fun!
Gold STARS for Gomer – January 2018
After considerable dedication and innovation we were delighted to receive our Gold Modeshift STARS award. ! Having received our Modeshift STARS Gold we celebrated by wearing gold, holding a celebration assembly and inviting important people (Bikeit! Ray, Helen Harris, The Mayor and previous JRSO’s) back to help us celebrate. This was featured in the local newspaper and we have had our school logo made into gold to commemorate this occasion and have had our school logo made into a giant G and placed on our bicycle shelter. Go Gomer!
That’s Solent TV Feature Our Road Safety Team
December 2017
Dangerous Parking Monitoring
November 2017
After only two days of the monitoring we received very positive feedback from one of our parents who reported:
‘The parking patrol is really effective. Nobody has parked on the white lines by the road ‘crossing’ on St Helens Road (by the entrance to Amersham). Crossing this quite busy road at such a busy time has felt safer for us and we are more able to see cars approaching. Thank you to all involved. Especially as it is getting so chilly now!’ 8.11.2017
Reported by the news on 11 November:
http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/education/pupils-issue-tickets-to-unsafe-parkers-including-a-teacher-1-8241656
Green Cross Code Awareness Day
November 2017
October 2017 – BBBS day
Video Presentation to Governors
October 2017
link to follow…
Be Bright Be Seen
October 2017
JRSO Training
September 2017
Walk to School Week
15 May 2017
Every day w/b 15 May we will have a focus on walking to school. Mrs Botriell, with the help of the JRSO Team have re-launched our Park and Stride scheme. With thanks to The Seahorse Pub for providing their car park as an official Park and Stride stop at the start of the day. Parents/carers – please do not forget to ask school for a permit so that The Seahorse know you are official. Basil the Bird will look forward to walking the children to school at the end of the week.
Be Bright Be Seen
Spring 2017
Thank you to our JRSO Team for organising a very successful Be Bright Be Seen day on Friday 13 January 2017. The day saw lots of children accessorsing their uniforms with hi-vis clothing. Children entered the JRSO poster competition and learnt more about the importance of BBBS. We were delighted that the infant school took part too and helped raised lots of pennies for a road safety charity. The News were impressed too so covered the story in their paper. We think that Mrs Mulhall (left) and Mrs Bottriell (right) look fabulous in neon colours!
For more information on the Hampshire based Junior Road Safety Scheme, please look at the Hampshire website:
http://www3.hants.gov.uk/roadsafety/environment-roadsafety-jrso-2.htm
A presentation produced by the team outlining the work of the JRSO Team.
Recent events
- Be Bright Be Seen Day – January 2016
- Attendance at the Autumn Term JRSO conference – October 2016
Historic Events
- Attendance at the Autumn Term JRSO conference – October 2015
- Attendance at the Autumn Term JRSO conference – October 2014
- Booster seat awareness stand during the November Parents Evening – 3rd and 5th November
- Be Bright be Seen Day – 28th November
- Bike It! Assembly: 2nd December
Children who attended parents evening recently did not have time to be bored or to think about what their parents were being told as the JRSO’s organised lots of activities for them.
Children completed word searches, spot the hazards and scrambled words all related to road safety. Some were trickier than others, but JRSO’s were on hand to help out and give advice. Once completed, the JRSO’s marked their peers responses and pulled six winners out of the box. Congratulations to Michael Lyons Fitzearle, Morgan Wyatt, Owen Godbold, Sophie King, Sabina King and Lucy Storey who all collected a their prize in our celebration assembly on Friday 7th November.
The JRSO’s responsibility didn’t stop there! They also spent time measuring children to see if they were tall enough to travel in a car without a seatbelt and explaining the importance of this to parents; handing out leaflets and talking to parents / carers about how dangerous it is to park on the zig zag lines outside school (informing them that it is illegal and the police can issue a parking ticket), and quizzing adults on road signs (they were very impressed that Head Teacher Mrs Mulhall got 100%!). It should be noted that she is an Advanced Skills driver…
All children attending enjoyed the activities and all learnt something new about road safety. Keep an eye out for future BikeIt! developments. You may like to look at the BikeIt! page under the children’s tab.